The popular event is produced by the city’s Cultural Affairs Division in collaboration with the ArtNight partner organizations, and the city calls it “Pasadena’s signature celebration of arts and culture.”
ArtNight runs twice a year, typically on the second Fridays of March and October.
Halloween programming includes Bob Baker’s Marionettes at City Hall, paired with Theater Americana’s “Thriller,” ghostly stories from Parson’s Nose Theatre, and blackout poetry and haunted tales at Red Hen Press, the city said.
The Bob Baker Marionette Theater, founded in 1963, is the longest continuously operating puppet theater in the United States, according to the Music Center. Its stated mission is “to educate, celebrate and inspire imagination through puppetry and the allied arts.”
The California Art Club invites visitors to sketch and paint live models in early 20th-century period costumes at the Gamle House. The Pasadena Museum of History presents “Where History Meets the Road,” marking the anniversaries of Route 66 and Colorado Boulevard, and Pasadena Heritage offers a vintage photo keepsake, according to the city.
Fulcrum Arts presents Julie Tolentino’s “And Never Ends,” an exhibition featuring sculpture made of crystallized hair and soundscapes, and Jazzy Jam for Empowerment offers creative wellness programming at the Paseo. Fulcrum Arts, formerly the Pasadena Arts Council, is based at 145 N. Raymond Ave. Tolentino, who teaches at CalArts, received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2025.
Music and dance include “Rhythm Lives Here,” a celebration of tap, percussion and jazz at the Alkebu-lan Cultural Center; classical and multicultural music at the Pasadena Conservatory of Music’s new campus; South Asian sounds and Pakistani art at the USC Pacific Asia Museum; and Los Journaleros del Norte at the Pasadena Job Center, according to the city.
Exhibitions at ArtCenter College of Design’s galleries and Pasadena City College, workshops at the Armory Center and ArtWorks Teen Center, local artists at Remainders Creative Reuse, and dance from the Lineage Performing Arts Center and the Pennington Dance Group at A Room to Create round out the lineup, according to the city.
The city’s Arts and Culture Commission funds mini-grants that allow small arts groups and individual artists to take part, each venue will have a Braille version of the ArtNight brochure, and many venues, including City Hall, will have food trucks, the city said. Transit information is at https://pasadenatransit.net, and accessibility requests go to CSC@cityofpasadena.net or (626) 744-7311.
ArtNight Pasadena, 23 venues citywide, with City Hall at 100 N. Garfield Ave., Pasadena. Friday, Oct. 9, 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. For more call (626) 744-7062 or visit https://www.cityofpasadena.
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