This Great Earth Opens

After two years of WinterArts shows where we often battled the elements, they decided this year to move the annual art show to the edge of summer.  Definitely no snow or ice today, even a bit of sun.  Of course, that also means more summer traffic in town, which means much less available parking.  I got there more than 30 minutes before the start, but cars were already starting to fill the back lot. Forget the main lot.  A glance up the street told me that the back lot was my only option at that time, so that's where I went, hoping I wouldn't be blocked in.

Still not sure exactly how many artists or artworks are in the show.  It does occupy all 3 floors.  We were asked to produce an artist statement, but none of these were out anywhere for viewing, as another artist remarked to me.  (they're still working on it)

We seemed to have a pretty good crowd today, with people coming and going all day.  Probably more than we had for any of those winter days.  There were several people I knew from the building, and several I knew from Belmar, who had never been in the building before but were very pleased.  Part of the point of these festivals is to raise awareness of what the Jersey Shore Arts Center has to offer, so in that sense they had some success today, and I relayed these conversations to a building representative.

As with other festivals, food was provided, I assume from an outside caterer as I didn't see any cooking going on.  I had eaten lunch at home a few hours prior and never did get hungry enough to want to eat more.  Maybe there will be some leftovers around the building tomorrow.

Unlike the previous festivals, I'm told this one was organized as a juried show, a process that caused some concern for some of the less experienced artists, though obviously many figured out how to get into the show.   As part of that, there were prizes for artists in several categories, though printmaking wasn't one of them.  (and I wasn't the only printmaker- I saw several stone lithos, and one artist entered some Japanese style fish prints)  I believe they were gift certificates for art supplies relevant to the category.   I won't be selling my piece in the show (as far as I know it is my last surviving copy and the block was destroyed), but I may have lined up a paid appearance, so my streak of making good connections through JSAC festivals continues.

The  This Great Earth Multi-Media Art Exhibition will remain on display through September 8, 2017.  It's on the walls inside, so I guess it's open any time the building is open, which will be most of those days if not all of them.  Attendance is free.