SOMERS POINT – One of the Somers Point Arts Commission’s signature events and longest continuously running activity has been postponed until September this year.
The eighth annual Art in the Park event will be held September 14 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at John F. Kennedy Memorial Park on Broadway overlooking Great Egg Harbor Bay.
The all-day event will feature professional and amateur painters and photographers exhibiting and selling their work, live music6, children’s activities and food/drinks for purchase. There will also be a children’s clothesline art exhibition featuring work by students from Dawes Avenue School.
The event is free and open to the public. Those interested in participating can submit traditional two-dimensional works in oil/acrylic, watercolor, drawing/pastel, hand-drawn prints, and photographs to Art in the Park. The entry fee is $40.
Donna Mohr said the event was canceled due to rain last June but was given a reprieve when organizers of the city’s Good Old Days Festival invited the Arts Commission to participate in their end-of-summer event.
“Every time we start a new program, we want it to be successful so that we can improve it in some way next year,” Mohr said, noting that many of the artists enjoyed the cooler September weather last year.
“We were happy to have it at all, but it was different,” Mohr said. “So this year we decided to hold it in September.”
Mohr said she and the Arts Commission were grateful to be part of the festival last year, but found the audience was not right for Art in the Park.
In addition, the event was not held in the entire open space, but in a small part of the park, limiting the number of participants from a maximum of about 50 to 30.
Mohr said there is a lot of competition for time in June because of high school graduations, Father’s Day and weddings. “And the weather is more uncertain in June.”
There are still spots available for artists interested in participating in this year’s event. Email [email protected] or call (609) 287-0408. All applications must be received by September 13. Cash prizes of $1,200 will be awarded.
Mohr said the event also gave inexperienced exhibitors the opportunity to learn how to become exhibitors in a beautiful setting at low cost.
“We found that before, people didn’t have a tent, stands and proper exhibiting equipment, but now they do,” she said. “This gives people who think they’re not ready for prime time the opportunity to exhibit.”
Mohr said the event perfectly sums up what the arts commission wants to achieve.
“We are aware that we are providing a service to the community, both to the artists and to the visitors who want to spend a few good hours,” she said, pointing out that one of the greatest benefits the artists get is the friendliness and camaraderie among the other artists and photographers.
Contributors to Art in the Park and the Somers Point Arts Commission’s 2024 programs include the Atlantic County Office of Cultural & Heritage Affairs, a partner of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, the City of Somers Point, the Somers Point Business Association, and numerous local businesses.
Visit artintheparksomerspt.weebly.com or email [email protected] for more information.
– By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel Staff
