Thu 9/5-Sat 9/7
Downtown Akron will be exploding with activity on Friday September 6. Not only is it the quarterly ArtWalk (5-9pm) but it’s the weekend of the Rubber City Jazz & Blues Festival as well, with live music at multiple close-by venues including Musica, Jilly’s Music Room and the Akron Art Museum.
Take the opportunity to see Summit Artspace’s five summer exhibitions one last time, and check out the open studios of its resident artists along with almost two dozen pop-up artist/vendors, all selling their handcrafted items and fine art. Outside there’ll be chalking projects and face painting so expect the kids to nag you to take them. Stella, the roaming sticker machine, will be around dispensing interesting art promoting creative people, nonprofits and small businesses.
The Rubber City Jazz & Blues Festival, which continues through Saturday, will be providing the evening’s soundtrack in downtown Akron. At the Akron Art Museum from 5-9pm, locally based sax player/composer Ronell Regis’s Grenada to the World will be playing in the Bud and Susie Rogers Garden followed by a film screening. A cash bar and pizza form Totally Baked Pizza will be available. It’s free but registration is requested.
It’s not the only free music performance in the area that evening. At the Akron/Summit Public Library’s main branch you can catch Chris Coles’ Love Demon Suite and the Bobby Selvaggio Quintet with trumpeter Sean Jones, former artistic director for the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra who now has a flourishing career on the east coast. The library will also be holding. A book sale and instrument petting zoo. Vocalist Barbara Rosene and her quintet and Abstract Sounds will be playing in the Blu Jazz+ corridor while accross the way at Musica Cole Chaney: Legends & Verse 2024 will be playing. And check out the Original Silk Band’s danceable Soul music at Jilly’s Music Room.
There’s a lot more arts activity too, included shows by Crystal Miller and Michael Roman Boyd at Akron Soul Train, art installations hosted by Curated Storefront, openings at Avant Garden Gallery and Outside the Box, and a free screening of the 1974 Sun Ra film Space Is the Place at Nightlight cinema.
Find more information about all the activities at summitartspace.org/akron-artwalk/.
To find out more about the Rubber City Jazz & Blues Festival, which features three dozen free events from Thursday September 5-Saturday September 7 including a series of panels at the Akron Art Museum on Saturday go to rubbercityjazz.org.
Akron, OH 44308