Poets, artrepeneurism, gallery talks, the Lawrence Arts Center, and Art in the Loop events help you close out July

For a little more than a year, GUILDit has been hosting forums that focus on the business side of being an artist. The idea is to exchange strategies and learn ways to overcome challenges of arts entrepreneurship. The next one is from noon to 1 p.m. Thursday, July 28, at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art (4420 Warwick). The presenters this time are poets: Jen Harris, founder of KC Poetry Slam, is working on her second book and finalizing details on a national tour; Nick Givechi is also a spoken-word performer and has traveled around the country, winning awards and lately working to develop Nique Poetry and the Cider Gallery in Lawrence. (Future GUILDit sessions are going to be every second Thursday at Uptown Arts Bar, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.)

Despite recent scares about public funding for the arts there, Lawrence continues to be the metro’s premier destination for final Fridays. July 29, the Lawrence Arts Center (940 New Hampshire) once again makes that case, with a 5-9 p.m. reception opening the 2016 University of Kansas Visual Art Faculty Exhibition. KU has a strong program, centered on 21 instructors who maintain strong studio practices: Norman Akers, David Brackett, John Derby, Sarah Gross, John Hachmeister, Tanya Hartman, Jon Havener, Luke Jordan, Mary Anne Jordan, Michael Krueger, Whitney Mahoney, Marshall Maude, Michael McCaffrey, Judith McCrea, Yoonmi Nam, Benjamin Rosenthal, Jon Keith Swindell, Carla Tilghman, David Titterington, María Velasco and Gina Westergard.

Art in the Loop has a full summer calendar of performances and installations downtown, including Connect, the artwork you see on the streetcar stops. Come to Ilus Davis Park and see installations by Chris Dahlquist, Matthew Elson and Garth Brizman, Neil Goss, and Kati Toivanen. From 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Friday, there’s also a performance by Hema Sharma and the Nritya School of Dance. If it rains, go to the J.E. Dunn parking garage (10th Street and Locust). Over at Oppenstein Brothers Memorial Park, this week’s Thursday event, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., is by Timothy Amundson, who speaks about the Turkey Creek Institute for Phenomenal Awareness. The project had a showing at Front Space earlier this year and is an ongoing investigation of this central watershed that the community largely ignores. His photo installation at the park is up through August 5.

Ahead of next week’s First Friday in the Crossroads, Jones Gallery (1717 Walnut) opens a show featuring Barbara Akers, Sarah Akers, Kim Ward and Jim Ramsey on July 30. The gallery is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and until 9 on First Fridays.

If you haven’t been to Night Blooms (529 Southwest Boulevard) since last First Friday, make a point to see the photographic works by Chase Castor and Ashlin Wang Land that get a reception at 8 p.m. July 29. You’ll hear Cucaracha, playing Argentine tango music.

Plenum Space Gallery (504 East 18th Street) hosts its usual closing reception and beer tasting for this past month’s show, Paige Davis’ Vacant/OCCUPIED. The party is from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday, July 30. With a degree from Clemson University focused on ceramics and painting, Davis is exploring now the complexity of light and reflections on “domestic surfaces.”

July 30 also marks the closing of the fifth annual P&M Artworks juried exhibition, in the front gallery at Leedy-Voulkos Art Center (2012 Baltimore), with a Speak & Critique Memory event from 2 to 4 p.m. Enjoy refreshments and hear from some of the artists in the show, curated by Ari Fish, Patricia Brown Glenn, Michael J. Pronko and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art’s Catherine Futter. Among the artists: Philip Bakala, Braden Bandel, Blanket Undercover, Rochelle Brickner, Erin Dodson, Alessandra Dzuba, Barbara Florez, Rachel Gregor, Judith G. Levy, Ben Parks, Kiki Serna and Amy Wright.

Sunday, July 31, next to the Cowtown Mall Room (which opens its doors every Sunday for the weekly bazaar known as Holy Cow Market), Michelle Dreher’s Two Tone Press (3121 Gillham) is hosting an open-studios event and misprint sale from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Two other print shops will be on hand doing live demonstrations, with hands-on activities for all ages (snacks, too): Arkansas’ Roll & Tumble Press, and the Kansas City Center for Ink & Paper Arts (which makes its home in the West Bottoms). You can take home one-of-kind originals — the mistakes are part of the charm — for as little as $10. Bonus: Learn about the Eye Candy colorblind project, Two Tone’s outreach to people whose eyesight has color deficiencies. Try out the “Enchroma” glasses on tests made out of Lego blocks.

Also showing:

Circus Maximus, by Thomas Gieske
Through July 30 at Todd Weiner Gallery, 115 West 18th Street

Courtside Manner, by Andrew Ordonez
Through August 11 at Kiosk Gallery, 916 East Fifth Street

Synthetic Selection, by Lori Raye Erickson
Through July 30 at the Late Show, 1600 Cherry

trans_late, by Midori Harima, Laura Letinksy, Nick Marshall, Melaney Mitchell, John Paul Morabito, Zach Nader and Jared Sprecher
and Fallen Pictures, by Jonah Criswell
Both through August 6 at Plug Projects, 1613 Genessee