The Atlantic City Arts Foundation is throwing the biggest party of the year for the AC arts community and everyone is invited!
The festival, to be held all day, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 20, will take place at Uptown Park and Fisherman’s Park on Melrose Avenue.
There will be live music, with local acts SNACKTIME, Grupo La Nueva Era and Jimmy Cuzzie, among others scheduled to perform.
Other planned features include live theater performances, poetry readings, art activities and demonstrations, an artist and vendor marketplace and food.
Michael Atkins, executive director of the Atlantic City Arts Foundation, said the organization has been around for about 10 years. He said previous festival concepts for the group included events spread out over multiple days and locations, but a decision was made to concentrate the activities into one event.
“We want to have a signature public, free event in “local’s summer,’” said Atkins, referring to this time of year, when the weather down the shore is still nice enough to enjoy outdoor activities, but when the crowds of tourists are smaller – a time for the locals who live in the shore towns to get to enjoy things themselves a little more.
“48 Blocks” is a reference to the number of streets that make up the whole length of Atlantic City, and it serves as the name of this festival and also the organization’s mural program, which seeks to spread public art to every corner of the city.
That program has already helped create more than 100 murals around the city, and the 48 Blocks festival will also include tours to take people to see some of the more recently created or restored examples.
“We’ll be hosting people in the park and then also drawing attention to some of the murals that have been worked on this summer,” he said.
Atkins said the mission of his group is simply to enrich the lives of Atlantic City’s residents and visitors by building a strong arts community,
“Arts have a tremendous capacity to bring people together. That’s the main thing,” Atkins said.
“On the highest, highest level, we’re working to provide that vehicle and space for people, whether they’re a practicing artist, an emerging artist, or a community member who likes the arts, to have an obvious place to go and connect with others who share that passion.”
Atkins cited a recent arts survey that stated a vast majority of people who attend arts-related events have made a friend while doing so, demonstrating the power of the arts when it comes to making connections.
“People do meet each other, find common interests, maybe find future collaborators, or just start following an artist and buying their work or going to their shows,” he said.
That philosophy, Atkins said, is at the core of the Arts Foundation and the spirit behind the 48 Blocks festival.
“When you bring everyone together, that experience can happen beyond just consuming arts,” he said. “So that’s maybe the philosophical achievement that we’re trying to get to, but on the practical event achievement – we want to have a big party!”
The 48 Blocks Festival is a free event!
Visit www.atlanticcityartsfoundation.org for more!