FRESH Family Day

Artspace is hosting FRESH Family Day on Saturday, October 17, from 11 AM to 3 PM. It's a free, all-ages day celebrating North Carolina creativity, with an exhibition, artist demos, and art activities. You'll find it in Galleries 1 and 2 at 201 E Davie St, in downtown Raleigh's Moore Square district.

To get why this day matters, you have to know what FRESH is. It's Artspace's biennial fundraising exhibition, and it works a bit differently than your typical gallery show. From September through mid-October, more than 200 to 300 original works arrive from artists across the state—from the Mountains to the Coast. Visitors can buy pieces and vote for a People's Choice prize, and a juror eventually selects works for a juried exhibition. All the sales go to the artists and to Artspace's mission: providing subsidized studio space in downtown Raleigh, accessible art education, exhibitions, and artist residencies.

That mission is what the Family Day is built around. The exhibition is the main draw, but the demos and activities open up the process, letting you see how the work actually gets made. It's a good way to get a look at the range of what's coming out of North Carolina this year, and since it's all-ages, it's one of those days you can bring the kids along without worrying about keeping them quiet in a gallery.

Artspace itself is a community-driven nonprofit visual arts center in the Moore Square district, housed in a 30,000-square-foot facility with four gallery spaces, 28 artist studios and classrooms, and a program of juried exhibitions, artist residencies, teacher workday camps for students in grades 1-8, and public art programs. The Family Day is free and open to the public; registration isn't required, though it's recommended. It runs from 11 AM to 3 PM on Saturday, October 17, at 201 E Davie St.