Syracuse’s Art on the Porches festival Artist Kristy Flanigan sells her artwork on a porch at Art on the Porches in the Strathmore neighborhood Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, in Syracuse, N.Y. (Becca Beckas | Contributing Photographer) (Becca Beckas/Becca Beckas | Contributing Photographer) Syracuse’s Art on the Porches festival Musicians Alison and Zoë perfom on the main stage at Art on the Porches in the Strathmore neighborhood Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, in Syracuse, N.Y. (Becca Beckas | Contributing Photographer) (Becca Beckas/Becca Beckas | Contributing Photographer) Syracuse’s Art on the Porches festival A family plays hopscotch on graffiti art at Art on the Porches in the Strathmore neighborhood Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, in Syracuse, N.Y. (Becca Beckas | Contributing Photographer) (Becca Beckas/Becca Beckas | Contributing Photographer) Syracuse’s Art on the Porches festival Eliza Perrin poses with her ceramic work at Art on the Porches in the Strathmore neighborhood Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, in Syracuse, N.Y. (Becca Beckas | Contributing Photographer) (Becca Beckas/Becca Beckas | Contributing Photographer) Syracuse’s Art on the Porches festival People paint color-by-number canvases for a community collage at Art on the Porches in the Strathmore neighborhood Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, in Syracuse, N.Y. (Becca Beckas | Contributing Photographer) (Becca Beckas/Becca Beckas | Contributing Photographer) Syracuse’s Art on the Porches festival An artist enjoys an ice cream sundae from Cream and Coffee at Art on the Porches in the Strathmore neighborhood Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, in Syracuse, N.Y. (Becca Beckas | Contributing Photographer) (Becca Beckas/Becca Beckas | Contributing Photographer) Syracuse’s Art on the Porches festival Artists take part in a painting roulette event at Art on the Porches in the Strathmore neighborhood Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, in Syracuse, N.Y. (Becca Beckas | Contributing Photographer) (Becca Beckas/Becca Beckas | Contributing Photographer) Syracuse’s Art on the Porches festival Kelly Diemond, owner of Metal Morphosis Jewelry Studio, a vendor at Art on the Porches in the Strathmore neighborhood Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, in Syracuse, N.Y. (Becca Beckas | Contributing Photographer) (Becca Beckas/Becca Beckas | Contributing Photographer) Syracuse’s Art on the Porches festival A child paints a house of the historic Strathmore neighborhood at Art on the Porches Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, in Syracuse, N.Y. (Becca Beckas | Contributing Photographer) (Becca Beckas/Becca Beckas | Contributing Photographer) Syracuse’s Art on the Porches festival People gather for the music acts at Art on the Porches in the Strathmore neighborhood Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, in Syracuse, N.Y. (Becca Beckas | Contributing Photographer) (Becca Beckas/Becca Beckas | Contributing Photographer) Syracuse’s Art on the Porches festival Musicians Gary and Arty perform on the acoustic stage at Art on the Porches in the Strathmore neighborhood Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, in Syracuse, N.Y. (Becca Beckas | Contributing Photographer) (Becca Beckas/Becca Beckas | Contributing Photographer) Syracuse’s Art on the Porches festival Children and adults paint houses of the historic Strathmore neighborhood at Art on the Porches Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, in Syracuse, N.Y. (Becca Beckas | Contributing Photographer) (Becca Beckas/Becca Beckas | Contributing Photographer)

Syracuse, N.Y. — A warm, sunny day and enthusiastic Ruskin Avenue residents welcomed hundreds of arts-loving attendees to the picturesque Strathmore neighborhood Saturday.

The Greater Strathmore Neighborhood Association’s Art on the Porches annually takes place the weekend after Labor Day.

“We really do love to bring people to the neighborhood … and show off how really fun and very community-based living in the city really is,” said Art on the Porches chairperson Emily Tiberio.

People of all ages strolled across lawns and climbed porch steps to get a better look at the art for sale from nearly 40 creatives. Artists and makers from across Central New York displayed and sold magnets, prints, mixed-media work, photography, home decor, pottery, comics, paintings and more.

GSNA board president Carol Maretta Harvey said every vendor spot had been filled this year.

Syracuse’s Art on the Porches festival Eliza Perrin poses with her ceramic work at Art on the Porches in the Strathmore neighborhood Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, in Syracuse, N.Y. (Becca Beckas | Contributing Photographer) (Becca Beckas/Becca Beckas | Contributing Photographer)

Regional musicians kept attendees’ toes tapping all afternoon. The main stage lineup included Unity Street Band, Alison & Zoe, Mira Grimm + The Reapers, Tim Herron & The Great Blue, Jonah Ladd & The Sunset Band and Harmonic Dirt. Gary + Arty, Foxrow, Cloey Tierno, Isto and Clove performed on the acoustic stage.

Energetic Salt City Salseras danced with highlighter-green dresses swishing to the beat of their Latin music.

While you can view art, listen to music and watch the dancers, Art on the Porches is no passive event. Harvey said each year the organizers have been trying to add more hands-on activities.

“It’s one thing to see the art and to purchase art, but it’s another thing to get your hands on it and encourage people to make art,” she said.

Syracuse’s Art on the Porches festival People gather for the music acts at Art on the Porches in the Strathmore neighborhood Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, in Syracuse, N.Y. (Becca Beckas | Contributing Photographer) (Becca Beckas/Becca Beckas | Contributing Photographer)

This year, new interactive experiences included a community paint-by-number art piece and Canvas Roulette.

Angela Freeman lives in Cicero, but her brother Christian Freeman, who is married to Tiberio, lives on Ruskin Avenue.

“I’m a real advocate of all-ages community interactivity,” she said. “Any opportunity to bring multiple generations together and multiple age and ability levels to collaborate on something that represents the community, I was on board.”

Freeman had seen a paint-by-number piece at a festival and knew it could be done at Art on the Porches. She added the concept of individual squares to paint so that no one knew what the final image would look like until all the pieces of the puzzle were assembled.

The siblings took scenes from Upper Onondaga Lake Park and created a panoramic composite they digitized, enlarged and projected on to sheets of luan, a lightweight smooth plywood. They numbered and cut each square by hand. Another neighbor, Paul Berry, built the frame the 64 finished pieces slid into, which can be used for future iterations of this project.

It was $7 to paint one square or $10 for two; all the squares were sold out by around 3:30 p.m.

Art on the Porches 2026 Attendees place completed paint-by-number squares in a frame at the 2026 Art on the Porches in Syracuse’s Strathmore neighborhood. (Amy Bleier Long/This is CNY)

“Now we have this beautiful snapshot of a vintage postcard image from the Strathmore neighborhood, and everyone worked together to help make it,” Freeman said.

Syracuse resident Lashana Brown attended the event for the first time. Though the energy on the block was high, under the tent where she painted her square it was a little quieter.

“It’s nice, I like this. This is really relaxing to paint. It’s soothing,” she said.

It was the second time attending for Strathmore resident Owen Hunter, who painted with others at a table in the sun.

“It’s great, because this is all about being a community event, right?” Hunter said. “So, getting literally the community involved with part of the art that going to be on display is really neat.”

Harvey said that by participating in art projects like this one, visitors can “really get appreciation for how much time it takes to make art” and feel a sense of community pride in being part of it.

For professional artists Sofía A. Gutiérrez (Custard Stand Art & Design), Kennan Selimović, (Smile It’s Healthy) and Brandon Jones (Phase1), it took just over an hour to create three unique works of art.

The inaugural contributors to Canvas Roulette swapped canvases every 20 minutes and added their own artistic style so that each artwork had contributions from all three.

None of the Syracuse-based artists had been part of something like this before but were excited for the challenge.

“Our styles are so vastly different, I was wondering how they would mesh,” said Selimović. “I’m like this is either going to be sick, or like a car accident, you know what I mean? But it turned out freaking awesome.”

“Figuring out how to marry the palettes sometimes can be difficult, but I think we’re all rocking with a similar sort of color scheme,” Gutiérrez said. “You see what other people are doing, and you can play off each other’s shapes and build on things.”

Jones said he didn’t want to overthink it. “I knew I was going to be able to carve something out of something, so I think we all kind of figured it out.”

Syracuse’s Art on the Porches festival Kennan Selimović and Sofía A. Gutiérrez take part in a painting roulette event at Art on the Porches in the Strathmore neighborhood Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, in Syracuse, N.Y. (Becca Beckas | Contributing Photographer) (Becca Beckas/Becca Beckas | Contributing Photographer)

The three artists emphasized the effect of an event like Art on the Porches on the city and its creative class.

“It’s important having a place where people can see art happening live … to be able to get in front of other people and get our names out there is really impactful,” Gutiérrez said.

Having been part of the high art world and the local scene, Selimović said there’s a lot of talent in the area and he hopes events like this happen more often and in more neighborhoods.

“I always think it’s amazing how you can transform spaces and just make anything a venue,” Jones said. “And I think as artists, we can just set up shop anywhere and bring the color. … We can make these spaces anywhere; the world needs it.”

Artists and attendees weren’t the only ones creating.

In collaboration with SavorCuse — food and beverage content creator Julia Freeman — food trucks The Giving Bean, Oompa Loompyas, Delicias at Monticello and Cream & Coffee each created exclusive dishes inspired by the neighborhood and the popular event.

The Giving Bean offered a Salt City Cold Brew, a Strathmore Snickerdoodle Latte and a Porch Punch, in addition to seasonal drinks like the Apple Pie Chai, of which this reporter drank two. Oompa Loompyas made a Bourbon Chicken Porch Plate and sold out of everything before the event was over.

Delicias at Monticello served up Cuban Porch Nostalgia: a Cubano sandwich, croqueta and guava milkshake combo meal. Cream & Coffee, an extension of the Ice Cream Stand, scooped house-made ice cream topped with a waffle bowl dome, caramel drizzle and a sprinkle of sea salt for an Upper Onondaga Gazebo Sundae.

Syracuse’s Art on the Porches festival Artist Brandon Jones, who was part of the Canvas Roulette live painting, enjoys an ice cream sundae from Cream and Coffee at Art on the Porches in the Strathmore neighborhood Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, in Syracuse, N.Y. (Becca Beckas | Contributing Photographer) (Becca Beckas/Becca Beckas | Contributing Photographer)

The payoff for residents and Art on the Porches organizers is seeing the impact of their events on the community. Strathmore neighbors sit on porches together, bring each other baked goods, take in packages and one neighbor is now their mailman. They’ve built the communal village of support many long for.

“I know people who literally said they moved to this street because they went to Art on the Porches and they thought, ‘Wow, this is really cool,’ and they saw that community on display,” Tiberio said.

Editor’s note: syracuse.com|The Post-Standard is a sponsor of Art on the Porches, and Julia Freeman is an employee of the company.

Art on the Porches 2026 While the sky became a little more overcast in the afternoon, Art on the Porches’ completed community paint-by-number was bright and vibrant. (Amy Bleier Long/This is CNY)