Shore Shot Show Opens at the Boatworks

Tonight was the opening reception for the Shore Shot exhibition, a juried show of photography.  The BAC has held photography shows before, but this one was different in that it required that all the work be submitted digitally through our web site.  A total of 115 images were submitted, and an initial jurying on the computer reduced this number to 51 photographs.  These were brought in for a second round of judging, which resulted in a total of 37 photographs in the exhibition.

As is often the case, visitors were slow to arrive, but the crowds did come.  By the time the awards were announced the front and back rooms were filled up with people enjoying the art.

The two jurors, Lewis Bloom and Michael S. Miller, selected the following seven photographs for awards.  All images are courtesy of the artists.

Best of Show

Eva Savage

A Warm Winter Day

Merit Award

Carol Albers

Trails

Merit Award

Sori Gottdenker

Gathering Calm

Merit Award

Pat McCarthy

Magnificent Morning

Honorable Mention

Pat McCarthy

Tube

Honorable Mention

Russ Meseroll

Allenhurst Boardwalk

Under 18 Merit Award

Finn Wright

Sun Over Dune

The Shore Shot exhibition will remain on display through July 19 2013.  The Boatworks will have special extended hours this summer, giving even more opportunities to see it.  Those new hours are 1:00 to 5:00 pm on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays, and 1:00 to 7:00 pm on Fridays and Saturdays.  Admission is free as always.

When It Rains, It Pours

The floods of last year and recent torrential rains have done structural damage to the Boatworks, the home of the Belmar Arts Council.  After consultation with Belmar borough officials, we will be taking down and rebuilding the stage area of the building.  BelmarArts will remain open during the construction, and we will work to keep any disruption of normal activity to a minimum.  BelmarArts is a membership organization that finances its activities through membership dues, donations, and grants.  This new challenge will significantly stretch our 2013 budget.  We hope that you will be generous with your support and contributions.

Working in the Yard part 3

Our BAC volunteer crew put in hours of hard labor planting the area in front of the building.  Looks good now, and will look even better as those plants grow.  The adults were completely worn out, so the  kids took over.  Brownie Troop #1351 of Wall, led by Councilwoman Jennifer Nicolay, planted a bed of colorful flowers at the base of one of the walls of our addition.  Come check it out on your next visit to the Boatworks.

Working in the Yard part 2

Last month a group of BAC volunteers spent several hours doing some outdoor improvements to the grounds around the Boatworks.  A general clean up, weeding, and some plants were added to old and new beds.  However, that still left a lot of empty space around the building, and today we continued that improvement process.

Prior to today's effort, Rutgers NJ Agricultural Station was contacted to get recommendations for native plants that would be more likely to survive the somewhat challenging environmental conditions that come with this piece of property.  A truckload of plants was delivered this morning and carried to places around the building.

Several plants were put in the ground alongside the building, just under our postcard mural,  but most were brought around to the front.

The plants were arranged in the spaces on either side of our front walk, then our crew began to prepare the ground.  This is one of the last remnants of our old gravel parking area, which had served the same function for previous occupants of the building.  We started by raking as much of that surface gravel up as possible before digging holes.

Unfortunately, we found that gravel was just as abundant below the surface, mixed with the dense packed sand.  For extra fun, we occasionally found layers of concrete and asphalt a few inches down, and had to cut through that.  Several swings with a big pick helped get these holes started, after which shovels could have an effect.

Most of the plants went into deep holes in the rocky ground, but both sides of the path also now have sand dunes, planted with grasses and other small plants.

There is still more work to be done in these areas, but great progress was made today.  Results of all this planting can be seen above and below.

Many thanks to the following individuals, who contributed plants, or their hard labor, or both, to today's  latest round of improvements:  Paul Bonelli, Mike Carroll, Dana Cohoon, Pat and John Hutchinson, Pat Knight, Art Nelson, Glorianne Parisi, Richard Rappleyea, Rochelle Ritacco, Bill Ross, Richard Salls, Gerri Vergona, and Tom Volker.  Don't feel bad if you missed out on today's fun- there's still more work to do.  Contact the BAC to find out when and where we will need help again.

BAC June Meeting

Tonight the Boatworks hosted the June monthly members meeting.  We always hold them on the first Thursday of the month, and since July's first Thursday happens to be Independence Day, we'll be skipping it that month.  Therefore, we got in a celebration of our nation's birthday tonight with cup cakes and ice cream on these patriotic plates.

The first part of the meeting was BAC business.  Dana discussed our new website, dates for the current show and information about upcoming summer shows, the summer concert series in Pyanoe Plaza, some of the new summer classes, and our plans to continue landscaping our grounds.  Then Beverly Miller took over and discussed some of the BAC interest groups- those ongoing and some that we've held in the past and would be happy to start up again if there are enough interested people.

The last half of the meeting was a presentation about the BAC Photo Group led by group leader Jim Aberle.  Jim told us about the group and what they do, then we saw a DVD presentation (put together by Dana) featuring examples of photographs from members of the group.  The Photo Group meets at the Boatworks on the first Monday of every month, for those who would like to find out more.

The next BAC member meeting will be Thursday August 1st beginning at 7:00 pm.  It will include a presentation by the BAC Creative Writing Group.  Admission is free, as always.

Belmar Arts Online

The BAC has seen a lot of work going on in 2013.  First, we had to repair and rebuild the interior of the Boatworks, following the ravages of Hurricane Sandy.  Then Belmar completed its long in planning changes to the property, providing us with a far superior road and parking area.  More recently we began an effort to fix up the grounds themselves.  (the next phase of planting is expected to continue on June 15th- those interested in helping out should contact the BAC for more information)  But our improvement efforts would not be complete without a major update to our online presence.

We've had a website from our beginnings as an organization, though the earliest ones were relatively primitive.  Of course, back then we didn't have a building, just one major show per year and a few other events, no regular interest groups, and no regular class schedule.  The BAC has grown incredibly in the years since we moved into the Boatworks, and our web presence has evolved at the same time.  In recent years our own John "Hutch" Hutchinson has been singlehandedly running our comprehensive main site, which required extremely frequent updates to keep up with our crowded schedule of exhibitions, classes, and performances.  This spring it was decided to build a whole new website that would include everything important from the old, adding more new functions like the online exhibition entry forms we started using a few months ago, giving it a clean new look, and spreading the responsibility for maintaing it to more people.  At the same time we updated our other online sites, and even created new ones, to unify our look and encompass more of the digital experiences of our members.

The site will be a work in progress, but it's close enough that we decided to launch it yesterday.  The following people were significantly involved in the effort.  Roy Childress was instrumental to designing  the new site and to building the main structure.  The rest of the committee included Dana Cohoon, Joe Villa, Michael Miller, Paul Bonelli, Rebecca Szabo, Sally Behler, and Zach Szabo.  All contributed suggestions to the overall look, organization, functions of the site.  In particular, Michael provided photos and graphics (including the new header at the top of this blog) and helped build some pages, Paul also contributed photos and graphics, and Rebecca and Sally spent countless hours sitting at that computer above transferring content from the old site to the new one, as well as building and updating BAC sites on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

How can you find this fabulous new site?  Simple, it's the same address as the old one, so however you got there, you can still get there, including clicking the link in the right side column on this blog.

Working in the Yard

Quite a bit of work has been done around the Boatworks since we began moving back into the building at the end of December.  The latest improvements were done outside of the building.

Now that our street and parking area have been paved and lined, the next thing we have to deal with is the grounds immediately around the building.  Despite the threat of wet weather, a group of volunteers assembled at the Boatworks this morning to start that process.  Some old plantings were dug up, along with a lot of weeds.  Rocks and sculptures were moved around, and some good general cleaning was done.

By 2 pm our crew was ready to knock off, but some noticeable work had been completed.  Today's helpers included Rebecca and Joe Szabo, Glorianne Parisi, Ingrid Farrell, Art Nelson, Richard and Jane Rappleyea, Pat and John Hutchinson, and Michele Sloboda.

Over on the 7th Avenue side of the building the area in front of the mural was cleaned up and the lettered stepping stones brought to the front of the building.  Several of our concrete "FantaSEA" creatures were relocated to the planted area by the front corner of the building.

The framed bed in front of the large window of the Boatworks is no stranger to flowers and other plants, and a fresh assortment were planted there today.  Our concrete ramp and front walk are part of the brand new construction, and so those potted plants by the curb are also brand new.

Still lots more work to be done.  Eventually we will be doing more with the sandy gravelly areas right in front of the building, as well as on the side of the building by the postcard mural.  Those interested in volunteering to help in the future can look out for announcements on the website or contact the BAC directly.

Art on the Edge 2013 Reception

Despite the on and off rain all day, quite a crowd showed up for the opening reception for this year's edition of the annual Art on the Edge exhibition.  Just about every one of our new parking spots was filled up.

Before long the Boatworks was packed with people eager to see the over 70 works in this always unusual show.  Lots of the usual painting, drawing, photography, prints, and sculpture, plus Art on the Edge always brings a larger amount of mixed media and collage based work than most of our shows; we even have some scotch tape and ripped paper.  People moved around the building all day, but as usual the crowd formed in the back room where the tables, refreshments, and entertainment could be found.

The entertainment for the day was Dr Void and the Death Machines.  They had the house rocking up until the end of the evening.

The following pieces were chosen for prizes by this year's jurors, Jenn Hampton, Jill Ricci, and Sarah Potter from Parlor Gallery in Asbury Park:

Best in Show

Bill Ross

The Lizard King

Charcoal

First Prize

Richard Rappleyea

She-Winged

Photography

Second Prize

Christopher Fitzgerald

1985

Multimedia

Third Prize

Andrew Dennis

Smile Please

Watercolor

Fourth Prize

Amy Puccio

No Strings Attached

wood mosaic sculpture

The Art on the Edge exhibition will reman on display in the Boatworks during regular gallery hours (Wednesday to Saturday 1 to 5 pm) through June 14th, 2013.  Admission is free.

Ice Cream and Murals

Tonight the Boatworks hosted the May monthly members meeting for the Belmar Arts Council.  In honor of the recently warming weather, we had an ice cream social, with everyone in attendance being offered vanilla and/or chocolate, along with various toppings.  After that, drawings for door prizes.

And as if that wasn't enough, the meeting featured our own Pat Hutchinson doing a presentation about the barrier mural project that the BAC launched over the winter, even as we were not able to make use of the Boatworks.  We decided that the concrete barriers placed on all the streets up near the ocean front to divert traffic from the repair and construction zones were a great opportunity to create a new series of murals.  Pat's presentation showed many examples of the resulting murals, all painted by volunteers in and outside of the BAC.  Many examples of these barrier murals can be seen earlier on this blog.  Since then much of Ocean Avenue has opened up, and the barriers have been put to new uses in other parts of town, but many of the murals are still intact and we have reason to believe that this project is far from done.  Perhaps we'll have an update soon on where these paintings can be seen .