Art at Night coming to New Glasgow Saturday
New Glasgow will become a creative mecca and a space to celebrate it this Saturday, with a downtown street closing down, and several locations accommodating an assortment of artists and their work.
This year marks the seventh annual Art at Night event, and another step in the artistic festival’s steady growth. Naturally, there will be an assortment of artistic stuff going on throughout the evening-long event in New Glasgow’s downtown core.
“It’s a full-blown festival. It’s been big for a few years, and we’re expecting around 3,000 people this year,” said event co-ordinator Ian Grant. “There will be many different mediums all across the spectrum,” Grant said. These will include paintings, sculptures, dance and music – among others.
“There are going to be three stages with a full band, and two or three stages with acoustic acts, dance stages, and a couple of theatre performances on top of that,” said Grant.
The artwork involved in the festival runs the gamut of expression, from paintings and sculptures to jewelry and “every kind of visual art you can imagine.”
The artists whose work will be on display run a similar gamut as their work. Although most of the artists are from Pictou County, Grant said “there are artists from all over with an age range from
nine to 70. There are a few bands coming from Halifax and visual artists from Truro.”
Art at Night was first hosted in 2012, “and it has grown every year since,” Grant said.
The free festival started as a way to celebrate National Youth Arts Week, which falls on the first week of May. Since the festival’s beginning six years ago, Grant said it has spread throughout the downtown area in its growth.
The festival will take place at 25 downtown venues – mostly along Provost Street – which will be blocked off for the duration of the festival – and Archimedes Street. Don’t be surprised to find art nestled into even the more unconventional corners of the downtown area, such as storefronts, parking lots and coffee shops. Business spaces downtown will feature some of the art, as well as the library and the Glasgow Square area.
“Every year, we had new venues, and lots of new artists submitting work every year. We extended the time, there were so many artists participating,” said Grant. “For the last few years, it’s been three hours, and this year we’ve extended it to four.”