First Annual Bloomfield Avenue Prize Unites Two Communities Through Technology

March 22, 2013 - PRLog -- Remember life before cell phones? The feeling of stepping inside a phone booth, the overhead light miraculously coming on the moment the door was closed, and trying to root around in purse or pockets for the correct change? Remember passing a booth and wondering whether to pick up the ringing phone? Cramming shopping bags and small children into the booth made for only one person? Contemporary mobile life is detached from needing a physical space to communicate. People chatter away on cellphones in parks, on buses and trains, and even in doctor’s offices or rely on abbreviated, nonverbal texts to communicate. In fact, many of today’s young people have never seen a working phone booth beyond what is depicted in movies and photos.

A collaboration between Bloomfield College and the Montclair Art Museum will change this, revitalizing the phone booth as a unique space to promote conversation. Together the two institutions initiated the Bloomfield Avenue Prize, offering an opportunity for an artist to create an innovative public art project that spans both the College’s campus and the Museum’s venue. Proposals were also to include plans for community programming. The selection committee was composed of Laura Nova, associate professor of creative art and technology at Bloomfield College; Alexandra Schwartz, curator of contemporary art at the Montclair Art Museum; and faculty and staff from BC and MAM. Thirty-five proposals were submitted; artists Karina Aguilera Skvirsky and Liselot van der Heijden were selected to erect their joint project involving live phone booths at each location.

Titled the Bloomfield Avenue Hotline, the project concept is about nostalgia and communication. According to Aguilera Skvirsky, the project will encourage people to experience another community and develop understanding during conversation. Two phone booths will be installed; one at the College in the College Library and one at the Museum in Lehman Court, the Museum’s main entrance hall. The user can pick up the phone to hear pre-recorded messages based on conversations the artists have had with members from each community. The user can also leave messages that can be heard by others when using the phone. The concept is experimental and designed to discern what people will say under the cloak of anonymity (the artists will be editing the messages for appropriate content). The resulting messages will become a portrait of that specific location.

“This joint venture brings together two institutions that value art as a way to unite communities,” said Marion Terenzio, vice president of academic affairs and dean of faculty. “We are creating greater access to arts and education for the public by pooling our resources and expertise.”

Lora Urbanelli, director of the Montclair Art Museum, said: “We’re delighted to be a partner in this first-ever collaboration between the Museum and Bloomfield College, and on a public project that unites not only our two institutions but our larger communities as well. The nature of this innovative project also offers a wonderful opportunity for people to connect in a very personal way.” The public opening will be on Thursday, April 4, 2013, at 4:00 p.m. at Bloomfield College and 6:30 p.m. at the Montclair Art Museum, during the Museum’s Free First Thursday Nights. Both locations will offer the public opportunity to interact with the exhibit by using the phone for listening and offering messages to the other community. The exhibit will run through June 16.  

The Bloomfield Avenue Prize is funded by the Predominantly Black Institutions (PBI) Formula Grant.

About Bloomfield College

Bloomfield College is an independent, four-year, coeducational college, founded in 1868. The College's mission is to prepare students to attain academic, personal and professional excellence in a multicultural and global society.

About the Museum

The Montclair Art Museum (MAM), a notable, community-based institution with an international reputation, boasts a renowned collection of American and Native American art that uniquely highlights art making in the United States over the last three hundred years. The Museum’s education programs serve a wide public and bring artists, performers, and scholars to the Museum on a regular basis. MAM’s Yard School of Art is the leading regional art school, offering a multitude of comprehensive courses for children, teens, adults, seniors, and professional artists. http://www.montclairartmuseum.org.

All Museum programs are made possible, in part, by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, and by funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Vance Wall Foundation, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, and Museum members.