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The festival events that happened late this week and into the weekend provided a unique glimpse of what Suffolk is all about to people from across the city as well as across the region.

The first Plein Air Festival brought folks to the city for events Sept. 9-12. More than three dozen notable artists from our local area as well as up and down the East Coast are in town to take part. Artists have been criss-crossing the city throughout the week and weekend, painting outdoors at scenic locations all across Suffolk.

Plein air, at its simplest, is just the art of painting outdoors, but there’s more to it than that. Plein air artists are committed to capturing the scene as they see it, including the natural light, and enjoying the atmosphere that comes along with it.

This excellent event has brought a lot of people to Suffolk and once again pinned us in a positive light for the art world. We thank the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts and the many sponsors of this event for putting this together and wish the artists and their traveling companions a great time in our city.

Bridging the gap between the art world and the culinary world, many of the artists were, as of the time of this writing on Friday, planning to do some of their painting at the Taste of Suffolk Street Festival in historic downtown Suffolk on Saturday. This is the first Taste of Suffolk in two years, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, and we are excited about what all of the new and returning restaurants have to offer. While all of the restaurants are from our local area, the cuisine originates from around the world. We encourage everyone to check out these fine restaurants all year long.