Most gallery owners spend their days plotting how to draw people into their spaces.
Harry Simon of Morristown’s Simon Gallery is forever scheming to drive people out.
On Dec. 6, he intends to send visitors to bank lobbies and office towers and government atriums and hotel restaurants. He’s even providing a bus, in case anyone balks at making the short walk.
Harry’s been doing this for a year now; these quarterly Art Around the Park tours are part of his grand plan to make Morristown an arts destination.
Looking back on year one of Art Around the Park:
That requires some creativity, since Harry owns the only commercial gallery in town. For next month’s art walk, the other spokes in the hub will be the Citibank lobby, the Hyatt Morristown’s Eclectic Grill, Symphony Workplaces in Headquarters Plaza, the Atrium Gallery of the Morris County administration building (curated by the nonprofit Arts Council of the Morris Area) and the Gallery at 14 Maple (home of the Arts Council). Of course, his own gallery on Bank Street will be part of the mix.
“It’s been a steady progression and refinement of the process and marketing of the entire concept,” said Harry, always on the lookout for local businesses where he can showcase his stable of abstract expressionist artists.
He is pretty picky.
“I look for a professional setting with great wall space” and proprietors “with a mindset that sees the benefit of art in their daily routine.”
Morristown’s Citibank branch came aboard as a display venue over the summer and has signed on as a sponsor, along with J & S Designer Flooring and Encore Catering. Broadway Elite of Denville supplies the shuttle service.
“It’s a nice ice-breaker. It’s different,” Branch Manager Michael Mangione said of the artworks that Harry curates at Citibank’s West Park Place location. The paintings dress up the white walls, and are replaced every three months with new pieces for the next Art Around the Park walk.
Artist Chris Metze’s acrylic-and-pencil-on-canvas creations, priced at $1,350 to $3,400, have brightened the lobby since the September art walk. People occasionally wander in from the street just to take a look, which is fine with Michael.
“Part of our job is to bring people into the branch and make them aware that we’re here,” he said. “We get to have nice conversations in a non-salesy and non-pushy way.”
A newcomer to Morristown, Michael said he also has met quite a few people through Harry, who opened the Simon Gallery with his wife Mary Ellen in 1996. Each art walk ends with a $25 prix fixe supper at the Eclectic Grill, which offers a chance to network with artists and art lovers in a casual atmosphere against a backdrop of abstract paintings.
“Harry’s a visionary when it comes to expanding art in the community,” said Tom Blundell of the Hyatt Morristown. They met through the Morristown Partnership, and Tom quickly embraced Harry’s concept, which was inspired by popular art walks in Philadelphia.
Bold urethane-on-canvas paintings by Choichun Leung have hung in the hotel’s restaurant throughout the fall. Artworks curated by Harry over the last year have become conversation pieces for international travelers and hotel staffers, who look forward to each new installation, Tom said.
So far, these exhibitions have not sold many paintings. But that’s not the primary goal, according to Harry. Right now he is keen on boosting attendance, which numbered about 150 people for the September art walk. He hopes to double that figure in year two.
The weather is always a wild card: Snow pushed February’s Art Around the Park gathering into March. And gaining a critical mass of galleries–essential to Harry’s dream of an arts hub– is challenging in Morristown, where rents are high, noted Kadie Dempsey of the Arts Council of the Morris Area.
Gallery Egan, a founding member of Art Around the Park, closed last spring. Downtown Boonton, meanwhile, has started creating its own buzz in local art circles.
Morristown’s advantages include the world-class Mayo Performing Arts Center and dozens of restaurants that offer art patrons extra incentives to visit. And new residents at the upscale Vail Mansion and 40 Park condos are discovering the town’s arts scene, Kadie said.
Harry welcomes the galleries springing up in Boonton.
“There are no rivals in the art business,” he said. “The more art there is to see in Morris County and in turn New Jersey, the greater the awareness becomes.” Harry even can envision collaborating with his friends to the north.
It’s just a few more minutes on the shuttle bus.
READ MORE ABOUT ‘ART AROUND THE PARK’
Art Around the Park runs from 5-8 pm in Morristown on Dec. 6. Admission is free. Works by Choichun Leung will be displayed at the Simon Gallery; Marie Vickerilla will be featured at Citibank; Ilene Steglitz paintings will be at the Hyatt Morristown’s Eclectic Grill and Janet Filomeno’s exhibit will hang at Symphony Workplaces. The Gallery at 14 Maple has Remembrance of Things Past, a juried show with 50 artists. At the Atrium Gallery on Court Street, 200 works by 39 artists fill four floors. A post-tour meal at the Eclectic Grill is $25 plus tax.
