As long as anybody around here can remember, Jersey City has been a visual-arts town. We’ve had a long history of art shows in warehouses, art shows in cafés and restaurants, art shows wherever we can fit them basically. The annual Jersey City Art and Studio Tour turns the entire town into a giant open gallery. While there are plenty of other cultural events on the calendar, JCAST still feels like the anchor of local culture.
The same could be said of Novado Gallery’s local impact. Like other Jersey City gallerists, Novado (along with business partner Steve Pearlman) wanted to create a dedicated space for art shows as opposed to a café or hair salon that also happened to exhibit art. Business owners and real estate developers often persuade artists to hang works in their spaces for “exposure,” adding much-needed decor to their ventures for free, This bartering was exactly what Anne didn’t want to see. After all, “does a lawyer set up a booth for free advice just for exposure?” she asks.
If you want to give back to your community, volunteering is a great idea. From providing meals for children to saving animals to improving the lives of those less fortunate, the opportunities are vast.
The most prestigious comedy event of Jersey City, the Sixth Borough Comedy Festival, returns this coming summer for the third successive year with a new name: Jersey City Comedy Festival. The event will showcase a diverse range of talent representative of the second most diverse city in the nation, according to wallethub.com.
Until recently, this sad town of Jersey City was a comedy desert, or perhaps more aptly, a comedy death trap. One was hard pressed to find a comedy show in town.
Just as realism is frequently touched by the fantastic, abstraction is rarely total. Even non-figurative art is made from materials, and materials often have strong connotations. Art House Productions is calling their new abstract show Mindscapes, which suggests a private, insular experience, something quiet, untethered to the rhythms of the practical world.
Maps tell lies. Oh, they may get you where you want to go, but they’ll whisper distortions in your ear as you travel. The Mercator Projection of the earth — perhaps the most famous map in history — has misled millions by exaggerating the size of land masses at polar latitudes and diminishing the tropics.
