County Seeking Art Submissions for Outdoor Gallery

The Somerset County Cultural & Heritage Commission (SCC&HC) is initiating a public-art project called "Gallery 24/7" (G24/7).

Among the goals of G24/7 is to integrate the visual arts into non-traditional venues to expand their reach to broaden and diversify public exposure, interest in and access to the arts, and to expand exhibition opportunities for New Jersey visual artists.  

Artwork will be applied to the exterior of selected outdoor traffic-control boxes (TCBs)  throughout  Somerset County.  With the aid of  dedicated arts funding through the New Jersey State Council on the Arts Local Arts Program Grant for this project, visual artists residing in New Jersey are invited to create and submit original artwork for G24/7.  Artworks will be chosen through a competitive and professionally juried selection process.

Artwork will be judged for artistic excellence, technical merit, the ability to complement the setting where it will be displayed and how well the artwork translates into large-scale viewing.  Selected artists will receive an honorarium, and benefit by having their artwork accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for over three years. 

Interested artists may download the formal Call for Artists/Guidelines from the What's New page on Somerset County's website at www.co.somerset.nj.us/spotlight.html  Submission deadline is Aug. 12, 2010.  

Ten artworks will be selected and reproduced on a special vinyl adhesive film and professionally applied to county-owned TCBs, including two locations in Bernards, on the corner of S. Finley Ave and Cross Road and on the corner of King George Road and Dewey Meadow Village.  The traffic-control boxes were selected in areas of high visibility in terms of pedestrian or vehicular traffic to provide unique opportunities for an all-inclusive viewing public to access and enjoy the visual arts beyond a gallery or museum experience, at their convenience and "admission-free."

A companion brochure for this initiative, indentifying and highlighting featured artworks and artists, will be widely distributed to encourage public tourism.

 "This project will demonstrate our pride in the talents of New Jersey artists, provide creative experiences for general public enjoyment and help stimulate the local economy by encouraging visitors to come to view these works," said Freeholder Patrick Scaglione, liaison to the SCC&HC.

Informative public meetings to introduce G24/7 to New Jersey artists, the arts community and interested members of the public will be scheduled at the end of June. Dates, times and locations will be posted on the county website and broadcast through print and electronic media.

For further information, contact SCC&HC Manager Pat McGarry at (908) 203-6020 or CulturalHeritage@co.somerset.nj.us