Mike McKosky became the street's second galleriest when he opened InArt in June 2006. All the street's galleries are in old houses that, unlike many of their counterparts on Canyon Road, still have the feel of private homes. InArt's building once belonged to McKosky's wife's grandparents. "There's a lot of life that has passed through these doors," he said. "My sister-in-law was proposed to in this front room. There's a lot of serenity here, a lot of family. It's more than a gallery."

Several of the gallery owners interviewed credited McKosky with bringing them together and getting the Delgado Street campaign going. "I didn't think owning a gallery was going to be easy," McKosky said. "Any business that you start is a difficult road; there's a big learning curve. But it's been a little tougher than I hoped. The Friday night openings have been a phenomenal group effort."

On Friday, August 24, InArt features works by several emerging artists, including woodblock prints by Krista Peters and paintings by Leopoldo Duranona. McKosky gestured toward Duranona's abstract triptych and began telling the artist's life story. Duranona, he said, left his native Argentina before the military dictatorship's seven-year "dirty war" against dissidents began in 1976; he is contemplating returning home. McKosky pointed out faces, fish, and forms that evoke volcanos while trying to explain how it all related to the artist's expansive nature and deep experiences of loss. McKosky admitted he will be sad the day he sells the painting.

At Randall M. Hasson Gallery, Valerie Hasson said she and her husband had a gallery in San Diego for years before relocating to Santa Fe a few months ago. "The art market has been off for a few years nationally," she said. "We were very aware of it. San Diego is a smaller market, so we are probably better off here. Santa Fe has a more intellectual crowd."

At Eight Modern, director Jaquelin Loyd said she stays open late every Friday night, but the fourth Friday is always packed. Eight Modern is housed in the street's most renovated building, but it still feels like a home - perhaps the home of an architect. The side yard and backyard have been filled with crushed white stone and converted into sculpture gardens. And, like a good homeowner, Loyd is often out back pulling weeds - only her weeds sprout among sculpture by John Ruppert, Robert Lobe, and Celeste Roberge.

"People like the feel of being in a home," Loyd said. "Walking from room to room is inviting. Visitors tell us they are glad to see another way of showing contemporary art." Eight Modern's intimate spaces are the antithesis of the warehouse-style galleries in the Railyard," she added.

Loyd said she was noticed the city's weakening economy. "Our first quarter was great," she said. "But it has slowed. Give us another year, and we will have a niche."

Pippin Meikle Fine Art features brightly colored paintings by the gallery's owners, Aleta Pippin and Barbara Meikle. On the day Pasatiempo visited, the owners were not there, but an employee pointed out the huge sculpture garden behind the gallery where visitors can view stone  and bronze works by Gilberto Romero and Doug Wallower.

Galerie Esteban is owned by a classical guitarist. Rather than a sculpture garden, its yard is an informal amphitheater filled with rows of benches, Esteban always plays during the Friday night openings, said Jacque Paul, the gallery's director.

In addition to visual art, Galerie Esteban sells music CDs by its owner and hand-crafted guitars, Paul said, and it is willing to experiment. For Indian Market it held a three-day show of Stan Natchez' politically charged paintings. On Friday, Aug. 24, it opens a weekend-long show featuring Monika Steinhoff's disturbing images that remind viewers that the armaments trade underlies a large portion of the world's economy. Galerie Esteban shows Steinhoff's lyrical images of madonnas and goddesses on a regular basis, but Paul said the gallery is willing to take risks with these shorter exhibits.

Showing an artist's less commercial side helps the public to better understand all of the artist's work, Paul added. "It's about Monika expressing her background; it's about coming from Berlin and her life's experiences. I think it's exciting when people come in and want to know about the journey that got an artist to this point."

The Delgado Street galleries offer food and music during the fourth-Friday parties, and Paul expects a huge crowd. "Mike McKosky knew what it was like to sit on Delgado Street all by himself," she said. "It was nice to know that we were welcome as a new gallery. You couldn't ask for a better environment if you are going to be in the gallery business."