Support Artworks
I am writing you this letter as one of the founding members of the Trenton Artists Workshop Association (TAWA) and as an artist living in Trenton for 35 years, who has been deeply involved with the efforts to make Trenton a center for the arts that would be beneficial to the city as a whole.
You can understand my concern when I learned that — without contacting the people who are presently administering the Fine Arts classes and the Gallery at Artworks (which included Mercer County Community College (MCCC), the non-profit Artworks board, and TAWA) — Trenton City Council handed over the Artworks building to a newly formed development group with the purpose of converting the space into expensive condos, to be offered to artist who could afford them, with the proviso that if working artists did not want the 10 spaces, then non-artists to buy the units. As a result of Trenton City Council’s action, MCCC canceled its Artworks classes for the fall and canceled the position of director at Artworks.
To help save Artworks, TAWA has organized a salon show, a floor-to-ceiling celebration of the Artworks space and the artists who value it. Open daily through Sunday, August 13, it includes my 2005 portrait of Latta Patterson, who with Dr. Mary Howard was the founder of TAWA in 1979. She is now 93, and I know she would be appalled at the situation dealing with the closing of Artworks.
Mel Leipzig
Co-founder, TAWA
Grateful MD
Thank you for the wonderful article about Jeff Fedor and me (U.S. 1, June 21). You did a great job of capturing the spirit of his illness, the potential impact it could have had on his life, and what it means now to be healthy for him.
What I love most about being a doctor is seeing my patients get well and return to their families and their normal lives. I truly believe this is why God put me here on earth. It is my privilege to be able to care for people like Jeff.
Mark R. McLaughlin, MD
