A Butterfly Lands in Belmar

A butterfly sponsored by the Arts Society of Keyport landed in Belmar several weeks ago, looking for colorful images to celebrate the town's resilience after the challenges of Hurricane Sandy.  The traveling butterfly is a project of the Keyport arts group, who received a grant from the Monmouth County ArtHelps program to circulate the fiberglass insect through a number of coastal towns that suffered devastation in the storm.  Fran McCloskey of the Belmar Arts Council painted the lower quadrant of the butterfly's left wing with an image from Belmar's boardwalk and an inspiring quote from Proverbs.  The finished butterfly will visit several more shore towns before taking up residence again in Keyport.

story and photos courtesy  Pat Hutchinson

Train Station Mural Update

The train station mural project is finally going forward.  The committee has chosen a design, which will  eventually be executed on fabric that will be adhered to the train station exterior.  However, it was decided that the current train station wall won't be suitable for that, so our first step will be building a new one.  Good quality half inch plywood will be primed and attached over the whole wall, and then the mural will be attached to that.  Therefore, our starting point is the wood.  It will take 22 sheets of plywood to do the job, which has been donated by Jaeger Lumber.

Using all three rooms of the Boatworks, we were able to set up 9 boards at a time, on top of tables and saw horses.  BAC volunteers took turns using the four rollers to roll coats of white primer (provided by Belmar Paints) on first one side of the wood, and then the other.

When both sides of the boards were dry, we could move them to a safe place and put out a new set.  When this process is all done, they will be cut to their proper shape and size and be installed on the train station wall.  Check here for future updates.

Masquerade Opening Reception

Today the Boatworks hosted the opening reception for new Masquerade exhibition, featuring art inspired by the mystery of the mask.  A very large crowd developed quickly, moving into all three rooms of the building.

Exhibition jurors Vincent Nardone and Jose Gonzalez selected 50 works for the show, which includes mediums such as painting, drawing, mixed media, printmaking, digital art, photography, fibers, ceramics, and items sculpted and crafted from a very wide variety of materials.

The Masquerade show fills every bit of the front and back gallery spaces, while our side room includes a solo exhibition of paintings from Andrew Dennis called Swans, Swans, Swans.  This show is a benefit for the BAC, which keeps all the proceeds from sales of these works.

Whenever possible we like to have live entertainment at our openings, and this time around it was Murph and Marie, who took turns on the guitar, as well as alternating between solo and duet arrangements.

The exhibition jurors chose seven works for awards:

Best In Show

Kathleen Nademus

Send in the Jesters II

cyanotype print

First Place Painting

Pat Hutchinson

Kitchen Avatar

oil on canvas

First Place Photography

Joe Villa

After the Party

photograph

First Place Mixed Media

Patricia Bevere

Mysteries

mixed media

First Place Graphics/Drawing

Bill Ross

Black Death

white charcoal on black paper

First Place Sculpture

Carol Gleason

Jubilation

clay

Honorable Mention

Rebecca Lopez-Deren

The Crab That Wants to be Caught

clay

The Masquerade exhibition and concurrent Swans, Swans, Swans show will be on display through November 8, 2013.  Gallery hours are Wednesday to Saturday, 1 to 5 pm.  Admission is free.

additional photos courtesy Pat Hutchinson

Boatworks Improvement Continue

The efforts to continue the rehabilitation and improvements to the Boatworks has continued this week.  The town has completed the pouring of concrete, for both our stage (above) and the slab that will hold our shed (below).  Meanwhile Hutch has been framing out the new stage- walls now, roof to come soon.

Another change is that we have received a whole bunch of pavers.  The pink ones above will be installed by the town as a path that will come around from the front and continue most of the way down that side of the building.  The gray ones below will form an even bigger path, bridging the space between our storage room back door and the shed's new location, and also coming down around the
Boatworks on the side with the postcard mural.  A volunteer group organized by an Eagle Scout nominee will be taking charge of that.

October Member's Meeting

More than 25 members and guests listened to renowned local sculptor Mark Dornan as he described the creation of his sculptures.  Mark set up three of his large bas relief sculptures and and brought many other examples of his work and the materials he uses, for the audience to see and handle.  

Mark's presentation followed a short business meeting in which BelmarArts chairman Dana Cohoon reported that membership was now over 350, a terrific level of growth.  The audience, which included members Pat Hutchinson and Joan Wallace, also got a preview of the Masquerade exhibition, which has been installed in the gallery in preparation for the opening reception on Saturday evening, October 5th, from 5:00 to 7:00 pm.  Also on display will be Andrew Dennis's show Swans, Swans, Swans, in the side gallery.

story by Dana Cohoon, photos from Michael Miller, typing by Arrabbiata

A Day in the Life of the Boatworks

The summer crowds may have left town, but things were pretty busy around the Boatworks today.  We had scheduled a day of building and grounds improvements, but some of them couldn't wait until today.  For example, the town continued their plans to remedy the drainage issue on the 7th Avenue side of our building, building the form for what will be the new concrete footing for the stage, as well as providing a surface drain and pipe access.  But when they pour that concrete, they will also give us a new slab (below) to support our shed.  We expected to be preparing that ground today, but suddenly they got it done.

Also on our list of chores for today was to reinstall our large wooden sign post and new sign.  The post had been moved as part of the paving project earlier this year.  Again, the town workers volunteered to put it up a few days ago, saving us that task.

Luckily we still had a few things to do.  Great things were done with our front yard earlier this year, but there were some empty areas.  Room had been left for some trees to be planted, and so some big holes were dug in our rocky ground.  Our volunteer force moved three trees into place and filled the holes back in.  They are the same species as trees planted by the town on this block, so when they sprout leaves next year they should fit in just fine.

A bike rack (above) that has bounced to places all around the Boatworks since we moved in was moved to a new place, away from planted area.  Meanwhile Pat was spraying a new coat of paint on railing that would be reinstalled by the ramp between the front and back galleries, a spot that too many people had tripped on over the years.

Pat also handled the repainting of our front door (above). The purple color was debated, but it is such a recognizable part of the building, we decided to keep it.  However, one new change occurred- a ceramic fish numbers sign for our address was mounted on the wall outside, a bit nicer than the peel and stick numbers we had before.  (below)

Our friend Anthony was also there today, helping out with tree planting, but also with two tasks of personal interest.  He is going to be adding some murals to the building.  The recently cleared area behind our building (above) has revealed a large stretch of flat blank wall, but to make sure it doesn't get obscured again he was digging up some of the large roots underground.  Likely before that big job, he'll be creating a design for the wood area under our front window below, so he put down a coat of primer.

Meanwhile, things were busy inside the building as well.  Today was the second day of intake for the upcoming Masquerade exhibition.  Over the two days we had over 60 submissions for this show of mask themed works.  The show opens with a reception next Saturday.

Running at the same time as the Masquerade show will be an exhibition of the art of Andrew Dennis.  This show will be in the side gallery, with all proceeds going to the BAC.  Above, Dana discusses show plans with Andrew and Sandy Dennis.

All of the above happened between 11:00 am and 1:00 pm today.  The Boatworks is a busy place and will continue to be in the coming weeks.  Make sure to stop by sometime soon and check it out for yourself.

September Member's Meeting

On Thursday, September 5th the BAC held its monthly members meeting.  More than 20 people were in attendance to see a presentation from art historian and curator Barbara Lipton of Atlantic Highlands.

Lipton, shown above, spoke about masks as both cultural statements and works of art.  Masks have served such purposes as spiritual statements, hiding one's identity, and general protection.

Masks such as these which were on display, provided by our guest speaker,  would be as at home in a modern art show as a historical museum.

Which leads us to the topic of our next art exhibition at the Boatworks, a show called Masquerade.  The show's theme is masks, both literal and anything relating to the idea of masquerade.  Show director Margaret McChesney, shown below, encouraged those in attendance to be inspired by the mask presentation to create something for the exhibition.  While masks as objects are welcome, this is an all media show open to any form of art that references the mask and exploring the mystery of the mask.

The art intake for the Masquerade show will be September 27th and 28th, but online registration is available right now.  Registration and more information about the show can be found on the show's page on the BAC website.

photos courtesy Dana Cohoon