‘No Fee, No Jury, No Censorship’: Art All Night Returns With 22 Hours of Pittsburgh Creativity

ART ON DISPLAY AT LAST YEAR’S EVENT | PHOTO COURTESY OF ART ALL NIGHT

Artists and art lovers will unite this weekend in Point Breeze for an annual 22-hour celebration showcasing the Steel City’s creative spirit in all its forms.

Art All Night is returning for its 29th year on April 19 — something that Marisa Golden, one of the event’s organizers, says speaks to its success.

“Art All Night lets people be themselves for 22 hours without judgement. It elevates each person’s art in the same way, giving people their ‘15 minutes of fame’ without the barriers of jury, fee or censorship,” she says. “Visitors — 15,000 plus — are proof of the excitement for the art each year.”

The celebration will take place at 400 North Lexington St. in Point Breeze’s Rockwell Park. It will start at 4 p.m. on April 18 and run all night, ending at 2 p.m. the next day, featuring paintings, drawings, photography, graphic design, cinematography, sculpture, music, dancing, children’s art and activities and interactive art. A group of artists will also paint live at the event; their art will be sold through an auction on Sunday.

Golden says all that is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what Art All Night has to offer the city.

“Visitors will experience a new show each year and from one hour to the next because the art and entertainment is not curated,” she explains. Everyone is able to submit one piece of artwork to be included in the show, regardless of their previous artistic experience, and registration is open until 2 p.m. on the Saturday of the show.

Since it began, Art All Night has enabled more than 400,000 people to see art for free with as few boundaries as possible, all without corporate sponsorships. Golden says that in a national landscape that devalues art and artists — and in which artificial intelligence is being dubbed “the greatest art heist in history” for its detrimental impact on the art world — the annual event is “instrumental in making Pittsburgh a better place to live through making Pittsburghers happier.”

“In a political climate trying to tell artists that they don’t have value, Art All Night is showing them the exact opposite,” she says. “Real art has heart. You can see it in brushstrokes, hear it in vocals, feel it in dance and in the unique beauty of every piece in the show.”

The event began in Lawrenceville nearly three decades ago when a group of friends were sitting around one evening and decided to put on an art show “all night long to commemorate the 24-hour vibe of our steel town’s roots,” Golden says. The first show, held in 1998, featured 101 pieces of art. The next year, submissions grew to more than 200 pieces. Over the years, it has ballooned, garnering a cult following

Golden got involved in 2011 when a call for organizing committee volunteers went out; her husband thought she would be a good fit for the organization’s needs. But it was the concept of the show, making art accessible to all, that spoke to her most.

“I found a community of unique people who donated the best parts of themselves to Pittsburgh,” she says.