Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Warren County YAM


On March 27th Warren County Art Teachers came together at the Independence Township Municipal Building to create a wonderful display of elementary and middle school student art work. The creativity expressed by these teachers and their students was wonderful to behold. From three dimensional works in yarn, watercolors, paintings, and clay creatures to architectural constructions, the various styles of art instilled in many a sense of new possibilities!
Once the show opened, the musicians filed in and the wonderful string ensemble with oboe began, compliments of the Warren County Cultural and Heritage Commission! Beautiful sounds emerged throughout the first floor of food, drinks and art work as parents and children from the different communities began to arrive. Signing the guest book created a backup at the entrance, so many began to slide past the signers to get a seat at the concert! As families drifted past and started toward the lower level, the crowds began to thin until you went downstairs and everyone was admiring the art work! Food went fast, and the two parking lots were jammed with cars parked 100 yards away to the end of the driveway!

It was a wonderful community opportunity!

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Monmouth County YAM

The Monmouth County YAM celebration was jam-packed and standing room only this past week. It was amazing to see the budding young artists and their proud family members! The artwork was incredible and the venue couldn't have been better. The Middletown Arts Center was the perfect back drop for the stunning art and the theater was the perfect place to celebrate each and every artist.
On hand to help the YAM county chairs , Lonell Klina and Arlene Smelson, was the honorable Assemblywoman, Caroline Casagrande, who handed out the certificates and stayed for some fantastic photo opportunities. Also in attendance were AENJ President, Linda Devlin along with Barbara Calvo, Teri Trumpbour and Karen Blenner.

Congratulations to Monmouth County for an amazing evening with the arts!!!!

Burlington County YAM

Burlington County's YAM was held at the Burlington County Comunity College on the evening of March 27th. The event was was well attended by student artists, parents, grandparents and art teachers. Pat Carper Brown and her two co- chairs, Kathleen Cunningham & Sherry Springsteen, did an excellent job of organizing the county show. The children were lost to delicious "air brushed" cup cakes to celebrate the NJ theme "Celebrate Art" .

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Passaic County YAM

The Passaic County YAM was held at the Lewis Bay Library in Hawthorne, NJ. The event was a huge success!
Kathy Benevento was once again our Passaic County YAM Chair along with Karen Stasik Sudol. The mayor of Hawthorne stopped by the YAM festivities along with the Hawthorne Police Chief. Everyone was excited to see these two VIPs at the event.

As students walked in, they were asked to sign in. Many of them took their time writing as if they were creating a piece of art with their signature. The students and their families then enjoyed the artwork and the yummy refreshments.

The YAM families were also treated to live music provided by local Passaic County schools. First an elementary band played some music, then a HS orchestra took over.

Even with all this excitement, students and their families took time to sit, relax, enjoy the music and create some art. Some students doodled on paper, while others colored in t-shirts that could be purchased at the sign in table.
What a wonderful day for art in Passaic County!




State YAM Reception Elementary & MS
















State YAM Reception- High School







Monday, March 23, 2009

Hunterdon County YAM

The Hunterdon YAM was Jammed!!! We had a full-house attend the Third Hunterdon YAM Artists Reception on Sunday, March 22nd. Grandparents, parents, and lots of children viewed the Art on display.

The children also enjoyed drawing and sculpting cakes and other creatures with model magic clay.
Our sponsors donated art supplies, cookies and juice for our young artists. Many families hung around the gallery for the duration of the event. A good time was had by all!

The link to the Hunterdon YAM website is: http://yamhunterdon.webs.com/ State YAM selections can be seen here: http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=115139

Bergen County YAM


Bergen County's YAM was once again a great success! Hundreds if not thousands of people jam-packed the exhibit area of the IKEA Paramus Restaurant!


Artwork from schools all over Bergen County provided their own free standing exhibit boards for the artwork. It felt like a real gallery, weaving in and out of these amazing pieces of art! Not only were proud families and art teachers in attendance, but there were MANY principals and administrators at the event, sharing in the enjoyment and excitment of the arts! AENJ Fellows, Rick Lasher & Gloria Pappalardo also stopped by.

Children were also treated to a face painting table and a doodle table, where children of all ages used crayons and paint markers, or as I like to call them "dotters." Kudos to Genecie Camacho for another great job this year!




Sunday, March 15, 2009

The Somerset County Youth Art Month Exhibit is held at the Somerset Art Associaton (SAA) in Bedminister, NJ and is chaired by AENJ Past President, Susan Bivona. The exhibit has been at SAA for the past 7 years and a BIG thank you goes out to Robyn Tromeur, Director of SAA and all the volunteers from SAA who helped hang this exhibit. Student artists and their families enjoyed viewing the artwork and were inspired as they walked throught the exhibit and art studios.
Cool paint buckets were on display at the refreshment table and sponsor forms were scattered throughout the event. TARGET was even a sponsor of the event!

This K-6 YAM Exhibit was the first part of the Somerset YAM Festivities. The next celebration will be on March 29th for Grades 7-12. Great job Susan!

All the work can be viewed at our Artsonia, On-line Gallery @ www.artsonia.com/somerset1

Cumberland, Gloucester & Salem YAM

Today, Teri Trumpbour and Jude Harzer attended a YAM event in South Jersey at Appel Farms.

It was awesome! They had great attendance! It was beautiful, well organized,and there were many hands on activities (along with great refreshments!)

There were 2 Sandy Skoglund inspired installations...one had 1,000 ceramic white mice made by students and the other was cast plaster hands! Great fun!
The YAMs on Parade Activity was one of our Grant Winners and was well worth AENJ's grant money. Students created their own unique "Potato Heads" using YAMS and craft supplies. The children had a great time!

This tri-county YAM exhibit was very impressive and Jude & Teri even had the opportunity to meet Mr. Appel who started the art complex 50 years ago for his creative children in the midst of farm country!

Flat Stanley Appears....

Flat Stanley appears at NJ YAM Events!
Flat Stanley had fun making origami at the Hudson County YAM Reception...
be on the lookout for Flat Stanley and his cousins at an art event near you!





Middlesex County YAM

March 14th was a busy day! After attending the Hudson County YAM, I went down the Turnpike to Middlesex County's YAM Festivities at the Middlesex County College Campus. The YAM exhibit was on display in a college student gallery with natural lighting. Many families and artists were already there posing for pictures and smiling proudly.
Joanne Gianfrancesco did a wonderful job with the exhibit and also in advocacy. Most of the senators and assemblymen in the county along with some mayors proclaimed March as Youth Art Month. Governor Corzine send a proclamation and asked the Middlesex Executive County Superintendent, Patrick Piegari, to attend the reception in his place. Patrick Piegari read the proclamation to the crowd and discussed the importance of the arts. Then awards were given to each student artist with a great goodie bag filled with art supplies donated by Triarco, Sax and Blick!

Joanne also displayed all of the proclamations on a table along with a poster showing the 6 pieces selected to represent the county at the Statehouse. Yummy brownies, cookies and other refreshments were also available on another table.
Another great county YAM event!



Hudson County YAM

On March 14th, I had the pleasure of attending the Hudson County YAM Reception at the Historic CRRNJ Train Station. What an amazing site! It is on Liberty State Island with views of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and the NYC Skyline.
Hundreds of people during the week of March 7th to March 14th viewed the artwork as they boarded the Liberty Ferries! The artwork was displayed on both easels and existing red display units that the State Park loaned for YAM use.

Many participating artists and their families attended the reception with their art teachers to receive their award and a free gift donated by General Pencil. A YAM Flag was displayed next to Artsonia copies of the 6 State Winners' entries that will be on display in Trenton. Brochures were also available for everyone to take home as a momento.

KUDOS to Ed Lu and Jenn Tiongson for finding this wonderful reception site and for creating this wonderful event for the children of Hudson County!

View the Hudson County YAM art online at: www.artsonia.com/schools/aenj2

Friday, March 13, 2009

Thank You Board

Our new THANK YOU BOARD for companies that donated products to our YAM event.
* Artsonia- discounted boxes of art cards
* Blick Art Materials- Six $25 gift certificates for YAM Design Winners
* Costco of Union- $20 Gift Card for refreshments
* Dunkin' Donuts- discounted Boxes of Joe
* Nasco- sample boxes of Crayola pastels for YAM artists
* Sargent- art supply for YAM artists
* Sax Arts- sample markers for YAM artists
* Shop Rite of Garwood- cookie platters
* Wagner Foto Screen Process- setup printing fees for YAM T-shirts

State YAM Setup

Tonight was our State YAM Setup! A big thanks go to Debbie Greh, Jude Harzer, Sharon Henneborn, Ursula Accumanno & her daughter, Linda Devlin, and Ellen Silverman for helping with the YAM Setup- it was up in the blink of an eye! Setup started around 4:45pm and was completely finished by 6:15pm.

Here's your sneak peek at the Exhibit:


Hope to see many of you at the Closing Reception on March 20th! For more info, go to http://www.aenj.org/