You’ve heard the hype about Jersey City’s arts scene. It’s a budding cultural Mecca; it’s the next Williamsburg, Brooklyn; it’s a nascent artistic hideaway, and so on. This past summer, we at Jersey City Magazine took up the task of seeking out the people beyond the hype. The people bringing their hometown all that acclaim. The people making the hype, well, more than just hype.
We reached out to dozens of the city’s artists – painters, photographers, musicians, poets, filmmakers and dancers, to name just a few. Then we spoke with gallery owners, writers and commentators, community leaders, art professors, even a local blogger. Our methods weren’t exactly scientific, but the way we figured it, these are the folks who would know best.
Hundreds of names poured in. Some we expected, others were a surprise. But from the masses of raw data emerged 10 names that are continually on the tips of the tongues of anyone hooked into the city’s arts scene. These are the Cultural Elite.
1. Christine Goodman: The Live Wire
In late 2001, Christine Goodman longed to connect with her fellow Jersey City artists. So she formed her own multi-media arts organization, Art House Productions, and presided over its very first open mic at Victory Hall. Attendance was modest, but quickly gained momentum.
“At the time, there wasn’t a lot going on that brought people together,” Goodman remembers. “It was great to see that people wanted it, that I wasn’t alone in that desire.”
Over the next five years, Goodman’s grassroots movement has only grown.
Her enthusiasm has inspired innumerable artists to perform their work at her monthly open-mic nights, or as part of her annual multi-media theater events such as last year’s acclaimed Heist Project. And her most popular idea yet, the citywide arts event JC Fridays, has exceeded even her own high expectations. Now held four times a year, JC Fridays is moving beyond the Historic Downtown section into other neighborhoods.
That would be accomplishment enough for some, but Goodman has plans this fall to add to her extensive resume with the publication of Art House Productions’ fourth collection of local writing.
Many artists and peers describe Goodman as the single most important factor in the modern growth of Jersey City’s arts scene. Yet the ever-humble Goodman considers herself the fortunate one.
“There is really something happening. The events have grown to mean something,” she says, flashing her trademark smile. “I am truly lucky to be a part of it.” – DS
2. Pro Arts: The Power Base
Remember the saying that there’s strength in numbers? If that’s true, Pro Arts may be Jersey City’s most powerful arts organization. The group of 100-plus artists represents the political arm of the city’s arts community, advocating for art-friendly initiatives and often successfully stirring public debate.
Having made their voices heard in City Hall, Pro Arts is now focusing on a new target: the public at large.
“There’s so much going on in arts and culture here,” says Kathryn Klanderman, Pro Arts president from 2001 to 2004, “but I feel like we need a greater interface for the public to come and enjoy it.”
The group’s current president, Paul Sullivan, has exactly that in mind. He’s busily dreaming up plans to bring art “out of the studio and to where somebody is looking at it.” His proposals range from the inspired (jargon-free online interviews with local artists) to the fanciful (a traveling “artmobile” distributing art to the city’s children).
Permanent public art will also play a role. The enormous Christopher Columbus Drive Mural – one of the largest in the country – that went up in 1998 was largely done by Pro Arts. Newer installations such as ART Park at Erie and Ninth streets are always in the works.
Sure, the group promotes the city’s artists; but what’s good for the arts, they say, is good for the city.
“Art is not a special-interest group,” Klanderman says. “The arts are there for everybody.” – CZ
3. Garth Kobal: The Believer
Garth Kobal first sought out Grace Church Van Vorst in 2001 for healing, following the loss of both of his parents and a sister. “Grace Church was both a healer and a place for growth,” he says. By 2004, Kobal had become the church’s arts coordinator and a major organizer in the city’s arts scene. His work has brought the community church on Erie Street unprecedented attention, and it’s difficult today to think about Grace Church without thinking of Kobal.
Although born in New Jersey, Kobal had bounced from Connecticut to Manhattan before finally settling in Jersey City in 2000.
“I really felt passionate about [moving here],” Kobal says. “It felt like coming home.”
A book buyer by trade, Kobal has organized a film series, various theatrical productions, and art exhibits such as the annual Cathedral Arts Festival. He has experimented with using the church’s architecture in new and interesting ways. For the well-received 2005 exhibit “Columns,” artwork was hung from the actual columns of the church, creating a visually stunning display that complemented the natural lines of the room.
Kobal works closely with other local organizers, and he has helped gain recognition for literally hundreds of artists. “The single thing that I hope for the most,” Kobal says, “is that [the scene] continues to grow.” With individuals like Garth Kobal involved, how could it not? – DS
4. Orlando Reyes: The Outlaw
Sneakers dangling from a power line. It’s appropriate that Orlando Reyes picked this image to adorn the glass-and-metal edifice of 58 gallery, his community art space at 58 Coles St. That universal symbol of youthful defiance goes far in explaining Reyes.
A lifelong Jersey City artist, Reyes came of age skirting the law by making public art out of public property with his graffiti murals. An apprenticeship studying Flemish painting techniques and a yearlong residency in Paris apparently did little to tame his rebellious impulses. In 2003, he and collaborator Mario Monroy (who now lives in Puerto Rico) founded 58 gallery to give local artists an alternative exhibition space, outside of “the machine” of New York City.
As might be expected from a man who’s used to flouting convention, Reyes’s heavily trafficked monthly exhibitions sometimes rub the authorities the wrong way. Earlier this year, police busted up a reception at his second gallery, 58 annex. It never reopened. (The details are sketchy, but the official word is that neighbors complained about rowdy patrons. Reyes, however, disputes that.)
And it’s not just the authorities who have taken notice. 58 gallery has several times caught the eye of The New York Times arts section. But when it comes to Jersey City seeking New York’s endorsement, Reyes is characteristically defiant.
“We don’t need someone from the City saying, ‘You’ve been dubbed a new art culture,'” he scoffs. “We’re developing our own art culture … unlike anything in Manhattan.” – CZ
5. Marion Grzesiak and Rocío Aranda-Alvarado: The Lighthouse Keepers
Not so long ago, curator Rocío Aranda-Alvarado had to dust paint chips off her desk at the Jersey City Museum every morning. Fortunately, the museum has come a long way since its days in that cramped, flaking, century-old space on the top floor of the city’s public library.
Since moving into its slick new home at the corner of Monmouth and Montgomery streets in 2001, the museum has become Jersey City’s most visible arts institution on a regional level – a beacon for the city’s broader arts scene. It’s considered by the State Council on the Arts to be an organization of “statewide public impact,” and it increasingly attracts New York audiences and critics. As one local artist explained, the museum “legitimizes” the city’s arts community.
It would be very easy for museum officials to overlook the rest of that community as they achieve wider recognition. But they say they’re not about to let that happen.
“We try to keep this museum out of the realm of the ‘ivory tower,'” says Marion Grzesiak, the museum’s executive director. As evidence, Grzesiak cites “1 X 1,” a rotating exhibit spotlighting individual pieces by local artists, and the museum’s community-building Artist Slide Nights, from which several full-scale shows have grown.
Perhaps as a result, Aranda-Alvarado’s workspace is blanketed with near-daily queries from Jersey City artists hoping to exhibit at the museum – undoubtedly a pleasant change from the days when it was paint chips that covered her desk. – CZ
6. Charles Kessler: The Founding Father
In the early 1980s, Charles Kessler was at the center of a circle of expatriated Los Angeles artists in Jersey City. In leaky trackside tenements and greasy diners, the ambitious group schemed – how to build a viable arts community in Jersey City?
“There really wasn’t an arts scene other than what we made ourselves,” Kessler says.
Kessler’s brainchild and first big success was the Artists Studio Tour. “People came out of the woodwork,” he recalls. Pro Arts came next, then the Landmarks Conservancy and the Cathedral Arts Festival, all of which Kessler helped nurture. Things took on a life of their own, and the rest is history.
These days, Kessler spends much of his time working on acrylic paintings in his brownstone’s basement studio. He bristles at being dubbed a Cultural Elite. “I don’t think I’m influential anymore,” he humbly contends.
Many of his peers respectfully disagree. Kessler, they point out, is still a major advocate for the city’s arts community. He’s concerned for the community’s future, particularly after what he sees as fatal compromises to the city’s Powerhouse Arts District (which, by the way, Kessler took a lead role in coordinating). But he’s heartened by what he sees as a “new wave” of local arts activists.
“There are people coming into the area with a lot of energy and hope,” he observes.
Sure sounds a lot like one particular forward-thinking artist who, 20 years ago, helped transform the arts in Jersey City. – CZ
7. Lex Leonard: Ambassador for the Underground
One day in August, Alex “Lex” Leonard opened the newspaper, only to find that his building – a chipping, faded, run-down, boarded-up former sweatshop on Christopher Columbus Drive – could soon be replaced with a luxury condo. You’d never guess from looking at it, but the humble structure is home base for a thriving community of underground artists.
Nicknamed the Waterbug Hotel, Leonard’s multi-floor arts space is swarming with poets, performers, painters and various other shady characters. They come for Leonard’s wild Thursday-night open mics at the neighborhood bar, his edgy community-art showcases, a fire-escape barbecue, or maybe just to talk about art.
“It’s very diverse,” Leonard says. “It’s always been an open forum for different ideas.”
That forum may be bulldozer bait, but Leonard still sees the development of Historic Downtown in a somewhat optimistic light.
“Jersey City is going in a positive [direction], but for underground artists like myself it’s not the same anymore,” he says. “There’s a lot less you can get away with.”
Ironically, no one has done more to bring the city’s underground above ground than Leonard himself. Three times in the past two years, Leonard and his fellow “bugs” have overrun City Hall, turning the building and plaza into what one city official called “a multi-media arts extravaganza.”
So what’s a bug to do when his home is disturbed? Get a new one, of course. Let’s just hope that, when the time comes, this waterbug finds a new habitat in Jersey City. – CZ
8. Ev Stone: The Professional
No one has brought more art to Jersey City – that is, literally carried it – than Mana Fine Arts. Paintings, sculptures, and the occasional Medieval Bible congregate at the museum-quality art storage facility.
Since last fall, however, much of that artwork is destined not for a humidity-controlled, bar-coded locker, but for the separate, 4,500-square-foot, Chelsea-style community gallery that Ev Stone’s office overlooks. Spacious and raw, it’s a perfect room for exhibiting art. As a longtime Jersey City sculptor, Stone had always felt that the city had too few spaces like it.
“Jersey City didn’t have exhibition spaces,” she notes. “Most of the artists showed in bars and restaurants, and there’s only so far you can go in bars and restaurants.”
So naturally, when Stone became director of operations at Mana, she took action; she calls it her “something-needs-to-happen moment.” It was a natural venture for someone straddling the twin worlds of art creation and art distribution, and a pretty shrewd one at that; what better place for a gallery than where art buyers come and go all the time?
Stone works with guest curators on her own time to put up quarterly group shows, and still manages to be spotted at practically every art event in the city. When it comes to art, Stone doesn’t seem to mind being swamped.
“One of my favorite complaints,” she says, “is that I have to call somebody and say, ‘I have too many art things to do this week.'” – CZ
9. Jersey City Cultural Affairs: The Crew
Every so often, Maryanne Kelleher-Arango gets a phone call from someone inquiring about a marriage license. It’s a strange request. Kelleher-Arango isn’t the City Clerk; she’s head of the Division of Cultural Affairs. (It turns out a small local publication incorrectly listed her number as the clerk’s.)
The episode illustrates just how behind-the-scenes the work of the Cultural Affairs staff really is. Not that they’re complaining.
“We’re not always comfortable in the spotlight,” Kelleher-Arango says. “Our job is to push [other] people into the spotlight.”
Much like the props-and-costume crew of a Broadway musical, the Cultural Affairs staff sees its role as helping the stars – that is, Jersey City’s artists and cultural groups – do what they do best. “Our goal is to make sure everyone succeeds,” says Greg Brickey, the division’s art curator. And he means everyone; the division plays some role in about 300 events a year.
Consequently, Cultural Affairs needs to be many things to many people. One day they might help an event organizer clear a bureaucratic hurdle, and the next they might provide advice to an artist whose work was damaged in a flooded basement. They’ll handle the logistics of shuttling thousands of visitors through the Artists Studio Tour, then turn around and help an ethnic-heritage group pin down a crucial sponsor for their festival.
As Joan Moore, the division’s deputy director, puts it, “The idea is to have this be a one-stop shop.” Excluding marriage licenses, of course. – CZ
10. Tris McCall: The Voice
Tris McCall always has an opinion. The outspoken writer and musician has earned something close to reverence from his fans for his daily dispatches on the Jersey City scene, posted to his often-controversial website, The Tris McCall Report. He’s the loudest voice among the city’s musicians, and his missives and countless CD reviews have found their way into dozens of different publications.
When McCall journeyed from Virginia to Hudson County in 1993, he was a man with a mission. “I think I was kind of idealistic,” McCall says. “I thought that maybe I could be the catalyst and help build something.” Indeed, his writing gave crucial exposure to numerous bands that played at the First Street club Uncle Joe’s, before it closed last year.
“When Uncle Joe’s started booking shows, there was a reason to stay in this part of Jersey City instead of going the other way on the PATH,” McCall notes.
If McCall had his way – “and a million dollars,” he adds – he would open his own music club in Jersey City. He currently plays with several bands (including Overlord, My Teenage Suicide, and Kapow!) and writes daily.
And yet, McCall remains modest about his contributions to Jersey City, in part because he doesn’t think any of his suggestions – such as finding a much-needed live music venue to replace Uncle Joe’s – have been implemented.
Maybe if he had that million dollars… – DS
Honorable Mentions
James Pustorino
As managing director of Victory Hall Cultural Center on Grand Street, Pustorino has established a home for film, poetry, fine art, theater, music, dance – and even Japanese swordsmanship.
Hudson County Cultural Affairs
Crucial funding for local startup arts organizations flows from this agency, headed by Bill La Rosa. The group also regularly transforms the Hudson County Courthouse on Newark Avenue into a bona fide arts venue in itself.
Patricia Giordan and Colin Egan
Seemingly tireless advocates in returning the magnificent Landmark Loew’s Jersey Theatre at Journal Square to its glorious days as a community arts venue, Egan and Giordan head the Friends of the Loew’s preservation group.
Jelynne Jardiniano
Owner of the hip bar and lounge LITM (“love is the message”), Jardiniano is credited with being one of the first local business owners to open her doors to the city’s artists and musicians.
John Gomez
As founder of the non-profit Jersey City Landmarks Conservancy, Gomez and his backers are endeavoring – and succeeding – to preserve some of the city’s most cherished and historic landmarks.
Dujuana Neville
A regular on the city’s open-mic circuit, Neville is a spoken-word artist and proprietress of The Cypher Movement, a popular competitive poetry slam.
The Attic Ensemble
Currently in residence at the Barrow Mansion on Wayne Street, Jersey City’s longest-running community theater company has put up full seasons of theatrical productions for more than 36 years.
Nancy Healy
Some of Jersey City’s youngest artists have traveled to national competitions and attended prestigious art schools thanks to Healy, supervisor of the Visual and Performing Arts program of the city’s public schools.
Jim Legge
Legge infuses his photography with an environmental consciousness. Exactly how many different artistic, historical and environmental organizations he has a hand in is anybody’s guess.
Diane Dragone
One of the most recognizable faces in Jersey City dance, choreographer Dragone has operated Kennedy Dancers Inc., a professional dance company and community dance school, since 1978.
– CZ