Most people who cross Durham Central Park on a Saturday morning are there for the farmers' market pavilion, coffee or the dog run. Liberty Arts, the nonprofit sculpture collective, keeps a foundry in the park and artist studios a short drive away at 918 Pearl Street. For most of the year the foundry is just part of the scenery. This Saturday, November 14, its work happens in front of everyone.
The 10th annual Iron Pour runs from 4 to 9 p.m. at 501 Foster Street, and it's free. This year marks the tenth anniversary of the first Liberty Arts Iron Pour, and the organization says more than 5,500 people come each year. The pour draws the park's biggest crowd of the month, and the rest of the park's November calendar follows it.
A Sculpture Studio That Grew Up Downtown
Liberty Arts was founded in 2001 and spent its first ten years in the historic Liberty Warehouse. That's where the name comes from. Its artists made Major the Bull, the bronze-colored figure most people in town have walked past or posed beside. Knowing that changes how the Iron Pour reads. The tents and the crowd are new each year, but the people pouring the iron are the same studio whose work already stands downtown.
In its 2026 press release, Liberty Arts calls this edition a celebration of "a Decade of Iron Casting in the Bull City." It describes the evening as a night when "artists and makers of unique disciplines will gather to share their crafts and connect with their broader community." This year's pour team includes artists and students from across North Carolina.
Saturday, November 14, Hour by Hour
Because of the pour, the park gets a full day of use on the 14th. The Durham Farmers' Market is still on its main-season Saturday hours that morning, and the evening belongs to the foundry.
- 8 a.m. to noon: Durham Farmers' Market in the park pavilion at 501 Foster Street.
- Midday: The Glass Jug at 545 Foster Street opens at 10 a.m. on Saturdays and stays open until 11 p.m. Parts & Labor, the kitchen and bar at Motorco, opens at noon on Saturdays and serves until 2 a.m.
- 4 p.m.: The Iron Pour opens. Demonstrations, vendors and performances run all evening.
- After dark: The pour keeps going into the night. By the organizers' description, thousands of pounds of molten iron go into molds over the course of the evening.
- 9 p.m.: The festival closes.
The Glass Jug and Parts & Labor both stay open past 9, so the evening doesn't have to end when the furnaces do.
What Happens Around the Furnaces
At the center of the night, teams of artists build furnaces that heat iron to pouring temperature. This year there are two furnaces. The molten metal is poured into molds to make two kinds of work: iron tiles designed by members of the public, and sculptures by North Carolina artists. Liberty Arts held public scratch-block workshops from August through November so people could carve their own designs ahead of the pour.
The pour is the main event, but the 2026 program around it is broad:
- Demonstrations: glassblowing, blacksmithing, flameworking and woodworking
- Fire and metal: interactive fire sculptures and a casting gallery
- Hands-on crafts: make-and-take projects with The Scrap Exchange
- Performances: Batala Durham, forge fencing, and an iron-casting performance piece by UNCG students
The Iron Night Market brings more than 25 craft vendors. This year's list includes Wild Weald Studio, Hew Jewelry, Sorreal Art, Old Bull Woodworks and Piedmont Clayworks. It comes two weeks before Thanksgiving, so for many people it's an early chance to shop for holiday gifts from local makers.
Where you stand affects what you see. Liberty Arts says the festival is wheelchair-accessible via Foster Street, with a paved road and walkway around the pour site. Some benches are available, but the view of the pour from them is limited. For a better view, the organizers suggest standing or sitting on the grass or on the paved areas closer to the pour site. The Liberty Arts Iron Pour page links to a full accessibility note.
Sunday, the Tiles Go Home
The pour doesn't end on Saturday night. On Sunday, November 15, from noon to 4 p.m., Liberty Arts is back in the park for tile pickup and free arts activities. If you carved a scratch block this fall, Sunday is the day you collect the cast iron version. If you didn't, Sunday is a calmer time to see the finished work up close.
This is also the clearest sign that the foundry lives in the park. The tiles cool overnight a few yards from where they were poured, and the people who made them come back for them the next day.
The Same Lawn, Three More Times Before December
After the pour weekend, the park's calendar settles into a regular rhythm for the rest of the month. Each event uses the same lawn and pavilion. Two of them line up with The Glass Jug's hours next door.
| Date | Event | Hours | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sat., Nov. 14 | Liberty Arts Iron Pour | 4 to 9 p.m. | Free; demonstrations, performances, Iron Night Market |
| Sun., Nov. 15 | Iron Pour tile pickup | Noon to 4 p.m. | Free arts activities |
| Fri., Nov. 20 | Durham Foodie Fare | 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. | Food truck rodeo, food and art vendors, drinks from The Glass Jug |
| Sun., Nov. 29 | Durham Underground Market | 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. | 40-plus local vendors, food trucks, bands |
On Friday, November 20, The Glass Jug is open from noon to 11 p.m., which covers all of Foodie Fare. On Sunday, November 29, it opens at 11 a.m., the same time the Underground Market starts.
The farmers' market changes schedule after November. Its published winter season runs December through March, on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon. The November 14 market, the morning of the pour, is one of the last on the earlier 8 a.m. start.
Just south of the park, the Durham Arts Council at 120 Morris Street is the starting point for the free Durham Art Walk Holiday Market. It runs Saturday, November 21, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, November 22, from 1 to 5 p.m., with regional artists, handmade goods, live music and local food at venues across downtown.
What's Changed on the Blocks Around the Park
A regular at the pour will notice one change on Rigsbee Avenue this year. Fullsteam's original Rigsbee taproom has closed. The brewery now operates at American Tobacco Campus, in the old power plant between the water tower and the smokestack, which opened at the end of September. Hey Durham reported that the new space has a taproom, restaurant, lounge and events space. Chef and baker Phoebe Lawless leads food and hospitality, and Fullsteam took over the 100-seat theater that Duke's Center for Documentary Studies used to run. The beer is now contract-brewed in Rocky Mount and at the NoDa brewery in Charlotte. Owner Sean Lilly Wilson told Hey Durham, "I want it to be an only-in-Durham type place."
There's also something new on Rigsbee. The News & Observer reported that KIKI opened its first Triangle jewelry store at 620 Rigsbee Ave., Suite B, on September 12. It's a short walk from the park, so you can stop in before the vendor tents open or after the Underground Market.
Motorco's showroom keeps its regular calendar of live music, comedy and films, and doors generally open an hour before showtime. On the night of the pour, that means the area around Foster Street and Rigsbee Avenue stays busy after the furnaces cool, with The Glass Jug open until 11 and Parts & Labor until 2 a.m.
Durham's homes, like its iron tiles, carry the marks of the people who made them. If you're thinking about what yours is worth this season, Hodge & Kittrell Sotheby's International Realty would be glad to talk it through. Request Your Instant Home Valuation, and enjoy the pour on Saturday.
