We asked our Facebook friends to share their Halloween-related activities with us. Here’s what they had to say (you can click on each of the headers for their respective websites):

Harmonium Choral Society

Family-Friendly Halloween Concert presented by Harmonium Choral Society and Grace Community Music on Sunday, October 30th at 3 p.m. at Grace Church, Madison, NJ. $5 per person or $15 per family & a non-perishable food donation at the door. The concert is appropriate for ages 3-300. Costumes welcome! For more information: 973-377-0106 x17.

Featuring the Grace Church School Choirs (50 choristers ages 7-17), Gargoyles (teen guys a capella), the Harmonium Chamber Singers & Outreach Chorus, and spooky organ music. From Bach to Rock, from Grieg to Michael Jackson, pirates, spiders, nursery rhymes and more! Dr. Anne Matlack, directing.

West Windsor Arts Center

West Windsor Arts Center community dance on Saturday, October 29th from 7:00 to 9:00pm. Ballroom dance instruction 7:00-7:30 followed by open dance. Costumes encouraged, but not required. Tickets $12 / $10 members / $6 students including a refreshment. For more information, go to www.westwindsorarts.org or call 609.716.1931

Lustig Dance Theatre

LDT’s 2nd Anniversary Celebration Performance at Middlesex County College on October 23rd at 3:30pm will have a post-performance Halloween Costume Contest! The performance will conclude with Graham Lustig’s “Luna Mexicana,” inspired by Day of the Dead.

We will also host a Halloween Party at our New Brunswick Studio on October 30 from 3-4:30 with games, crafts, spooky treats and Halloween glitter tattoos. Call 732-246-7300 for more info or visit www.lustigdancetheatre.org.

Center for Contemporary Art

On Thursday, Oct. 20th volunteers from The Center for Contemporary Art and Starbucks will hold a children’s pumpkin painting workshop from 4:30-6:30 p.m. Pumpkins, paints and decorative dazzle will await you and your child – just bring your creativity and a smile. From silly to spooky your creation will surely be the talk of your block!

To participate, contact Ellen Rannells, Special Events Coordinator at 908.234.2345 or erannells@ccabedminster.org. The Center is located at 2020 Burnt Mills Road in Bedminster.

Arts Council of the Morris Area

Pumpkin carvers of all ages are invited to bring their masterpieces to the Vail Mansion on South Street in Morristown on October 30th and display them along the reflecting pool for all to enjoy. Bring your already carved pumpkin to this free community event, and at 5pm enjoy Scary Storytelling at Mayo Center for the Arts followed by the Pumpkin Illumination at 6pm. You may drop your pumpkin off at the Vail Mansion at 4:45 if you are planning on attending the storytelling event!

A Cemetery Tour from 5pm-6pm will also be offered – reservations can be made through the Morris County Tourism Bureau. The Cemetery Tour concludes at the Vail Mansion at 6pm.

A very special guest at this year’s event will be Grow It Green Morristown’s – giant pumpkin! If you haven’t heard about this Pumpkin, watch this short video!

Discover Jersey Arts

And don’t miss Discover Jersey Arts’ Halloween Guide to scare up some more Halloween fun.

If you have more activities to add, leave them in the comments section below. And if you aren’t already there, please join our community on Facebook!

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We’re pretty excited.  This fall, we’re visiting High Schools that have never hosted a Dodge Poetry Event before.  They may have attended the Dodge Poetry Festival or attended another High School’s Mini-Festival.  The teachers may have participated in Clearing the Spring, Tending the Fountain. This year they took the leap to invite the poets directly into their building.  Here’s a preview of what’s happening this Fall:

• The Academy of the Holy Angels in Demarest, NJ is hosting a Dodge Poet Visit with Patrick Phillips.
• Belvidere High School in Warren County is hosting a Mini-Festival featuring BJ Ward and Maria Mazziotti Gillan.
• North Star Academy Charter High School in Newark is hosting a Mini-Festival featuring Newark native Kyle Dargan.  We’re working on the rest of the line-up.
• Spotswood High School is hosting a Mini-Festival featuring Joe Weil and Emari DiGiorgio.
• St. Mary’s High School in Elizabeth is hosting a Poet Visit with John Murillo.
• University High School in Newark is hosting a Poet Visit. We’re working on setting that up.

Dodge Poet Visits and Dodge Poetry Mini-Festivals are a chance for high school students to explore poetry with accomplished, published Dodge Poets. Dodge Poets give students a way to relate to poetry that is interesting and relevant to them, and through their modeling of curiosity and discovery, encourage students to be lifelong readers and poetry lovers.

We are scheduling more events for the 2011-2012 school year, and we’ll give you an update in a few months. We co-sponsor Poet Visits and Mini-Festivals according to each school’s financial need.  We identify and schedule your Dodge Poets, ensuring that your event is meaningful for your students.

If you think you’d like a Dodge Poetry event in your high school, contact Michele Russo, Poetry Coordinator at mrusso@grdodge.org or 973-540-8442 x113.

***

Support the Dodge Poetry Archive and Poetry Program. Click here.
Or visit our pop up shop – all proceeds go to the Dodge Poetry Program!

Did you know that the Dodge Poetry Program has a YouTube channel? Take a look – view video clips from past biennial Festivals! You can also join the conversation on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter @dodgepoetryfest. See you there!

Several of us on the Dodge staff made it to Art All Night in Trenton last weekend.  What an amazing event!  Hundreds and hundreds of artworks were on display—artists as young as 10 months old to artists who have clearly worked over many years honing their vision and their craft.  There were artists creating work on the spot, great music, food, and a few interactive projects for us to join in.

There was no way to experience it all, which in its own way was freeing.  Often when I go to an exhibit, I feel a pressure to “see it all” and “get it all” but at Art All Night, I found myself simply wandering and allowing myself to connect with whatever artwork was speaking to me at that moment.  When I talked with my colleagues who’d attended, I was amazed to find out that we each saw things the others did not. That’s how rich it was.  Our congratulations go to the staff and volunteers of Artworks for their tireless work in producing such an ambitious event.

Below you’ll find some photos that my colleagues and I took at the event.  We apologize that we did not write down the artists’ names to credit them in this blog post. We are trying to identify the artists, but if you happen to know them or be one of them, let us know and we’ll post it.

Dandelion by Kate Sparacio

Art met industrial history and invited the City of Paterson, aka Silk City, to re-imagine itself, to connect past and present, and to listen to voices and visions of transformation. Last Saturday, the Paterson Arts Council curated…Paterson! The 2011 Arts Walk came to life as volunteers converted vacant mills, green spaces, restaurants and businesses into compelling exhibition spaces.

To lovers of urban architecture, Industry Mill, Congdon Mill and Harmony Mill are in and of themselves art in terms of early twentieth century architectural design, but to most, they stand as abandoned relics of Paterson’s past glory. During the Art Walk, though, floor after floor of mill space was punctuated by visual art, performance art, music and poetry. The event was, in essence, a one day pass to peer into the industrial past, be inspired by more than 200 artists, and think about the potential of the mills to permanently support the creative, industrious and immigrant spirit of the city.

The vaulting ceilings, the sometimes painted, sometimes exposed brick, the near full story windows, the interior columns – these stunning, sometimes eerie features provided the blank slate for the exhibitions. Clearly, the art work graced the buildings, but at times the architectural elements graced the paintings, photographs and installations.

I spent most of my time in Industry Mill – an expansive and impressive five story edifice that alone showcased 45 artists. Climbing the stairs, I passed old work safety posters, which ushered in thoughts of productivity and manufacturing madness.

But one foot in the converted space and the thoughts turned to the arts as a force for social change. One installation featured images of abandoned spaces, another focused on mixed wood and paint for a grounded whimsical effect.

A board member of the Paterson Arts Council, Giovawna Cecchetti, talked about her 1995 “shadow series” that brought her face to face with emotional wounds that had kept her from facing her future. Her newer series on healing themes defines her now, but the shadow series spoke to the space and the notion of confronting the past and present in order to permanently convert these buildings into new uses.

The artists and Arts Council members have no shortage of what they’d like to see happen in these spaces. Artists studios, teaching and training space, artist housing, exhibition space. They want arts to anchor and stimulate the rebirth of these old buildings, as well as to serve as an economic engine for the city.

A similar event is about to take place this weekend in Trenton. Art All Night 2011 will transform the Roebling Wire Works factory and its environs into a 24 hour gallery and exhibition experience (from 3 pm on Saturday, June 18, to 3 pm on Sunday, June 19). The event features more than 800 diverse artists and various art mediums. Art re-awakens the historic factory space and signals that Trenton’s creative class is ready to fuel broader scale redevelopment.

These initiatives are becoming signature events in New Jersey’s older industrial centers. They attract and provide benefits for local and global artists. They build community and bring a sense of celebration to these urban spaces. They may be temporary exhibitions, but they result in lasting impacts and social change.

How are arts affecting redevelopment in the places you know and love?

Link here for a video and report on the Arts Walk.

Link here to connect with Sustainable Jersey to see how your town can earn points toward certification by incorporating Arts, Culture and Historic Preservation efforts.

Link here to explore Creative New Jersey’s first series of answers to the question of how creativity and innovation can revitalize New Jersey.

Over the past two days, more than 150 people participated in the Creative New Jersey conference, discussing how creativity and innovation can help revitalize New Jersey. (See this earlier blog post for background on the conference).

This was no ordinary conference, with the agenda predetermined. Rather, the conference followed an “open space” format, which has minimal structure. As shown in the photos below, participants set the agenda for the two days by suggesting topics for discussion and posting them on large sheets of paper to the “Marketplace” wall, labeled with a time and meeting room where the conversation would take place. Participants then chose from the Marketplace which conversations they wanted to join throughout the two days, remembering that if they weren’t feeling engaged or inspired by the discussion, they could leave at any time and join a different one (the “rule of two feet”).

Discussions covered a huge range of topics, including “How do we create meaningful work for young people?” and “How can we use public space to inspire innovation and revitalize communities?” as well as “Teaching to and measuring for creativity” and “If you have all the political support and money you needed (!) what would be your crazy BIG IDEA to encourage creativity and innovation in NJ?”

Even those are just a small fraction of what took place.

Intrigued? You should be. There was no shortage of ideas, connections made and meaningful conversations.  And thanks to a coordinated effort and effective use of technology, all of these discussions have been captured and shared in real time on the CreativeNJ website. There, you can also find short, interesting interviews of the conference’s participants, as well as information about who was at the conference, and a gallery of photos.

It’s a lot of information and ideas to absorb – whether you were there or not. We urge you to take a look and get inspired, but we also urge you to take your time looking over the website to see what sparks your imagination (you can search by areas of interest), and revisit it occasionally.

Dodge helped sponsor and lead this effort because we care about the future livability of New Jersey – we’re focused on the issues that our home state faces and believe in supporting creativity, which we know takes on many different forms. We continually strive to bring people together in new and unexpected ways: we want to help spark ideas, make connections, and help you discover new resources.

Now that the conference is over, we have some questions for those who participated, but also for those of you who are thinking about the issues that New Jersey faces:

How do we keep the conversation and the momentum going?
What connections with other people and/or resources do you need help making?

Dodge has an arsenal of resources to offer: we make grants, of course, but we also have capacity building workshops to help you strengthen your organization as well as a suite of other financial and legal services that we underwrite. We can help you convene groups of people and make cross-sector connections, and we can offer you the conference space in which to hold meetings too. And as a foundation working solely on issues that impact New Jersey, we can also offer you our staff’s expertise, which we have developed over many years of criss-crossing the state, meeting with stakeholders from all sectors.

If you have ideas, questions, or comments, we want to hear them. Post them in the comments section below and help us keep the conversation rolling.

Images: Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation

-William Carlos Williams, Doctor and Poet, Rutherford, NJ

In just under two weeks (June 14 and 15), the Creative New Jersey Open Space – a two-day “meeting of the minds” – will take place with 150 registered participants who will discuss and brainstorm ideas for revitalizing New Jersey.

Some background on the event:

For more than two centuries, innovation and creativity from New Jerseyans have transformed the world through their invaluable and unique contributions. From the inventions of tetracycline (Pfizer Corporation, 1923) and the drive-in theatre (Richard Hollingshead, 1933) to the light bulb (Thomas Edison, 1876), condensed soup (Campbell Soup, 1894), the vast body of work of Albert Einstein and the Center for Advanced Studies and the transformative innovations of Bell Labs, our State has historically been at the forefront of innovation. Leading pharmaceutical and health care products companies as well as those who focus on manufacturing, industry, research and technology have called New Jersey home for many years. The creative products and services that have been developed by these giants have helped solve problems, provided new opportunities, made life more efficient and enjoyable, and have changed the world. It is clear that these companies and individuals have contributed to the State’s economy and have inspired hundreds of new and emerging businesses.

Today, our state faces enormous challenges in multiple fronts:

• The current stakes are high – New Jersey faces enormous economic, social, cultural, educational and environmental challenges.

• In 1999 New Jersey was 4th in the nation in patents. Now we are 9th while places like Washington State, Massachusetts, Michigan and Illinois have leaped ahead of us. This represents a decline of 32% in patents.

• In 1990, New Jersey accounted for 20% of the jobs in the pharmaceutical industry. Today this number is now 12%.

• A decade ago we were recognized as the center for the nation’s telecommunications industry. No more.

• From 2000 to 2009 we rank 47th in net migration (46th in the latest year-over-year period) only ahead of New York, Michigan, California and Illinois.

• We rank 45th in debt per resident.

• We are recognized as one of the worst states for businesses and entrepreneurs.

• We lead the nation in college student migration.

In order to bolster the State’s economic situation, there must be a renewed movement to support a climate that fosters creativity, innovation and sustainability in our diverse society. Action and perseverance to forward this agenda are needed to stimulate our economy quickly with an eye to workforce development and sustainable growth.

The 2-day Creative New Jersey Open Space will explore the intersections of our collective work and what we can do together that we can not do alone. The hope is to develop new collaborations and partnerships with local, state and private entities within New Jersey that share the same goals:

• Empower all New Jerseyans to develop their capacities for creativity, innovation and sustainability.

• Support the growth of an entrepreneurial economy that will stimulate new careers, companies and industries.

• Create and sustain world-class cultural and educational opportunities.

• Promote new opportunities for creativity, innovation and sustainability at all levels – in education, in government, in the work place and in the daily lives of all New Jerseyans.

Fortunately there are some outstanding state models that New Jersey can build upon to achieve these ambitious goals, such as Choose New Jersey, Innovation New Jersey, Sustainable Jersey, and ArtsPlan New Jersey.

The convening will provide stakeholders with an understanding of the urgent need for this initiative, demonstrate the potential of a more creative economy, and launch the conversation on how to move this new collective vision for a more creative and sustainable New Jersey forward.

Although registration for this event has reached its maximum attendance, you can follow it online at the Creative NJ website and see the program schedule here. And if you’re on Twitter, follow both @CreativeNJ and the #CreativeNJ hashtag to see all of the tweets on June 14 and 15.

If you are interested in receiving summary documents from the convening and/or notification of future Creative New Jersey events please join the mailing list.

Also, stay tuned for a wrap up of this event on our blog.

May 13, 2011

The Dodge Poetry Festival, the four PBS series’ on poetry hosted by Bill Moyers (all of which featured extensive footage from the Dodge Festival), the Favorite Poem Project and the poetry slams and open mikes that have sprung up across the country have all been part of a wave of events over the last several decades that have created greater public awareness of poetry’s important place in our lives.  They debunked the myth that poetry was an elitist art limited to specialists and academics, and proved there is an extensive community (though often underground) that cares deeply about poetry.

Another event that helped further debunk this myth was the Giving Voice session at this year’s two-day Arts Seminar for Leadership New Jersey and Leadership Newark, held at Newark Symphony Hall and NJPAC on May 10^th and 11th.  These two organizations are made up of leaders from every sector: finance, social services, arts administration, marketing, real estate, education, media, health, engineering, insurance and government to name a few, and they all have a commitment to their communities.

(Leadership NJ Class of 2011)

Giving Voice is a familiar title and activity for the thousands of New Jersey teachers who have participated in Clearing the Spring, Tending the Fountain, Dodge’s poetry discussion groups designed specifically for them.  But this was the first time we offered this experience to a large group of professionals, most of whom worked outside of education.

I joined five Dodge Poets—Robert Carnevale, Catherine Doty, Madeline Tiger, BJ Ward and Gretna Wilkinson—in leading these sessions.  We were all excited and a little intimidated by the thought of leading groups that were not made up entirely of teachers.  We soon learned that some participants were far more apprehensive than we were.  One participant confessed he had dreaded the thought of participating in any activity that involved poetry.

Former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins has said that “high school is the place where poetry goes to die.”  Unfortunately, many of us were not lucky enough to have English teachers like those who participate in the Dodge Poetry Program, teachers passionate enough about poetry and their work to put their own personal time into deepening their connection to poetry and expand their reservoir of ways to share it with students.

But for many of us, our classroom encounters with poetry left us feeling alienated from it.  Perhaps because our failure to perceive in poems what our teacher could see with such apparent ease made us feel inadequate (forgetting he’d been reading and teaching the same texts for years or decades), we rejected poetry.  This is not unlike our response when we trip over a threshold and curse it: we attack what makes us feel clumsy or stupid.  Or, because our responses to poems were not acknowledged or validated, we dismissed poetry as just not for us.

But, as I wrote in the recent blog on Beginner’s Mind, there is nothing more natural, more essentially human, than for us to be drawn to poetry.  Even before we know a single word we are in love with creating rhythms with repeated speech sounds.  Baby-talk is full of rhyme, repetition, assonance and alliteration.  We grow up memorizing nursery rhymes, children’s poems and song lyrics.  In the aftermath of 9-11, newspaper editorial offices were swamped with poems, many from people who didn’t care if they were published.  They just needed someone to see the poems they had written.  On a very basic level, we all understand that for some experiences and emotions, only poetry will do.

Members of Leadership New Jersey and Leadership Newark had an opportunity, to re-experience this essential connection to poetry in their Giving Voice session on Tuesday.  Given a packet of diverse and engaging poems, they were asked to take some time to simply sit and read them. (A number of participants spoke of how much they treasured this rare opportunity to slow down for contemplation and reflection.)  Then they were asked to choose one poem they’d like to hear aloud right now, in this space, with this group, on this particular day.

Many years ago, at the Dodge Poetry Festival, Li-Young Lee paused in the middle of his main-stage reading to comment, “you can almost hear the listening,” the audience was so attentive.  The Giving Voice participants that afternoon honored each others’ offerings with that same quality of attentive listening.  No one was asked to explain the poems they chose, to analyze or interpret them.  Instead, we talked of our personal connections to them.  Afterwards, one Leadership New Jersey member said that over the past year he’d gotten to know his colleagues “in a business sense,” but this was the first time he felt “he’d really gotten to know them as people.”

As the day was wrapping up, all the Dodge Poets were filled with gratitude for the attentiveness and generosity of spirit they’d witnessed among the participants, and eager to introduce Giving Voice sessions to people from all walks of life.  The participant who’d confessed to dreading the activity all day?  He admitted, smiling warmly, “It really wasn’t all that bad.”

One participant said she found this experience so meditative and refreshing that she was going to take some time out of every day, even if only five minutes, to just sit quietly and read a poem or two.  We’ve probably all got a book somewhere in the house that contains some poems.  And there are plenty of sites on the web that feature poetry.  This weekend, between all the activities that fill the days, try giving yourself the gift of poetry, even for just a few moments.

Follow the Poetry Program on Twitter @DodgePoetryFest
Join the conversation with fellow poetry enthusiasts on Facebook

A packet of diverse and lively poems was prepared as a resource for the day's activities. (Lauren Rutten Photography)

Featured poet Marie Ponsot gave two readings—one of her own work, which spans over 60 years of writing, and another reading of poems she loves. (Lauren Rutten Photography)

In smaller discussions, participants shared what moved them about poems from the packet or other poems they brought. (Lauren Rutten Photography)

There was an open reading for teachers to share their work. (Lauren Rutten Photography)

Some workshops incorporated sensory experiences and yoga as away to access the imagination. (Lauren Rutten Photography)

Marie Ponsot’s and Dodge Poets’ books were sold at a discount so that teachers could refresh their collections. (Lauren Rutten Photography)

Marie Ponsot signed books for her eager fans. (Lauren Rutten Photography)

For a full write—up of the day, go to The Princeton Packet.

***

In addition to hosting Clearing the Spring, Tending the Fountain, The Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Program co-sponsors school festivals in New Jersey high schools.  For more information, contact Michele Russo, Poetry Coordinator.

View video clips of poetry readings from past biennial festivals.

Become a Friend with a donation to the Dodge Poetry Program.

By Ann Marie Miller
Executive Director
Art Pride

Seeking inspiration? Want to know about the future of arts funding in New Jersey? How about a sneak peek at the next generation of actors, performers, and visual artists? Then join us for Arts Day in Trenton on May 5.

Arts Day is a great opportunity to learn something new, recharge your battery, and become a stronger arts advocate.

Come hear special guest and keynote speaker Ben Cameron, Arts Program Director for the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. His dynamic style will leave you feeling challenged and invigorated. And did you know? Ben is from Maplewood, so we can boast that this TED talker has Jersey roots!

And given the difficult economic climate, you will want to hear an update on federal and state funding for the arts and how that plays into the “big picture.” Joe Simonetta, government affairs advisor to ArtPride, will offer his inside view on the current political climate and how it affects the non-profit arts industry.

Other highlights you can expect:

- Discover Jersey Arts will launch its new mobile app (the first of its kind in New Jersey) which makes finding arts events not only a breeze, but fun.

- ArtPride will conduct its annual membership meeting and discuss its plans to make the organization a leaner and more effective advocacy organization.

- The Governor’s Awards in Arts Education will be presented at the NJ State Museum Auditorium where a multigenerational crowd will enjoy perfomances and honor distinguished arts leaders who have made a difference in arts education around the State. The New Jersey Arts Education Partnership hosts the award ceremony, which is followed by a dessert reception in the State Museum.

Why attend Arts Day? This is the second time Art Pride has partnered with the NJ Arts Education Partnership to celebrate all that is great about the arts in our State. It’s the perfect way to get charged up as we push full force into spring and summer and emerge from the grant writing doldrums of those rough winter months. And, this may be the only time you see your colleague from Bergen County or Cape May outside of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts awards in July.

For more information and to register (limited seating is available, and there may be some last minute tweaks to the schedule and logistics) visit jerseyarts.com/artsday.

Be there!

Follow ArtPride on Twitter
Like them on Facebook

The festival kicked off last night with a Word Jam.  Middle and high school students from Burnet Street School, Louise A. Spencer School and Newark Innovation Academy performed poems they wrote in NJPAC’s In-School Residencies, coordinated by the NJPAC Arts Education staff.  Tamesha Hawkins, a professional poet and performer who studied in NJPAC’s Arts Training program and Shamsuddin  “Sham” Abdul-Hamid, a 2010 NJPAC Women’s Association/Star-Ledger Scholarship recipient emceed the night. Over 60 students attended and 30 student performers shared their poems with the enthusiastic crowd.

Alternate Routes Hip Hop Festival founder and producer, Baraka Sele, believes students, educators, youth and elders will learn that Hip Hop is not always misogynistic, materialistic or violent.  “While Hip Hop artists are still rappin’ and beat-boxin’ and b-boyin’, they are also curating art exhibitions, making films and producing theater, as well as becoming authors, cultural critics, institution builders, politicians and social entrepreneurs.  We want to showcase all the ways they contribute positively to society.”

Tonight, Newark-born spoken word artist, Taalam Acey, will host a night of spoken word artists from across the country.  Acey’s work has been featured on BET, in Essence magazine, at the Sundance Film Festival, and the 2010 Dodge Poetry Festival.  Several of the artists who will perform have participated in HBO’s Def Poetry Jam and have appeared or worked with such artists as Amiri Baraka, Dead Prez, Lauryn Hill, Mos Def, and Sonia Sanchez.

Go to the NJPAC Hip Hop website for a full schedule of events and to save your spot at the festival.