Tag Archives: arts

City Council

City purchases $90k piano for conservatory

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The City Council on Monday night approved $90,000 for the purchase of a handmade Italian piano as part of the plan to establish the Klavierhause Piano Conservatory. The council entered into a contract with Piano Culture Institutional Consultants at Klavierhaus “for the purchase of a Fazioli Pianoforti F-228 (photo below) to enhance the Arts District Expansion Project.”

The piano retails for $140,000, according to City Administrator and Redevelopment Director Peter Pelissier, but the city will pay $90,000, with “another source outside of the municipal tax base” that will contribute $5,000. The piano will be on loan to the Union County Performing Arts Center (UCPAC) and can be moved for performances at the planned amphitheater as well as the arts center.

The bank building adjacent to UCPAC (on the corner of Coach Street) will be retrofitted to house the Klavierhaus Piano Conservatory, which will offer a variety of recitals, lessons, performances and more “with special emphasis given to young people.” The Edge art gallery nearby is being eyed for a satellite sales office for Klavier, where it could feature console pianos, according to Mayor James Kennedy.

A world-class piano brings an interesting component of a respectable art form, Kennedy said, and it shows that city is serious about the arts, especially to funders like the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

The piano will attract internationally renowned pianists that have chosen Fazioli pianos in concert halls, conservatories, theaters and recording studios to perform and record their performances for the public to attend, according to Pelissier. “This is one component that will be a tremendous asset for the UCPAC to provide for and make Rahway a distinct destination of the arts,” he said.

A ceremony to celebrate the piano’s arrival will be Sunday, Feb. 21, at 4 p.m. at the UPCAC Studio Theatre, featuring Russian-born pianist Vassily Primakov.

Asked how a $90,000 purchase for a piano could be justified as property taxes rise, Pelissier described it as an investment in the arts district and the city’s overall redevelopment plans, not unlike the county’s $6-million purchase and renovation of UCPAC, construction of the library and recreation center, and renovation of Train Station Plaza.

“Municipalities that have concert halls have testified that the monies that come in to their respective towns and cities are in the millions resulting from parking fees, spending in restaurants, etc.,” Pelissier said. “In as much, as redevelopment has slowed down with the exception of a few projects, the arts initiatives set forth by the mayor will not only attract people to Rahway, it will continue to attract redevelopers to our city when the economic market returns. Our city will be ready.”

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Arts District, Downtown, Rahway

‘Eye candy’ planned for downtown areas

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A variety of public art will grace downtown areas as part of the plan to show that Rahway is “All About the Arts.”

In a post-State of the City interview last month and a public presentation before the Redevelopment Agency last week, Mayor James Kennedy talked about murals and sculptures scattered around the downtown loop as part of an overall plan focusing on the arts. He described the visual arts piece as a complement to performing arts initiatives such as the amphitheater and black box theater planned for Hamilton Street and gallery space in the YMCA and Elizabethtown Gas building. The “eye candy,” as the mayor describes it, is expected by mid-summer.

As examples, Kennedy noted the walkway connecting Main Street and the parking lot behind River Place as an ideal spot for a mural or a sculpture, in addition to some areas connecting Hotel Indigo to the Lewis Street parking deck. “The whole arts picture has been growing in many pieces that ultimately is coming together now,” he said.

A committee will determine about two dozen quirky spots downtown for sculptures, which then would be cataloged into a booklet for a sort of sculpture garden. The city would be responsible for the footings but artists would cover the cost of their own sculptures. “The advantage to artists is not that they’re paying for their own sculpture but the advantage is that it gives them exposure and exhibition space,” Kennedy said.

Another program will copy what was done in Ithaca, N.Y., where The Sagan Planet Walk at Sciencenter pays homage to the Rahway native and noted Cornell astronomer. A scale model of the solar system would station planets at specific locations between City Hall and the Arts Guild. The program also would incorporate the high school physics program, the mayor said, while the educational piece would include brass descriptions of the technical data about the size and composition of planets. The sculptures would be to scale so some might be as small as a tennis ball while others might be much larger.

“The neat thing is that it brings a sense of community, it’s a something-to-do kind of thing,” Kennedy said, adding that these initiatives aim to create a pleasant atmosphere but also catch the attention of passersby.

A third aspect of the visual arts piece is a window treatment program like one that was done for the Carriage City Plaza sales office. People looking into the windows can see the image or art while those on the inside can clearly see outside. Rather than have paper covering up vacant storefronts, Kennedy said the city also is trying to encourage empty stores to allow the space for use by artists until they are leased.

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Arts District, Rahway, UCPAC

Recent studies paint bleak picture for the arts

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Two items got my attention recently that are relevant to Rahway given the mayor’s plans to make it “All About the Arts.”

Continue reading Recent studies paint bleak picture for the arts →

Uncategorized

Concerts the clear choice for arts center

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So judging by the most recent blog poll, y’all want concerts at the Union County Performing Arts Center (UCPAC).

The question becomes what kinds of concerts are you most interested in? Obviously, UCPAC has plenty of concerts throughout the season, but what kinds of concerts would you prefer? There’s also the question of what two voters consider to be “other.” Magic shows?

With now more than 250 readers subscribing by email and the average number of daily visitors creeping toward 200, I thought for sure we’d hit triple digits on the number of votes. After posting it, I realized I could’ve been a little more creative and added more options. I blame myself mostly; I just copied what we used in the last UCPAC poll. We could have added some other offerings, like kids’ shows or dance, for instance.

“What would you like to see at the Union County Performing Arts Center?”
Concerts, 43 percent (22/51 votes)
Comedy, 23 percent (12/51)
Movies, 19 percent (10/51)
Plays/Musicals, 9 percent (5/51)
Other, 4 percent (2/51)

Results weren’t radically different from when we asked this poll question two years ago, but for about twice as many votes and a more decisive margin for concerts.

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Uncategorized

Fundraising aims to boost arts center lineup

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A $150,000 fundraising effort to target more high-profile programming at the Union County Performing Arts Center (UCPAC) has commitments of at least $90,000 as of last month. Mayor James Kennedy said the board of trustees at its last meeting gave approval to the executive director to pursue a handful of performances.

“It’s designed to have a decent rate of return to put on performances,” he said during a brief interview following his State of the City address this month.

There have been some additional verbal commitments for fundraising and other possibilities as well, the mayor said during a follow-up interview last week.

The center’s board is leaning toward musical performances and with several new board members, “there’s a new level of energy you can feel,” Kennedy said, adding that there’s been a recent emphasis on new board development.

Perhaps it’s time to bring back an old poll question, “What would you like to see at the Union County Performing Arts Center?” If you can believe it, it’s been two years (!) since we posed that question, with but a couple dozen faithful readers responding. Then there was this poll from April 2008 after UCPAC renovations were completed, which seemed to present a recurring theme among RR readers: Improve the programming. So…

“What would you like to see at the Union County Performing Arts Center?”

  • Concerts
  • Standup comedy
  • Plays/musicals
  • Movies
  • Other

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Uncategorized

Iraq memorial to grace train station plaza

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What may be the first monument in the state dedicated to those killed in Iraq will be installed at train station plaza later this month.

The Broken Hearts Memorial will be installed by Aug. 29 with an opening ceremony planned Sept. 12.

Local artist Jim McKeon said there are monuments to individual soldiers killed in action in the Middle East but “nothing on this scale dedicated to all of them.”

McKeon is founder of the rahway art hive, an art studio and co-op gallery on East Cherry Street, where he and others have been working on the monument this summer. He’s been mulling the idea for about a year after conversations with friends who have family serving in Iraq.

The monument features 19 interlocking, nine-foot panels that stretch more than 36 feet when fully assembled. Each panel has a silhouette of a soldier covered with 127 hearts, totaling more than 4,000 — one for each U.S. soldier killed in Iraq. The wall is shaped like open hexagons — “vulnerable when standing alone but strong when placed back to back.”

Each heart will bear the word “MOM,” McKeon said, making an “iconic tattoo image into something powerful.” A heart will be added for each soldier killed, making it a kind of living tribute.

The memorial is constructed to be permanent or temporary. McKeon expects it might be in the plaza for about a year and hopes to make it a traveling exhibit to display in other towns. Between volunteer time and some contributions from the city for materials, he estimated the monument cost about $7,500. But the Broken Hearts campaign is also aiming to raise $43,000 for the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, for a new hospital in Bethesda, Md.

A ribbon cutting ceremony will be Sept. 12 when the public will be invited to participate by painting one of the thousands of hearts, with the word “MOM” already stenciled in. After the opening date, public participation will be accepted on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and by appointment.

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City Council

Council hires arts consultant

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City Council approved a one-year, $18,600 contract for a consultant to serve as a liaison with the Arts District Advisory Board. The contract was approved during a special meeting June 30.

Elizabeth-based Coen Consulting Group, headed up by former county director of heritage affairs Susan Coen, will serve as a liaison between the Rahway Arts District Board and City Council, helping to raise money, secure grants and coordinate activities between local arts organizations, according to City Administrator Peter Pelissier.

The Arts District Advisory Board has been considering designs for the Hamilton Street amphitheater project, which is expected to begin construction late this year.

Also at the June 30 meeting, City Council approved increases of 5 percent and 8 percent in water and sewer rates, respectively.

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Uncategorized

NEA study: audience declines, revenues fluctuate

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The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) issued a report this week (.pdf) that indicates the number of nonprofit theaters doubled between 1990 and 2005.

The growth was mainly in “previously underserved” areas like Nevada, Colorado and Utah. But the takeaway, at least one that might be more relevant to Rahway and the Union County Arts Center, is “…the absolute size of the audience has declined by 16 percent.” During that same time period, “revenues fluctuated sharply with business cycles in the U.S. economy.” Here’s the Star-Ledger’s take on it.

In this economy, the arts will be in for a tough time, if they’re not already. Not good news for UCPAC (or any local theaters for that matter), which has consistently run deficits of five and six figures in four of the past five years, according to its federal tax filings. The only time recently that it broke even was 2006 when it got a $1.3-million infusion thanks to selling the building as part of Union County’s $6-million renovations.

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