Holiday Affair on the Square

On November 22, Middletown will kick of the holiday season with the fifth annual A Holiday Affair on the Square. The event will take place from 3:00 - 6:00 PM, with a traditional holiday brunch at the Manchester Inn from 11:00 - 2:00 PM. What began as the opening of the Got Art! exhibit has grown into a daylong celebration of the Art Central District and Middletown's arts community.

The Middletown Art Center will be open from 12:00 - 4:00 PM and it will feature the work of graphic artist and Middletown resident, Sam Ashworth. Central Avenue (between Verity and Main) will be closed to traffic so that guests may experience free horse drawn carriage rides. From 3:00 - 5:00, attendees may visit "Homelessness: Telling Our Own Stories," which is a traveling art exhibit that shows guests what real homeless people experience in their own words.

The Miami Middletown Downtown facility at 4 North Main Street will host a reception for work by the Gerilla Arts Collaborative. They will also be serving free warm beverages and entertainment will be provided by local musician, Chuck Evans. If you'd like to do a little holiday shopping, Fair Trade Goods from over ten different countries will be for sale at the We Can Business Incubator at 1011 Central Avenue from 3:00 - 5:00. A large percentage of the profits go directly to rescuing artists from poverty and homelessness.

At 5:00 PM, the show will shift gears and live entertainment will take the stage at Governor's Square Park on the corner of Central and Broad. Kip Moore and friends from the Middletown Lyric Theatre, the Angel/Wesley Choir from the First United Methodist Church, the GATE music class from Middletown Public Schools and others will perform. The evening will finish with the lighting of the city's Holiday tree.