Glenn Wagstaff
A decorative display of pumpkins lines the border of a pumpkin patch at Pullen Park on Saturday. Pullen Park was host to festivities for Art it Up! an event including 16 different locations on Hillsborough Street. The event focused on arts, culture, and recreation organizations in the district surrounding Hillsborough Street.
This year’s Art it Up! Hillsborough Street festival brought a much-needed taste of fall to the Raleigh community, with uniquely designed scarecrows, ivory-colored pumpkins, tasteful food and drink, local art and more. Participating businesses helped celebrate the ever-expanding arts hub that lies right here in the City of Oaks with events designed to bring together the community in support of the arts. Art it Up! took place at 16 different Hillsborough Street locations Saturday.
Lara Bannister, event planning coordinator with Live it Up! Hillsborough Street and a fourth-year studying parks, recreation and tourism management, is one of many who worked to make the artful celebration happen.
“We started planning in July,” Bannister said. “We started coordinating with all the merchants on the street, and we started talking to them and seeing how many people we could get involved… we wanted to do arts, culture and recreation events this month since October is National Arts Month.”
Bannister said that her goal for this year’s Art it Up! festival was to get the community more involved in arts, culture and recreation events, especially within the Hillsborough Street community — a feat that Bannister has benefited from personally.
“I think that if you’re involved in your college town’s community it feels more like a home,” Bannister said. “And I know that my freshman and sophomore year I really didn’t do anything in the community, but these past two years I have. It definitely makes Raleigh feel more like home.”
Pullen Park was one of the participating venues with this year’s festival and acted as a prime gathering spot for families looking to embark on fall-related festivities. The park began with a scarecrow-making event, which resulted in a wealth of colorful, uniquely designed scarecrows lining the park.
“We had a very artsy crowd designing their own scarecrows,” said Scott Mott, the programs manager at Pullen Park. “The creativity was phenomenal with that.”
After the scarecrow crafting sector of the event was completed, the autumn festivities continued with a pumpkin patch complete with barrels of hay perfect for fall-themed family photo ops. For Mott, Art it Up! was a chance for the Pullen Park to come out in support of local artists across many varieties.
“It was just an opportunity for us to take part in the community event relating to the arts,” Motts said. “And it was a great chance for us to get some exposure as far as a different crowd than we typically see for Pullen Park.”
In addition to Pullen Park’s family-friendly events, the Green Monkey was another participating business in this year’s festival which proved a popular spot. The Green Monkey, a gift shop and craft beer bar, is no stranger to supporting local arts, however the vast majority of the shop’s trinket-esque merchandise is produced by local artists. The shop’s owner, Rusty Sutton, expressed a love for Art it Up! as his whole shop is “about community and supporting local art.”
In honor of the festival, the Green Monkey decided to host “Wines Around the World,” a wine tasting centered around three distinct regions — Spain, South Africa and Italy. From a particularly tasty Italian pinot grigio to a traditional Spanish-style sangria, the Green Monkey offered festival goers a chance to bask in the art of wine. For those craving even more of the good stuff, the bar offered select wines by the glass in addition to their standard craft brew lineup.
For Sutton, a sense of community is something that his shop works to foster not just for special events, but for each and every day his shop brings in new customers.
“We’re all about community, and the Monkey fan community here is a tight-knit group,” Sutton said. “We love welcoming in new Monkey fans into the mix.”
Raleigh Brewing was another local business that provided part of the action Saturday. The brewery, which regularly features 32 beers on tap, was decorated with spooky halloween gimmicks fit for the fall themed festival. Locals poured into the hidden gem of a brewery, sipping on some refreshing Bull City Cider or on an ice-cold glass of Oktoberfest — a seasonal brew that has become the mark of all that is fall.
To top it all off, hungry customers could opt for some grub from local food truck The Heights Dominican Kitchen. The on-the-go food spot offered Dominican-style fried chicken, sweet plantains, loaded chicken tacos, plantain fries and more — but the plantain fries stood out amongst the rest, the perfect combination of sweet and salty.
In short, Art it Up! 2017 was far more than just another arts festival. It was way for the Raleigh community to come together in support of local businesses and artists alike, creating a sense of togetherness that is all too often lost in the hustle and bustle of one’s daily routine. Art it Up! 2017 was for families, students, children and the elderly. It was for artists and business owners and active community members. Art it Up! 2017 was for everyone.