Atlantic City’s 48 Blocks Festival returns Sept. 19 with live music, artist demonstrations, public art, food and community programming spread across Fisherman’s Park and Uptown Park.
Presented by the Atlantic City Arts Foundation, the free, all-day festival will bring together more than 30 participating artists, musicians, nonprofit organizations and other community groups while transforming a section of Melrose Avenue into a pedestrian-friendly arts corridor.
For Atlantic City Arts Foundation Executive Director Michael Atkins, the event is about much more than filling a park with performances.
It is an opportunity to showcase the creative community that exists in Atlantic City year-round.
“Art has the remarkable capacity to get you to step outside yourself,” Atkins said. “Whether it’s music or visual art, all types of art — that’s really part of the core experience of it.”
Although the 48 Blocks initiative has existed in different forms over the years, Atkins said the current festival format is relatively new.
After he joined the organization two years ago, Atkins and Program Manager Tina Notaro began considering how to bring the various components of 48 Blocks together into one larger event.
Last year, they introduced the all-day festival format at Fisherman’s Park and Uptown Park, closing a section of Melrose Avenue to traffic and creating a walkable connection between the two spaces. This year marks the second festival in that form.
Something for everyone
The Arts Foundation issued an open call for artists and convened an advisory board to review submissions for the festival.
More than 33 artists were selected to participate, with demonstrations and workshops ranging from glassblowing to hands-on artmaking. The festival will also feature live performances across multiple areas.
Fisherman’s Park will have more acoustic programming and poetry readings, while Uptown Park will feature amplified music and recreational activities.
New this year, Stockton Noyes Arts Garage will present “Cyanokites,” a workshop where attendees can learn the basics of cyanotype printing through sun exposure while creating flyable kites to take home.
Atkins said the lineup includes a mix of local and regional musicians and performers, while artists taking part in the festival come largely from Atlantic City, Atlantic County and South Jersey, with some participants traveling from areas such as Philadelphia and Brooklyn.
The goal, he said, is to make the festival approachable even for someone who does not consider themselves an “art person.” “There’s a little bit of something for everyone,” Atkins said.
Visitors might discover a musician they had never heard before, try a new type of art or simply explore a part of Atlantic City they have not spent much time in.
That spirit ties into one of the Arts Foundation’s core philosophies: that everyone should have a direct connection to art.
Public art is especially important to that mission because it removes many of the barriers that can exist around traditional arts experiences.
Admission to the festival is free, though food trucks and other vendors will be available throughout the day.
Atkins said adding more food, shade and amenities was one of the lessons organizers took from last year’s festival.
Rather than radically reinventing the event, he said, the Foundation wanted to make it easier for visitors to stay longer or leave and return later in the day.
Understanding Atlantic City through its murals
One of the festival’s signature offerings will once again be guided mural tours aboard jitneys.
Tours will rotate throughout the day, taking visitors to different sections of the city and exploring the stories behind approximately eight to 10 murals during each roughly hour-long trip.
Some tours will focus on artwork in the Inlet, while others will incorporate local history, notable figures and information about the artists who created the works.
Atlantic City now has approximately 106 murals, according to Atkins. The tours give visitors something that simply driving past a mural cannot: the story behind the work.
“It allows us to have a host on the journey, sharing artist information, their inspiration,” he said.
The Arts Foundation currently maintains an online map documenting murals throughout the city, including some works that have since been retired.
Atkins said the organization is also working with a company to develop a more immersive mural map and app that could eventually make it easier for residents and visitors to create their own self-guided public art experiences.
Building an arts community
Finding artists for an event like 48 Blocks has become easier as the Arts Foundation’s network has grown.
The organization maintains an online artist database and an “Artist Insider” list that distributes information about exhibitions, grants and other opportunities.
Atkins said the list has grown to more than 200 artists. That network allows the Foundation not only to find talent for its own events but also to help artists discover opportunities elsewhere.
Artists selected for 48 Blocks receive stipends for participating. Atkins said that is an important part of the Foundation’s mission. The festival is meant to provide artists with both exposure and compensation for their work.
“We’re trying to support an art ecosystem,” he said.
The Arts Foundation is an independent nonprofit organization and works alongside the city and a network of other nonprofit and community organizations. Atkins said Atlantic City officials have been supportive in helping coordinate street closures, permitting, safety and other logistics involved in staging a large public event.
The festival also creates room for nonprofit organizations and community groups to introduce themselves to new audiences.
That collaborative spirit is part of what Atkins believes makes Atlantic City’s arts community unique.
Festival Sponsors include Inlet CDC and CRDA. Additional community sponsors also include: AC Electric, Copiers Plus, Lang’s Garden, Cozy Cohost, Vista Convention Services, and Schultz-Hill Foundation.
Organizational Sponsors include Thrive AC Fund, CARING, Inc, Steve & Cookies, Casiello Foundation, Weatherby Construction, Visit AC, Destination Philly AC, McLees Architecture, Chalofsky Family Foundation, Zoubek Properties, Ocean First.
‘Right on Time’
This year’s 48 Blocks theme is “Right on Time,” a phrase that Atkins said can have several meanings.
Sometimes, a song or work of art seems to enter someone’s life at exactly the right moment. The phrase also reflects the timing of the festival itself.
By Sept. 19, the crowds of peak summer have begun to thin, children are back in school and Atlantic City enters the stretch locals affectionately call “local summer.”
For Atkins, that makes the festival a celebration of the people who experience the city throughout the entire year. “It’s a right-on-time local summer celebration of our city’s creative spirit,” he said.
The timing also gives summer visitors a reason to return and experience another side of Atlantic City.
While the beach, Boardwalk and casino industry dominate the city’s tourism identity, Atkins believes events like the 48 Blocks Festival can expose people to neighborhoods, parks, artists and communities they might otherwise overlook.
And whether someone arrives as an avid art collector or simply curious about what has been happening creatively around the city, Atkins believes the festival has something waiting for them.
For more information on the Atlantic City Arts Foundation, visit https://atlanticcityartsfoundation.org/.
