Still Life with Robin: Art Part Night

by Peggy Robin 

Let me be clear: I ❤️ Art All Night. Such a fun way to celebrate the work of artists and artisans of DC in neighborhoods all across the city¹. 

This year it's on Friday and Saturday nights, September 27th & 28th. This is the 13th year of this event -- long may it flourish! 

But what's with the inaccurate name? In what universe is a 10 or 11pm closing time considered "all night"? To any night owl worth a hoot, that's when the party's just getting started! I took a quick look at ten of the neighborhoods hosting an Art All Night event and found that four of them folded at 11pm and another four closed even earlier than that, at 10pm. I saw just two, the DowntownDC Art All Night and the near-downtown Shaw event, that came anywhere close to a reasonable person's definition of "all night" with the closing bell ringing at 3am². 

Like so many of my linguistic crusades³ , this one's quixotic at best, and hopeless at worst. Even so, in my imagination I can see people from all over our great city gathering in front of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, linking arms, chanting with one voice: "10 PM IS NOT ALL NIGHT / GO TILL DAWN & MAKE IT RIGHT!" and "We demand Truth in ART-VERTISING!" 

So what do I think would be a more accurate but still snappy title? 

How about....?

Art Till the End of the Day

Art in the Dark

Art Under the Stars

Art Till the Clock Strikes 12 (this would entail moving the closing time of the neighborhood Art All Night events to midnight)

Art DC 6-12 (same for this one) 

But perhaps the simplest solution: just lose the "ALL" for a quick, 2-word title, ART NIGHT 

Any other bright ideas?

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Endnotes:

(1) Cleveland Park's Art All Night is on Friday, Sept 28 from 5 - 10pm.

(2) Here are ten AAN locations that I checked for times: Anacostia 6-11pm; Cleveland Park 5-10pm; Downtown 7pm - 3am (2 nights); Dupont 6-11pm; Georgetown 6-11pm; Glover Park 5- Midnight; Lower Georgia Ave 3-7pm; (yes, really!); Mount Pleasant 5-10pm; Shaw 7pm – 3am; Tenleytown 7-10pm; U Street 6-11pm

(3) Here are 4 of my past grammatical/linguistic crusades: 1. How to pronounce years beginning in 20 https://alllifeislocal.blogspot.com/2011/12/still-life-with-robin-say-it-with-me.html; 2. Down with D-M-V https://alllifeislocal.blogspot.com/2013/03/still-life-with-robin-down-with-d-m-v.html, 3. Stop typing two spacing after a period https://alllifeislocal.blogspot.com/2024/06/still-life-with-robin-when-one-is-much.html and 4. Against the overuse of ellipsis: https://alllifeislocal.blogspot.com/2021/12/still-life-with-robin-my-war-against.html 

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Still Life with Robin is published on the Cleveland Park Listserv and on All Life Is Local on Saturdays.