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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

THE NEWARK SCHOOL: A MULTI-SITE EXHIBITION
Newark Mayor Cory A. Booker to receive award

“The Newark School,” a multi-site exhibition that focuses on the contribution of New Jersey’s largest city to the history of art, has its opening reception on Saturday, February 26, 2011, 6-8pm at City Without Walls (cWOW), 6 Crawford Street, Newark, NJ 07102. Other venues include a student exhibition at Newark’s Arts High School, a large-works exhibition at Seton Hall University School of Law, and a panel discussion and awards ceremony at William Paterson University Ben Shahn Center.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker will receive an award for his leadership in education and the arts as part of a panel discussion entitled “The New City: Urbanization and the Arts” at the Ben Shahn Center of William Paterson University on March 23, from 4 to 7 p.m. Panelists include: Dr. Clement A. Price (Rutgers University), Moderator, Dr. Alejandro Anreus (Co-Curator, “The Newark School”), Petrushka Bazin (Co-Curator, “The Newark School”), Chakaia Booker* (Artist), James Brown* (Artist), Victor Davson (Executive Director, Aljira), and Dr. Lowery Stokes Sims* (Curator, Museum of Arts and Design) (*to be confirmed).

Co-curator Alejandro Anreus sums up the show’s theme, saying: “today more than ever, the artists in this exhibition, with their visions give testimony: this city was, is and will be.” Co-curator Petrushka Bazin concurs by saying: “addressing a variety of topics ranging from race to urbanization, the artists of ‘The Newark School’ preserve the present moment and propose new alternatives for the future.”

The sixteen visual artists selected for exhibition include: Ibrahim Ahmed III, Aileen Bassis, James Brown, Jenny Zoe Casey, Nick Colbert, Larry Dell, Jackson Lenochan, Michael Manning, Maria Mijares, Jennifer Moses, Adam Nowicki, Ben Pranger, Robert Richardson, Charlee Swanson, Roger Tucker, and Noelle Lorraine Williams. Ms. Williams and the renowned Newark artist Willie Cole will also lecture to students at Arts High, America’s first public high school for visual and performing arts (founded in 1931), on January 13, 2011 at 1pm to inspire student work, which will be exhibited at Arts High as part of the multi-site exhibition.

cWOW is a non-profit urban gallery for emerging art that advances the careers of artists while expanding the audience for contemporary art. Our award-winning exhibition, education, and public art programs use art and technology to help build communities, careers, and contemporary culture. Based in Newark since 1975, cWOW is New Jersey’s oldest nonprofit contemporary art space, and a three-time winner of the prestigious NJ State Council on the Arts "Citation of Excellence." It is easily accessible by car, mass transit, or at www.cwow.org.


CONTACT: Jill Wickenheisser
973-622-1188 or jill@cwow.org.

FORMATTED PRESS RELEASE WITH IMAGES
http://bit.ly/dLJKyy



SAMPLE IMAGES AND FURTHER DETAILS


Jackson Lenochan, “Melanin Chronicles – What’s White Art”
http://bit.ly/hQhFI0

Robert Richardson, “Demolition of a Home”
http://bit.ly/h17zia

Charlee Swanson, “Shadowed Texture”
http://bit.ly/hphBXz

Michael Manning, “Helping Hand”
http://bit.ly/fKkrEQ


DIRECTIONS TO cWOW: 6 Crawford Street, Newark, NJ. Located on the corner of Halsey and Crawford Street, between Broad and Washington, near Lincoln Park and Symphony Hall. From the North on Broad St: R on W. Kinney; L on Washington; L on Crawford. From NJ Turnpike & 78 W: Exit 14 to 78 W to Newark Airport / Route 21 N Exit; Broad St Exit; L at W. Kinney; L on Washington; L on Crawford. From 78 E: Exit 56 to Clinton Ave; R on Clinton; L on MLK; R on Crawford. From Garden State Parkway: Exit 140 to Rt. 22 East; to 21 North; L onto Broad St; L at W. Kinney; L on Washington; L on Crawford. Mass Transit from NYC & Philadelphia: PATH, NJ Transit or Amtrak to Newark Penn Station. Take taxi or bus #39 to Broad St. and W. Kinney; Walk on W. Kinney to Halsey; L one block to Crawford. Accessibility: Entryway & bathroom are ADA accessible. Large-print text from cWOW publications is available on request. Verbal descriptions of artworks and touchable artworks are also availa ble on request whenever possible.

DIRECTIONS TO SETON HALL UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL: One Newark Center, Newark, NJ 07102. Located near the corner of Raymond Blvd and McCarter Highway, 1 blk from Newark Penn Station. NJ Turnpike: Exit 15E to Raymond Blvd. Garden State Parkway: Exit 140 to Rte.22 East. L at Rte.1&9 junction onto Rte.21 North/McCarter Hwy. Mass Transit: Any PATH, NJ Transit or Amtrak train to Newark Penn Station. Walk 1 block up Raymond Blvd.


THE NEWARK SCHOOL: WHAT'S IN A NAME?
Curatorial Essays

I came to New Jersey when I was a twelve-year-old mono-lingual child with my working-class political-exiled family. The first ten years of my life were spent in an environment of revolutionary upheaval in one of the oldest and most extraordinary cities of the western hemisphere (Havana). I spent my adolescence in Elizabeth, next to Newark. The first museum I ever visited outside of the land of my birth was the Newark Museum with its great collection of American and Tibetan Art. Over the years, City Without Walls, then Aljira became "defining spaces" that enriched the identity of the City of Newark. I have never seen Newark as "once a great city that never came back from the riots," but as still a great city that resists, cajoles, is stubbornly beautiful and gritty.

Is there such a thing as "The Newark School"? I do not know. Being a man of color, I am by nature skeptical of essentialist definitions. I do know that there are Newark artists or artists in Newark or artists affected by a particularly "Newark sensibility." What is this sensibility? It is urban, defiantly rough and sensual, spiritually quirky, formally and materially made up of assemblage, detritus, and charged with an irreverent humor that shouts "I am here, like it or not." These elements are clearly evident in the work of established elders such as Willie Cole, Chakaia Booker, Victor Davson, Kevin Sampson and Manuel Acevedo. It is also present in the work of the artists in this show, from James Andrew Brown (an established New Jersey artist) to the up-and-coming, such as the young sculptor Adam Nowicki.

Many years ago, my friend, the cultural historian of Newark Clement Price, told me in conversation that he firmly believed that the dynamics of our culture becoming truly democratic were to be found in the struggling urban centers, in the social, which is also cultural, empowerment of these centers. I agree. Today more than ever, the artists in this exhibition, with their visions give testimony: this city was, is and will be.

© 2011 by Alejandro Anreus, Ph.D. Dr. Anreus is Professor of Art History and Latin American Studies and Art Department Chair at William Paterson University. He was curator of the Jersey City and Montclair Art Museums, and has taught at New Jersey City, Seton Hall, and Kean Universities. He is widely published with art history degrees from CUNY Graduate Center (PhD, MA) and Kean (BA).


The seeds for what has been newly coined “The Newark School” were planted in the late 1960s. The air in America was thick with ongoing efforts to obtain access to the most basic civil liberties for everyone despite race, class, or gender. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which established integration of all public facilities, prohibited discrimination in public places, and secured equal opportunity for people of all creeds had been signed, but racial tensions specifically between whites and blacks persisted.

With a sequence of race riots taking place between 1964 and 1967, the United States was far from existing as a post-segregated nation. It was clear that the dissonant relationship between blacks and whites was only mounting with race riots taking place in Jersey City and Harlem in 1964 and in Watts, Los Angeles in 1965. In 1967 alone, Detroit, Michigan; Newark, New Jersey; Plainfield, New Jersey; and Cambridge, Maryland, among several other cities, also experienced the reality and aftermath of these riots.

Characterized by some not as a riot, but a revolt, these acts of rebellion were born out of African-Americans’ frustration, anger, and desperation. The catalysts for uprisings in both Newark and Detroit were prompted by previous acts of police brutality between white police officers and members of the black community. In Newark, the result was a devastated city strewn with once new consumer goods, burned-out storefronts, and rubble. This landscape, filled with anger and retribution, opportunity and despair, became the cornerstone for a new city—a Newark that would inspire artists to use their work as an autonomous platform for political inquiry, proposition, and debate.

When outlining the limits of The Newark School it is impossible not to consider this part of the city’s history as one of the guiding influences on its inception. With a devastated landscape as a backdrop, and a national struggle for racial equality, the conscious and perhaps even aesthetic inclination of those raised in New Jersey between the 1940s and 1970s were involuntarily impacted by the city’s topography and turmoil. Newark’s volatile history has also undoubtedly influenced those who currently reside in and nearby the city.

These claims beg the question of whether The Newark School is over or if it has already begun. Artists like Chakaia Booker, Willie Cole, and Kevin Sampson immediately come to mind when trying to answer this question. As established African-American New Jersey born artists, it feels instinctual to look to them as the antecedents of this movement. Each artist, varying in his or her approach, uses sculpture as a primary medium with assemblage and the exhaustive layering of materials as consistent techniques in the construction of their work. Using salvaged consumer items like tires, shoes, or scrap metal, each artist makes allegorical references to African and African-American traditions pre and post 1967.

However, if The Newark School is happening now, these artists are not all African American, New Jersey-born sculptors. They are artists working in a variety of mediums who have been affected by a post-1967 Newark. Their work abstractly and figuratively documents the human condition of those living in the city or its nearby towns. Whether using materials germane to industrial landscapes, paint or charcoal, their work is more often than not political in nature. Addressing a variety of topics ranging from race to urbanization, the artists of The Newark School preserve the present moment and propose new alternatives for the future.

© 2011 by Petrushka Bazin. Ms. Bazin is an independent curator, arts administrator, and artist, currently Program Manager of The Laundromat Project and guest curator at Art in Odd Places. She has worked at The Kitchen, Studio Museum in Harlem and SFMOMA, with many curatorial projects including Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher's Learning to Love You More in The Netherlands. Bazin’s degrees are from California College of the Arts (MA) and NYU (BFA).



CALENDAR OF EVENTS

01.10.11-04.29.11. “THE NEWARK SCHOOL,” curated by Alejandro Anreus (William Paterson University) and Petrushka Bazin (The Laundromat Project). Large scale works exploring works by contemporary artists touched by Newark. Show dates and location: January 10 to April 29, 2011, Seton Hall University School of Law, One Newark Center, Newark, NJ 07102. Free and open to the public, daily 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Info: 973-622-1188 www.cwow.org.

01.13.11. “THE NEWARK SCHOOL,” presentation by Willie Cole and Noelle Lorraine Williams on Thursday, January 13, 2011, 1-2:45 p.m. to students of Arts High School, 550 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. Newark , NJ 07102. Info: (973) 622-1188 www.cwow.org.

02.01.11-02.25.11. “METRO 27,” juried by Jason Goodman (3rd Ward), Beth Venn (Newark Museum) and John Zeaman (Art Critic), is the 27th season of cWOW’s juried small works exhibition, which travels throughout the State of New Jersey. Show dates and location: February 1 to February 25, 2011, Monmouth County Public Library, 125 Symmes Drive, Manalapan, NJ 07726. Free and open to the public. Contact: Valerie 732-431-7251.

02.25.11. “ARABIAN NIGHTS,” juried by Elizabeth Barrett (Arab American National Museum), Suzanne Delehanty (Zimmerli Art Museum), Stephen McKenzie (Newark Museum), Barbara Reuther (Arts Council of the Morris Area) and Scherezade (Artist), is a traveling group exhibition that accompanies New Jersey Symphony Orchestra performances. Show date and location: February 25, 2011, 8 p.m. New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), 1 Center Street, Newark, NJ 07102. Info and Tickets: www.njsymphony.org.

02.26.11. “ARABIAN NIGHTS,” juried by Elizabeth Barrett (Arab American National Museum), Suzanne Delehanty (Zimmerli Art Museum), Stephen McKenzie (Newark Museum), Barbara Reuther (Arts Council of the Morris Area) and Scherezade (Artist), is a traveling group exhibition that accompanies New Jersey Symphony Orchestra performances. Show dates and location: February 26, 2011, 3 p.m., The Community Theatre in Morristown, 100 South Street, Morristown, NJ 07960. Info and Tickets: www.njsymphony.org.

02.26.11-03.31.11. “METRO 27,” juried by Jason Goodman (3rd Ward), Beth Venn (Newark Museum) and John Zeaman (Art Critic), is the 27th season of cWOW’s juried small works exhibition, which travels throughout the State of New Jersey. Show dates and location: February 26 to March 31, 2011, City Hall (Jersey City), 280 Grove Street, 2nd Floor, Jersey City, NJ 07302. Free and open to the public. Contact: Greg Brickey 201-547-4333.

02.26.11-04.22.10. “THE NEWARK SCHOOL,” curated by Alejandro Anreus (William Paterson University) and Petrushka Bazin (The Laundromat Project). A multi-site exhibition examines the impact of Newark artists on the history of art. Opening reception: Saturday, February 26, 2011, 6-8 p.m. Show dates and location: February 26, 2011 to April 30, 2011, City Without Walls, 6 Crawford Street, Newark, NJ 07102. Free and open to the public, Thursdays through Saturdays, 12 p.m. - 6 p.m. Info: 973-622-1188 www.cwow.org.

02.27.11. “ARABIAN NIGHTS,” juried by Elizabeth Barrett (Arab American National Museum), Suzanne Delehanty (Zimmerli Art Museum), Stephen McKenzie (Newark Museum), Barbara Reuther (Arts Council of the Morris Area) and Scherezade (Artist), is a traveling group exhibition that accompanies New Jersey Symphony Orchestra performances. Show dates and location: February 27, 2011, 3 p.m., State Theatre in New Brunswick, 15 Livingston Ave., New Brunswick, NJ 08901. Info and Tickets: www.njsymphony.org.

03.16.11-04.06.11. “THE NEWARK SCHOOL,” curated by Alejandro Anreus (William Paterson University) and Petrushka Bazin (The Laundromat Project). A multi-site exhibition that examines the impact of Newark artists on the history of art. Opening reception: Thursday, March 17, 2011, 3-5 p.m. Show dates and location: March 16, 2011 to April 6, 2011, Arts High School, 550 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. Newark , NJ 07102-1297. Mondays through Fridays 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Info: 973-622-1188, 973-733-7391, www.cwow.org.

03.23.11. “THE NEW CITY: URBANIZATION AND THE ARTS,” A collaborative panel discussion, award ceremony, and reception of City Without Walls and William Paterson University in celebration of "The Cross-Cultural Arts Festival: Africa and the African Diaspora" and "The Newark School: A Multi-Site Exhibition.” Featuring Newark Mayor Cory A. Booker, moderated by Dr. Clement A. Price. Award, panel and reception: March 23, 2011, 4 - 7 p.m. Ben Shahn Main Gallery, William Paterson University, 300 Pompton Road, Wayne, New Jersey 07470. Free and open to the public. More information: (973) 720-2000 or www.cwow.org.

03.24.11. “EMBODY! A MINI-PERFORMANCE ART FESTIVAL,” curated by Kendall Baker, focuses on challenging performance work that explores new territories. Show dates and location: March 24, 2011, 6 p.m., The Visceglia Gallery at Caldwell College, 9 Ryerson Avenue, Caldwell, NJ 07006. More information: 973-622-1188 or www.cwow.org.

04.01.11-05.31.11. “METRO 27,” juried by Jason Goodman (3rd Ward), Beth Venn (Newark Museum) and John Zeaman (Art Critic), is the 27th season of cWOW’s juried small works exhibition, which travels throughout the State of New Jersey. Show dates and location: April 1 to May 31, 2011, Ramapo College, 505 Ramapo Valley Road, Mahwah, NJ 07430. Free and open to the public. Contact: Sidney Jenkins 201-684-7147 or Robert 201-684-7099.

05.02.11-7.29.11. SPRING EXHIBITION TBD. Show dates and location: May 2 to July 29, 2011, Seton Hall University School of Law, One Newark Center, Newark, NJ 07102. Free and open to the public, daily 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Info: 973-622-1188 or www.cwow.org.

06.09.11-07.23.11. “ARTREACH XIX,” cWOW's 19th annual exhibition of its award-winning high-school art mentoring program opens Thursday, June 9, 6-8pm. Show dates and location: June 9 – July 23, 2010, City Without Walls, 6 Crawford Street, Newark, NJ. Free and open to the public Thursdays through Saturdays 12-6pm. More information: 973-622-1188 or www.cwow.org.

06.25.11-08.06.11. “METRO 27,” juried by Jason Goodman (3rd Ward), Beth Venn (Newark Museum) and John Zeaman (Art Critic), is the 27th season of cWOW’s juried small works exhibition, which travels throughout the State of New Jersey. Show dates and location: June 25 to August 6, 2011, Perkins Center for the Arts. Free and open to the public. Contact: Phil Carroll 856-235-6488.

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