Corrections or additions?
This article was prepared by Jesse Fischer for the April 27, 2005
issue of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Painting the Streets with Color
New Brunswick is home to 49,000 people and 250 streets. Next weekend,
those residents and roadways will connect, as the city hosts the
Streets 2k5 Festival on Saturday, April 30, and Sunday, May 1. The
festival celebrates community involvement and public arts.
Primarily organized by the Albus Cavus Art Gallery in New Brunswick,
this free, non-profit event brings together artists from New York,
Philadelphia, California, Puerto Rico, England, France, and the Czech
Republic with New Brunswick artists, Rutgers students, and children
from the public school system.
Art will be displayed in multiple indoor and outdoor galleries,
including the train station, Harvest Moon Brewery, Tumulty’s Pub,
Court Tavern, and Yoga Vaya. A wide range of performances is planned,
including music, dance, and light shows in Kilmer Square Park; bands
and puppet theater in Feaster Park; live painting demonstrations by
artists in Feaster Park, Kilmer Square Park, the New Brunswick Public
Free Library, and other locations; and a film festival and family day
at the Zimmerli Museum.
Streets 2k5 (the 2k5 refers to 2005) is a community event designed to
bridge the downtown business area of New Brunswick with its
residential neighborhoods. Peter Krsko, co-founder of Albus Cavus,
says: “The festival will have a strong emphasis on living in New
Brunswick and how people can appreciate their own neighborhoods, how
they can keep them clean and beautiful, and how to contribute to the
process of making the streets more colorful.”
Street art is not new to New Brunswick – in the late 1950s and early
’60s, the city was home to the Fluxus movement of avant-garde art,
which placed emphasis on the importance of the location and placement
of artwork – outside of the museum setting – as well as the
interaction of the viewer with the art. Predating the Pop Art movement
that exploded in New York in the 1960s, New Brunswick’s avant-garde
artists often painted cartoon-like figures and text directly into
their works. As Krsko describes it, the Fluxus artists wanted to
remove “the border between the art piece and the audience, so the
audience would be part of the art piece.” The movement produced very
large installations and “happenings,” which were early performance-art
pieces.
The Albus Cavus Gallery pays tribute to the rich history of public art
in New Brunswick by sponsoring, with the Zimmerli Art Museum, a series
of lectures, movie screenings, and exhibits displaying avant-garde art
from the 1960s. The festival will also feature works from 150
contemporary artists working in various street-related formats,
including aerosol art, stencils, stickers, illustrations, magazine
layouts, comics, and tattoo art.
Streets 2k5 goes beyond the arches of the university and high-brow art
galleries – artwork will be displayed in parks, restaurants, bars,
even auto repair shops. World-renowned artists will share space with
independent and amateur artists. Live painting performances will
stress collaboration with children and local residents.
The story behind the Albus Cavus Gallery mirrors the goals of Streets
2k5. The gallery was founded in 2002 by Nicole Wines, a Rutgers
University undergraduate, and Krsko, a Ph.D. student at the Stevens
Institute of Technology, both New Brunswick residents. “The idea of
Albus Cavus when we started the gallery was to bring art to the
public, to the audience, to the streets and public places,” Krsko, who
is originally from Slovakia, says. Beginning with a basement gallery
space, Albus Cavus quickly became too successful for its own good: in
fall, 2003, the organization received a notice from the city
government warning them not to have exhibitions without a museum
permit.
But instead of going further underground, Albus Cavus emerged from its
cave and began collaborating with the city on other gallery spaces. As
a result, Wines and Krsko now organize monthly exhibitions in the New
Brunswick train station. Other unusual venues for artwork that have
been annexed by Albus Cavus include a yoga studio, a brew pub, and an
outside wall of the Sixth Ward Service Center.
Lamenting the lack of traditional gallery space in New Brunswick,
Wines remains optimistic about public display of art in the city.
“What we want to do is provide legal spaces for the artists who are
participating in the festival but also make it more accepted so it’s
easier to find public spaces that are legal.” Wines and Krsko have
worked closely with city officials and private property owners to
ensure that Streets 2k5 remains positive and crime-free.
When asked about the role of art in the community, Krkso responds,
“Art [is] very diverse, so you can’t just serve one certain kind of
art to people in the city and expect that everybody is going to
consume that, that everybody is going to like that.” He points out
that the few arts institutions in New Brunswick “aren’t really
covering the whole demographics of the town. You should have events
that build on the history and the heritage of people in the town.”
Krsko cites the annual Hungarian and Hispanic festivals as prime
examples of this type of cultural celebration.
Wines adds: “You have to have art that reaches out to different people
in different communities.” Since Albus Cavus shows tend to span a
great variety of styles and themes, “every show we have, we get a
completely different crowd.”
Wines says that in addition to more community involvement in the arts,
“arts education is also very important.” Albus Cavus is now working
with the New Brunswick Community Arts Council and the public school
system to increase resources available to arts educators in the city.
Music and art programs are underimplemented, according to Wines, often
requiring teachers to donate time after school.
Ultimately, Krsko and Wines are community organizers who believe that
art is a means to bridge generational and cultural gaps, while
improving the safety and esthetic appeal of public spaces. With the
Streets 2k5 festival, their goal is to “bring the art to the community
and at the same time have them participate.” New Brunswick’s streets
will never have looked better.
– Jesse Fischer
Editor’s Note: Jesse Fischer is a contributing writer toU.S. 1. His band, Soul Cycle, was the subject of a U.S. 1 feature onFebruary 23.Streets 2k5, Saturday, April 30 and Sunday, May 1, in NewBrunswick, at locations including the train station, Feaster Park,Suydam Street Community Gardens, Sixth Ward Service Center, Yoga Vayu,Harvest Moon, Nova Terra, and Zimmerli Art Museum. For a completeschedule of events, locations, directions, and parking informationvisit streets2k5.albuscav.us.eum. For a completeschedule of events, locations, directions, and parking informationvisit streets2k5.albuscav.us.Previous StoryNext StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
