Mini-Doc

I received today notice that an 8-minute documentary about the Newark Public Library's Special Collections has been placed on YouTube, so checked it out. It shows some of my favorite pieces from the joint NPL-Rutgers show last November. You can see some of them in my coverage of the NPL portion of the exhibition November 14, 2007 and some others in my coverage of the Robeson Gallery portion the following day.

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Not all art is in libraries or galleries, nor even takes a form readily recognizable as art. There is what appears to me to be some kind of abstract work of art in lite blue on a patch of sidewalk between the Bank of America branch on Springfield Avenue and the paired BofA buildings joined by a skyway over University Avenue that used to be MBNA buildings. But nobody I have spoken with seems to know who did it or if it is just some kind of artifact of pouring the concrete for this particular bit of pavement. It is very subtle, but I'm not imagining it. Here is a daytime view, in brite sunlite, which is a bit fainter than it appears to the human eye.

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One thing that was not in the show but appears in the documentary is a foto of 1180 Raymond Boulevard in mid-construction. Terrific. If you notice it too late to appreciate it, you can move the video back and even pause the tape to appreciate that progress foto better.

I tried different liting approaches to taking a picture of the same patch of concrete at nite, with both existing lite and flash. This is one.

One of the women who put the documentary together told me about it in an email that contains these passages:

I thought you'd like to see it as you are pretty much the online arbiter of all things Newark and I also thought I'd see if I could beg a plug on your much-trafficked website as it may appeal to the folks who frequent there. * * *

Newark 4-Ever!

Samantha Johnston
American Studies PhD Program
Rutgers Newark

You don't have to kiss up, Samantha. I'll tell people about it. Better yet, I embed it near the end of today's post.

Here's another. So, am I imagining this or is there actually an abstract artwork in a sidewalk on Springfield Avenue opposite the eastern tip of the park around the Old Essex County Courthouse? If there is, who did it? And what is its significance? Anyone??

I'm not sure when the video was shot, but the sidewalk bridge over the entrance to Aljira was still in place. People who weren't sure what I meant by "sidewalk bridge" in my May 14th discussion of the bare steel canopy now outside Aljira can see that scaffold-supported structure in the video.
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At one point in the mini-program, Daniel Veniciano, the man in charge of the Robeson Galleries at Rutgers, is shown in front of artworks that look much like the Kati Vilim pieces I showed here August 23rd (eighth foto), but I don't know if they are hers.
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Now that I've suggested some things to look for, here's the video. It runs just over 8 minutes. I think it should be on PBS somewhere, NJN or Newark's stolen WNET. Maybe NET can be shamed into showing it as part of its responsibility to its city of license, Newark (not New York). (See discussion of WNET at Wikipedia's article "City of license".

The Newark art scene is waking from its summer nap, with the return of students to the city's colleges. The Robeson Galleries at Rutgers have a show starting next week. Jeez. It's already September. The Newark Arts Council's studio crawl and 744 Show are less than 8 weeks away.