NJ State Museum
Last week I had the pleasure of taking a few hours off from work, meeting up with Colleen Bell (a quilt artist and a gifted nurse practitioner), and visiting the New Jersey Statue Museum located in Trenton to view a show called “Transformations.” The Museum organizers selected the theme to reflect the “renovation project that has transformed the infrastructure of the building. … Participating craftspeople were encouraged to consider transformation – of ideas, materials or space, and how the products of these transformations themselves trigger additional change – of art forms, perception or society itself, in the work they submit to the jurors.”
Sadly I have no photos from the show. I made the mistake of asking if I could take photographs. After some consideration, the guard said no. I had the feeling that if I didn’t ask, and shot with natural light, it would not have been a problem. It wasn’t that I wanted to photograph each individual piece of art (although I did have a couple favorites), but rather the art within the Museum setting. I so enjoyed the structure itself, how the large windows and natural lighting enhanced the experience and displayed the work to its best. For example, there was a piece made by Joan Dryer, an American flag, composed entirely of x-ray film. It hung under an archway. The large window behind it was tinted (probably to protect work from UV light), although the Delaware River was visible and glistening from sunlight dancing on the water. Everything had a black/white/silvery quality to it, complementing Joan’s piece beautifully.
Although I didn’t take any photographs within the building, I did wander around outside to take some. The show runs through mid-March.