Art All Night - 2015

It was another fabulous year for Art All Night. Heavy thunderstorms that had been predicted for all day Sunday came through as a light rainstorm on Saturday night. Now with their 9th year of providing 24-hour art and music entertainment in a city that rolls up its streets as soon as the state workers go home for the night, or the weekend, Artworks is proving people are willing to come into the city of Trenton as long as there is a good reason.

I'm still waiting for the official numbers. I've heard 1,200 people submitted artwork (up from 1,000 last year). I don't know how many people attended, but I do know it was packed at 10:45 PM!

11 PM it was wall to wall people

9AM very, very quiet

4 PM (an hour after it ended) even more quiet

Art All Night is a 24-hour art show in the former Roebling Steel Works building in Trenton. The facility is fabulous, which makes me wonder why it is only used a few days a year (the other times are for the Trenton Punk Rock Flea Market). The building has a lot of potential.

The exhibit features a wide assortment of artwork from "refrigerator art" by pre-schoolers to art by local famous artists, such as J. Seward Johnson and Leon Rainbow. Everyone, and I mean everyone, is allowed to display ONE piece of artwork, though we saw a couple of "groupings" that seemed like multiple pieces, but was under the umbrella of ONE piece. It could be a drawing, a sketch, a painting, a photograph, sculptures, furniture, and I even saw a couple of framed original poems. All pieces are on display from 3 PM Saturday to 3 PM Sunday. 

The wall with our artwork

by local graffiti artist Leon Rainbow

A random wall to show the wide assortment of talent

In 2010, 2011, and 2012 we submitted artwork. We attended at least a year before submitting art just to see what it was all about. Two years ago we were in Japan during the show, and last year we were in California to see our friends get married. 

This year we started talking about what we were going to submit months in advance. Of course that still meant as we were walking out the door to deliver the artwork we were still putting them in frames. C'est la vie.

Ashley did not want to sell hers, so we returned on Sunday afternoon to pick it up.

 Don's sold within the first couple of hours (as evidenced by the red sticker). By the time my parents go there at 7:30, it was already sporting the red sticker.

Mine, alas, did not have a red sticker. We have learned in the past that does not mean a thing as I did receive an email from Art All Night nearing the end of the show that I need to return to pick up my artwork as it has sold.

The event is free to attend, and free to display. You have the option of selling your artwork and pocketing the money, or donating a portion to Artworks. We just do this for fun, so we donate 100% of our money to Artworks. Between our two pictures, and the $17 I found on a sidewalk near the show, Artworks is $62 richer thanks to us. We should find out soon how much money Artworks raised, and how many people attended the show. 

A side note, by selling our pictures we have been invited to a reception next Saturday night to meet our buyers. That, too, is always a thrill.