Goodbye Again

Received an e-mail today announcing the demise of Arts Guild New Jersey.  I first came to know the place when I participated in a relief print show there in 2009.  Never was quite sure the original purpose of the building (looked like it could have been a church or a library), but along the way it had become the Rahway Arts Guild, a simple trip from the Parkway.  The person who curated that show later put me in another relief print show, this one in Newark.  The next time I was back in Rahway was for a shore related show.  Curator Doug Ferrari (who I had met back in the 90's while investigating local colleges) had been the director of SICA, a non-profit arts center in Long Branch that I might check out a few times year.  They occupied a large former industrial building that had been home to many businesses over the past century.  Now it had a large gallery space, a small cafe/performance space, and individual artist studios for rent.  A few people who would later become regulars at the Critique held in the Studio worked there.  When Ocean County College built a new art building and officially cast off all the old printmaking equipment, SICA received the donation.  The plan was to create a print center, but before that could happen, SICA lost the building.  They relocated the gallery to Asbury Park, a place I helped to fix up.  About a year later, that place was gone, too.  Just before it closed Doug asked me for images, planning to put together a show of shore artists at a location up north.  He turned up as the new assistant at the space in Rahway, now renamed Arts Guild New Jersey.  And that show occurred in 2013.  This all put me on their e-mail list, so I've been getting regular information about class schedules, exhibitions, etc.  Today's e-mail just said that's it, we're done.  Lost their lease, everything planned for September is cancelled.

Perhaps they'll reconstitute in another location, and if so, they have my contact info.  Though I do have to wonder about Doug's future.  I think he's always done an excellent job as a curator, but the locations have had some bad luck.  Art is a tough business.