Check the calendar any given week at the local library, and the cultural schedule will be regularly peppered with concerts, art exhibits, book readings, and similar events. Most of these showcase the work of local artists who ply their crafts on Franklin, Roosevelt, Front, and Centre.
Yet, when those same artists go looking for camaraderie and the company of their peers they go to… Manhattan, Jersey City, Hoboken, Union City. They go everywhere but home.
There’s no lack of art exhibits and concerts in Secaucus, but the “art scene” is a different story. With so many talented artists living here, why is there no local, homegrown art scene to sustain them?
“There are just very few places for artists to come together in Secaucus and meet.” – Robert Travieso
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When the names of other artists are mentioned, Travieso shakes his head. He doesn’t know them, even though the individuals mentioned are all painters like him.
“There are just very few places for artists to come together in Secaucus and meet,” he said. “You know, when I hang out with my artist friends in Hoboken or Jersey City, we can hang out in someone’s studio or we can go to a local coffee shop or something and just talk and get to know one another.”
Getting to know you
Travieso hit on perhaps the biggest barrier facing artists in Secaucus: a lack of venues to display their work, and a lack of spaces where people can sit for hours, congregate, and get to know one another.
“There’s really no home base, no central location that is designated for the arts,” said Secaucus playwright Michael Griffo, whose first novel, “Steven in Wonderland,” will be published this fall. “Without some sort of magnet in town, nothing will really draw artists together.”
Several artists interviewed recalled that there used to be a diner in the center of town, and it was Secaucus’ de factor watering hole. After it closed down several years ago, though, no comparable business took its place. The diner’s absence has let a void.
Also, “there’s nothing al fresco here that would allow people to just bump into each other organically,” said Charlie Churchill, another Secaucus painter who lived in New York City for several years. “In New York, and even in Hoboken, I remember being able to stroll down certain streets and in a five block stretch I’d see 10, 15 people I knew. We would start talking and they would introduce me to other people. And that’s one way community just sort of happened. It’s much harder to do that here.”
Doug DePice, a fellow painter, made a similar observation.
“In other places, people are on foot more than they are here,” said DePice, who has taught art in the Secaucus schools for 33 years. “We’re much more of a ‘drive through’ town, so there’s less opportunities for people to connect in that sort of way.”
Musician Mark Rivers, leader of the band River Cat, said Secaucus has a real venue drought when it comes to nightclubs.
“These days I mainly play in New York,” Rivers said. “I’ve done a couple concerts in town, but [the places] were just so out of the way I haven’t done it again.”
It’s a lifestyle
A densely populated town like Hoboken obviously has an advantage in hosting an art scene, since it is closer to New York and is not as isolated as Secaucus. Hoboken, Jersey City, and other towns may also have more abandoned or unused property that can easily be converted to art spaces.
Secaucus also offers a different lifestyle than those towns. DePice pointed out that many artists are single and make too little money to purchase a home. Secaucus is a town with few rental apartments that a single person could afford on his or her own.
“Most of our real estate is geared towards families, and it’s not rental,” DePice noted. “So, it’s probably much cheaper for them to live in other towns that have more rentals, more apartments. And the artists who are here do their art, but they also have to have other jobs to stay here, which may mean they have less time to hang out with their peers.”
Solve the problem
The lack of an art scene is not an insurmountable problem, according to art administrators elsewhere.
“Often, what ultimately becomes your exhibition space may not be obvious to you,” said Geri Fallo, coordinator of cultural affairs in Hoboken. “There may not be any gallery space available, so you may have to create it from what you do have. For example, artists may need to approach restaurants, banks, and other businesses and ask them to host a group show. You can even have a little reception with wine and cheese, which could help bring customers into the business, even though they are there to look at the art.”
Fallo acknowledged that this concept may be more conducive for some artists, especially painters, and less so for others, like musicians. But she said this is the kind of thinking that may be needed to generate an arts community.
Christine Goodman, executive director of Art House Productions in Jersey City, agreed, noting that artists may need to “think out of the box” to create or find spaces for their work. By way of example, Goodman pointed out that Art House Productions currently hosts group shows at an old hospital that is being converted to a condo.
“Even after they find spaces, they should be prepared, there can be a steep learning curve when it comes to working with businesses that don’t ordinarily work with artists. They may need to be educated on how to properly display art work, how to protect that work, etc.,” Goodman said.
Churchill has discussed displaying some of his paintings of the Meadowlands in a jewelry store on Paterson Plank Road, and said there are a few other businesses in the Plaza that have large display windows that might be conducive to a “curated group show.”
Rivers suggested that maybe the mayor’s office could host an “arts festival” in Buchmuller Park or the Plaza one summer.
From his vantage point as a school teacher, DePice believes a Secaucus art scene has already taken root and is beginning to sprout.
“The residents of Secaucus have a real appreciation for art,” he said. “You see that appreciation among the children in the schools and among their parents. That’s only going to continue. And the town is diversifying. New people move here everyday. And they’re bringing new energy and culture to the town. I think you’ll see an arts community take shape.”
Reach E. Assata Wright at awright@hudsonreporter.com.