August First Thursday

Program Details

WHEN: Aug 7, 2025

TIME: 5:00 pm - 8:00 pm

THURSDAY AUGUST 7TH | 5-8PM | JUMP BUILDING | ALL AGES | FREE

Every First Thursday downtown Boise comes alive to celebrate community! This month, we've got a sneak peek into our Local Artist Showcase happening on August 16th, as well as tons of fun, educational, interactive, and family-friendly activities! Plus, the official LAUNCH party for Boise Design Week will be happening from 5:00 - 10:30 PM in the sixth floor PIONEER Room!

JUMP Room: 

Local Artist Showcase Preview: Artist Talks & Activities | 5:00 - 8:00 PM

  • ANA ROBINS | The Cycles and Spirals of the Creative Process

    • Activity: Custom Tarot Card | Participants will paint on small card-sized canvases following writing and painting prompts geared towards a few selected tarot cards to create their very own tarot card.

    • Bio: Ana Robins has enjoyed an 18-year career as a music educator. Her journey as a musician started when she was very young and got to sing along with her dad’s guitar playing. Music was always an important part of Ana’s life and from a very young age she knew she wanted to be a musician. She studied both voice and viola at BSU and has enjoyed teaching choir and orchestra in her career.  

      Ana is passionate about bringing music to the lives of others in many different ways and has greatly enjoyed expanding her musical work to composing. She firmly believes that music can bring unity and joy for those who create it and those who listen. She has witnessed the community that is created through working together as musicians to bring new pieces to life and knows it is unlike any other experience that students can have.  

  • DAMON & MICHAEL BRADSHAW | The Boise River Monster

    • Explore the world of mythical water creatures through three creative stations.

      • Station 1: Color-a-Creature (Ages 3+)

        • Activity: Pre-drawn sea monster coloring pages

      • Station 2: Fold-a-Serpent (Ages 7+)

        • Activity: Origami sea serpent folding

      • Station 3: Blank Page Challenge (All Ages)

        • Activity: Design your very own river monster from scratch

    • Bio: Imaginative artists specializing in art, murals, and tattoos, Damon Bradshaw is excited to collaborate with his son Michael, who brings valuable experience in large-scale creations. Together, they aim to push artistic boundaries and create captivating works that inspire and engage the community, focused on the surrounding area and history. With shared vision and unique talents, their collaboration promises to be truly extraordinary. 

  • DAVID COWAN | Through Space & Science

    In collaboration with SciArt Exchange

    • Participants will receive paper, coloring materials and craft supplies to design their own space habitat or closed system while learning about the four basic elements of an Environmental Control and Life Support System, the critical systems of a spacecraft that allow the astronauts to live to on board.

      • Water Recovery System: Pee to Pure

        • Demonstration: Poor beaker of dirty water over coffee filters, sand, gravel, and activated charcoal and into another beaker, then see what happens to the water!

      • Air Revitalization System: Scrubbing CO2

        • Demonstration: Watch CO2 in action with a balloon, with a chemical reaction created by two household ingredients, and with Zeolite rocks.

      • Oxygen Generation System: Electrolysis 101

        • Demonstration: Learn about anodes (positively charged electrodes) and canodes (negatively charged electrodes) and see electrolysis works through a simple experiment.

        • Activity: Coloring page hand out

      • Waste Management: Space Loo Sort

        • Activity: Sort the tokens representing various waste materials into their proper categories: Reusable, Stored, and Jettisoned.

    • Bio: David J. Cowan is a theatermaker, actor, and arts educator from Boise, Idaho, who has performed all over the nation and on screen. Always a curious kid with a big imagination, David was initially drawn to the theater because it gave him a place to belong that celebrated his curiosity, emotion, and creative energy. From forcing his cousins to perform puppet shows, building out a stage wagon with furniture and blankets so his siblings could live the Oregon Trail game, to getting an MFA in acting from the University of Georgia, David loves to build worlds and invite people to play in them.

      Aside from theater David's other obsession is Space. He is a big fan of stargazing, the proud owner of a Celestron telescope, and Sci-Fi super-fan. He also nerds out on NASA news and Astrophysics. SPECTRA (his project debuting August 16th) grew out of the desire to bridge those two worlds. He was frustrated by the small amount of plays that tackled staging outer space and is too bad at math to become an actual astronaut so he decided to just play one instead and SPECTRA was born.

THE LOFT & 5th Level Lobby: 

Sticker Making Contest | 5:00 - 8:00 PM

  • Design a sticker that inspires! JUMP will choose a few designs to print and pass out in our sticker vending machine in the Lobby!

Local Dance Performance

THE DECK

HAPPY[ness] Hour | 5:00 - 8:00 PM

  • Live DJ: TENN∀NT (5:00 - 7:00 PM)

  •  BOGO Drinks (per person)

  • $5 Bites by Chef Anna

  • Trivia Challenge (start: 6:00 PM)

  • Music Bingo (start: 7:00 PM)

  • Slide Rides (5:30 - 7:30 PM)

MOVE STUDIO

Open Mic by Nick Badasci (Studio Community Project)  

  • A family-friendly open mic stand-up comedy event where aspiring comedians can perform 2-7 minute sets at a microphone as an accessible means of training/trying out comedy/storytelling in front of a live audience.

LOBBY (ALL MONTH):

Jaialdi Decor & Activities | 5:00 - 8:00 PM

  • Basque Craft at the craft table

  • Sheep Wagon from the Basque Museum

PIONEER Room: 

Boise Design Week: LAUNCH | 5:00 - 10:30 PM

Join newly established Boise Design Week for the LAUNCH party of the future week-long inspirational, networking, and community-building event. With the goal to become a five-day event in 2026, Boise Design Week: LAUNCH brings together designers covering all industries and aspects of design, with the goal of bringing together the community in creativity, innovation, and design.

The LAUNCH party will feature local speakers, community exhibitors, refreshments, and more. Stick around after the lectures for and after party where we open the stage for creative leaders, play backyard games, sing karaoke, and more!

  • 5:00 PM : DOORS OPEN

  • 5:30 - 6:00 PM: OPENING REMARKS | Alex Caves | Boise Design Week Founder

  • 6:00 - 9:00 PM: GUEST SPEAKERS | Hear from local experts in their industries

    • Product Design & Development: Nate Pavitt | Product Developer / Entrepreneur | 6:00 - 6:30 PM

    • Filmmaking: Greg Wilson | Director / Cinematographer / Photographer | 6:35 - 7:05 PM

    • Environmental Graphic Design: John Yarnell | Creative Director / Public Artist / Placemaking Advocate | 7:10 - 7:40 PM

    • Brand Design & Marketing | Jennie Meyers | Professor / Creative Strategist / Designer | 7:45 - 8:45 PM

  • 9:00 - 10:30 PM: AFTER PARTY | After the Main Event the room will transition into a fun, game filled experience, designed to create the perfect networking atmosphere.