An arts festival grows in Morristown

By Sharon Sheridan

Almost two years ago, two pre-teen reporters accompanied me to a St. Hubert’s ice cream social for dogs and penned reports for MorristownGreen.com, inaugurating MG Kids.

From the beginning, our goal was to highlight the writing and artwork of the younger members of our community. Junior correspondents covered events ranging from First Night to LARPing at Headquarters Plaza. One of them even interviewed Santa Claus atop an undisclosed tower in town. We featured artwork from local schools, the Neighborhood House and individual artists.

It wasn’t too long before Morristown Green Editor Kevin Coughlin suggested we showcase kids’ creativity further with an art show. Last spring’s series of cultural events at a former car dealership on Bank Street seemed the perfect opportunity.

WORDPLAY II

• Poetry at St. Peter’s Great Hall
• 7 pm, Tuesday, May 1
• 70 Maple Ave., Morristown,  MAP
• Coffee from SmartWorld
• FREE!

Now, truth be told, we had no idea how to curate an art show. I e-mailed local art teachers, we posted articles calling for submissions, and we waited. Two weeks before the scheduled opening, it looked as though we’d be staging a show with three really prominently displayed small works of art.

But Morristown’s artists came through, and a couple of hundred pieces of art ultimately arrived from 10 schools, churches and civic groups, as well as individual kids. With a little MacGyver-esque ingenuity, we hung the exhibit one day. Kids and their families arrived the next afternoon to view the show and create a little more artwork by painting on the showroom windows. We dismantled everything on the third day.

“This was great! Would you do it again?” visitors asked.

“Sure – if it lasts for more than one day. This was crazy!” became my standard reply.

Five months later, fresh off staging a successful albeit snowstorm-delayed Harvest Festival at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Assistant Rector Melissa Hall and I started discussing the possibility of offering a Children’s Day of Art at the church. We’d invite professional artists to lead kids through a series of workshops, giving them a chance to express their creativity in multiple ways.

“Why don’t we host the MG Kids Art Show here this year, and exhibit for the two weeks leading up to the art day?” I suggested.

St. Peter’s is a community sponsor of Morristown Green, so it seemed a perfect fit.

“Great idea. But then we should find ways to bring more people in to see the show,” Melissa said. “Let’s have a jazz coffeehouse and a poetry night.”

St. Peter’s Rector Janet Broderick gave her blessing, and a community arts festival was born.

Jazz pianist Peter Moffitt, worship leader at St. Peter’s, conjured up a Medicine Show that performed at the opening of the second MG Kids Art Show in the church’s Great Hall on Friday. Earlier in the day, the Family Success Center led hands-on arts projects for kids who came with their families to see the exhibit. More than 300 pieces of art are displayed, highlighting the creativity of toddlers through high school students from public, private and parochial schools, churches and civic organizations.

Tonight, Morristown Green’s second WordPlay will take the stage at 7 p.m. with poetry readings by children and adults.

ArtSpace Studio and the Arts Council of the Morris Area fortuitously scheduled the Morristown Art Walk for May 6, so on Sunday the MG Kids Art Show plus a collection of work by adult artists installed in the church annex will be part of the walk. Already, sculptures by local artist Peter Allen have sprouted on St. Peter’s front lawn.

And on May 12, the St. Peter’s Spring Arts Festival will culminate with the Children’s Day of Art, featuring workshops in cartooning, drama, eco-sculpture, music, poetry and pottery, plus “food art” with Chef Melody of The Main Event.

It’s been a challenging but exciting time, tending MG Kids and the new arts festival. The artwork in the show demonstrates some amazing talent, and we expect similar creativity to shine during WordPlay and the day of art.

We’ve been planning for months, but in retrospect these ventures seem to have grown up fast.

Kind of like our kids.

Sharon Sheridan is MG Kids editor and the coordinator of the Spring Arts Festival.

MORE ABOUT THE MG KIDS ART SHOW

REGISTER FOR THE CHILDREN’S DAY OF ART

 

Dining with Warren Bobrow: Off the beaten path, Morristown’s Peck School garden

By Warren Bobrow

A peaceful culinary revolution is taking place just off Route 287 at the Peck School in Morristown.

Hunter Stagg, the gregarious food service director, guides his students through the pleasures of growing their own vegetables. Hunter–a local guy with the passion of a farmer– is determined to raise a veritable cornucopia of organic vegetables all from seed on a triangular plot on the Peck School grounds.

I visited Hunter and his district manager, Matt MacIsaac, in the Peck School gardens and spoke briefly about sustainability, freshness and flavor.

Chef Hunter is a classically trained chef. Crisply attired in a chef’s uniform, there is no doubt about what he does for his living. He exemplifies the demeanor of a farm-to-table chef. Chef Hunter has worked alongside some of New Jersey’s most famous chefs and his stories are interesting to say the least.

His soft-spoken style is immediately tangible. He’s not just growing vegetables, he is teaching sustainability and the ability to take pleasure from eating what grows from well tilled soil.

While we spoke, a light rain was falling. Gently, carefully, he picked vegetables from the garden. Green beans, kissed by the drops of rain, filled a stainless steel bowl alongside glistening fresh red potatoes, still smudged by the soil. Cauliflower is coming up and the tomatoes have yet to bulge and redden, but they promise to entice!

The students at Peck are encouraged (during the school year) to participate and learn in their school garden. During the summer, when the garden is producing much of its bounty, the spoils of the harvest usually go to the teachers at the school. Chef Hunter smiles when he speaks about sharing the harvest. Nothing goes to waste.

If you ever have a few minutes and find yourself over by the Peck School, give Hunter a call and take a look at the garden. It’s a Victory Garden for the students, yes. But it’s much more than just a garden; it is a way of teaching that fills the stomach as much as the heart of everyone who sees what is going on in this little triangle of fenced land.
DINING REVIEWS BY WARREN BOBROW

Warren Bobrow was born and raised on a farm in Morristown. He is a classically trained saucier/chef and a food/spirits journalist with over three hundred published articles internationally. A rum judge for both the Ministry of Rum and the Barbados Rum Festival, he is a good person to have a cocktail with. Warren writes about biodynamic wine for the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Edition 2.

MG Kids correspondent reminisces about Morristown art show

MG Kids — kid central at MorristownGreen.com — recently hosted its first art show, featuring works in varied media by preschoolers through high schoolers, at the proposed Morristown EcoCenter on Bank Street.   

 

Participants hailed from Homeless Solutions, the Interfaith Council for Homeless Families of Morris County, the Lafayette Learning Center, Morristown High School, the Morristown Presbyterian Church, Peck School, Red Oaks School, St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, the Sroka family and the Unity Charter School.     

Today, one of our young artists, and writers, gives his review of the event.    

 

By Carl Hausman, MG Kids Correspondent     

 

On May 25, I went to an art show. It had some things I had made in it, such as a rain stick with a dragon coiled around it and a picture of a foot walking across a board game titled “Walking Through a Kid’s Life.” We had to make one in art class because my school is doing a musical called “A Kid’s Life.” In the musical, there are various interesting things, such as an extraterrestrial massive electro-magnetic attack in outer space, board game Olympics and some jump-roping.     

At the art show there were many interesting paintings such as “The Old Lady” and “Roots.” There were also photographs and masks made from cardboard, feathers and papier-mache.     

 

They had weird names as well. For example, there was one to be worn at dances of a creature that flew and tusks that gave off a scent that attracted females. Weird, huh?     

We also got to paint pictures on the window. I did a picture of Gormungor, the Giant Snake, coiled all the way around the world. He has to bite his own tail to keep from falling off. (I accidentally spelled his name with a J on the window.)     

At 6 o’clock, there was a cooking demonstration from Chef Melody. She dealt in organic foods.     

 

There was homemade pizza on wheat bread, an absolutely amazing layered salad and quinoa. Quinoa is a sort of grain that is supposed to make you tall when you eat it. At least, that’s what my dad said.     

 

Later, I got some paper and started drawing: the artist in person! I sketched a more detailed picture of Gormungor, a diagram of the solar system and a picture of the Ghoul King and his minions in battle.     

All too soon, it was time to pack up my stuff and leave. But it’s hard to forget that art show.     

Carl's giant snake, circling the world. Sharon Sheridan photo

 

Carl Hausman is in fifth grade at the Mountain View School in Flanders and attends St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Morristown, where he often can be spotted drawing pictures.   

Do you like to write? MG Kids welcomes junior reporters for our staff. We also encourage kids of all ages to submit artwork, poetry and fiction for publication on our site. Click here for more information.     

Young artists brighten up Morristown’s EcoCenter in first MG Kids art show

By Sharon Sheridan

MorristownGreen.com’s first MG Kids Art Show provided colorful proof that the visual arts are flourishing in the Morristown community and schools.

Preschoolers through high school students from public and private schools, churches and community organizations showcased everything from watercolors to photographs to sculptures at the new Morristown EcoCenter on Wednesday.

Throughout the afternoon and early evening, young artists came with their friends and families to view the exhibit, and joined Jody Marcus, executive director of the Community Children’s Museum in Dover, in decorating the center’s windows with sustainability themes.

To help feed the hungry artists and teach them a little about healthy foods, Chef Melody McGinley Whitelaw of The Main Event gave two demonstrations of “green” cooking for children.

Grownups and kids got to sample a colorful salad, quinoa and pizza on whole wheat pitas.

Contributing artists hailed from Homeless Solutions, the Interfaith Council for Homeless Families of Morris County, the Lafayette Learning Center, Morristown High School, the Morristown Presbyterian Church, Peck School, Red Oaks School, St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, the Sroka family and the Unity Charter School.

MorristownGreen.com especially wishes to thank the EcoCenter for hosting the show; St. Peter’s for providing a collection point for the artwork; Paul Miller of Sustainable Morristown for helping install and take down the show; Jody Marcus for leading the children’s window-painting exercise, and for helping with the installation; Chef Melody for her delectable demos; Leslie Raff and Danielle Merzatta for serving as MG ambassadors; all the artists, schools and organizations that furnished art work; and most of all, everyone who came and supported Morristown’s future Picassos.

Keep watching MorristownGreen.com for more coverage of the art show and the work of these young artists.

Throughout the year, MG Kids invites kids to submit artwork, poetry and other writing, to be featured on MorristownGreen.com. We also welcome junior reporters and bloggers to join our team.

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And if you think Wednesday was fun… get ready for our biggest arts event of the year:

THE FOURTH ANNUAL MORRISTOWNGREEN.COM FILM FESTIVAL!

Start making your video now, and maybe you will win the coveted Best Picture trophy under the stars on the historic Morristown Green on Aug. 27!

This year’s theme is Sustainability.

Think environmental, think community, think social issues.

Entries can be funny or serious, in just about any genre–as long as they run less than five minutes and are suitable for family viewing. More details are coming. Don’t wait–start making your movie!!!

READ MORE ABOUT THE MORRISTOWN ECOCENTER