Art All Night: Artists remain dedicated to promoting Trenton despite shooting
Amanda OglesbyTRENTON - For more than a decade, the Art All Night festival has been a peaceful event, marked by live music, artistic displays and demonstrations.
That all changed early Sunday, when two shooters opened fire into the crowd, injuring 22 before authorities shot and killed one suspect and arrested another.
This 24-hour long artists' event inside the historic Roebling Wire Works factory has been held for 12 years and attracts thousands of visitors to its vendor tables, food and live performances.
"We're still processing much of this and we don't have many answers at this time, but please know that our staff, our volunteers, our artists and musicians all seem to be healthy and accounted for," Art All Night - Trenton organizers wrote Sunday morning in a Facebook post.
The event began Saturday with musicians and an address by Trenton Mayor-elect Reed Gusciora, who told the crowd that city officials would be focused on promoting a vibrant arts and music scene. See Gov. Phil Murphy talk about the shooting in the video above.
Last year, Art All Night - Trenton attracted 1,500 artists of all skill levels and 30,000 attendees, according to event organizers. Billed as a "catalyst for community development, shining a spotlight on our region’s artistic talent," organizers said through their website that the event builds community, fosters social networking among Trenton's creative minds, empowers artists and showcases the city's architecture and "development-ripe buildings."
The historic Roebling Wire Works, before it served as Art All Night's space, was a factory for cable used in some of the nation's most famous suspension bridges as well as elevators, telephone and telegraph lines, according to the Roebling Museum.
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Art All Night includes its own film festival, with 200 shorts submitted from around the world and live performances by more than 50 bands.
Dante DiPirro, an attorney from Hopewell, Mercer County, went to Art All Night Saturday with his girlfriend to support the cultural scene in Trenton, where he had worked for about 20 years.
Shooting:1 dead, 22 hurt - 4 critically - after gunfire at Trenton Art All Night festival
“I’m a big fan of the city, and the cultural and artistic efforts to revitalize Trenton," he said. "It was totally packed, and it was a really diverse crowd, and people were just having a wonderful time. It was so inclusionary and creative, and I thought it was a wonderful thing for the people who attended, the artists and the city of Trenton itself.”
WARNING: THE VIDEO BELOW CONTAINS VIOLENT IMAGES AND STRONG LANGUAGE
DiPirro, who left before the shooting began, said Trenton appears poised to make an economic comeback, but he said he worried the shooting might set the city back in its efforts.
“A lot of this is about gun policy," said DiPirro. "In my opinion every society picks the level of violence it tolerates, and more guns bring more gun violence.”
Art All Night is held by Artworks, Trenton's visual arts center that has promoted community, culture and appreciation of arts for more than 50 years. Art All Night was spawned in 2007 not just as a performing arts festival, but as a way to connect residents of the city with those of the surrounding suburbs.
Event curator Bruce Toth said he was disheartened by the shooting and worried about its impact on the event for the future. Like others involved with Artworks, the event is aimed at helping the children of the community have more involvement with the arts and bringing the community together.
"We are all volunteers and we do this for nothing," said Toth, noting approximately 500 volunteers help out at the event. "The whole thing was to try and get the community together. Now, down the tubes. The problem is going to be is that we rely heavily on volunteers and now we have to ask people to come to an event that was shot up. It's going to be an uphill battle. It's just tragic. This is the biggest art show in the state. Everybody is just heartbroken."
Event organizers said there were still many unanswered questions about the shooting, which the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office said left a 13-year-old boy in extremely critical condition.
"Our sincere, heartfelt sympathies are with those who were injured," organizers wrote on Art All Night's Facebook page. "We’re very shocked. We’re deeply saddened. Our hearts ache and our eyes are blurry but our dedication and resolve to building a better Trenton through community, creativity and inspiration will never fade. Not tonight. Not ever."
Todd Evans of Willingboro is a poet who has performed at previous Art All Night festivals, but this was the first year he did not attend.
"For me, it was one the greatest multicultural artistic events that I’ve ever been to," said Evans, who grew up in Trenton and remains active in the city's poetry and arts scene.
Now, Evans said he is worried about the future of the festival.
“It’s a lot of great stuff that is going on there, I just hope it (the shooting) doesn’t scare some of the other people," he said. “We live in some real dangerous times.”
Attendees and friends of participants also expressed condolences for those injured over Twitter.
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Contributing: Jim O'Neill
Amanda Oglesby: @OglesbyAPP; 732-557-5701; aoglesby@gannettnj.com