Arts & Entertainment
Fine Arts and Crafts Return to Brookdale Park
Rose Squared Productions and the Essex County Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs present the 23rd annual Spring Fine Arts and Crafts.
As summer warms up the Garden State most New Jersey natives don’t really need much reason to go out and enjoy the season. But for those who still cling to their flat screens and their surround sound stereo systems, Howard and Janet Rose of Rose Squared Productions offer Fine Arts and Crafts at Brookdale Park as yet another reason to get off the couch and experience what the outside world has to offer.
With “over 160 juried professional artists, photographers and craft artisans from throughout the country” attending, according to www.rosesquared.com, the event presents something for nearly everyone.
Paintings, clothes, pottery, sculptures and jewelry, all in tented booths, lined the walkway leading towards the heart of Brookdale Park. Besides, the arts and crafts offered there is food, face painting and even a booth for information on the solar panel company, Solar Energy World.
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“We realize what we’re doing is creating a venue for these people to have income. If there were no shows then they wouldn’t be able to meet the public and sell their products…And for the public it’s an event for them to see people they won’t see anywhere else. And they get to meet the artists,” said Howard Rose.
“It allows the public to meet the person who’s actually touching the work,” Rose added.
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That part is certainly a treat. Ron Zukor, a jewelry maker with his wife Liz, had a story for each unique piece on display. When showing one particularly sparkly pair of earrings he joked, “If you wear these on a sunny day and get hit by a truck, they get the driver for murder one.”
Bill Finks creations were in a class of their own, constructed from decades old toys and trinkets.
Couple Stacy and Amitabh Hardeo were a big attraction with their mastiff Kobe.
Stacy said, “It’s really nice. We try to come up every year. It’s nice to see all the homemade stuff and all the crafts and the food and everything. We enjoy it.”
Rose Squared will end their spring season with this weekend’s event. The next will be in Anderson Park in Upper Montclair on September 17th and 18th to kick off the fall.
