Saturday’s **Food Truck Rodeo** has an extra community-minded ingredient this time around. Shop Local Raleigh is asking attendees to bring canned goods or other nonperishable items for the **Carolina Hurricanes’ 2026 Food Drive**, turning a day of local flavor into a chance to support Triangle families facing food insecurity.

The ask is simple: add a few shelf-stable staples to your plans before you head out. Canned goods, cereal, oatmeal, pasta, rice, lentils, nut butters, granola bars, dried fruit, and high-protein foods are all welcome.

The drive also accepts household essentials like baby formula, diapers, baby wipes, paper towels, and toilet paper. Just leave glass containers, perishables, opened packages, and expired items at home so every contribution can be put to good use.

Shop Local Raleigh will collect donations at the Rodeo and deliver them to the Hurricanes’ food drive. It is an easy Raleigh win: eat from a local truck, spend time with your neighbors, and help stock local households with essentials.

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Artists paint and shape pottery inside a warm, restored brick arts center with gallery visitors in the background.

For four decades, **Artspace** has given Raleigh a place to see art, make art, take a class, and watch working artists bring ideas to life. The downtown nonprofit is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, a fitting milestone for one of the city’s most enduring creative anchors.

Its story is tied closely to the evolution of downtown itself. A group of artists chose the former Sanders Ford Building on East Davie Street as Artspace’s home when the area was far quieter than it is today; the building was later adapted to preserve its dramatic atrium while making room for studios.

Today, Artspace’s mix of public gallery space, working studios, and arts education still creates a welcoming doorway into the local arts scene. It also began hosting **First Fridays** early on, helping establish the now-beloved tradition as a lively reason to be downtown after hours.

The organization is also looking forward, expanding opportunities for artists who have often been left out of traditional arts spaces through residencies for HBCU alumni, emerging artists, and artists with disabilities. Forty years in, Artspace remains a great reminder that a city’s creative life is something we build together.

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Construction professionals review plans beside a modern glass-and-brick residential tower rising in a growing Midtown district..

Midtown Raleigh’s growth story has another big chapter underway. **Dewitt Carolinas** broke ground last week on a **20-story Life Time Living tower** at The Exchange, adding a new vertical residential project to one of the city’s most active mixed-use districts.

The building is planned to include **289 apartments** and an **80,000-square-foot Life Time health club** across its first three floors. The developer’s partnership with Life Time brings a lifestyle-and-wellness angle to the project that goes beyond a standard apartment tower.

Plans call for amenities such as a pool, spa, coworking space, café, and a rooftop “beach club.” It is a notable addition for a stretch of Midtown positioned between the growing North Hills area and Duke Health’s Raleigh hospital campus.

Completion is projected for **fall 2028**. The Exchange is expected to keep evolving around it, with long-range plans that include a hotel and another office tower near a future four-acre park—subject, as always, to the market.

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Raleigh Weather

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