Art All Night getting ready for this weekend
TRENTON » Joseph Kuzemka, the event director of the widely successful Art All Night that brings up to 30,000 people into Trenton, used to be able to stay up for the 24-hour marathon.
“We definitely see people that like to stay for the entire 24 hours,” Kuzemka said, noting people drinks lots of Red Bull or coffee to pull off the feat. “I could do that a lot when I was younger. I’m not capable of that these days.”
Kuzemka, who is also the creator of the iconic Trenton Punk Rock Flea Market, will likely need several hours of rest during Art All Night, which takes place on Saturday starting at 3 p.m., but the festivities will be raging all night.
“The two big things with Art All Night is the artwork so we anticipate having over 1,500 artists submit their artwork to be put on display this weekend,” Kuzemka said, outlining the artists are coming from Maryland, New York, western Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. “Much like the Punk Rock Flea Market, Art All Night is starting to attract all the surrounding states, not just the hyper region that we’re in. We will also have over 50 bands on three stages.”
Notable performers include Chris Harford & The Band of Changes, which will feature Sim Cain of the Rollins Band and possibly Dean Ween of Ween, favorites Chalk & the Beige Americans, Trenton rapper Black Collar Biz, local Americana artist Moot Davis, who lives at Roebling Lofts, popular New Jersey ska band Hub City Stoppers and the Trenton Children’s Chorus.
Glassblowing, blacksmithing and woodcarving will also be on display.
“There’s a guy named Ziggy Sawdust,” Kuzemka said. “He does chainsaw portraits in wood. He could pick someone out of the crowd and actually carve their portrait into a piece of wood with a chainsaw.”
In its 12th year, Art All Night will bring back the popular dueling artists, in addition to an informative history lesson.
“We always work with Clifford Zink,” Kuzemka said of the Roebling historian.
“He always gives a tour of the entire Roebling complex during Art All Night. But this time he’s actually giving a tour of the machine shop, the building that we’re actually in. He’s going to give a very detailed tour and talk about what happened in this building, specifically where things happened, and then talk about the things that happened on the grounds, just outside of it and what the complex originally looked like and how it was functioning back then.”
There may also be a reason why attendees may see people dancing without any music playing. One of the biggest attractions, Silent Disco, will be back in the spotlight.
“We’ve got a list of 75 DJs that DJ over the course of the 24 hours and people can come into the silent disco and get a pair of headphones and those headphones will switch channels manually and each channel will be a different DJ spinning,” Kuzemka said. “You only hear anything in the headphones and they light up and the disco is very dark so it’s a really cool, unique experience.”
Movie reels will also be rolling. The International Film Festival will feature 279 films — mostly shorts — from a dozen different countries.
Art All Night’s video team will be showcasing their movie “Trenton Against Humanity,” which will be played at 8 p.m. on Saturday with an encore presentation at 1 a.m. Sunday.
Another special treat will be the screening of a 25-minute virtual reality film from Troma Films, a legendary, Bmovie production company behind cult classics “The Toxic Avenger” and “Class of Nuke ‘Em High.”
“We actually purchased virtual reality goggles that some people will be able to wear to experience this,” Kuzemka said of the film that will be screened at midnight.
On Sunday morning, an artist market — similar to the Trenton Punk Rock Flea Market — will be set up from 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. where vendors and artists will be selling cool and odd items.
More than a dozen food trucks will also be on-site
The most foot traffic at the event occurs between 8 p.m. and 1 a.m.
What makes Art All Night truly special is the cost. It is free to the public and free for artists to submit their work.
“We do ask for donations at the door,” Kuzemka said. “It’s not mandatory. If you’d like to donate, you can.”
However, the organizers will lead a campaign this weekend to ask participants to chip in for new walls.
For the past 11 years, the same walls, which were donated, have been hanging in the building.
“In the time, they’ve hung over 12,000 pieces of artwork, but they’re falling apart,” Kuzemka said. “The city has now asked us to remove the walls from the building each and every year. They will not hold up to storage so we now need to rebuild our walls.”
Kuzemka, who was named 2015’s “Trentonian Person of the Year,” estimates the new walls will cost between $20,000 to $25,000.
“A big part of this weekend is going to be asking for help from people to donate money so that we could continue to keep Art All Night free,” said Kuzemka, a former Trentonian employee and state worker. “Because that’s one of the most important things of the event, in my opinion, is that this is a free community event. It’s open to everyone and anyone. You don’t need money to come here. We don’t ask for a lot of help but this is one of those times that we really need it.”
What also makes Art All Night tick year-after-year is the massive amounts of volunteers.
“We bring in well over 400 volunteers to help us run this event every year, which is unbelievable to me,” Kuzemka said. “Not only can we make that happen every year, but that there are that many people that want to dedicate their time to helping make something this important, this inspiring happen each year ... Without them, it just doesn’t happen.”