FREE TO SUBMIT ART. FREE TO ATTEND
The Central New Jersey region’s biggest 24-hour art spectacular, Art All Night, returns to the 50,000-square-foot Roebling Wire Works building in Trenton this weekend, beginning Saturday, June 19 at 3 p.m. and running straight through till Sunday at 3.
This will be the fourth year Artworks, Trenton’s downtown visual arts center, has sponsored Art All Night, and the event has grown by leaps and bounds. Approximately 8,000 art enthusiasts attended and over 600 artists displayed their work last year at the free event, and this weekend over 10,000 are expected to attend and over 900 to exhibit, according to Artworks Executive Director Michael Gumpert.
“It’s a huge undertaking, which we couldn’t accomplish without the work of all our Art All Night volunteers,” says Gumpert. “But when you see the event, and all the people there, who’ve come from Trenton and communities close by, as well as from as far away as Maryland, Washington D.C., Connecticut and New York, it’s a wonderful feeling. You’ve got to be here to experience it,” Gumpert adds.
“Art All Night lasts for only 24 hours but based on the frequency of comments we receive throughout the year, one would think it happened every weekend,” says Artworks Board Member and Art All Night-Trenton 2010 Planning Committee Chair, Anthony Coluccio.
“Folks from all walks of life, hailing from suburban and urban locations, representing the rich and the poor, black, white, Latino and Asian, young and old, tell us of the colossal impact this one event has had on their impressions of Trenton, on their own lives and on their ability to believe that a better Trenton is possible. That may sound like an exaggeration but it’s really what we hear,” says Coluccio.
Work by arts professionals and beginners alike gets hung side by side in the egalitarian Art All Night show. In addition to this outpouring of artistic creativity, Art All Night features continuous live musical entertainment on two stages, arts workshops and demonstrations, and a broad spectrum of local food and drink purveyors.
A highlight of this year’s Art All Night will be a live iron pour on Saturday night, orchestrated by acclaimed sculptor Matt Reiley. The heating and pouring of molten iron into molds, creating metal sculpture right before spectator’s eyes, is a rare spectacle which underscores both the current artistic ferment in Trenton, and echoes this capital city’s long industrial legacy.
Information on exhibiting at Art All Night, or attending, is available at our website: www.artworkstrenton.org/artallnight. Those interested in volunteering are still welcome to sign up, and everybody is invited to attend! See you there!
