Snow may still threaten, but the crocuses are up, the sun feels close to the earth, and it's time to get out of the house and into some art.

The Saint Paul Art Crawl, spring edition, kicks off this Friday evening and enlivens the whole weekend with the colorful work of artists showing in some 325 studios and galleries in no fewer than 27 different buildings around the capital city.

If you're a veteran Crawler, you know the drill: wander around artist-loft buildings like the Northern Warehouse and the Tilsner Artists' Cooperative, dropping in on artists in their studios. There's an energetic art-opening vibe everywhere, with snacks, wine, lively art-talk, and plenty of work for sale at before-they-get-famous prices.

This year's Crawl, like the ones before it, centers on the clusters of rehabbed art spaces in Lowertown and Downtown, but is by no means limited to those neighborhoods. You can also crawl around the art hubs at Raymond Avenue and University, on tony Grand Avenue, and on Harriet Island (where one of my favorite artist buildings, the ACVR Warehouse, retains the funky vibe of an earlier era of loft conversion).

Commercial and nonprofit galleries, bars, and coffee shops in Saint Paul will teem with new art too.

As the event has evolved over 31 Crawls, organizers have come up with a lot of additional inducements to attend. This weekend, Studio Z in the Northwestern Building will become the "25 Minutes of Fame" performers' venue, offering Irish piping, folk music, classical piano, magic, and a good deal more, including the sounds of the Cities' most lauded new-music ensemble, Zeitgeist, on Friday evening.

Also on Friday evening, you can take in the McNally Smith Sound Crawl/Art Crawl Hybrid Marching Band Parade as it high-steps its way around Mears Park, in one of Downtown's liveliest nightlife zones. Sponsored by Saint Paul's major music school, the parade looks like a winner: The wildly eclectic Brass Messengers' crazy-circus-in-the-Balkans sound will mesh with the hip-hop-meets-big-guitars of the Full Circle Maximalist Marching Ensemble (they carry amps in their backpacks) and with a group, Laptopia, that bills itself as "the world's first and only all-laptop solar-powered marching band." A squad of artist-transformed Art Cars will provide "surrealistic parade support."

Photos of Spring Art Crawl Competition-winning artworks, top to bottom:

Alexandria Ganzel, "Eye Agate Salamander" (silver jewelry)

Kevan Willington, "Meadowlark Rose" (oil on canvas; Art Crawl poster winner)

Christina Habibi, "A Joker's Wild" (acrylic)

Karen Sebesta, "Artichoke" (clay pottery)

Photos courtesy Saint Paul Art Crawl