Public Art Project Meeting Scheduled For July 6

The upcoming Gallery 24/7 project is underway, and a meeting is scheduled next week for interested county residents before it's launch late this summer.

An "expression of interest community meeting" on the project will be held Tuesday, July 6, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. in the first-floor conference room at 40 N. Bridge St. in Somerville.

The Somerset County Cultural & Heritage Commission (SCC&HC) is initiating the Gallery 24/7 public-art project. The goals of G24/7 are to integrate the visual arts into non-traditional venues and to expand the reach, interest in and display opportunities for art in the county.

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.  The Artwork 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. 

Ten pieces of artwork 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."

There is free parking in the lot next to the building for the meeting.  For travel directions, go to  www.co.somerset.nj.us/directio.html or search via Internet or GPS for 40 North Bridge Street, Somerville, NJ 08876.

Interested artists may go to the county website for more information at www.co.somerset.nj.us/2010photogal/gallery24.html  Submission deadline is Aug. 12, 2010.  

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