Art All Night — Trenton’s annual community arts Festival — is entering its ninth year and expecting to draw more than 1,000 artists to showcase their art to more than 30,000 visitors between 3 p.m., Saturday, June 21, and 3 p.m., Sunday, June 22.
In addition to the wall art and sculpture, the 24-hour extravaganza features live music, a film festival, a kid zone, and interactive events. The admission is a donation request.
While artists who volunteer their art and talent are the main attraction of this special project organized by the nonprofit organization Artworks, it is the people behind the scenes who make the event.
That is something that Artworks’ lead volunteer coordinator Anna Davenport knows and explains.
Davenport says that the first group — the “unofficial” volunteer team made up of friends and family — join her and other team captains before the event to set up the facility. That includes the volunteer headquarters, a space where workers can relax between shifts.
This year for volunteers, chaise longues, earplugs, blankets, water, and snacks will be supplied by local businesses, she says. Official volunteers arrive Friday and work in four-hour shifts through Sunday afternoon.
Before Art All Night opens its doors to the public, the first shift arrives to accept and place the art. Then during the event volunteers work in teams and assist with the various attractions: master classes, the kid zone, musician and bands presentations, retail and refreshments, outdoor and indoor maintenance (emptying trash cans and keeping the bathrooms stocked with supplies), and audience monitoring.
After the event, volunteers help break down and clean up. Davenport is present during the entire event, keeping the volunteer headquarters in order, and ready to lend a helping hand wherever needed.
“The 24 hours is exhausting. But it’s a big party all at the same time,” she says.
When asked how the teams get everything done on time and keep everything going, she says it’s all about preparation.
“The team captains and the executive committee have done most of the work before AAN begins, even before the crew arrives to set up on Friday,” she says. And when volunteers arrive to work their shifts, “they work their tail feathers off.”
The Art All Night team has been planning the 2014 event since December, she says. The group includes the creative director, an interactive events planner, a planning board, and a representative from Artworks.
In her role as the head volunteer coordinator, Davenport recruits workers at area events that fall between the St. Patrick’s Day parade in March and the end of May. She also works on and off line to fill the 350 volunteer slots.
“I reach out to people in person, via email, phone, text, Facebook, twitter, and my blog, prettyunlimited.com,” she says.
In the spring she and volunteers start posting signs and distributing flyers at churches, libraries, colleges, and high schools, and their neighbors’ lawns. They even pass out flyers at the unemployment office making a pitch that volunteer work can be used on resumes.
“We don’t buy ads or use paid advertising. The message is spread by the signs we post and word of mouth. We have some big mouths, and I’m one of them,” Davenport says.
All the marketing material is handled by volunteers, including the original signs and flyers design by Joseph Kuzemka, who operates the Trenton-based graphic design company Rockhopper Creative and coordinates the Trenton Punk Rock Flea Market.
“We get permission before we post, and we take the signs down after the event. We post signs at stores and on our own and our neighbors’ lawns. We’ll post any place where people will let us,” she says. Even local grocery stores get in on the act and put flyers in customers’ shopping bags.
The commitment is contagious. Davenport’s husband, Khris, is an unofficial Art All Night blogger. He will be writing and interviewing talent as editor-in-chief for Complex Media’s Ezine, DoAndroidsDance.com.
Her 24-year-old painter-sculptor daughter, Martika, will be exhibiting; 22-year-old daughter, Kalila, volunteering; and 7-year-old son, Jayden, helping the set up crew before the event.
Having her family involved in the process is no small advantage, says Davenport, who holds down a full time job as an office manager for Neyra Industries, a company that makes asphalt sealer in Trenton.
What keeps Davenport going is her commitment to the town where she grew up. Although she and her family live in Hamilton, she was born and raised in Trenton and went to Trenton Central High School. Her stepfather worked for the city as a mechanic, and her mother was a stay-at-home mom.
Davenport became involved with Art All Night in 2012. She came across an Artworks Facebook ad that asked for help with the St. Patrick’s Day parade.
She volunteered and soon became a loyal Artworks supporter. She started as a “regular volunteer” and later became a shift captain.
Today, she is the lead volunteer coordinator for all Artworks events.
“There is so much negative stuff about Trenton. But there are so many awesome things going on in the city, and these things don’t get reported on. We want people to see the good things. The volunteers love Trenton. The town has lots of history. It’s not as bad here as some people make it seem,” Davenport says.
One of the most rewarding things about Art All Night for Davenport is seeing the reactions from people who come to the event who are unfamiliar with the capital city.
“It’s cool to see people from other areas come into Trenton. They are almost awestruck,” she says.
Art All Night, at the historic Roebling Wire Works building, 675 South Clinton Avenue, adjacent to the Roebling Market, Trenton, Saturday, June 21, 3 p.m. through, Sunday, June 22, 3 p.m. On the Web: artworkstrenton.org/artallnight.
Art All Night’s volunteer coordinator Anna Davenport.,
