BERLIN — While the visual artists are putting the final touches on the works they expect to display during next weekend’s Spring Arts Night event, the performance artists don’t get to finalize anything until the show is over. 

Visual artists co-exist with a different kind of pressure, a front-loaded one if you will. 

A painter or a sculptor will reach a point in the next few days when there is no longer the time to improve upon or tweak the work they intend to show for the event. The pressure of production can then give way to the anxiety of acceptance.

For Taylor Hawkins, the 14-year-old musician who will perform at j.j.Fish next Friday, practice is the order of the day. Or, more properly, of the next seven days.

As a performer, she had the fortune of being able to improve her style and selection even as the event is going on, changing the song selection to better suit the crowd and even reworking things she has already performed to better suit the room or style.

While it might seem like an advantage, the real downside is that she will continue to work through the entire evening, only being able to assess how her work turned out long after it is finished and gone forever. No pressure, right?

The Worcester Prep 8th Grader has been playing the guitar since she was 8 years old but in the last few years has renewed her commitment to the instrument. As with so many other guitarists, the instrument’s portability appealed to her more than any other aspect. Hawkins enjoys playing for friends and family in small groups but next Friday will mark her public performance debut, and she’s a little nervous.

The idea that she would be part of the evening’s events came because of a little bit of luck. Although Hawkins had worked the summer at j.j.Fish that she played the guitar never came up. Her mother happened to mention her playing to Judy Fisher as part of a conversation and when it came time to prepare for Spring Arts Night, the Fishers decided to ask if Hawkins would like to be featured.

j.j.Fish is one of several Downtown businesses that has Spring Arts Night double as Student Arts Night, using the opportunity to feature student artists in place of the more established professionals who dominate the other 11 2nd Friday events.