Montclair Art Museum Organizes Fourth Juried Affordable Art Fair

MONTCLAIR, N.J. - May 15, 2013 - PRLog -- The Montclair Art Museum (MAM) will hold its fourth juried fair, Collecting Art: An Affordable Art Fair, on Saturday, June 8 and Sunday, June 9 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in MAM’s Leir Hall. Local artists will offer their works for prices under $500 to promote affordable collecting of contemporary art. Admission to Collecting Art is free and MAM will offer half-price admission to the Museum galleries on June 8 and 9.

This year, a panel including Ilana Stollman, manager of retail and rental operations at MAM, and Scott Gordley, professor of fine arts at Montclair State University, reviewed over 100 applications. From this competitive pool, the following artists were chosen to offer their works: Anne Avigdor, Vanessa Bucci, Sandra Lee Butler, Pauline Chernichaw, Dana DiMuro, Poliana DeVane, Dave Dziemian, Rita Flores, Darlene Foster, Alexa Garbarino, Laura Gilkey, Joseph Haag, Brenda Hernandez, Kevin Hinkle, Katherine Jennings, Bonnie Maranz, Paul Moench, Cathy Pilkin, Brandon Rechten, Janice Reis, Christopher Sebastian, Anne Silber, Jessica Soininen-Eddis, Krista Svalbonas, and Viorika Unguryanu.

The artists represent a diverse group in both style and geography. From Laura Gilkey’s abstract, otherworldly clay and felt sculptures to Pauline Chernichaw’s gritty, colorful photographs, to Rita Flores’ multimedia portraits, the works featured in Collecting Art will offer something to meet every aesthetic. The exhibiting artists are from towns across NJ, as well as New York and Massachusetts.    

The first Collecting Art: An Affordable Art Fair was held in October of 2010 in conjunction with the exhibition Living for Art: The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection. The Vogels, a postal clerk and a reference librarian, assembled one of the most remarkable collections of contemporary art in America with limited funds and Collecting Art seeks to offer that same opportunity to visitors of the Museum. This year, the fair coincides with MAM’s current exhibitions The New Spirit: American Art in the Armory Show, 1913, Oscar Bluemner’s America: Picturing Paterson, NJ, and The Bloomfield Avenue Hotline, on view through June 16.

About the Museum

The Montclair Art Museum, 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 collection includes more than 12,000 objects: paintings, prints, original works on paper, photographs, and sculpture by American artists from the 18th century to the present, as well as traditional and contemporary Native American art and artifacts representing the cultural developments of peoples from all of the major American Indian regions. 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. The Yard School was recently recognized in the Discover Jersey Arts People’s Choice Awards 2012 as the Favorite Place to Take a Kid’s and Adult Art Class.

The Montclair Art Museum is located at 3 South Mountain Avenue in Montclair, N.J. Information and directions are available on the Museum website, montclairartmuseum.org, or by calling 973-746-5555. MAM is open Wednesdays through Sundays, Noon – 5 p.m., and on the first Thursday night of the month (October–June), from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. It is closed on Mondays, Tuesdays, and major holidays. Museum admission is $12 for nonmember adults, $10 for senior citizens and students with I.D., and free for members and children under 12. Free First Thursday Nights and Free First Fridays are free for everyone. The Store at MAM is open Tuesdays through Sundays, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. and has extended hours until 9 p.m. on Free First Thursday Nights.

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.