Pontiac<\/b><\/a> is now happening every Friday night in April and May as part of a broader push to revitalize the city\u2019s core.<\/p>\nThe weekly \u201cArts Crawl\u201d event, which last week brought more than 1,000 people downtown, is designed to showcase arts, music, and local businesses, and to give visitors a reason to keep coming back.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really builds momentum for downtown,\u201d said Karen Jorgenson, a business owner in the city\u2019s center.<\/p>\n
Jorgenson said last week\u2019s event delivered a surge in foot traffic and sales for her shop and others.<\/p>\n
She also mentioned the crowds last week were a sharp contrast to those she\u2019d seen downtown when she first moved to the area 15 years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I first got here, it was a transition of emergency manager,\u201d Jorgenson said. \u201cAnd we had almost no street lights working or functioning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, downtown streets are fully lit and lined with signs promoting Arts Crawl. <\/p>\n
The expansion of the event from a single annual celebration to a weekly series is intentional, city leaders said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about not just having a good time, but we want to build on that momentum and [invite] people to come back over and over again,\u201d Mayor Mike McGuinness said. \u201cSo when they\u2019re thinking about what to do on a Friday night in spring, think of Pontiac.\u201d<\/p>\n
The weekly events coincide with visible signs of a larger revitalization effort. New businesses are opening downtown, a former building is being converted into loft apartments, and a former General Motors tower under construction is slated to be the worksite for nearly 700 Oakland County employees.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want the downtown to be firing on all cylinders,\u201d McGuinness said.<\/p>\n
Arts Crawl will continue every Friday through May from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. in downtown Pontiac. <\/p>\n
City officials hope each week\u2019s turnout matches or surpasses the first week\u2019s crowd and helps cement Pontiac as a regular destination for entertainment, dining, and arts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Copyright 2026 by WDIV ClickOnDetroit – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.clickondetroit.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pontiac, Mich. \u2013 A former once-a-year arts celebration in downtown Pontiac is now happening every Friday night in April and May as part of a broader push to revitalize the city\u2019s core. The weekly \u201cArts Crawl\u201d event, which last week brought more than 1,000 people downtown, is designed to showcase arts, music, and local businesses, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2368132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[394548,403034],"class_list":["post-2368131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-oakland-county","tag-pontiac"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Arts-music-and-momentum-Pontiac-expands-Arts-Crawl-to-weekly.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2368131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2368131"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2368131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2368133,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2368131\/revisions\/2368133"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2368132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2368131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2368131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2368131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}