SPECIAL EVENTS : Nighttime Is Right Time in Fullerton

Call it a four-hour artistic explosion, a kind of ultra-concentrated smorgasbord of painting, sculpture, music, theater and dance on a palette the size of a city.

It might sound a bit like the title of a Marx Brothers movie, but “A Night in Fullerton”--the city’s annual one-night cultural arts celebration--will play it artistically straight from 7 to 11 p.m. Friday, with free offerings at 13 locations throughout town.

Friday marks the 31st time the city has mounted “A Night in Fullerton,” and according to city special events administrator Ann Mottola, organizers have learned how to keep the presentations lively and the visitors moving.

“If you’re good with schedules and a map, you can probably get in about six locations” during the course of the four-hour evening, Mottola said. “Some places, like Cal State Fullerton, can take longer because there are several different things going on there, but other places, like the galleries, you can go through much more quickly.

“People end up browsing, getting a feeling for the things around the city. You don’t really need to linger in any one place to get an idea of what it represents. I don’t want to say that you should rush, but people tend to set a kind of energetic pace.”

That pace will be helped along by free shuttle buses that will travel between all 13 sites at roughly 15-minute intervals.

“They’ll be big yellow school buses, so they’ll be easy to spot,” Mottola said.

The locations of exhibits and performances will also be visually arresting. Each will be marked with distinctive banners and searchlights.

Most of the sites are clustered on or near Harbor Boulevard in the city’s downtown section, and Harbor Boulevard will remain open to auto traffic throughout the evening. In recent years the street was closed to traffic, Mottola said, but that had the effect of creating a foot-traffic atmosphere that tended to discourage visitors from traveling to more outlying sites.

“Newcomers especially, if they didn’t realize what the event was about, would focus on a small geographic area. It was hard to get people out of downtown,” she said.

The entire evening is a nonprofit operation. All galleries, schools, studios and other sites and organizations donate their facilities for the night, and the sale of merchandise at the sites is prohibited.

Even the sale of a good pair of walking shoes.

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“A Night in Fullerton”

Here are the 13 locations of performances, exhibits and other activities at “A Night in Fullerton”:

* Fullerton Museum Center, 301 N. Pomona Ave., will exhibit “Textiles from Vanishing Cultures,” which focuses on rapidly disappearing cultural traditions. Also, performances by teachers and students from the music conservatory Patrick’s Musician.

* Hunt Branch Library, 201 S. Basque Ave., will show a children’s art exhibit, puppet shows and performances of British and American folk music by the group Tinker’s Own.

* Muckenthaler Cultural Center, 1201 W. Malvern Ave., will offer “Impressions in Tin: Mexican Tin Works,” an exhibition showcasing commonplace objects beautified for daily use by Mexican artisans. Also, live music will be played throughout the evening.

* Gallery 57, 204 N. Harbor Blvd., will feature a mixed-media exhibit, with work by Gallery 57 member artists.

* Pacific Christian College, 2500 E. Nutwood., will present a variety of contemporary and sacred music performed by a band and choir.

* Fullerton College, 321 E. Chapman Ave., will present its annual student art show, along with student dance concerts and performances by student musical groups.

* Eileen Kremen Gallery, 619 N. Harbor Blvd., will show “Kaleidoscope Celebration: Spring ‘95,” featuring 54 kaleidoscope artists working in glass, wood, clay and metal. Also, an art demonstration by Don Ballwey, and live music.

* Cal State Fullerton, 800 N. State College Blvd., will offer an art exhibit titled “Vested Power: Icons of Domination and Transcendence,” as well as student art exhibit, a performance by the college jazz ensemble, art demonstrations and dance performances.

* First Christian Church, 109 E. Wilshire Ave., will present performances by the Fullerton College Community Band and the Orange Empire Barbershop Chorus.

* Church of Today, 117 N. Pomona Ave., will have performances by the vocal jazz group Vocal Magic.

* Nouveau Chamber Ballet, 1090 W. Valencia Drive, will present scenes from the Prokofiev ballet “Peter and the Wolf.”

* Vanguard Theatre Ensemble, 699A S. State College Blvd., will produce scenes from Arthur Miller’s “After the Fall,” and “Spoon River Anthology,” based on the book by Edgar Lee Masters.

* Village Art Center, 529 N. Harbor Blvd., will exhibit the work of artists Greg Parker and offer live music throughout the evening.