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John Cheney – “Spontaneous Hoboken”
August 25 - September 29, 2013.
Hoboken resident and longtime Macy’s Parade Studio float builder John Cheney loves the challenge of drawing in ink. “Ink won’t allow you to go back and erase – you can accommodate errors, but just like in life, you can’t go back and erase a mistake,” he says.
He often takes a sketchpad and a foam cushion and looks for a perch where he can observe scenes of typical Hoboken life. Using good drawing pens with archival ink, Cheney launches right in to a sketch, with no pencil underdrawing. Unlike other media, such as charcoal or pencil or paint, which require the artist to push the medium around on the paper, “ink is excited to come out of the pen,” because of the way paper pulls ink out of the pen. “I know it’s going to be good if the line tingles as it flows out of the pen,” he adds.
His ink drawings fairly dance with vitality. About a dozen were on display from August 25 – September 29, 2013 in the Museum’s Upper Gallery, in an exhibition titled “Spontaneous Hoboken: Ink Drawings by John Cheney.” The exhibit opened with a free reception at the Museum from 2 – 5 pm on Aug. 25.
Click here to see a virtual gallery of the exhibit.
Cheney has been doing these types of drawings since he was about 20 years old. Like many of his generation, he grabbed a knapsack and left his hometown of Manchester, New Hampshire to travel the world, with a sketchpad and ink pens at hand, learning his craft as he went along. “Many of my drawings are pen-and-ink sketches of my travels to Egypt and France, but many are inspired by my adopted home, Hoboken, where I have lived and worked for almost 40 years.”
Cheney returned from his travels to enroll in some classical art training, so he would be comfortable in many media, from large-scale constructions to quick, impressionistic line drawings. He studied art at the University of New Hampshire, the Art Students League in New York, the New York Academy, and the National Academy, but he often prefers working in the medium he fell in love with before his formal schooling, as an itinerant hippie in the ’60s. “My drawings still reflect some elements of what I learned along the way.”
He moved to Hoboken in 1981 after landing a job at Macy’s Parade Studio in 1976, when it was based in the former Tootsie Roll factory at 15th St. and Willow Ave. He obviously enjoys his work, as he has been there ever since! “My career as float builder with the Macy’s Parade Studio enables me to engage all aspects of my artistic training and allows me to construct large-scale innovative parade floats, some as large as 70 feet long, made to be collapsible for easy transport through the Lincoln Tunnel.”
Last year, he applied his skills as a float builder as a lark with some friends for the Coney Island 30th Annual Mermaid Parade. They built and pulled by hand an elaborate 30-foot float, in the theme of Cleopatra’s barge, to honor the anniversary.
This exhibition was made possible by a Block Grant from the State/County Partnership program for the Arts administered by the Hudson County Division of Cultural and Heritage Affairs/Tourism Development, Thomas A. DeGise, County Executive, and the Board of Chosen Freeholders.
Benjamin Roman – “A Child’s Innocence”
May 5 - June 30, 2013; June 9, 4 pm: Artist Talk.
Growing up in the Bronx under the watchful eye of a very protective grandmother, Benjamin Roman Jr. and his sister had a lot of time to while away indoors. He would fill hours sketching scenes of his apartment, images from TV, whatever was in front of him. He enjoyed drawing, but didn’t consider pursuing art as a career until he enrolled in New Jersey City University and met his faculty advisor, Professor Dennis Dittrich, who was also acting President of the Society of Illustrators in New York.
“He encouraged me and inspired me to be a better artist,” Roman says. “He told me, ‘You don’t need a degree to be an artist, but there’s a lot you can learn here.’” In Roman’s final year at NJCU, Professor Dittrich encouraged him to try his hand at watercolors, a medium he had been avoiding because he’d heard it was difficult. He quickly fell in love with the medium, and only regrets he didn’t try it sooner.
A series of Roman’s watercolor portraits of children were on display from May 5 – June 30, 2013 in the Upper Gallery of the Museum in an exhibit titled, “Portraits of Childhood, Watercolors by Benjamin Roman.” The Museum invited the public to an opening reception from 2 – 5 p.m. on May 5, and again for an artist’s talk on June 9 at 4 p.m.
Roman earned a B.A. in Art Communication with a minor in Early Childhood Education, and has been an art teacher for kindergarten, pre-K and pre-school children in area schools for the past 16 years. He now teaches at Beyond Basic Learning, in Hoboken, and paints at least three or four times a week, working on commissioned portraits as well as paintings just for the sake of painting.
Naturally, as a teacher, he finds children a fascinating subject matter, but he also paints portraits of adults, and landscapes. He’s fascinated with the challenge of depicting in his subjects’ expressions the essence of what it means to be young and innocent. “To capture the warmth and heart revealed in a child’s face is my ultimate goal.”
One of his paintings, “Treasure of Innocence,” depicts a group of children in a grassy park, and hangs in the collections of the Union City Museum of Art at the William V. Musto Cultural Center. He’s also self-published two books of his paintings, as well as a book of poetry. Find out more about his work at benswatercolor.com.
Roman likes to work in layers, to give his paintings more detail and depth, almost like working in oils. He finds inspiration in artists as varied as Norman Rockwell, Mary Cassatt, Vermeer and Rembrandt. Though their styles are very different, they have in common the ability to tell a story and convey a moment in time that seems special. He’s also learned a lot about working with watercolors by studying the work of New Mexico-based Steve Hanks and Peruvian Rogger Oncoy. “Children are unpredictable, watercolor is too.”
This exhibition was made possible by a Block Grant from the State/County Partnership program for the Arts administered by the Hudson County Division of Cultural and Heritage Affairs/Tourism Development, Thomas A. DeGise, County Executive, and the Board of Chosen Freeholders.
Mac Hartshorn – “Photographs”
March 17 - April 28, 2013; April 13, 4 pm: Artist Talk.
The Museum is pleased to open a new Upper Gallery art exhibit on the same day as Hoboken’s 3rd Sunday Gallery Walk, March 17, with “Mac Hartshorn, Photographer,” an exhibit of artistic photographs of babies and children by professional portrait photographer, Mac Hartshorn. The exhibit opens with a free reception from 2 – 5 pm, and all are welcome.
This exhibit consists of photos Hartshorn has taken for the art of the image, which usually results in something more abstract than a typical family portrait session. Describing his process, Hartshorn explains, “I approach the photo session being open to whatever happens. I want families to feel totally comfortable and interact naturally. That’s when the magic happens. Little toes or a baby’s tiny hand grasping a father’s finger can be appreciated by all, not just the parents.”
The artwork is both as unique as the people he’s taking pictures of, and universal enough to be appreciated by all. Please stop by on Sunday, or before April 28.
Visit his website at hartshornportraiture.com.
This exhibition was made possible by a Block Grant from the State/County Partnership program for the Arts administered by the Hudson County Division of Cultural and Heritage Affairs/Tourism Development, Thomas A. DeGise, County Executive, and the Board of Chosen Freeholders.
Thomas F. Yezerski – “Meadowlands, A Wetlands Survival Story”
January 27 - March 10, 2013.
For Tom Yezerski, all roads seemed to lead to the Meadowlands. Literally.
As a recent transplant to New Jersey from Allentown, Pa., Yezerski moved to Rutherford 14 years ago seeking a reasonably affordable community close enough to New York City for him to pursue his dream of becoming an established children’s book artist and author. As so many newcomers discover, the dizzying array of the area’s highway signage conspired to lead him astray, and more often than not, he found himself driving into this vast wilderness with the reputation as the source of what made New Jersey the butt of many jokes in Pennsylvania.
Click here to see a virtual gallery of the exhibit.
A nature-lover, Yezerski found his curiosity piqued, so he did some research into the history of the Meadowlands and visited the nature center at the heart of it, and soon hatched a project that became his fourth work as a writer and artist of children’s books, Meadowlands, A Wetlands Survival Story, published in 2011 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. The Museum is pleased to present an exhibit of the original watercolor and ink paintings that comprise the book, with an opening reception on Sunday, Jan. 27, from 2 – 5 p.m. The show will be on view in the Upper Gallery until March 10.
Ten years in the making, the book plunged Yezerski into research not only about the history of the place, but the biodiversity of the species that once teemed in the tidal marshlands and are now returning, after a concerted effort by federal, state, and local authorities and environmental activist groups. His book details in images and text—simple enough for elementary school readers but complex enough to suit the enormous scale—the fascinating story of the return to health of this natural treasure at the western edge of Hudson County.
Yezerski wrote Meadowlands and sketched the drawings while living in Rutherford, but painted the final art after moving to Hoboken. He currently lives in Hoboken on Garden Street, with his wife, and says they both enjoy hiking and canoeing through “the Meadows” and excursions with the Hackensack Riverkeepers organization.
Yezerski’s first work as a professional artist came in creating prints for children’s clothing. Eager to return to illustration, he started writing and illustrating his own book, about his Polish and Irish immigrant grandparents, a Romeo-and-Juliet love story set in the coal-mining country of eastern Pennsylvania. That story became his first published book, Together in Pinecone Patch, in 1998. Subsequent picture books Queen of the World and A Full Hand also depict family members as comic or historic characters. He has also illustrated 10 other books for other authors. The New York Times listed Meadowlands in its Notable Children’s Books of 2011, and the New York Public Library listed it among its Best Non-Fiction Books of 2011. It earned an inaugural Cook Prize Honor from Bankstreet College.
Yezerski took his first art lessons while in the third grade, riding his bike to an artist’s studio every Saturday morning to copy greeting cards in chalk pastel. During high school, he studied drawing and color theory at The Barnstone Studios, in Coplay, Pa. Yezerski earned his B.F.A. in Illustration in 1991, at Syracuse University. Visit his website at http://www.thomasfyezerski.com/index.html.
This exhibition was made possible by a Block Grant from the State/County Partnership program for the Arts administered by the Hudson County Division of Cultural and Heritage Affairs/Tourism Development, Thomas A. DeGise, County Executive, and the Board of Chosen Freeholders.
Mapping the Territory: Hudson County in Maps, 1840-2013
January – September 2013.
Click here to take an interactive tour of the exhibit.
Most of us use maps to learn how to get to where we need to go, but maps can also tell us a lot about where we have been and how we arrived at our destination. Maps can convey as much about a region as any unearthed artifact. For instance, an 1860 map of Hoboken shows boardwalks crisscrossing the undeveloped “meadows” in the western half of the city, where roads still called by their traditional names, Paterson Plank and Hackensack Plank, now run.
Maps are a form of universal communication, providing information not just about where people lived, but how they lived. In an exhibit titled Mapping the Territory: Hudson County in Maps, 1840 – 2013, the Hoboken Historical Museum uses maps to examine the development of the County from a group of small, agricultural townships to one of the most densely populated, as well as industrialized, counties in the state.
The exhibit features maps of all varieties: topographical, infrastructure, transportation, sea level and birds-eye views, from both the Museum’s own collections and borrowed from local libraries and historical organizations, including the Hudson County Archives in the Jersey City Public Library, along with digital versions. These maps show how the region evolved geographically from forests, marshes and towering granite cliffs populated by Native Americans; to farms, settlements and villages built and inhabited by the Dutch, followed by the British and the newly independent Americans; and ultimately into the diverse, vibrant communities we live in today.
At the time of Hudson County’s incorporation in 1840, it was primarily a sleepy agricultural area, thickly forested, with only a few settlements scattered around. The population totaled just over 9,000. In addition to farming, residents made their living from the bounty of the rivers and, in the case of enterprising Col. John Stevens, from developing his estate in Hoboken as a popular resort for New Yorkers, where clubs competed in cricket, boating and the loosely organized game of base ball, among other pursuits. Col. Stevens and his sons hastened the increasing industrialization of the area with their experiments and investments in railroads and steam-powered ferry services.
Following the Civil War, the County experienced a growth spurt. Each decade’s census from 1840 – 1870 would show that its population had more than doubled. Its original boundaries encompassed 46 square miles, which would grow by 75% before reaching present-day definitions in 1925. Its original borders stretched from the Hudson River on the east to the Passaic River on the west, down to the southern end of Constable Hook/Bergen Point to the northern border with Bergen County.
Along the way, towns and cities within its borders would merge and separate as citizens voted to incorporate or join other jurisdictions. Jersey City, already the largest and most commercial settlement, grew by absorbing neighboring communities and villages, such as Van Vorst Township, Bergen City, Hudson City and Greenville Township. In 1869, voters approved the consolidation of contiguous towns east of the Hackensack River, with the exception of the township of West Hoboken, which divided the Town of Union and Union Township from Hudson City.
Each of the 12 towns, townships and cities is represented in the exhibit, identified through their seal and flag. Digital frames display interactive maps so that visitors can study the development of each municipality in greater detail. Representatives from each of the municipalities will be invited to give talks about what makes their communities special, from the architecture, food, and cultural activities, to historic points of interest.
The schedule of talks will be announced by email and on the events page of this website. The exhibit, which runs through Sunday, September 29, is made possible through funding from the the Hudson County Division of Cultural and Heritage Affairs/Tourism Development, Thomas A. DeGise, County Executive, and the Board of Chosen Freeholders. Additional support for this exhibit and programming comes from Applied Companies, John Wiley & Sons, and the Rockefeller Development Group.
Raymond Smith – “En Plein Air: Seeking a Sensation”
November 11 - December 23, 2012.
Hoboken’s physical character is known for its storied waterfront, its compact and walkable streets, and its rows of well-preserved late-Victorian homes. But not since the Elysian Fields were converted to industrial use in the early 1900s has it been known for its natural vistas.
The crush of modern urban living poses a challenge to Raymond Smith, a painter who has been seeking to capture the sensation of light and atmosphere in natural settings in the “plein air” tradition favored by the Impressionists. It’s hard to avoid the jarring elements that can ruin the mood he’s trying to render on canvas, but the artist perseveres and has developed a process that translates these fleeting sensations into oil on canvas. The results can be seen in his second show in the Museum’s Upper Gallery, En Plein Air: Seeking a Sensation, by Raymond Smith, which will be on view through Dec. 23.
Click here to see a virtual gallery of the exhibit.
The scenes in his paintings range from a sun-drenched beach filled with brightly colored kayaks in Hoboken Cove, to a moody, fog-blanketed tugboat moored to a pier, to a thoughtful young woman sitting on a patch of grass or a buoyant woman (the artist’s wife) in a bright sundress and hat strolling along the edge of the water.
To explain what inspired this series, he refers to a quote from an essay by Henri Matisse: “One starts off with an object. Sensation follows.” He says he keeps his mind open to receiving sensations or ideas and then he works on how to translate them on canvas. Each painting is the result of a careful process of making notes and sketches on site, with color swatches and measurements that he uses later to recreate on canvas the feeling he responded to in the first place.
Sometimes in working with a model, he says, “the expressions or postures before or after the sitting are what strike me the most—the unguarded moments are most revealing.” He enjoys painting outdoors, but doesn’t like the disruptions. If someone wants to talk to him while he works, he’ll put his paintbrush down and talk to them, at which point they tend to move along. But if it’s a young kid, he says, “I’ll let them take a brush and make a few strokes.”
In addition to his fine art, Smith is an art instructor and professional illustrator, who has worked for many brand-name companies. A couple of his iconic works include the 9/11 Memorial Flag composed of children’s handprints that hangs in the Board of Education meeting room, and the “Greetings from Hoboken” image reproduced on t-shirts, posters, mugs and greeting cards. For more information on Smith’s work, visit his website, www.raymondsmithart.com.
The exhibit is supported by a block grant from the State/County Partnership program for the Arts, administered by the Hudson County Division of Cultural and Heritage Affairs.
Roslyn Rose – “Hoboken from Afar”
September 15 – November 4, 2012.
Sometimes you have to get away—far away—to see your hometown from a fresh perspective. Or, you can stop by the Hoboken Museum’s Upper Gallery this September to see Hoboken From Afar: Photomontages by Roslyn Rose.
A New Jersey native and longtime Hoboken resident, Rose credits her travels abroad for her latest series of photo montages. The foregrounds of her artworks include slides, photos, and found pictures that she collected while traveling in Europe, which are digitally superimposed upon images she’s taken of familiar Hoboken sights.
Click here to see a virtual gallery of the exhibit.
The resulting depictions, about a dozen of which will be on display from Sept. 15 through Nov. 4, convey the odd sensation of looking through foreign windows and doors onto familiar vistas of home.
“During my European travels, I always seemed to meet someone who had either visited Hoboken, had a relative living in Hoboken, or who knew of Hoboken’s history, which led to many delightful conversations about my adopted city in far away places,” she says. “By inserting my Hoboken photographs within images of foreign windows, doorways or archways, I have combined travel memories with local scenes.”
The images can evoke the mixed feelings that many of us experience while traveling—the thrill of new experiences with occasional pangs of homesickness. Rose hopes visitors to the exhibit will think about their own favorite Hoboken vistas. Meet the artist at the free opening reception for the show from 2 – 5 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 15. She returns to give a talk about her work on Sunday, Nov. 4 at 4 pm.
An artist since early childhood, Rose was a nationally recognized etcher and printmaker before becoming intrigued with the medium of computer-manipulated montages. Although photography is now her main focus, she considers herself a fine artist using the medium to create collages. See more of her work and peruse her extensive resume of exhibitions and affiliations at roslynrose.com.
The exhibit is supported by a block grant from the State/County Partnership program for the Arts, administered by the Hudson County Division of Cultural and Heritage Affairs.
Ricardo Roig – “Hoboken in Print”
July 29 – September 9, 2012.
Ricardo Roig, a young artist who moved to Hoboken in 2009 after finishing college, has long been an admirer of the Impressionist painters. Hoboken became his muse, he said, in part because its architecture reminded him of the Belle Epoque street scenes and interiors featured in their paintings.
“I find that the city’s architecture and atmosphere make a strong impression on people, and they respond to seeing Hoboken in a new way through my work,” Roig said. “That’s why I make art, to have that dialogue with people, not just for myself.”
Click here to see a virtual gallery of this exhibit.
He developed his eye for Hoboken’s historic details while waiting tables at the beautifully restored Elysian Café, where he worked while completing a teaching certificate at Kean University. Since selling all of his paintings at his first Arts & Music festival in 2009, Roig has invested a lot of energy in the city’s cultural community, participating in the Artists Studio Tour and other festivals, and placing his works in local galleries and frame stores, including Lana Santorelli Gallery and Tresorie Custom Frames. He’s visible around town with his easel, and he also donates work to local fund-raising events and actively promotes the arts at every opportunity. He’s also active online; visit his website at www.ricardoroig.com.
Roig now supports himself through his art and as a substitute art teacher in area schools. Though known primarily for his oil paintings, he’s recently started to produce screen prints using hand-cut paper stencils. The Museum will hang about 10 – 12 of these new works in an Upper Gallery show titled Hoboken in Print: Hand-Cut Stencil Screen Prints by Ricardo Roig, starting July 29, on view through Sept. 9. Meet the artist at the free opening reception from 2 – 5 p.m. on July 29.
He learned the printmaking technique during an elective course he took while completing his teaching certificate. Knowing that the Impressionists were heavily influenced by their encounter with Japanese woodblock prints, he wanted to understand how the process works. What he likes about the medium is the vibrant, graphic and fun energy captured in the images.
Like the Impressionists, he likes to play with lights and darks and use the color of the paper as a layer. “Cutting paper makes you aware of the process of destroying while creating,” Roig says, “and the relationship between positive and negative elements.”
It’s painstaking, Roig says, but he finds it rewarding. “First you draw, and paint your image onto paper. Using an Exacto knife, I cut shapes out of the paper, creating a stencil. Attaching this paper to a silk screen, I then squeegee my colors and ink through to acid-free archival paper. Layering these stencils upon one another, the puzzle is pieced together and the image or print is created.”
The exhibit is supported by a block grant from the State/County Partnership program for the Arts, administered by the Hudson County Division of Cultural and Heritage Affairs.
I Belong: A History of Civic and Social Clubs in Hoboken
July – December 2012.
Hoboken has always been a haven for newcomers. So perhaps it’s not surprising that from as early as the 1700s, social clubs have sprung up as a way for people to connect with others around shared interests. From purely social groups like the Turtle Club—an eating and drinking society—to organizations devoted to civic and social philanthropy, along with special-interest clubs for theater, debate and sports, Hoboken has spawned a colorful array of clubs that reflect its citizens’ diverse interests and backgrounds.
I Belong: A History of Civic and Social Clubs in Hoboken traced a colorful history of a wide variety of organizations that have forged bonds among Hoboken’s residents over the years. Exhibit curators Bob Foster, Dr. Christina Ziegler-McPherson, and Eileen Lynch have unearthed more than 250 clubs, and tell their stories through displays of photographs, uniforms, medals, event programs, trophies and other artifacts from the Museum collections and other sources. A photograph of one of the clubs was blown up to life-size, so visitors could photograph themselves as a member of the club.
The show was on view for six months and included talks and lectures by noted historians such as historian, author and local resident Dr. Ziegler-McPherson and Daniel Soyer, a historian who writes about mutual aid societies and fraternal organizations.
Buildings erected by a few of these clubs are visible today around Hoboken. Some groups built impressive club headquarters, like the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Lodge 74, built in 1906 at 1005 Washington St., which continues today as an active civic group, and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, which no longer has a local chapter, but met at a building that stood at 412 – 414 Washington St., which until recently housed a Blockbuster video store at street level.
The Columbia Club at 1101 Bloomfield St. was built to impress in 1891 by some of the most prominent men in Hoboken. Designed in the once-fashionable “Richardson Romanesque” style, with rounded arches and contrasting color bands, the Columbia Club continues to impress. Its spacious, mahogany-paneled rooms for receptions and lectures reflected the group’s lofty aspiration to promote cultural and civic improvement projects, but within 20 years, the group had disbanded, and the building was taken over by a Masonic lodge for a few decades. In the 1980s, the building was rescued, restored and converted into four condominiums that retain many of the original architectural details.
Still standing on Newark St. is the clubhouse of the Hudson County Pigeon Club, built shortly after World War II (and now rented to a recording studio of the same name). Founded in 1922, HCPC once had over 70 members and sponsored the Hoboken Derby, one of the most famous races in North America. Members kept pigeon coops on rooftops, much like the one seen in the movie “On the Waterfront.” Club member Vinnie Torre still maintains his Hillside Loft on Monroe St. and shared his memories of the group’s glory days in an oral history chapbook, “The Pigeon Guys,” available at the Museum or downloadable on our website; click here to visit the oral history page.
Some former clubhouses have been replaced by modern interpretations of the original structure. The Union Club at 6th and Hudson Streets was originally built by the Deutscher Club in 1863 – 64, but the group changed names during World War I when German-Americans were closely monitored on suspicion of espionage. The building that stands there now sports a columned portico reminiscent of the original.
Another homage to a famous Hoboken-based club is the small building on Maxwell Place Park built to resemble one that belonged to the New York Yacht Club. Despite its name, the group had a clubhouse in Hoboken, and elected John Cox Stevens as its first commodore. With his brother Edwin, these sons of Hoboken founder Col. John Stevens helped design and sail the famous yacht America to Britain in 1851 to capture the cup that became the coveted trophy of the America’s Cup Yacht Race. The New York Yacht Club was just one of many boating clubs based in Hoboken, which competed fiercely in local and international races.
One of Hoboken’s earliest social groups dates to 1796, when dozens of gourmands came from all over the region to dine on turtle soup and indulge their palates in an smorgasbord of food and drink. There’s a fascinating story behind the original Turtle Club, whose reputation was such that its feasts—and accounts of prodigious drinking—were reported in The New York Times. These groups and others, including Masonic lodges, mutual-aid societies and theater clubs, are echoed in the many social clubs that make Hoboken such a welcoming place for newcomers today.
The exhibit was made possible through funding from the New Jersey Historical Commission, Applied Companies, Bijou Properties, Provident Bank, United Way of Hudson County, and John Wiley & Sons.
Puppet Heap – “Strange Neighbors”
March 18 - April 29, 2012.
Did you know that Hoboken is home to one of the stars of the puppet-making world? The cover story from the Fall 2011 issue of The Puppetry Journal features Hoboken’s own Puppet Heap, an innovative design and fabrication studio that creates and brings to life some of the world’s most beloved characters by integrating both traditional and cutting-edge techniques to share stories with modern audiences.
Based in the Monroe Center building, “The Heap” is led by artist and entrepreneur Paul Andrejco and boasts a team of the industry’s most talented designers, performers and craftspeople. The studio began in 1992, just a few blocks away in Andrejco’s small Hoboken apartment. The company’s name was inspired by the pile of puppets in his apartment, but it has grown into an ever-expanding creative company that develops and designs characters for film, television, theater and the Web—collaborating with some of the biggest entertainment names in the world, including Sesame Workshop, The Walt Disney Company, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon.
Andrejco and the Heap also produce award-winning short films such as “Omar’s Mother,” “Ye Ballade of Ivan Petrofsky Skevar,” “I Knew an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly” or most recently, “Mother Hubbard Among Others.” And they’ve designed a line of retail puppets, which hit the shelves in fall 2011. Like everything Puppet Heap creates, these puppets are designed to inspire storytelling through play.
The Museum is pleased to host an Upper Gallery exhibit of the puppets, set pieces, and props built by the Heap for some of these original short films. Join us at a free opening reception on Sunday, March 18, from 2 – 5 p.m.
Through the exhibit, visitors will see some of Andrejco’s original sketches and designs for the puppets and set pieces, as well as behind-the-scenes photography, and a few production photos of the films that were filmed in their Hoboken studio. A looped video will allow visitors to see Puppet Heap’s films. The puppets are incredibly detailed and beautifully built from a variety of materials: paper tape, fabric, fur, papier-maché, silicone, latex rubber, among many other materials. The display will bring a lot of the richness of the team’s creative process to the viewer and encourage the art of storytelling through puppetry.
Andrejco has been in the business of creating puppetry in media for over 20 years. Early in his career he worked at the Jim Henson Company as a puppet maker and character designer for the Muppets as well as countless other projects during his ten-year tenure. Since then, he has been a key contributor to such ground-breaking television shows as Bear in the Big Blue House, the Book of Pooh, Bookaboo and It’s a Big Big World; his designs and ideas can be found in many productions using puppets in film, television, advertising, theater and on the Web. If you saw the new Muppet movie that opened nationwide at Thanksgiving, you’ve seen the studio’s works—Walter, the star of the movie, was designed by Andrejco.
The exhibit is supported by a block grant from the State/County Partnership program for the Arts, administered by the Hudson County Division of Cultural and Heritage Affairs.