Artist Elizabeth Velazquez exhibits “Water Is Our Bodies, Our Bodies Are Water”.  Photo Credit: Works on Water

(TEANECK, NJ) -- The Northern New Jersey Community Foundation opens National Arts and Humanities and Jersey Arts Month in October with a celebration of ArtsBergen's tenth anniversary supporting the arts, artists, and creative placemaking in Bergen County. The public is invited to a special Connect the Dots networking and workshop event featuring the artist collective, Works on Water on Tuesday, October 1, 2024 from 5:00pm to 7:00pm at Fairleigh Dickinson University’s Metropolitan Club/Alumni Hall located at 990 Library Circle in Teaneck.

The event is free. A suggested donation of $10 is appreciated to support ten more years of building more beautiful, connected communities through creative placemaking and public art. Refreshments will be served.

Artists, environmentalists, and municipal leaders will especially want to attend to learn more about how public art raises awareness about environmental issues, while building beauty and community. Pre-register online here.

Elizabeth Webb, Proximity Study (Site Lines). 2021 by Works on Water.

Works on Water is an organization and triennial exhibition dedicated to artworks, performances, conversations, workshops and site-specific experiences exploring the diverse artistic investigation of water in the urban environment. Their artists and practitioners work with water as a site and material in response to the urgency of a changing climate, increasing urban density, and a burgeoning public awareness of ecological concerns. Their works connect to current economic, political, and global issues, and they are in conversation with the traditions of Land Art, Public Art, and Performance Art, among others.

Artists Emily Blumenfeld and Sarah Cameron Sunde from Works on Water will present an interactive, informative, contemplative workshop to imagine a new artist-designed future for the Hackensack River. The workshop includes an overview of the evolution and growing importance of Water Art followed by Cameron Sunde discussing her global project 36.5 /A Durational Performance with Sea. The workshop moves out to the river’s edge to experience the tidal shift from an embodied perspective. During the workshop, attendees will work together to create concepts for public art related to water. Participants will also have the opportunity to network and learn more about getting involved in Works on Water’ triennial exhibition.

The Northern New Jersey Community Foundation, a not-for-profit organization headquartered in Hackensack, New Jersey, builds connections, pools resources, and provides leadership to enrich quality of life in these eight counties in New Jersey: Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Morris, Passaic, Sussex, Union and Warren. Through its work in northern New Jersey, the Foundation seeks to develop more creative and inspiring places, greener and healthier places, and more places of belonging and opportunity.

For ten years, ArtsBergen has worked with artists, arts organizations, businesses and municipal leaders, who use the arts to shape the social, physical, cultural, and economic identity of communities. This regional alliance produced and promoted public art projects to address a range of community issues, such as downtown revitalization, gentrification, mental health, and environmental concerns. ArtsBergen’s Connect the Dots program presents an ongoing series of networking events for the arts community and those interested in the arts. Held in different venues, each event presents a range of exciting activities and time to network. These activities include exhibitions, speakers, and unique, interactive arts experiences.

ArtsBergen’s Connect the Dots aims to create a safe and open environment, where artists and other community sector representatives can spark relationships and collaborate. The program also strengthens and connects the arts community through professional development presentations and the sharing of creative ideas, work, resources and talent.

Sarah Cameron Sunde. Photo Credit: Works on Water

Founded in 1998, The Northern New Jersey Community Foundation works with local governments, school districts, businesses, non-profit organizations, and citizen groups to improve community life. Through collaborative partnerships, regional problems are identified and resolved. Opportunities are discovered and explored by talking and learning from each other and sharing ideas, best practices, services, and resources. The Foundation works to grow more creative and inspiring places, greener and healthier places, and more places of belonging and opportunity.

Through its Connect the Dots program, ArtsBergen presents an ongoing series of networking events for the arts community and those interested in the arts. Held in different venues, each event presents a range of exciting activities and time to network. These activities include exhibitions, speakers, and unique, interactive arts experiences. Connect the Dots aims to create a safe and open environment, where artists and other community sector representatives can spark relationships and collaborate. The program also strengthens and connects the arts community through professional development presentations and the sharing of creative ideas, work, resources and talent. Creative placemaking, a community-led, arts-driven approach, is used to increase vibrancy, spur economic development, and build capacity among residents to take ownership of their communities.

ArtsBergen is the only initiative in Bergen County, New Jersey offering a range of services in creative placemaking. The initiative has partnered with multiple municipalities facilitating creative teams, developing public art and creative placemaking plans, and directing and managing public art projects to preserve and express community culture.