It’s an urban revitalization process that has been played out in dozens of cities from SoHo to Santa Fe to Santa Monica: Arts and crafts people move back into obsolete or abandoned buildings in the center city and help create a renaissance that eventually includes mainstream businesses and housing.##M:[more]##
Now, says Eduardo Garcia, new executive director of the West Windsor Arts Council, a similar process could occur in suburban West Windsor. With more than 30 years of experience in arts administration, Garcia aims to facilitate the strategic planning, capital fundraising, and event programming that will help transform the old Princeton Junction firehouse on Alexander Road into an integral part of the transit village and redeveloped town center being actively pursued by the township.
“It’s a beautiful gem of a building that you can walk to from the train station,” says Garcia. “The firehouse is going to be the incubator, the place where artists can experiment and try things out that they wouldn’t be able to do in a larger space.”
Garcia will meet the West Windsor arts community at an event called “Intros 06” on Monday, February 6, at 7:30 p.m. at the West Windsor Senior Center. The program will introduce key people of arts and cultural organizations in the area, who will present their program and plans for 2006, including more details on Arts ConneXion, the annual event at Kickstart scheduled for March.
Garcia also hopes there will be an official update to the status of the firehouse and its conversion at that time. “I wanted it to be done by yesterday. But it’s turned out to be not as simple as I thought,” says Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh, who will attend the event. Delays in the physical renovation of the 75 year old building notwithstanding, the mayor makes clear that he remains committed to the arts center as an integral part of the town center. “That’s why I pushed for the arts center at the firehouse, and for the farmer’s market at the train station,” says Hsueh. “With the transit village and the town center it will all come together. In the future people may move to West Windsor instead of SoHo.”
Garcia, a Plainsboro resident for more than 20 years before he recently moved to Monroe, says that the arts community is ready to grow with the town. “If the Arts Council can demonstrate its value and that it can do in the firehouse,” says Garcia, “then perhaps the transit village will accommodate us with an even larger space.”
But in the meantime, he says, both he and the board of directors feel that it is imperative to keep the programming going, whether the firehouse is ready or not. “I’m pleased to be involved in the ‘hands-on’ aspects of presenting arts and cultural programs,” he says.
Garcia has been ‘hands on’ in the arts almost since he was born in Corpus Christi, Texas. His father, Antonio E. Garcia was a fine artist known for his portraits and his frescoes. “As a Mexican-American artist in Texas in the 1930s to ‘50s, it was a challenge to achieve success,” he says. “Near the end of his life he was given a one-man show at the South Texas Art Museum, which was a major thing considering he had made his living as an artist and was one of the founders of the artist’s league that ultimately created the museum.” He was also featured in a book titled “Mexican-American Artists” and two of his paintings were part of a traveling exhibition a few years ago. His mother, Hermina, was a housewife and very active in study clubs, similar to book clubs of today.
“Having grown up in an artist’s house and in fact sleeping in my father’s studio when I was younger, I would guess provided the influence that you don’t recognize until much later in life,” he says.
Garcia acted in a play for the first time in fifth grade and wrote (and directed) his first play in eighth grade. “I knew I wanted to be a writer and the most logical expression of my writing would be plays,” he says.
He has an associate in arts degree from Del Mar College, an undergraduate degree in Sacred Theology from Catholic University, and a master’s degree in theater and playwriting, also from Catholic University.
After studying theater for a few years he decided to be a priest and entered the seminary. When he left the seminary he returned to theater and arts administration. He continues to write plays and his most recent off-off Broadway production featured his play, “The Einstein Doll,” at the Chelsea Theater, close to seven years ago.
His newest play, “Satan’s Ashes,” has had three staged readings and Garcia feels that it is pretty close to being finished. The last reading was in August.
Garcia’s experiences in arts administration includes being executive director of the Monmouth County Arts Council, the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, the Newark Arts Council, and the New Jersey Literacy in the Arts Task Force. He was a regional representative for the National Endowment for the Arts and the manager of the Arts Challenge Fund, a collaborative of 22 corporations and foundations that awarded more than $1 million to arts organizations in New Jersey.
He met his wife, Antonina (Nina), when they were both studying theater in graduate school at Catholic University. Born and raised in Orange, she was a professor of theater for more than 30 years at Brookdale Community College. She is also a director, has a master’s degree in creative arts therapy (Rutgers), and a degree in social work. Known for her work in psychodrama and sociodrama, she trains therapists in Tampa, Miami, West Palm Beach, and the Princeton area. She has also done training in Australia, Russia, Canada, and will be off to Korea this winter.
The couple’s daughter, Alexandra, known as Xan, graduated from West Windsor-Plainsboro High School, Class of 1992. She has a degree in theater from New York University and lives in New York. She teaches “Voice for Actors” at Atlantic Theater School, and has been in a variety of off-off Broadway productions, staged readings, showcases, and workshops.
“The progress that’s being made with the firehouse is indeed an indication that the arts council is moving closer to realizing its vision,” Garcia says. “There are still many more steps — or hurdles — that will have to be taken before we open the doors.”
“The new roof was recently completed and the building must comply with ADA standards and modifications to acquire a certificate of occupancy,” he says. “In the meantime, we want to start to do more of the kind of programming that West Windsor residents would expect to find inside a firehouse arts center, including arts classes for adults, teens, and children; poetry readings; small productions and performances; bus trips to museums; lectures; and possibly culinary classes in conjunction with the farmer’s market.”
While the new center will be available to non-arts groups, the first focus will be the arts. “We envision a place for teens to talk about their arts interests and work to help each other by sharing their work (poetry, plays, short stories, artwork, and crafts),” he says. “The programs at the Nassau Pavilion will continue and hopefully even expand as we find new sources of revenue.”
As far as figuring out what will go where in the firehouse, Garcia says, “everyone has great ideas. That will be part of the process, and part of the fun.”
West Windsor Arts Council, Intros 06, Monday, February 6, 7:30 p.m. Senior Center, Township Municipal Complex. For more information visit www.westwindsorarts.org or call 609-919-1982.
