Heather and Vincent Schino like to travel. And when they travel, they enjoy taking in the public art that can be found in many major cities around the world.
But not only major cities. They noticed that places like Haddonfield, in Camden County — a small town not unlike Bordentown — also had prominent displays of public art in and around its main street.
So the Bordentown City residents wondered: if public art could beautify cities and towns like the ones they had visited, why not here?
They spoke with Stuart Harting, founder and chair of the Haddonfield Outdoor Sculpture Trust, who suggested that they start a nonprofit organization of their own.
So they did: and just like that, the Bordentown Sculpture Foundation was born.
Of course, incorporating a nonprofit organization was only one hurdle that faced the team, which included Heather, Vincent, Vincent’s brother Nicholas, and Jill Skipper. But 18 months after getting the foundation off the ground, they are excited to be able to say that the first fruits of that year and a half of labor are ready for the public.
This month, the Bordentown Sculpture Foundation, in collaboration with the Seward Johnson Atelier in Hamilton, saw three sculpture pieces installed in and around Bordentown City for a one-year loan. These are the first of what the founders hope will be many such installations.
All three sculptures were created by atelier founder Seward Johnson (1930-2020), whose works can be found in cities throughout the area and throughout the world.
One of the sculptures, “Inner World, Outer World,” is on display at 137 Farnsworth Ave. The sculpture may feel familiar to those who know Seward Johnson: it is a figure on a bench reading a newspaper, a motif in Johnson’s work.
Eagle-eyed observers, however, will notice that the newspaper in Bordentown’s sculpture has been customized to the city.
“Weekend Painter,” to be on display at Smires Realty, 375 Farnsworth Ave., is a life-sized sculpture of a painter at work. Of the sculpture, Seward Johnson once said: “I’ve chosen to sculpt “real life” because in our busy society — filled with so much technology and idle distraction…the human spirit triumphs, if only for moments in a day. I try to have my work call attention to those moments.”
Johnson took this concept even further with the third sculpture on display in Bordentown, “Monet, Our Visiting Artist,” which is a life-sized piece depicting the French artist at work on a painting in his impressionist style. Once again the sculpture will be customized for Bordentown — this time in terms of the scene in the painting Monet is meant to be working on. The sculpture is in Hilltop Park.
“I’m a big fan of Grounds For Sculpture (the Hamilton sculpture garden founded by Johnson),” Vincent Schino said in a phone call with the Current. “This mutual connection, Stuart, he made an introduction, and we started discussing how we could bring pieces to town.”
There were, however, a number of things that had to be done before that would be possible — things that took about 18 months to accomplish.
One of these things was incorporating the nonprofit organization. Another was fundraising, which Schino observes can be a challenge for many organizations, but not so much for the Bordentown Sculpture Foundation.
“In our opinion, raising the money was one of the easiest things,” said Schino, who is founder and president of Schino Property Management. “Because we know a lot of people in town, and everybody loves Bordentown so much. As soon as I mentioned what we were doing, everyone was like, ‘How much (money) do you need?’”
The foundation tapped a number of sponsors for the current Seward Johnson exhibition. In addition to members of their own families, they also received support from Angelo’s Trattoria, Joe Malone, Old Town Pub, Smires Realty, the Barrett family, the Paul Ciarrocca family and Toscano Ristorante.
Another key figure of support has been Sen. Troy Singleton, whose office helped the foundation get a state grant to help get things off and running.
“There are so many aspects of town that are killing it right now — great people, great restaurants — and this was one thing that was missing,” Vincent said. “In terms of public art, there wasn’t a lot there. If you go to Haddonfield or New Hope or Princeton, it’s all over the place. We just kept saying, ‘Why can’t we do this?’”
Another piece of the picture was that the foundation needed to be able to demonstrate to the city’s board of commissioners that the foundation’s intentions were not only within the law, but also that they would be tasteful and respectful of the community.
One way the Schinos went about this was to acquire and display a few sculptures in town that would be on private property, but on public display — works that could demonstrate the effect that public art installations could have in the city.
“Bailarines,” a sculpture by José Almanzor, has been on display at 346 Farnsworth Ave., in the courtyard of a private residence. And “Venus de Nuts,” by artist Max Smouzh, can be seen at 200 Farnsworth Ave., next to the entrance to the Old Book Shop.
Heather said the sculptures have proven popular with the public. “Sometimes we walk by and see people posing with ‘Bailarines,’ pretending to be ballerinas,” she said. “It’s become an interactive sculpture, which a lot of Seward Johnson sculptures also are.”
Vincent said that installing the pieces on private property enabled them to show the board of commissioners that their ideas could work.
‘The proof is in the pudding. When I went to the commissioners to get approvals, I was like, ‘It’s been here. We’re doing it.’”
With all approvals out of the way, and the Seward Johnson exhibition now on display, they can turn their attention to the next project.
“I live in town, I work in town, and I’m from the area. I say I’m ‘stick’ in this city and I want to make it something that everybody enjoys,” Vincent said.
“Bailarines,” sculpture by José Almanzor. On public display at 346 Farnsworth Ave., Bordentown.,
