Georgetown’s ‘Art All Night’ Set for Friday, Sept. 23
By • September 8, 2022 0 2053
Georgetown’s Art All Night will return for its second year along the Wisconsin Avenue business corridor on Friday, September 23 from 5:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. and the festival’s organizers at Georgetown Main Street (GMS) are brimming with excitement.
On Instagram yesterday, GMS, who’s partnering on the event with the Georgetown Business Improvement District (BID), Duke Ellington School of the Arts, Elizabeth Miller, Linda Jones (DCPL), and Jenn Crovato, enthusiastically announced the return of the local arts celebration – part of Mayor Bowser’s citywide Art All Night (AAN) programs in all 8 D.C. wards. The city’s Department of Small and Local Business Development (DSLBD) helps fund the programming.
This year’s much expanded Georgetown festival will feature a Grand Opening, over 100 local artists, more than 20 participating businesses, 13 event locations, dozens of international artists, 7 art exhibitions, 3 DJs, hands-on art activities for children and families, plus free coffee and tea for attendees.
The event will be co-hosted by Colleen Girouard, Ann Goldstein, Iesha Holy and “powered by Vista” which will cover printing expenses for the evening’s 36-page Event Guide.
Kicking off at at the Georgetown Neighborhood Library at 3260 R Street NW, Georgetown’s Art All Night will feature music from the Radical Elite Show Band from 6:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., a painting demo by Georgetown artist Caroline Karp from 5:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the Fountain Inn, community piano in the Chase Bank Parking Lot throughout the evening, and a “Giant Coloring Page” at 1634 Wisconsin Ave NW. But these are just a handful of the many events occurring in festival locations throughout the Wisconsin Avenue corridor.
“In our second year, we wanted to make the event of course bigger and better than our first year,” Rachel Shank, GMS’s executive director, told The Georgetowner. “We proved to ourselves last year that the event was going to be right for Georgetown, that this D.C.-wide festival could work here and we could fit the festival to Georgetown’s standards and interests. So last year we were able to get a lot of initial support. But this year we wanted to expand to even more Georgetown organizations, institutions, businesses, etc. So, I’m really excited to announce partnerships with Georgetown University and Duke Ellington School of the Arts for this year.”
The festival will also be more family-focused this year, Shank said. “Last year, we only had maybe one opportunity for families to engage. But this year we have a whole location dedicated [to it]. Little Folks School is going to be involved. And we have workshops from Anna Banana which is in upper Georgetown at Addison-Ripley and we have several different programs for families at the Georgetown Neighborhood Library. So we’re really excited to be able to be inclusive of families this year.”
This year also, the neighborhood will be more directly involved with Art All Night. “I’m also really excited about engaging more with the neighbors,” Shank said. “We’re working with Commissioner Elizabeth Miller who lives in the neighborhood who has a great neighborhood group called Georgetown Creatives and they’re going to have their summer photo series on the second floor of Compass Coffee. That’s a really great way we’ve been able to get the neighbors actually involved in Art All Night rather than just to have attendees at the event. They’re actually participating in the program.”
Having local participation in the arts festival really helps bond the Georgetown community. “Art All Night is of course a citywide event. But each neighborhood has to create their own feel. So last year of course it was specific for Georgetown. But we had a lot of outside folks come in perform for us. But this year the art really feels like Art All Night in Georgetown is from Georgetown and for Georgetown. We have Duke Ellington and we have Georgetown University and we have all of the galleries and we have the neighbors who are so talented who are going to participate and we have the library and the schools. So it really just feels like the neighborhood is coming together to put this event on for each other. We can all be together. It feels like it’s from Georgetown and for Georgetown.”
For more information on Georgetown’s Art All Night, check GMS’s website at Georgetownmainstreet.com.
