SOMERSET YAM, 6 - 12 grade exhibit

On Sunday, March 25, 2006 we had the second artist's reception for the students in 6th through 12th grade. As you can see the walls were filled with artwork! Once again the Somerset Art Association was filled with proud artists! Family members and friends gathered to celebrate as well. Three pieces of artwork were selected from this exhibit to move on to the State Youth Art Month Exhibit held at the State House in Trenton, NJ the first week of March! Each of these artists received a certificate and student membership to the Somerset Art Association.

SOMERSET COUNTY YAM, K- 6 Exhibit

The Johnson Gallery

The Somerset County Youth Art Month Exhibit is held at the Somerset Art Associaton (SAA) in Bedminister, NJ. Co-Chairs Deborah Huff & Liz Stutzman, both art teachers at Bridgewater-Raritan Regional High School organized the two exhibits. Part I, March 4 - 14, 2007, highlights the talents of children in Kindergarten through 5th grade and Part II, march 18 - 31, 2007, highlights work created in 6th through 12th grade. Above you see photos from the first exhibit. Six pieces of artwork were selected from these two exhibits to go on to the State Youth Art Month Exhibit at the State House in Trenton. The award winners from Part I are, Nikhil Kapadia, Grade 5, Mount Propsect School (Art Teacher, Susan Bivona); Katherine Gallagher, Grade 1, Bradley Gardens School (Art Teacher, Lani Montgomery) and Rohit Rustagi, Grade 3, Triangle School (Art Teacher, Nancy Knutsen).

The exhibit has been here at SAA for the past 5 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.

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

BERGEN COUNTY YAM

All I can say is WOW! I could not believe the numbers of people attending the Bergen County YAM show! The YAM exhibit was held at IKEA Paramus and hundreds of people were in attendance viewing the fabulous artwork created by the Bergen County students. It was so packed you could barely walk through the large exhibit space!
Student artists and families enjoyed the delicious refreshments, colored some famous artworks, posed for photographs, and talked to their art teachers. A camera crew from a local TV station, Channel 77, walked around and interviewed the artists by the artwork. Each art teacher stood by his or her school display board, greeted each family, and presented art certificates to the students. Paige DeFelice, the Bergen County YAM Chair even handed out beautiful corsages for each teacher!

It was definitely another successful YAM event in NJ! KUDOS!

MONMOUTH YAM

The Monmouth County YAM Show was held at the Monmouth Museum in Lincroft, NJ. The exhibit was held in the Nilson Gallery and in the hallway. The wonderful part of this YAM exhibit is that students and families were invited to view the other galleries of the museum. Many families took advantage of this and spent time in the amazing photography exhibit. Thanks to Avis & Julia for providing this gallery space to the Monmouth County YAM staff and participating artists.

The exhibit was well attended and many county art teachers were in attendance to present awards to his or her students. The children were so excited to see their art teachers on the weekend! The Main Gallery was packed with proud families taking pictures of the student artists with their art teachers. The chairs- Aletha Keogh, Mychelle Kendrick, and Lonell Klina- put together a very nice show for the art students in Monmouth County!

MIDDLESEX COUNTY YAM

The Middlesex YAM show took place at the Middlesex County College. The show was displayed in Edison Hall on the college campus with some artistic mannequins looking through classroom windows. It seemed as if those mannequins wished they could be out in the hallway enjoying the artwork!

The night was a great success as the County YAM Chair, Joanne Gianfrancesco, strolled around, talking to student artists and families, and passing out YAM Certificates. Art teachers, families, and student artists were happy to be there and had a great time viewing the amazing artwork, posing for pictures, and eating the yummy refresments (which by the way were placed next to some great proclamations signed by 2 mayors and 2 assemblymen!

HUNTERDON COUNTY YAM

What a wonderful start to YAM in Hunterdon County. This was the first official YAM exhibit in this county and it could not have started off in a better way!


Artwork was exhibited at the Hunterdon Medical Center in Flemington. Easels built by the Boy Scouts and tables were used to display the large variety of student artwork. On display was everything from multicolor prints, creative still life compositions, tessellations, canvas paintings, and much more.


A HUGE KUDOS goes to Ursula Accumanno & Jane Sutley for taking on this big accomplishment of creating the first official YAM exhibit in the county! For a first exhibit, many teachers participated and there was a large gallery of student artwork.

While viewing the show, I had the chance to meet many families and student artists. I met one of Jane Sutley's students who was just extraordinary and really inspired me. He was an 8th grader who attended the show with his sketchbook in hand and a ton of photos that he had taken. The photos were just breathtaking! Meeting this boy showed me even more how important YAM is and how much our art programs in NJ are creating these little artists! Try to go to some of these YAM shows or support local student shows in your county and also be inspired by these kids!

OCEAN COUNTY YAM

The Ocean County YAM festivities were held at the Jackson Branch Library and was well attended. Artwork was hung beautifully on the walls and the kids were so excited.
Best of all, the Jackson High School art students were participating by painting the kids' faces! Flowers, butterflies, and basketballs were proudly exhibited on the cheeks of many little artists.
Holly Callahan & Karen Blenner were wonderful YAM chairs and even had the Jackson Township Mayor there proclaiming Youth Art Month and a US Senator presenting a YAM proclamation!

The students were called up to receive their awards and a special gift donated by Mike Pecci from Crayola. The students even received a cool tie-dye smock!
It was a wonderful day for all who attended!

UNION COUNTY YAM

On February 28th, Union County started off our YAM activities at IKEA in Elizabeth. Over 90 pieces of art were displayed in IKEA's front balcony area from 28 schools in the county. Many student artists, their families, and art teachers participated in the event. The families entered the building and proceeded up the escalator to the balcony area. It was so wonderful hearing all the comments and compliments being made about the student artwork.
After viewing the artwork, everyone headed to the IKEA Restaurant for an awards ceremony. Josephine Hernandez, the Union County State Board of Education Representative, attended the festivities and was thrilled to be there. All of the student artists and their teachers came up our catwalk for awards and pictures. IKEA even gave each student artist who attended a free calculator!
Families enjoyed the event and even spent some time eating dinner at the restaurant and shopping in the store. Did I mention that they also loved the refreshments and free drinks provided by IKEA?
It was a wonderful night celebrating youth art and a great way to get YAM festivities rolling!

Youth Art Month 2007

That time of the year is here again- YOUTH ART MONTH!

My name is Carrie Davey & I am the new AENJ Advocacy & State YAM Chairwoman. I am looking forward to a wonderful month filled with art exhibits & celebrations around the state.

Here is a listing of all the county YAM shows:
Atlantic & Cape May Counties
The Noyes Museum, OceanvilleMarch 1st- April 9th
RECEPTION: March 24th, 1-3pm
Bergen County
IKEA, Paramus
March 16th- April 18th
RECEPTION: March 22nd, 6 to 8pm

Burlington County
Burlington County College, Pemberton
March 17th- March 31stRECEPTION: March 31st, 12:30-1:30pm

Camden County
Echelon Mall, Voorhees
March 3rd- March 30th
RECEPTION: March 25th, 1-2:30pm
Cumberland & Salem Counties
Millville Library, Millville
March 10th- April 7th
RECEPTION: March 16th, 6-8pm

Essex County
Essex County Hall of Records, Newark
May 2007

Gloucester County
Rowan University, Education Hall- 1st Floor
March 24th- 30th
RECEPTION: March 29th, 5-7pm

Hudson County
The Landmark Loew's Jersey Theatre, Jersey City
March 11th-19th
RECEPTION: March 14th, 5-7pm

Hunterdon County
Hunterdon Medical Center, Flemington
March 4th- 9th
RECEPTION: March 4th, 2-4pm

Mercer County
Hickory Corner Library, East Windsor
March 4th- April 11th
RECEPTION: March 4th, 2-4pm
Middlesex County
Middlesex County College, Edison Hall
March 5th- 9th
RECEPTION: March 5th, 6:30-8pm

Monmouth County
Monmouth Museum, Lincroft
February 26th- March 26th
RECEPTION: March 11th, 2-3:30pm
Morris County
St. Clare's Hospital, Dover
March 5th- 24th
RECEPTION: March 24th, 2-4pm
Ocean County
Jackson Branch of Ocean County Library System, Jackson
March 1st- 31st
RECEPTION: March 3rd, 2-4pm
Passaic County
Louis Bay Library, Hawthorne
March 5th- 30th
RECEPTION: March 28th, 6-8:30pm

Somerset County
Somerset Art Association
K-5 Exhibit: March 4th- 14th
K-5 RECEPTION: March 4th, 2-3:30pm
6-12 Exhibit: March 18th- 31st
6-12 RECEPTION: March 25th, 2-3:30pm

Sussex County
Sussex County Courthouse, Newton
March 2nd- April 4th
RECEPTION: April 4th, 5:30-7pm

Union County
IKEA, Elizabeth
February 28th- April 1st
RECEPTION: February 28th, 6:30-8pm
Warren County
Exhibit & Reception TBA