Finding the common denominator that allows conversation to begin without seeming like a creeper can be harder than expected.

Is a love of art the bridge to casual conversation for you?

It's natural to ask the opinion of the person standing beside you when you're both looking at a huge painting or glass sculpture. From Dock Street to Fawcett, many Downtown Tacoma art galleries offer extended hours (5 - 8 p.m.) once a month for Third Thursday Art Walk. Admission at Tacoma Art Museum is waived; Washington State History Museum and the Museum of Glass are also free from 5 - 8 p.m.

Sitting above the heart of downtown is Fulcrum Gallery, located in Tacoma's Hilltop neighborhood at 1308 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Fulcrum showcases artists that tend to produce art you won't see mass produced and sold at Wal-Mart or Target any time soon (and that's a positive thing, to be sure). Take gallery owner Oliver Doriss' own work: colored glass baby doll heads that act as drinking glasses. Owning a baby doll head glass or two by Doriss has almost become a badge of certified coolness among local collectors and fans.

Fulcrum is a small gallery that houses two main art display rooms with a back room for live music, fashion shows, DJ parties and community events. If you're into art and life that embraces diversity, quirky creativity and uniqueness -- you won't find generic "water color lilies" here - and want to meet and mingle with folks that share similar tastes, take a visit January 19 from 6 - 9 p.m. for the opening reception of a collection of emerging Northwest artists. The gallery's website describes the coming art show as a "spectrum of graphic forms, surrealistic imagery, and repurposed materials. This visual arts show exposes a culture flourishing just beyond our sight."

Enjoy light horsdevours while chatting up your insta-crush. Should your offer to take the conversation elsewhere be accepted, just around the corner from the gallery is craft cocktail lounge 1022 South, at 1022 South J Street, Tacoma, and retro destination Tempest Lounge, at 913 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Tacoma