Corona Comes to Belmar

Actually, as I write this, the town has no confirmed cases, and we are going to do our part to help with that.  Yesterday the gallery closed its doors following the end of the Saturday hours.  This follows on the postponing of the reception for the Fiber Arts Plus show, and all March classes and workshops.  The office will also be closed for now,  though it can still be reached through email.

The assumption is that this is just temporary- once the threat of disease has passed, we will get back to normal, with much of these postponed items being rescheduled.  Can't give you an exact date yet because we don't have one.  We survived being closed down during Hurricane Sandy and the recovery, so we should survive this as well.  Keep an eye on the main website for further news.

Meanwhile, if you did not get a chance to see the Fiber Arts Plus show in the gallery, a virtual look is available as a YouTube video, the link posted on our main site under Events. A way to kill four minutes while you are trapped in your house.  Exhibition images are also available on this blog.

Fiber Plus equals Fine Art

We have a new show up on the walls of the Boathouse- Fiber Arts Plus.  What is fiber art?  The simplest explanation is that it is art that involves any kind of fiber, natural or synthetic.  Natural fibers can include anything derived from plants or animals, and synthetic includes anything made from anything else.  Tends to lean more toward the aesthetic than the practical, but there can be a lot of overlap, as with our recent ceramics show.  Is it masculine or feminine? Art or craft?  This show is not here to settle those big questions, but we seem to have more art than craft in the galleries right now.  Perhaps you should come see it for yourself.

The exhibition fills both the front and back galleries, containing well over 40 works from participants, not including an elaborate display on the back wall showing some of the variety of fiber arts found around the world, and like most ancient processes, both art and craft, it has been practiced in most parts of the world.  Artists can pull from any of those traditions when creating.  Interested members can join the Fiber Fridays interest group, which has explored many processes over the years.  And running at the same time over the next month or so will be a number of related workshops and classes, where participants can learn to weave baskets, or work with wheat grass. embroider fabric, or even block print on fabric, all of which can be an end in itself, or provide a product to be used to make more art.  The show is called Fiber Arts Plus because it isn't limited just to fiber processes, but submitted work could be mixed media, combining fiber and other art forms.  Some of the fiber processes seen include basketry, quilting, felting, paper weaving, embroidery, plus mixed media sculpture.  The committee chair for this exhibition is Shiela Kramer.

As I wrote earlier, the whole back wall of the back gallery is a display showing some of the variety of fiber based art that has been practiced around the world.  Labels on the walls and podiums tell us that some samples have come from the United States, many European countries, and also all over Asia, South America, Africa.

The reception for this show that had been scheduled for Saturday evening has been cancelled, due to the issues related to the corona virus, affecting much of this nation right now.  However, the show is up and available to be seen any time the gallery is open, and for now it's the regular gallery hours, through the show's conclusion April 24, 2020.   As always, admission and parking are free.