#b#West Windsor, September 10#/b#
Celebrate the U.S.A. at the West Windsor Arts Council’s Autumn Arts Afternoon on Saturday, September 10, from 1 to 4 p.m. The family-friendly event will be held rain or shine under the big tent near Panera Bread at Nassau Park Pavilion, 501 Nassau Park Boulevard.
The annual event attended by more than 400 participants is a hands-on visual arts festival featuring area artists. Each artist interacts with the attendees and gives them an opportunity to explore the artistic use of different materials or techniques. All activities are suitable for every age group and the event is open to all.
Activities include forms coordinated by long-time West Windsor resident and artist Dick Snedeker. His free-form plywood sculptures include two forms to be decorated using red, white, and blue paint; and two to be painted in the participants’ choice of color. As the day progresses attendees will be able to see the transformation in the design of each form.
Be part of the flag collage using red hand prints to form the stripes and white fingerprints to form the stars. At the imagination station participants are invited to draw, collage, or build upon any or all ideas that come to mind. Puzzle pieces, paint, markers, glitter, and decorative paper are some of the materials available to create something fun to wear or post on your refrigerator door. Art supplies provided.
Create cards for American soldiers stationed overseas thanking them for their service. The Red Cross will send them on to the troops to brighten up their day with mail from home. The arts council is collecting trial-sized sunscreen, lip balm, granola bars, and single serve packages of hot cocoa as donations to send to troops overseas.
Guests are encouraged to write down their thoughts and reflections on what art means to them on rotating cubes that will form the letters WW. Visit www.westwindsorarts.org or call 609-716-1931 for information.
#b#Plainsboro, September 17#/b#
Plainsboro Festival of the Arts has returned after a year off while the library was moving to its new location at 9 Van Doren Street. It will be held rain or shine on Saturday, September 17, from 1 to 5 p.m. at the library and the village square.
Artists will demonstrate various art forms at tables, visitors will be able to learn and create art, and there will be musicians and dancers performing. Watch original works of art being created by artists painting “en plein air” by the fountain. Plainsboro artist Tanya Sougakova will be there. Visitors are invited to bring their own art supplies and join them.
The size and scope of the festival has been a pleasant surprise for new library director Eileen Burnash, who took over for longtime director Ginny Baeckler earlier this year. “I’m still learning the ropes here,” says Burnash. “We’ve had to plan the event a mere six weeks after the busy July program.”
Learn Chinese knotting, mold a piece of porcelain with Plainsboro artist Irena Zaytceva, create copier collage, or draw a pet portrait. Visitors may choose to learn embroidery with Ruth Levy of Plainsboro or the basics of harmonica playing. There are large boxes for visitors to cover in paint.
Drums will be available all day to practice playing handmade drums from Senegal. Men may choose to learn how to “sing a tag” in four-part harmony with a barbershop quartet.
Dance performers include the library’s own Debra Orenstein with the dance of legendary Isadora Duncan and Plainsboro’s Dance Expo Studio will perform their specialties. Children will sing in Bengali.
Wei Gai of Plainsboro, who has worked in the library for 17 years, is fluent in Mandarin and is communicating with Chinese artists. Some of the popular Chinese arts at the event are Chinese brush painting and calligraphy. Visitors can take a blank bookmark and give the artist their name and he will write it on the bookmark in Chinese calligraphy.
Donna Senopoulos of Plainsboro is coordinating the artists. She designed the bookmark to promote the event, and banners were created to hang outside the library. Senopoulos also planned the art exhibit featuring works by eight artists from Art Station Studios in Hightstown. Artists Enrico Bombieri, Linda Gebhard, Juanita Yoder, Samantha Kifer, Ingrid Davis, Dara Alter, Susan Winter, and Megan DiFranco present woodblock watercolor prints, contemporary silk dye on silk, ceramic clocks, oil and pastel landscapes, portraits, and acrylic and mixed media abstracts and collage. The opening reception is inside the library from 2 to 4 p.m. Davis presents a short tour of the exhibit at 3 p.m. and explains some of the technique used in particular pieces of art — including her woodblock prints.
Burnash, a resident of Bernardsville, commutes daily to the library. Her children, ages 23, 24, and 26, are in school and working. Her mother, 85, lives close to her. As much as she enjoys Plainsboro she would find it difficult to make the move.
“I am smitten with Plainsboro and really excited about the upcoming arts festival,” says Burnash. “In my 30 years working with libraries I’ve never seen a library like this.”
— Lynn Miller
