The Georgetown neighborhood celebrated art, music and performance for Art All Night, Washington, D.C.’s free late-night art festival which hosted art shows across 16 locations on Wisconsin Avenue Sept. 12.
Art All Night, which expanded to Georgetown in 2021, included various exhibits, crafts in the Georgetown Neighborhood Library and a pop-up from the British International School. The events were hosted and coordinated by Georgetown Main Street, an organization dedicated to building an inclusive community that supports diverse small businesses.
Rachel Shank, the executive director of Georgetown Main Street, said the organization chose to get involved with Art All Night to bring some of Washington, D.C.’s nightlife back to the area with a Georgetown twist.
“It doesn’t necessarily need to be traditional nightlife events, and it can be an opportunity to showcase all of the arts and cultural institutions that we have in Georgetown,” Shank told The Hoya. “It was a really unique opportunity to receive citywide sponsorship to host an event that we’ve never done before to showcase the creativity of our community.”
Shank added that Georgetown Main Street is hoping the art showcases the diversity that she believes makes Georgetown so valuable.
“I think there’s a bit of a perception that Georgetown, the neighborhood, has not always been welcoming, and I think Georgetown Main Street and a lot of our community partners are really trying to be intentional about changing that narrative,” Shank said. “Especially in the commercial corridor where most of our businesses are either minority- or immigrant-owned businesses.”
Art All Night D.C. was originally founded in 2011, inspired by France’s all-night art festival Nuit Blanche, and has since grown to include 20+ neighborhoods across all eight wards, with over 180,000 annual attendees from across the D.C.-Maryland-Virginia area.
Art All Night also included culinary arts exhibitions, such as the African Union, which handed out samples of traditional African foods and treats, including a tea ceremony from Morocco and Ethiopian food.
Toby Shu (CAS ’28) said this year was his first time attending Art All Night, and he was excited to try the different food on display.
“I didn’t really know anything about Art All Night,” Shu told The Hoya. “I heard about it the night before and went to check it out with some friends and was really impressed. There were so many different stalls with samples to try from different cultures, and it was a really cool way to experience all of those cuisines.”
Amelia Giordano (SFS ’26), another Georgetown student who attended the event, said she loved seeing the attendees enjoy the small businesses and homemade crafts on display.
“I loved seeing so many handmade crafts like knitted scarves, paintings and jewelry — it had such a nice local and independent feel, which you don’t get as much in D.C.,” Giordano wrote to The Hoya. “The food, music and people selling homemade art made me feel like I was at my farmers market at home, which is such a different vibe to what Georgetown normally has!”
Giordano added that the individual vendors did a great job encouraging people to make connections and strike up conversations.
“Art, especially small-scale, independent and accessible art like what was at the Night Market, is a fantastic mode of building community,” Giordano wrote. “Seeing students, local families and tourists all admiring someone’s craft brings people together in supporting each other and the neighborhood.”
Isabelle Harvey, a D.C. resident who attended Art All Night, said she appreciated the emphasis on local artists.
“It also brings visibility for artists and their work, which I think is really important in a time when D.C. feels somber and overly serious,” Harvey told The Hoya. “It’s a way to brighten up D.C., bring people together with a sense of joy and also draw attention to artists who deserve to be seen.”
Shank said art and third spaces are important in bringing people together to celebrate cultural differences.
“Art is essential to the cultural zeitgeist, to telling stories and to community,” Shank said. “You can go into these spaces during Art All Night, and it’s free. You can go and you can just be and exist in the community with other people, and you don’t necessarily need to have dialogue with them. You can sort of just exist in these spaces with them.”
Shank added that it is the individuals and small businesses that make an event like Art All Night so special.
“This event is by the community, for the community,” Shank said. “Even though Georgetown Main Street is the organizer of the event, so many of the incredible people and institutions of Georgetown make this possible.”