HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — The local arts scene will be celebrated with a rebooted Arts Night Out at Heritage Station today.

The event, set for 6-9 p.m., will be a comeback from a year of COVID-19 shutdowns.

Huntington Fiction Factory will host the city’s inaugural Literary Laureate Daniel J. O’Malley discussing narrative writing. The Red Caboose will host a pop-up by Barboursville artist Sassa Wilkes. Sassa will offer prints from her Badass Women series and her new line of LGBTQIA pride shirts.

Nomada Bakery will be open throughout the evening for dinner, drinks and pastries plus they will host a pop-up by Hill Tree Roastery. At 8 p.m., the back patio will be the site of a screening of Alchemy Theatre Troupe’s film Hay Fever.

Full Circle Gifts & Goods will host a unique photobooth experience with local photographer Most Exalted.

“We’re so excited to restart Arts Night Out,” event co-organizer Raine Klover said. “We are offering a mix of indoor and outdoor activities to ensure we have enough space for social distancing and we have something for everyone. Downtown Huntington is coming alive again and we’re glad to be a part of that rebirth.”

Heritage Station is located at 210 11th St. in the heart of downtown Huntington. Arts Night Out is always free and open to the public.

At 7 p.m., Huntington Fiction Factory and Sheila Redling will host writer and Marshall professor Daniel J. O’Malley in the Visitors Center community room. O’Malley lives in Huntington with his wife, the poet and writer Mary Beth Ferda, and their two children. His fiction has appeared in Best American Short Stories, Granta, Gulf Coast, Subtropics, Alaska Quarterly Review and Ninth Letter, among other publications, and been recorded for broadcast on NPR’s Selected Shorts.

In 2020, his story “Simon” was a finalist for the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award. He earned an MFA in fiction from the University of Florida and currently teaches in the English Department at Marshall University. Recently he was named Huntington’s inaugural Literary Laureate.

Theater groups and other live performance organizations faced unique challenges during the past year. Alchemy Theatre Troupe pivoted from live performance and instead created a unique made-in-Huntington film based on Noel Coward’s Hay Fever. The film was shot at the historic Coin Harvey House. This is a free performance, however RSVPs are requested. Visit their website https://www.alchemytheatretroupe.org to reserve a seat.

Visit www.facebook.com/ArtsNightOutWV/ for more information.