Greensboro art and music event marks start of summer at Cultural Center

Greensboro’s downtown arts economy gets a summer boost Friday as Creative Greensboro turns the Greensboro Cultural Center into a one-night hub for artists, students and families. The event runs from 6 to 9 p.m. in the second-floor atrium at 200 N. Davie St., and it is built to pull people into the building’s galleries, vendor spaces and public programming all at once.

The evening will include a maker’s market with local artists and makers, family-friendly activities in the Cultural Center’s four art galleries, and a public reception for The Art of Inclusion, a new exhibition presented by the Center for Visual Artists. The show centers artists from the disability and LGBTQIA+ communities, giving the event a stronger community identity than a standard gallery opening and widening the audience it may reach downtown.

At 7 p.m., Page High School jazz and orchestra students are scheduled to perform, adding a youth music showcase to an evening already designed to cross art forms. That mix matters in a downtown setting where an arts event can also serve as foot traffic for nearby businesses and as an easy entry point for residents who may not usually stop into the Cultural Center.

Creative Greensboro, the City of Greensboro’s office for arts and culture, says it exists to support access to and awareness of Greensboro’s creative community. The Cultural Center itself is home to nonprofit arts organizations and public art galleries, including groups connected to multicultural and LGBTQ arts work, which makes it one of the city’s most concentrated arts sites.

The June 5 event also connects to Tamra Hunt’s GROW residency, which runs June 2 through June 29. GROW stands for Greensboro Residency for Original Works, and Creative Greensboro says it gives Guilford County-based creatives space to produce original work and engage the public. Hunt will welcome visitors into the studio with self-guided sensory art stations, adding a hands-on element that is unusual even for a building known for public art.

Taken together, the exhibit, the market, the student performance and the residency point to a broader downtown strategy: use the Cultural Center as a place where summer starts, local talent is visible, and Greensboro residents have a reason to stay downtown a little longer.