Good citizens of the St. John’s metropolis, heed this call.

The 24 Hour Art Marathon kicks off Friday night with a week-and-change long festival that culminates the following weekend with an art making, performance giving, inspiration infusing marathon that runs for a full 24 hours, all of which is lovingly known throughout space and time and all 11 dimensions as the 24HAM.

The 24HAM is a hero in its own right, but its identity is no secret. It is made up of countless organizers, artists, and, perhaps most importantly, volunteers.

Volunteers are the cape that allows the 24HAM to fly. They are what give it the power to soar.

If you’re interested in volunteering for this year’s 24HAM, it’s not too late! In fact, they would love to hear from you. Write to easternedgegallery@gmail.com with Volunteer as the subject and let them know you want to be a part of the great artistic hero that is the 24HAM.

And remember folks, it all starts happening at 8pm tomorrow night, so be sure to head down to Eastern Edge Gallery, 72 Harbour Drive, for the Launch Pad Party, where from the 24HAM will take its inaugural flight and continue to soar throughout the week.

Like a fringe on the fringe, folks at the 24HAM congragated in the alley just beyond for an impromtu silent disco.

Wicked photo courtesy of Adam Penney.

Happened a little while ago. I’m just sayin’ is all.

Get your meat readings here!

The Weiner Shaman is in full effect here at the 10th annual 24 Hour Art Marathon. Why aren’t you?

Hopefully you got my play on a B52′s reference, there. It really is quite the love shack we’ve got going here at the 10th annual 24 Hour Art Marathon. The first hot meal of the day/night/day is being served, and many a starving artist is patiently queuing to nab themselves a helping.

Smells delicious — I’d better get in line before it’s all gone!

So says the poet belting it out here with unflinching abandon circa just a few minutes ago at the 24 Hour Art Marathon. Check him out:

While I was busy poking away at some video editing here at the 24 Hour Art Marathon, intrepid photographer Adam Penney made the rounds, camera in hand, to give us a look at some of the artists and their work.

As you can see, the creative juices are flowing full tilt and we’re less than four hours in. Still 20 more to go, which means plenty more art to come and plenty more time for you to come down!

It’s gonna be a hot one in the old town today, what with the temperature climbing to 26 and a heap of happenings headed our way.

At the Eastern Edge Gallery, from noon today til noon tomorrow, it’s the 24 Hour Art Marathon, featuring one hectare’s worth of artists crammed into one heck-of-a-lot smaller space than that. They’ll be toiling and tinkering for an entire Earth rotation with workshops, activities and performances planned throughout.

Admission is $4 during the day, $7 at night, and kids under 10 get in free.

Celebrating it’s 10th anniversary, the 24HAM has become the event of St. John’s summer. You really want to find your way down there today. Otherwise, stay tuned to Signal as we’ll be live blogging the full 24 hours in all its sleep deprived glory.

Just up the road at Harbourside Park, it’s Songwriters @ Harbourside II, featuring a long and luscious list of local talent. They’ll be strummin’ and hummin’ from 1pm to 10pm today.

Admission for the entire event is free as in fresh air.

Both events are a stone’s throw from one another, with Anchorage Coffee docked smack dab in between. Lucky you, they’ll be open for your refueling pleasure til 9pm tonight.

Oh, the things George Orwell predicted. Lucky for us none of them turned out even remotely.

… right?

1984 may well be in the dark and distant past, but it marked the beginning of a long and bright future for Eastern Edge Gallery, the first artist-run gallery in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The first night of celebrations for the 10th anniversary of Eastern Edge’s 24 Hour Art Marathon kicks off tonight, and the theme, quite fittingly, is the year the gallery was born.

Dress up in your favorite 80′s garb and get ready to jam to an array of local DJ talent well worth stomping your boots to, and a performance by Alexis O’Hara (the transdisciplinary artist, not the drag queen) featuring a concert of her “one-ma’am-band tunes.”

72 Harbour Drive – 8pm – $10 with costume, $12 without.

[image via]

The Scope recently quizzed as many of the upcoming 24HAM participants as they could find in the quest to learn their hopes and dreams for this year’s event.

They’ve published the highlights from all the responses in their latest issue, while the full results can be found on their website.

So why not head on over and get to know some of this year’s 24HAM gang?

And don’t forget, Signal will be live blogging the full 24 hours of this year’s marathon, so keep refreshing your browser on the day/night/day for a series of updates that I can only imagine will become less and less coherent as the ‘thon wears on.