The Grove PATH Plaza in downtown Jersey City is a happening place again this year.
“Creative Grove”, the artist and designer market, is back for its second year, starting last Friday, March 19.
“Creative Grove” is a combination art show and outdoor market where artists as well as artisans and musicians come together to make a scene – that is, an art scene.
Commuters going to and from the nearby Grove Street PATH station on Friday afternoons throughout this year (except August) will see vendors selling homemade goods like soaps and handbags while DJ’s spin their records. It is also a meeting place where artists can mingle, show off and sell their latest creations.
The formation of “Creative Grove” is the result of a number of downtown artists coming together, including Uta Brauser, who is familiar to those involved in the art world for her gallery, Fish With Braids, located on Jersey Avenue.
“Anything fun, anything that makes people play and stay.” – Uta Brauser
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“[Creative Grove] is a place where you find people and activities,” Brauser said. “You find everything, arts, activism, free expression, a farmer’s market.”
New things, new year
Brauser said she hopes for beautiful weather now and for the rest of the year, although this past winter may still come back to haunt us. Also, this year’s “Creative Grove” will have food vendors to attract even more people.
Brauser and the other organizers are happy with the location.
“Moving this to another location, say, more inward and away from a main street, would require more advertising,” Brauser said.
So far, “Creative Grove” gets 20 to 40 vendors, but Brauser thinks it will “grow” more proportionally to how many people visit. She is especially proud of the fact that the weekly attraction is “Made in Jersey City.”
And just to make visitors more comfortable, there is a living room art installation to add to the party atmosphere the market tries to encourage. That means sofas, couch and patio chair and – a bowling lane?
“I am thinking a smaller, portable-size bowling lane for the community,” Brauser said. “Anything fun, anything that makes people play and stay.”
For more information or to be a vendor, visit www.creativegrove.org info, or contact Uta Brauser at (646) 573-7164.
Ricardo Kaulessar can be reached at rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com.