And The Winners Are...

Anyone with roots in Belmar has memories of the Freedman's Bakery sign.  A classic example of space age architecture (sometimes called Googie, and Doo-Wop), a part of the Main Street landscape for many decades, part of the local scenery until the demise of the bakery itself several years ago.  After that the sign ended up in the possession of BelmarArts.  Parts of it even sat in our side yard a few years ago.

The decision was made earlier this year to raffle off the "Freedman's" part of the sign, and tickets for this purpose have been sold since the beginning of the summer, with a planned drawing to be held in September.  At last week's art reception, that went down as expected.

The name written on the ticket wasn't quite legible, but the phone number was, and the winner was confirmed that day.  Earlier today the winners came by to claim their prize.  It's Joe and Terry Halifko and now they own an iconic piece of Belmar history.

Rumor has it that in the future those large round letters that spelled out B A K E R Y will be made available to the public.  Keep an eye on this space to learn more.

winner photo provided by BelmarArts

Out of the Box

Well, maybe the long hot summer has finally ended.  Certainly fewer people in town than we've seen in a while, and better parking.  Time for BelmarArts to get back to the usual business.

But before we had another opening reception, a short membership meeting.  Having a non-profit arts organization is a lot of work and we want to keep having this one.  Two take-aways from this meeting:

1) a lot of people want to have a lot of activities, the kind of stuff we've been doing for years.
2) people are needed to organize and run these activities.

So if you have an idea for something you want us to do, talk to the board and you may get to do it.  We need money, volunteers, leadership, expertise, etc.

And with that taken care of, time for fun.  Right now in the Boatworks we have two shows, the first two new ones to open since early in the summer.  The front gallery features an exhibition called "Art Inside the Box."  The term "outside the box" is thrown around a lot in the art world, generally referring to work or artists who go against the usual in their art or ways of thinking.  Turns out that a box has nothing to do with limiting creativity, as this show has all kinds of art in boxes, involving many different materials and subjects.

Organized by Dug Smith and Louise Krasniewicz, there are about two dozen works, with the only thing in common being some kind of structure to partly contain it, but the ideas come bursting out anyway.

Meanwhile in the back gallery we have examples of work from the students of the International Center of Photography, an invitational exhibition.  The 30+ pieces are from members of the class of 2018, and examples from such programs as Creative Practices, Documentary Practice, Visual Journalism, and New Media Narratives.  It is curated by BelmarArts member and ICP grad Drew Leventhal.

And as a special bonus tonight, we had the raffle for the Friedman's sign, with Jim Aberle handling the drum of tickets.  The name on the winning ticket was a bit illegible, but there was a number and a phone call confirmed who the winner was.  When that information is shared with me, I'll post it here.

Both Art Inside a Box and the ICP exhibition run through Friday, October 12, 2018.  Admission is free.