At a special meeting on Thursday, the board voted 6-0 with one abstention after a public hearing where most speakers asked that it maintain a traditional spring election. But its action does not end the debate — the city council can still switch the date by the deadline, and a third option gives residents a means of changing the date via petition if elected officials don’t act.

In a related matter, the board — via a show of hands — consented not to fill Sean Connors’ old seat under an April election scenario. However , it also opted to still look for interested candidates if the city council acts under the same law to move the contest. The act would extend Connors’ and two other expiring terms (Patricia Sebron, William DeRosa) by eight months.

In part to help districts save money, Gov. Chris Christie signed a measure into law last month allowing a voluntary switch via any of the three scenarios.

While the board election would remain nominally nonpartisan if switched, it would have to remain in the fall for four years before any effort to change it back. Ward E Councilman Steven Fulop has proposed having the council exercise its independent option of placing the question on a referendum for the November election, which, if approved, would delay any switch for at least a year.

If the board election is somehow still switched this year, it would merge the contest with highly partisan presidential and congressional races. And it would follow two April elections during which the board enjoyed its highest turnouts in history.

Voting against the change were Board President Sterling Waterman, Vice President Carol Lester, Marvin Adames, Carol Harrison-Arnold, Angel Valentin and Suzanne Mack. Sebron abstained, given voting for the switch would extend her term in a year her seat is up for re-election. DeRosa, also up for re-election, was absent.

Residents against the switch said they wanted to keep the board election free from the direct influence of the city’s Democratic and Republican organizations while placing a premium on focusing on local education issues, and a provision preventing residents in November from voting on the school tax levy if an increase falls below the state’s cap limiting any increase to two percent. Any tax levy must still be voted on in a spring election.

“Politics aside, I really believe concerns about the board of education election could be lost in a general election,” Harrison-Arnold said to applause. “We need to have individuals showing up at the polls… voting for the board of education.”

Regarding a board estimate that switching the date could save it about $175,000, district watchdog Riaz Wahid insisted that even so, that would equal a savings of only “1.1 cents per property owner per day” and obscure important issues such as the board’s $268,000 settlement to force last year’s retirement of then-superintendent Charles Epps, as well as the board’s paying at least $1.2 million for current garbage collection to the Jersey City Incinerator Authority (JCIA) for the first time ever — an amount that could increase depending on the outcome of negotiations. Wahid contends the JCIA payment amounts to double-billing, as residents already finance the agency via the city part of its tax bill.

“As for the $175,000, the money will go to somebody else,” Wahid insisted. “Let’s look to other districts to see how they deal with the change and see if it’s successful because once we change it, we can’t change it back until four years from now.”

But resident Gilbert Moore told the board it should not overlook any potential area for savings and accepted the board’s initial estimate. He contended “politics” are at play even in the traditional April contests, claiming a check of state campaign finance reports would reveal candidates who take contributions from politically active individuals also donating to council candidates.

“If it’s going to save our district money to move it to November, let’s save the district money and move it to November,” urged the parent, one of a half-dozen speakers endorsing the change during the two-and-a-half hour meeting.

Parents Akisia Grigsby and Oscar Lakra joined Wahid in asserting any switch will give short shrift to school district issues, rendering the estimated savings meaningless. Lakra insisted the board election must stay focused on “picking our people who are going to be our voices when it comes to education.”

“I sincerely believe that for the kids in Jersey City, we need to take the political system away from the educational system,” said Lakra.

Arnold B. Williams, a city businessman who heads the local group Keep Our Schools Public, opposes any switch and criticized Fulop’s proposal.

“Let Councilman Fulop walk around this city and gather required petitions for a referendum,” he told JCI. “Just like any regular citizen would have to do.”

If the current election date stays in place, it assures the issue of who should become the next superintendent will remain very relevant as the board moves forward with the intent of replacing Epps by July 1.

Mack, while endorsing not changing the date, expressed concerns that potentially having new board members vote on superintendent candidates might compromise the process. She noted that, under the board’s current timetable, applicants could be screened in time for the board’s scheduled April 26 meeting — nine days after the election.

Valentin and Waterman countered the matter would still be an issue if the new state law, allowing the date, change never developed.

“The reality is there is the chance that this will not be the same board that will vote on the superintendent,” Valentin said. “There’s a good chance of that happening.”

In the matter of Connors’ vacancy, the board decided not to fill the seat if the election stays on course for April, though a special committee headed by Mack on the subject will keep its options open in case the date is still pushed back eight months.

Waterman said that the board, which had earlier assumed an April election, felt it was better to focus on other issues than try to replace Connors for the last two months of his term. Yet he advised Mack that the recently enacted law that lets the council switch the date even if the board doesn’t requires the board to reconsider.

“I suggest the chair have these names (of possible replacement candidates) in case we find out by Feb. 17 we have to fill the seat,” he urged Mack.

Though the board did not fill the vacancy Peter Donnelly’s resignation created last year, with only two months left, Lester said she could back the move this time with Connors’ seat — even for an April election.

“I would just like us to make a decision right now,” said Lester, fearing the state could impose a choice on a district it still partially controls, though it didn’t do so for Donnelly. “We’re kind of in a climate right now that’s trying to disempower school boards.”

File photo of board members Carol Lester, Carol Harrison-Arnold and Marvin Adames by Steve Gold.

Nine months after Jersey City rejected an initial “preposterous” settlement with developer Steve Hyman, owner of the 6th Street Embankment, an agreement was reached Friday that will transfer the valuable downtown land to the city for $7 million, pending Council approval.

The settlement comes after a 7-year legal battle that has accrued millions of dollars in fees and that could have extended for many months, if not years, following a successful appeal by the city to sue over the initial sale of the land. Hyman, who months early had rejected a plan to sell the land for slightly more money, changed his mind after the U.S. Court of Appeals’ overturned a lower court’s ruling that had prevented the city from suing over the land’s sale. In the suit, the city maintained the sale was illegal because Conrail, the previous owners, had never acquired approval from the Surface Transportation Board, a requirement for selling land that contains rail lines such as the Embankment. The decision to overturn the suit puts the sale of the land in question, and Hyman could have potentially lost out on his significant investment if the court were to ultimately strike the deal.

“The City not only stands to gain a world class park that is equal to or better than New York’s Highline, but also development that will complement the park and provide the City with substantial property tax revenues,” said Mayor Healy.

Initially purchased for approximately $2.5 million in 2005, Hyman intended to construct 1,800 residential units in the fastest growing area of Jersey City, but the city, joined by downtown activists, fought the plan. Instead the land will be transferred to Jersey City for the sum of $7 million and will be used as a “linchpin” connecting different parts of the city through the park. Both prices are seen as well under market-value for the property.

Despite the $4.5 million “return” on the investment for Hyman, the profit line is mitigated by the developer’s accrual of millions of dollars in legal fees spent to fight the city over the land. Hyman’s lawyer, Dan Horgan, says the city had at first looked favorably on the developer’s plans but ultimately decided to pursue a park, a decision Hyman had criticized as ignoring the much-needed revenue the development of residential units would provide.

Despite losing out on what would have likely been a big return on his investment, Horgan maintains everyone, including his client, “wins.”

“My client is satisfied it’s over, and no one is going to look at [the settlement] and think the city missed an opportunity,” said Hyman over the city’s purchase of the land. The city’s plan for the Embankment will make it part of a downtown park that “bridges the Hudson Waterfront Walkway with the Hackensack Meadowlands, via the Bergen Arches,” according to the Embankment Coalition, a group that formed to fight the “overdevelopment” that would result from the developer’s plans.

“The city,” adds Horgan, “is getting everything that [they] said [they] wanted along the way and more.” Without the settlement, the park might “not have happened.”

Along with $7 million, which Horgan calls “fair return,” the Hymans get closure on a frustrating development plan.

Ward E Councilman Steve Fulop, whose ward encompasses the Embankment, said, “It’s a positive for sure as this provides an opportunity for a world class park which we have fought for over the years, long term public transportation options, and eliminates any more tax payer funded lawsuits.”

The $7 million, however, is $600,000 less than the city’s initial offer for the land, which Hyman rejected. In turn, he offered a settlement to sell only two of the six parcels of land for $10 million. The city in turn rejected this offer, which they called “preposterous,” back in May. At the time, City Spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill said, “We will continue to fight for the preservation of the Embankment for the creation of a world-class elevated park and a transportation corridor, while remaining open to any reasonable settlement proposals.

The fight for the Embankment’s future, however, dates back to 1998, when the Embankment Preservation Coalition, the group that first envisioned a park in the historic rail yards, began its 14-year effort to help save a piece of Jersey City’s history — and downtown — from over-development.

“We’re hopeful the city council approves the settlement because we think it’s a compromise in the best interest of everyone,” said Stephen Gucciardo, the president of the EPC.

Roseanna Vitro isn’t short of accomplishments. This sultry jazz vocalist has a discography that dates back to 1985, holds a spot in the Arkansas Jazz Hall of Fame (where she’s from), and is a former U.S Jazz Ambassador — and somehow still somehow finds the time to be a mom, tour the world and teach at New Jersey City University, all while recording album after album.

Music wasn’t something Vitro happened upon by chance. From her childhood days in Arkansas, where her father had a nightclub in the ‘50s, the young talent was always surrounded by music: gospel, rock, R&B and classical.

And although Vitro had her heart set on being a rock singer, it wasn’t until the ‘70s when she was living in Houston that vocal coach Ray Sullenger took notice of her powerful gift and introduced Vitro to the world of jazz.

Vitro is still making waves in the industry. Her most recent release, “The Music of Randy Newman,” received critical praise — and garnered a 2012 Grammy nomination for Best Vocal Jazz Album.

We were curious how Vitro, a woman who does it all and does it so well, was feeling about her latest bit of success — which we’re sure won’t be her last.

JCI: How does it feel to be nominated for a Grammy in the Best Jazz Vocal Album category?

Roseanna Vitro: It feels pretty amazing. I’ve been singing jazz with a passion since the late ’70s, so you could say I’ve put a little time into my craft. I’m very grateful to be acknowledged by my peers in the industry. There was a New York City Grammy party [late last month], honoring all the nominees that live in the New York area. What an incredible feeling to have my photo taken with all of them and to be in a group with Tierney Sutton, Kurt Elling and Karrin Allyson. Terri Lynn Carrington couldn’t make it. Those are all the individuals in my category.

JCI: You pretty much have the liberty to live and work anywhere in the world. What makes you stay in New Jersey?

RV: I actually live in Warren, N.J., but I have been teaching at New Jersey City University for fifteen years. Ed Joffe, who is head of the Jazz Department, has built a program with a high level of integrity and musicianship. Catch one of the concerts at NJCU and you’ll see what I mean. Arturo O’Farrill was just there in concert and it was fantastic.

JCI: What do you get more pleasure from, performing or teaching?

RV: I love teaching and passing on the tradition of jazz singing. Knowledge of our history affects our future. I am honored when I see my students get major record deals and perform locally in the New York area and around the world. It’s very gratifying.

I also love to perform. I plan on singing and touring as long as I can sing an in-tune note and please an audience. I love what I do and I’m very lucky to still be doing it.

JCI: What advice would you give your students who wish to have the kind of success you have?

RV: I advise them to remember they are giving a “gift” when they perform. Each artist should do their best to work hard, handle criticism as best they can, learn from their mistakes, stay humble and grateful. Know and honor our musical history and when you think you’ve given all you have to give, just know that you’ll have to give more. Never give up.

JCI: What do you make of the current state of music education?

RV: New Jersey is a great state with many excellent musicians and teachers hailing from Jersey. The current leadership in Trenton is gutting our education system and the arts are always taken for granted. We need support for more arts classes in our public schools and state colleges. Every voting-age citizen should get involved and vote. Music is a universal language and it can be used in so many ways to teach academic subjects.

This is an issue of importance to me and to the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark (NJPAC) where I teach in the Jazz for Teens program on Saturdays. New Jersey City University is struggling with budget cuts, but we have a great music program lead by Dr. Ed Joffe and Donna Connolly and Dr. Min Kim. You will always see and hear a vibrant jazz concert or play presented by our dedicated students, teachers and touring artists.

JCI: Did you ever think your career would take off the way it has with so much longevity?

RV: Araceli, I have been a very focused and driven artist since I first knew I would be at singer at 4 years old. My entire family sings and I had the bug from that moment onward. I followed my heart and my dreams, ignoring anyone who told me that my dreams were impossible. I’ve had some amazing successes and experiences in my 30 years as a performer. I’ve also had some unbelievable mistakes and heartbreaks and somehow, I dried my tears and started over again each time. At my age, I would never have dreamed that I would be nominated for a Grammy. This has been an unforgettable ride and an honor to be recognized by my peers in the music industry. I feel for my life’s work, I just received an A-plus and it feels great. I am totally re-inspired.

JCI: If you had never become a jazz singer, what do you think would have been your path?

I’m not sure what I would have done because I never had any other desire. I do know that I love being a mother. I love cooking and I love teaching. When one of my students gets a record deal, like Melissa Morgan on Concord Records, or say my latest star Vanessa Perea who graduated from NJCU last year and is gigging in New York City and garnering rave reviews, or Brittany Henderson from my NJPAC Jazz for Teens program was accepted to Berklee College of Music — I feel very satisfied that I am making a difference. What better can we do with our lives than to help others and enrich the planet? Life is good.

JCI: What’s been your most important highlight in your career thus far?

RV: I’ve had many highlights. It’s too long to tell! This Grammy Nomination is the highlight.

JCI: You’ve accomplished so much in your career, what’s next on your horizon?

RV: My next horizon will be to improve my musicianship, work on new compositions and improvisation. And to plan my next recording. I’ve got several ideas and one is the Ballads of Charlie Parker with the NJCU Big Band.

The Grammy Awards are this Sunday, Feb. 12.

Images of Roseanna Vitro (second from right) and the Randy Newman Project band courtesy of Roseanna Vitro.

If you had walked into the Route 440 strip mall three hours earlier, it would have been hard to believe that the record shop was having a bad week, let alone going out of business. The store was filled with people sifting through the CD bins, browsing the movie and poster racks, and eyeing the assortment of buttons and memorabilia lining the glass counter and hanging from the ceiling. It reminded me of all the classic record/video shop movies. The sight was surreal. The moment was bittersweet. As customers shuffled through the racks digging for goodies, it was easy to overlook the signs posted around the store letting everyone know that the shop was going out of business and everything was 40% to 70% off.  

I caught up with Maersk Doydora, a longtime customer and avid Michael Jackson fan, after he made his last purchase.

“It’s a sad day,” he said. ”I’ve been going here since I moved here, since ’87 when it was Wow! Records. I used to come here all the time, back in the days, when I was getting into rap and hip-hop, and they had all the good stuff here. It’s sad to see the place go.  I’m here to pay my last respects. 30 years is a good run.”

Tristine Baccam, a regular for the last three years, walked out with an Anberlin 45. “After moving here from Houston 3 years ago, this has been one of the few stores that actually feels like it belongs in this community,” she said. “It’s not all about getting the sale. They would go out of the way to find what you were looking for and talk to you about it.”

“Virtually the last man standing, Supersounds, you were a great champ — thanks for the memories!” was all Jonathan Bondoc had to say after I rang up his purchase of some reggae vinyl and a copy of Aladdin on VHS. (I was the assistant manager of the store for years, and I couldn’t resist using that old register one last time.)

Supersounds took the place of Wow! Music in 2003, and was managed by Ron Akiyama and Ed Leppard. The shop in Hudson Mall had been a community staple since the early ’80s, and they were the torchbearers bringing music to the next generation.

In 2003, we were seeing the beginning of the shift to digital. Consumers were moving away from physical formats and towards digital downloads, but against the odds, the shop was able to stay afloat with support from collectors, enthusiasts and individuals who hadn’t yet made the leap to a digital collection.

Ron believes it had something to do with the community.

“The urban market still embraced physical format,” he said. ”More so than other areas. There was still a love of music. The people seemed passionate about this genre. And I’m sure that every genre has it’s fans, but it seemed urban was one of the last groups to still want that physical product.”

Even as the neighborhood changed and the genres shifted, it was still the place where you would go to buy music, listen to music, find out about new music, and hang out with other people, that simply, loved music.  

When I had a chance to sit down and talk to Ron, I asked him to describe who his customers were, and it wasn’t easy. What he said showed the heart of what the store actually was. “This [place/neighborhood] was a throwback,” he said. “It’s own world. The people here just seem to have a different lifestyle, a different outlook on life. It’s a very urban area, but people are people. And I loved to listen to their stories.

“I’ve heard a lot of heartbreaking stories,” he went on, “so many more than the great stories. But they felt the music kept them going, and that’s why I still felt a sense of purpose in providing that knowledge. Because it made them happy, the music made them happy. From the people that were poverty stricken, to people that were addicts, to people riding the line, it all came to banding around everyone being equal in loving the music. And if you were in that set clique it was a great clique to be in.”

Anyone who is familiar with music or book retailers understands that there have been many hurdles to overcome in the past 20 years. From the advent of the entertainment mega stores like Virgin and FYE to massive retailers like Target and Walmart, it would seem that independent business have been playing against a stacked deck. And for a long time, it looked as though Supersounds had weathered the brunt of the storm. But in the last days, Ed explained, “As customers dwindled and employees got less and less, I mean, I was here by myself most of the time, and there were hardly any customers. There wasn’t really much going on.”

At the end of the day it’s not easy to say that one thing killed the music industry. “It’s such a combination platter. There are a lot of factors that go into it. Besides downloading, retailing itself has changed. At the end of the day if we had seen an increase, just some kind of increase it gives you more incentive. I think the small music store is history,” Ron said.  

But if there was a straw that broke the camel’s back it was, in his words, “Music companies never changing their policies until it was too late. I still blame the music companies for the downturn. If they had changed their prices 15 years ago, across the board to $10, like Universal finally did. But as wholesalers they intended to charge us $11 to $12 per product which turns into $16.99 for the customer and they’re not going to pay that anymore.”

The question becomes, is it possible for a small independent record shop, in a not so affluent area, to not only survive but succeed?

Ed’s response was no. “There is not going to be a record store,” he said. “I think Tunes [in Hoboken] has the right idea, because they incorporate a lot of online business, their entire catalog is online, and as a result they sell a lot of product.”

As the last customers left the shop, I saw a lot hugs, a few tears, and more “we’re gonna miss you guys,” than I’ve heard in a really long time. This isn’t just a small store shutting down and another one taking its place. This is most likely the last time Hudson Mall, if it lasts, will ever have a record shop.

At 9 pm the registers were counted and I was able to chat with old friends and co-workers without the worry of leaving our friends, the customers, neglected. As we reminisced about old times, we tried to think about what made the place so special. 

Corey Braiterman, a Supersounds employee from 2005 to 2012, has worked with Ron for practically his entire post-college life. “While everyone is outside working in the cold, I’m sitting inside listening to music,” he said. “It could be a lot worse.”

I worked at the store from 2004 to 2010, and I’m going to remember it as the place I could always go when I had nothing to do or needed someone to talk to — and where music was the only thing that mattered.

After the doors were locked one last time, we were left with a cast of characters that only a reunion at a small record shop could conjure. I stood at the counter and made my last purchase at a store that has come to mean so much to me over the course of my life that any words past this point would fail to do the memories justice.

“To go into some of these abandoned places can be invasive thing,” she said, “and we try to be as sensitive as possible. No one wants anyone coming into our house uninvited.”

Although Smith, who volunteers with the Jersey City Episcopal Community Development Corporation, worked the office during this year’s Point-In-Time count, in the past she has walked the streets of Hudson County in search of homeless individuals in “virtually abandoned” areas of the city, part of a statewide requirement to take a census of a county’s homeless population every two years. But Hudson County’s efforts surpass the state’s minimum requirements, taking the census yearly (however, last year’s count was canceled due to a blizzard) and bringing along necessities like winter clothing, and food.

Along with the count, which is used to acquire funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, volunteers hand out a survey that seeks to find trends and needs of homeless individuals to better distribute aid. The survey includes questions such as where the individual spends a night (potential answers include on the street, traveling on a bus, camping out, shelter, jail, and a hospital, to name a few), how long he or she has been homeless, and what kind of assistance the person seeks out.

According to Hudson County Division of Housing and Community Development program director Randi Moore, about 18 volunteers, split into teams of roughly 4 people each, drove throughout the county during a 24-hour period late last month. But even with knowledge of where homeless individuals in the city sometimes find shelter, it’s a challenging task. In fact, in previous years volunteers were provided with a list of spaces used as shelter, and this year they were able to provide a map. And yet, even with the map Moore’s team was only able to find one person to survey. In total, Jersey City collected about 40 surveys, with the same amount found in Hoboken, and just 15 in North Hudson.

It will now take a few months to get all the data from the count collected and assessed, says Moore, and the information will be used to both help get additional resources for the county and will be entered into an online database that looks for trends, ages, and needs among other things.

Prior to the count, the group hosts an event called Project Homeless Connect, which Smith describes as a “one stop shop” for medical services, food, clothing and other necessities. It’s crucial, she explains, particularly in light of the “draconian cuts” the state made to many social services. These changes make it difficult for homeless individuals to know where to go for help sometimes.

“A person can spend their whole life going from one service to another, only to find out they’ve been cut,” said Smith. “This is a way to put all the services in one room.”

And the word was spread well this year, with about about 500 individuals lining up at booths set up at Project Homeless Connect, collecting needed supplies like warm clothing, medical exams, and food. The number is about 200 more than the program saw last year, and the long lines meant not everyone received a coat.

Although the final count is not ready, Moore says the numbers are “definitely going up.” It’s a trend at odds with recent statistics, and Moore says there’s an incomplete reason why. Excluding last year’s incomplete count, in the three years prior to 2011 Hudson County saw the homeless population drop from 2,330 in 2008 (1,261 adults and 1,069 children) to 1,779 in 2010 (1,064 adults and 715 children). 57% of the homeless surveyed said their last permanent residence was in Jersey City. The 2010 and 2011 reports are available online here and here.

The count may be done, says Smith, but the experience’s imprint lasts.

“You can’t forget these experiences,” she says. “The homeless are stronger and braver than I could ever be.”

Photos by Mark Dye

At 19 years of age, Demetrius Terry isn’t always the youngest speaker during a City Council meeting’s public hearing, when residents, union reps, former pols, and business interests address the municipality’s legislative body, (often) airing concerns or (occasionally) applauding city actions. On some days, in particular when the cause is related to elementary schools, Terry will be a good 10 years older than the youngest speaker. But when it comes to issues of substance, of a concern well beyond the years of most pre-baccalaureate degree holding types – crime, crony-ism, or taxes, not to mention layoffs, government transparency or various other public interest concerns – Terry stands alone as the youngest resident ready and able to address the Council.

But Terry’s interest in politics isn’t the idle speculation of a student curious how governments function – though he is studying political science at Seton Hall University – nor is it simply the acting out of civic responsibility as envisioned by democracy-idealists. Rather, it’s the proactive involvement of a young man with large ambition. Terry, in fact, expects to see his name in print next year, and not just in the newspaper. If all goes according to plan, his name will be in the same column as current Ward A Councilman Michael Sottolano’s on next year’s City Council ballot. At the time of the election, Terry will be 20, seven years younger than Ward E Councilman Steve Fulop was when he was first elected. He’ll also be running as a Republican, a rarity in the heavily-Democratic leaning city.

“You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to sit on the council,” said Terry. “What the council in Jersey City needs is some new fresh young blood. I will bring new fiscal ideas to the table and solutions to problems facing our community everyday: crime, education and taxes.”

He looks to answer the question, “Where are our elected leaders? There have been many times I’ve talked to residents in Greenville and they have no clue [who] their councilperson is.”

Although now firmly in the GOP camp, Terry, the chairman of the Hudson County Teenage Republicans, took a roundabout route to his conservative leanings, one that has seen him make an about-face from his one-time political inspiration, President Barack Obama. And yet, like many of the president’s audiences during his 2008 campaign, Terry cites hearing Obama speak at St. Peter’s College on January 11, 2008 as the reason he got involved in politics.

“From that evening on, I knew public service was destined for me,” he says. “I was very intrigued by the way he spoke and the vision he had for the United States of America. During the time, I really had no clue what politics was about but I knew I wanted to get involved.”

At first Terry thought the Democratic party’s interests aligned with his own, and he joined the Hudson County Democratic Organization to help Obama’s campaign. But like some erstwhile ardent Obama supporters, the years that followed his election – when no simple fix for our ailing economy appeared, with economists split (and still split) over the size of the bailout (if not the necessity), with a massive national debt compiling, and continuing trouble in the global financial market – Terry’s infatuation with the president faded.

“I’m very disappointed by President Obama,” says Terry. “If you just look at his spending record and the economy, how can anyone really be happy with a President like that?”

From this disappointment, he looked to the 2009 gubernatorial race here in New Jersey, and saw that Republicans “stand for lower taxes, less government, less regulations, school choice and fiscal responsibility. All of those characteristics what something I believed morally in.” He says he’s found these values at the state level in Governor Chris Christie, and then nationally in Mitt Romney as he continues to establish himself as the so-called inevitable candidate in the Republican primaries.

While Terry says he has “respect” for Sottolano, presumably his biggest challenger come 2013, it comes down to the need for new points-of-view. He recently wrote a letter to JCI expressing disappointment with Ward F Councilwoman Michele Massey’s recent decision to vote against ousting Council President Brennan from his leadership position.

In the time until the election, Terry will continue to make appearances at Council meetings and posting on Facebook’s Political Insider page – a Jersey City-centric, keep-in-the-know forum for activist-residents – and to work as a part-time model at Hollister Co. at Newport Mall in Jersey City.

Whatever his political fate, Terry says he hopes to inspire the area’s youth by becoming “the biggest advocate for the youth in my ward. The youth are our leaders for tomorrow and they need to know there is someone out there who cares for them,” he said.

In a city of old-hands and so-called political machines, Terry’s candidacy is a hopeful sign for youthful Americans too often described as disaffected no matter one’s political affiliation.

Photo Courtesy Demetrius Terry

In her paintings, videos, and collages, Margaret Murphy either debases Catholic icons to the lowly status ordinarily set aside for mass-produced knickknacks — or she elevates dime-store trash to the celestial ranks usually reserved for patron saints and martyrs. At first glance, Murphy’s work can strike the viewer as the “found paintings” often seen hanging inside thrift stores. On repeated viewings, her work reveals an artist who is not only in total command of her medium and vision, but in conversation with the masters of art history as well.

All of this combines to make Margaret Murphy’s new exhibition, “Decoding the Marketplace: coupons, dollar stores, eBay,” the must-see show of the season.

Dr. Midori Yoshimoto, director of galleries at New Jersey City University, first encountered Murphy’s paintings of porcelain figurines at the Jersey City Museum several years ago. Yoshimoto was struck with their consistency, clarity, and strong visual appeal.

“What I like particularly about her work is the accessibility of the subject matter: Tarot cards, henna hands, and dollar-store porcelain dolls, which are all found in our daily life,” Yoshimoto says. “Yet they can be mysterious and seductive to invite varied reactions from the viewer. Over the course of a decade, one can see her development as an artist in producing numerous series that have consistently critiqued American commodity culture.”

To view Murphy’s work is to genuflect before a plastic altar wrapped in second-hand chintz that was mass-produced in a random factory somewhere in China. My favorite paintings of hers include the images of porcelain girls that read like Zurbarán’s portraits of female saints and martyrs, but for the trash collector who cries during feminine hygiene commercials. It’s as if a halo of White Castle sliders reverberates around her pictures. To create great masterworks, artists require muses. A 45-year-old Picasso used teenage Marie-Thérèse Walter. Francis Bacon used rogue, alcoholic George Dyer. Like the aforementioned artists, Murphy, too, has a muse, but it’s a cheap, bazooka-bosomed figurine in fishnets and stilettos.

To read her pictures of porcelain dolls as lightweight would be easy but dead wrong. Murphy is indebted to the critique of how women are objectified in American society. She writes: “The female figurines represent the ‘woman’ in a post-feminist analytical arena, one that has been objectified on many levels.” In her work, Murphy is constantly returning to issues regarding gender, class and consumerism.

Also, she is constantly pushing herself as a painter — experimenting with medium, color, composition, light and shadow. The paintings of figurines owe as much to the 19th-century French painter Manet, or the 20th-century American Alex Katz, as to kitsch. Murphy draws inspiration from her native Baltimore and adopted hometown of Jersey City, with its diversity, blue-collar neighborhoods and eclectic mishmash of dollar stores.

What is most fascinating about Murphy’s work is how she is able to balance the “serious” and the “playful,” without allowing one to undo the other. She is often cited as working in the tradition of Pop Art, which is true, but it’s not the whole truth. Like Warhol, she is concerned with making art about banal objects of mass consumption. But where Warhol was cool and ironic, Murphy has the sweetness of a cherry Blow Pop.

If you go to one exhibition this season in Jersey City or New York, make it Margaret Murphy’s “Decoding the Marketplace: coupons, dollar stores, eBay,” at New Jersey City University’s Harold B. Lemmerman Gallery.

Details:

The Harold B. Lemmerman Gallery  
Hepburn Hall, room 323
New Jersey City University
2039 Kennedy Blvd. Jersey City, NJ  

Exhibition Runs: January 30 – March 7, 2012




Artist’s Reception: Thursday, February 2, from 5 – 7:30 pm

Artist Talk: March 6 at 5 pm (in the gallery)



For more information on the artist, please visit margaret-murphy.com.   

Photos courtesy of Margaret Murphy

Also on the panel were Phillip Kilgore, director of the Charter School Initiative at Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Mich.; William Moloney, former Colorado education commissioner who prior to that spent 30 years as a teacher and administrator in five other states; and Terrence O. Moore, instructor at Hillsdale College who served a seven-year stint as principal of Ridgeview Classical Schools, a K-12 charter academy in Ft. Collins, Colo.
 
2011 Tea Party state assembly candidate Roseann Salinitri hosted the forum, which lasted two and a half hours and was moderated by Bob Bowdon, executive director of ChoiceMedia.tv. The forum was followed by a brief question-and-answer session and meet-and-greet with panel members.

After the meeting, Salters told JCI he was disappointed not to see Jersey City school board members or others who might not share the Tea Party movement’s views on school reform in attendance.                                             
 
“You had people from Michigan and Colorado flying here to take part but no one from the Jersey City school board?” Salters asked. “You’d think one of the newer elected members, who claim they’re interested in reform, would be willing to at least hear a different point of view. It’s shameful.”
 
Bowdon created the documentary The Cartel, which he describes as an expose highlighting problems and abuses that have contributed to the steady and steep decline of America’s public education system through the years. During the forum, he showed a tape of his interview with a former Atlanta charter school administrator, whose building the Georgia Supreme Court shut down after ruling the school was illegal under state law. 
 
Allegations he raised included his beliefs that public school teachers’ unions wield too much power and influence in many states; the quality of teacher preparation programs in colleges nationwide is declining; and activist appellate state courts are legislating from the bench under the misguided premise that spending more money will solve the problems with public education. He also discussed what he described as the false notion — promoted by public school teachers’ unions — that small class sizes lead to better academic results; he said their underlying agenda is hiring more teachers, leading to more dues-paying members.
 
Kniesler said the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) spent about $700,000 from its coffers in support of sympathetic candidates during last year’s state legislative elections.

“American education is in deep trouble,” declared Moloney, a former member of the National Council on Teacher Quality.
 
He said the current public school system throughout the United States has languished to the point where it is “threatening our future.”
 
Yet he said there was “a springboard for opportunity” to reverse the decline in the alternatives the panel members endorse.
 
Moore insisted that charter schools “can be a key element of educational reform” provided states don’t interfere by making them mere watered-down versions of traditional public schools — which mostly base their enrollments on geography.
 
While he readily conceded that “there are not-so-good charter schools,” Moore maintained charters can thrive in environments where “in the best case, radical reform needs to occur.”
 
In New Jersey, enrollment in charter schools is based on random selection by lottery, with priority assigned to students living in the municipalities where they are located.
 
The alternative schools are managed outside the direct influence of local boards of education by their own appointed boards, even though much of their funding comes from school districts.
 
Moloney acknowledged that the “radical change” Moore said is needed can only come from political action via the public’s electing governors and state legislators sympathetic to the cause.
 
“The key to the issue is all about politics,” he said. “If you don’t solve it politically, you’re not going to solve it educationally.”
 
Though governors can promote the agenda by appointing judges sympathetic to the school choice cause, LaRossa said citizens are hamstrung in New Jersey by a system which gives judges tenure through age 70.
 
He and Kniesler criticized the state’s courts for treading on the Garden State legislature’s constitutionally-delegated authority to appropriate educational funding.
 
LaRossa complained a 3-2 majority on the state Supreme Court violated its own established principle that “only the legislature has the authority to appropriate money” when it ruled last May that Republican Gov. Chris Christie and state lawmakers needed to give 31 specially-designated urban districts, including Jersey City, $500 million more in state aid by applying a funding formula the court previously established.
 
The ruling overrode Christie’s 2010 initiative to sharply reduce state help to districts across the board to close a large state budget deficit. It also reopened old sores concerning complaints from suburban (and generally more affluent) districts that they are shortchanged under the formula.
 
LaRossa, a former teacher, claimed last year’s ruling only strengthened a pre-existing funding disparity, even though, he insisted, pouring more aid annually into districts like Jersey City has not improved academic performance.
 
“Excluding the costs of (school) construction,” LaRossa said, “thirty school districts in the last twenty years have received $20 billion. Sixty percent of the (state’s) money goes to 22 percent of the students.” 
 
“The courts are generally not supposed to create laws,” Bowdon said, alluding to the controversial New Jersey ruling. “They are supposed to interpret their constitutionality.”
 
“If you’re looking for some great examples of judicial misconduct, it happens in New Jersey,” charged Kniesler. “And it’s on the backs of the taxpayers.”
 
Moloney insisted that providing more funding to hire more teachers with the aim of lowering class sizes is not an answer based on historical evidence.
 
In the 1960s, he claimed, the student to teacher ratio in the United States was at 27 to 1, compared to 15-1 amid a declining system today.
 
“America really has more teachers than it needs,” said Moloney. He added that many other industrialized nations generally “have larger classes than we have in the U.S. and are getting better results.”
 
“If other industrialized nations can provide better education at lower cost,” Moloney asked, “what in God’s name is wrong with us?”
 
Regarding teachers’ unions, Leonetti cited her own frustrations with the nation’s largest, the New York City chapter of the American Federation of Teachers. She claimed it hardly acknowledges that there is a committed, vocal coalition of “conservative teachers” in its ranks.
 
“I recently met with my union rep and told her I was tired of the ways of old and demanded that there be (recognition of) a coalition of conservative teachers because they are out there but they are in the shadows,” she said.

Leonetti, a Scotch Plains resident, said she is proud to take stands that are likely anathema to her union’s president, Michael Mulgrew, including “tying merit pay to a based-performance system.”

Photo by Bader Qarmout

Once the election is switched, it stays in place for at least four years. Residents would not be allowed to vote on a school budget in November if it does not exceed the state’s 2-percent spending cap.
 
Trustee Suzanne Mack said restoring a ninth board member could be instrumental in deciding on the election date. Mack has endorsed the possibility of switching the election partly because it could save money; vice president Carol Lester cited one estimate that the switch could save about $178,000.
 
The board split 3-3 with an abstention on Lester’s motion to further discuss the issue at an upcoming caucus. The stalemate, however, does not stop board president Sterling Waterman from scheduling a discussion on the issue before a Feb. 17 state deadline.
 
But unless the city council or residents step in to approve the switch before that time and the board fails to act, the election stays in April.

Ward E Councilman Steve Fulop announced yesterday that he would propose a referendum on the vote date, saying he was in favor of a switch to November “because it will increase turnout and cut costs, but I understand both sides of the argument.”
 
Mack noted that the board of education voted in a tie, and could act to prevent that by filling Connors’ seat.

Just last year, the board opted not to replace Peter Donnelly, who resigned in February almost two months after Connors left, leaving a board less prone to tie votes. Other recent ties included a 4-4 deadlock to hire a superintendent search firm in January, causing board member Carol Harrison-Arnold to switch sides and break the deadlock, and, while Connors was still serving, two other votes on picking the firm in December (with Patricia Sebron abstaining). Those moves delayed selection for about another three weeks until an exasperated Harrison-Arnold ended the stalemate. Sebron was absent Thursday.

Board member Marvin Adames initially wanted to cut off Mack’s discussion, criticizing the timing.

“I don’t want to discuss it here tonight for the first time,” he told her. “There are a lot of questions from all board members. I don’t think it’s a good idea for the board to put it up for discussion at this particular time.”
 
Mack countered the new state law makes it critical for the board to consider the move. She said that in addition to having a full board in place, trustees cannot allow a vacancy to carry until January if the switch is approved.
 
Still, Mack assured Adames she was not trying to ram the move through. “I was just trying to bring it up to others on the board to see if they wanted to discuss appointing a replacement.”

Under Mack’s motion, approved 5-2, a board committee will initially evaluate replacing Connors. Joining her were Waterman, Harrison-Arnold, Lester and Waterman. Though he did not object to further discussion, Adames joined Angel Valentin in opposing the final resolution.

On the new election law, the board will only have about two weeks to make a decision if Waterman posts the matter for discussion. If he doesn’t and the council does not intervene, the April election stays in place. If it is switched, the non-partisan board contest will be incorporated into the national presidential and congressional races.
 
Yet the prior two April contests have proven to be highly successful locally, particularly in 2010, when there was a record turnout. This success prompted the board to extend the voting time this year from 7 am to 9 pm. If the date is switched, the polls will stay open for 14 hours, but they would open at 6 am.

The politically hot issue of finding a new superintendent could be taken out of play if the board sticks to its desired timetable and hires someone by July 1.
 
The prospect of including the board race with partisan races rankled Arnold B. Williams, head of Keep Our Schools Public. Williams claimed the Hudson County Democratic Organization would eagerly use the occasion to politicize school issues.

“It’s important that the board not vote on this tonight,” pleaded Williams, who lost to the organization last year in a primary for county freeholder. “Take a year. Take two years, if you will.”
 
Further, he charged local allies of Christie (who initially favored forcing the change statewide before compromising) hope to see political advantages as a result.
 
“It’s partisan and it’s not in the interests of children of this district,”said Williams. “Keep Jersey City’s public schools public.”

Mack insisted the board is obligated to examine the issue carefully.
 
“I think we need to study it,” she said, claiming the board received incorrect information indicating it had to vote on the switch during a discussion at its Jan. 23 caucus. “I think we need to look at it very carefully for the sake of our children. Why am I going to committee meetings, as an elected board member, if I don’t have the right information?”
 
Valentin made clear he didn’t need to see any more data. “To me, the school year doesn’t start in January,” he said. “It’s ridiculous… I think if it has to be considered, it should be in June.”

Lester, who won in the record-setting April 2010 election, seemed most interested by the potential to save $178,000.

“I usually have a single-track mind when it comes to chunks (of money) that could buy a new lab for kids somewhere,” she observed. “So I want to learn more about the financial implications of moving the elections.”
 
While a frequent critic of how the district spends its money, watchdog Riaz Wahid, told board members he doubted any savings from the switch will make a dent in tax bills given a near $631 million budget.
 
“We don’t want be ‘columnized’ — pushing Column A or Column B,” he told the board, regarding all the partisan office seekers board candidates would have to compete with for the public’s attention. “We want the people to be educated on Board of Education issues.”

Following the vote, Waterman would not specifically commit to scheduling the matter for further debate, saying only, “It will be my decision.”

File photo by Steve Gold 

This is not the first confession I have made in my life, and it will not be the last. I had never visited the art gallery Curious Matter before September 2011. To date, they have organized 13 exhibitions that have featured more than 200 artists from Jersey City, New York, and abroad. Raymond E. Mingst and Arthur Bruso run the gallery, which opened in 2007.

When I lived on Belmont Avenue, I was less than two miles away from the gallery, and never visited it, not once. I always intended to go, but never did.

I had to move 10 miles and an hour’s travel time away to finally see the gallery. The irony is not lost on me.

Curious Matter is located on 272 Fifth Street in the Harsimus Cove section of Downtown Jersey City. Red-brick row homes dot the tree-lined streets, and the air is often filled with the sound of bells from nearby Catholic churches. Dames Coffee and Espresso Bar, which is located around the corner, serves delicious lattes.

After more than five years in business, Curious Matter has established itself as an integral member of Jersey City’s Downtown art scene. The community is undergoing a renaissance of late, with longtime heavyweight 58 Gallery continuing to organize exhibitions and performances, and Jersey City Art School and _gaia continuing to attract and nurture emerging artists. The most recent upstart is WOOLPUNKstudios, a gallery that opened on Newark Avenue near Brunswick Street. Curious Matter, despite its diminutive size and staff, is thriving. The fact that it is run from the parlor room of a private residence only adds to its allure.

The Parlor Room

Bruso and Mingst operate Curious Matter out of the parlor room of their row home, which is accessible via a steep stone staircase. To walk into the parlor room is to travel back to 19th- century Jersey City, when the building was first constructed. With a keen appreciation of history, they have preserved the room’s Italianate style. The first things I noticed were the hardwood floors, the crown molding, a stone fireplace, and the beautiful chandelier from Murano, Italy.

In many ways, Bruso and Mingst have returned the parlor room to what would have been its function in Victorian days – a room set aside for special occasions, visitors and entertainment. While the work they show is contemporary, they use the space in a very traditional manner, which seems particularly appropriate considering their house is located in a historic district.

The room itself, at 144 square feet, is a 12-foot square. Size, however, is not a limiting factor.

“We make the most of every inch,” says Mingst. “The doors from the foyer into the parlor have small shelves for our catalogs and publications. A door from the parlor to the rest of the building has been fitted with a panel for additional exhibition space.”

When I dropped by in September, Bruso’s suite of 25 photographs was on view. The exhibition, Falling City, presented derelict apartment houses, passersby on the hustle, and morning hangover. Many of the photographs rested on a small temporary ledge, no more than two inches deep, which ran the length of the north and east walls. The remaining photographs hung from wire on a small section of wall space adjacent to the fireplace.

A bouquet of pink flowers, exhibition statement and exhibition catalog rested on the mantelpiece. A well-situated mirror within a gold frame, which Mingst purchased at a Brooklyn Salvation Army years ago, helps the room breathe.

The architectural details here would shame many contemporary gallerists. Most exhibition venues in Chelsea or the Lower East Side resemble antiseptic white cubes. The idea behind the austere construction is that contemporary art is best served with the least distractions. The outside world should disappear, or at least be far removed.

Mingst and Bruso do not fear the hullabaloo of the world beyond the parlor room, and find no reason to protect the art from it. To them, the details of the parlor room serve their exhibitions. Their insight that the history of a room could play into their exhibitions occurred during a trip abroad.

“Before we curated Naming the Animals [a previous show], Arthur and I had visited La Specola in Florence. It’s an absolutely thrilling museum of natural history that maintains a collection that dates back to the 1700s,” says Mingst. “From the creaking wooden floors to the centuries-old display cabinets with taxidermy and anatomical wax figures, everything about the museum speaks to its place in history.”

Naming the Animals, which was a partnership between Curious Matter and Proteus Gowanus in Brooklyn, included artists from Australia, Netherlands, Canada and the United Kingdom, in addition to artists from the immediate area. Artists were asked to explore man’s impulse to classify the world around us. Richard Haymes contributed a Gothic woodwork cabinet that housed religious tchotchkes, jewels and jewelry fittings, a fish tank thermometer, a page from an Italian children’s primer, and a hair net, to name just a few items. Lasse Antonsen’s artwork included taxidermy that featured three kingfishers. Colette Male’s sculptures, which referenced sailors’ ivory carvings from the 1500s, comprised seashells, coral, plaster, and resin, and resembled a hybrid creature.

If the parlor room is beginning to sound like a cabinet of curiosities, it should.

Variations on a Theme

A cabinet of curiosities, known in German as Kunst-und Wunderkammer, displays an encyclopedic collection of all kinds of objects of dissimilar origin. Whether the objects on view were manmade or natural, the collection was a reflection of intellectual rigor and inquisitiveness. It would not be an anomaly to find taxidermy birds paired beside clock automata or botanical specimens from an exotic location.

“Cabinets of curiosity vividly evidence the desire to understand the world around us,” says Mingst. “The physical manifestation of the pursuit for knowledge is what captivates me as an artist. I often think of the art I produce as a collection of relics and notes.”
Bruso echoes Mingst’s enthusiasm.

“As a visual person, I am interested in visual objects,” he says. “As a youth, I was interested in science and collected all kinds of things: shells, rocks, butterflies, bones, and anything that was out of the ordinary.”

The world of nature is not the only aspect of cabinets of curiosities that inspire Bruso.

“I also grew up in an Italian-Catholic family which had all of the statues, prints, reliquaries, beads, prayer books and candles associated with the religion.

“I developed an interest in the macabre, the occult, tarot, symbolism and the creepy and fantastic,” he adds. “This is the aspect of cabinets of curiosities that attracts me.”

Art Galleries at Home

Like many of the galleries in Jersey City, Curious Matter is a do-it-yourself affair. But what separates Curious Matter from other exhibition venues in town is its parlor location.
“Our approach parallels attitudes held by Alfred Stieglitz in relation to his Gallery 291,” says Mingst. “We’re an exhibition space, but also a place of inquiry and ideas.”

Gallery 291 was located on 291 Fifth Avenue, near Herald Square in New York City. It opened in 1905. Stieglitz rented a studio apartment to show photography, which was an unrecognized art form at the time. From this small residential studio, he would exhibit the avant garde work of Cezanne, Picasso and Matisse. This living space helped introduce modern art to American audiences.

Over the years, Jersey City has had a string of in-home exhibition venues. Elen Sviland operated 919 Gallery from her spacious industrial loft at 150 Bay Street and during the gallery’s tenure hosted acclaimed artist Miru Kim. Farah Nuradeen used to manage an informal art gallery from her Downtown garden apartment on Jersey Avenue.

Curious Matter is not the first exhibition venue Mingst has run from a private residence. Cabinet Gallery, an earlier incarnation of Curious Matter, was housed in an SRO (single room occupancy) on East 9th Street in Manhattan’s East Village.

Mingst, at the time, had been creating temporary art in remote locations in Far Rockaway, Fire Island, and Pennsylvania. His materials were sand, snow, dirt and sticks. A shovel was his primary tool. Due to the transient nature of the work, he began to consider documenting his projects. This shift led him to consider the collection, presentation, and stewardship of objects as well as to reflect on ideas about preservation and adoration. The Cabinet Gallery was the articulation of those interests. Earlier in his career as an artist, Mingst
realized the potential of domestic living quarters to operate as exhibition venues.

“The very first shows I put together were renegade presentations in art school,” he says.
“I would simply commandeer rooms and hallways and install work, then create flyers and put them up around campus,” he adds. “Creating art and exhibiting have always been linked for me.”

The Cabinet Gallery, in addition to being a home and exhibition venue, was where Mingst met Bruso. Bruso, at the time, was organizing shows at La Mamma La Galleria, an exhibition venue near the Bowery. Both artists were exploring new directions in their practice; they identified similar intent and began to collaborate on projects. Museology, cabinets of curiosities and religious iconography were among their intersecting interests.

The Jersey City Scene

Jersey City is a source of bewilderment for many New Yorkers, especially its artist types. New York has the infrastructure to support, nurture and sustain the arts. Jersey City simply does not.

Mention Jersey City to a curator based in New York, and his or her eyes glaze over.
Despite their longtime status as New Yorkers, Mingst and Bruso do not suffer anti-Jersey bias. They love Jersey City, and its hidden treasures. New Yorkers cannot claim these treasures, no matter how hard they try.

“Folks get baffled too easily sometimes,” says Mingst. “The Landmark Loew’s Jersey Theatre with its Wonder Morton Organ is located in Jersey City.” He notes another icon that Jersey City has that New York does not: “Proximity to the Pulaski Skyway, not to drive, just to look at.”

“Then there’s that maple syrup smell that wafts through some mornings, and too, there’s seeing the sunset from the ShopRite parking lot on Marin Boulevard,” he adds.

Bruso’s appreciation of Jersey City, on the other hand, is more pragmatic.

“In New York, my studio was the surface of my bed. And Jersey City has a quicker ride to Manhattan than Brooklyn does.” He adds another pro: “the ability to keep chickens.”

But Jersey City is not the easiest place to run an art gallery or institution. Ask the former employees from the Jersey City Museum or Cooke Contemporary – they can tell you. Money is always an issue. Making ends meet is a constant struggle. Despite these challenges, Bruso and Mingst remain undaunted.

“We’re sustained by our commitment, which is bigger than any bank account,” says Mingst. The gallery also receives support from Fractured Atlas, a nonprofit service organization.
“Most galleries and museums complain about their attendance. Very few people visited the Institute of Contemporary Art until the Mapplethorpe controversy blew up,” says Bruso. “When I was exhibitions director, gallery sitters were always disappointed at the sparse attendance of the shows.”

But neither Bruso nor Mingst wallow in despair.

“There are many ways of increasing attendance. The founder of the Museum of Jurassic Technology would stand outside and play the accordion to bring attention to his space. Neither Raymond nor I can play the accordion…”

Mingst interjects: “But I play Billie Holiday 78s on the portable victrola I bring out with Le Bouquiniste [their new mobile kiosk of art books and zines].”

Kidding aside, Bruso and Mingst acknowledge and accept the challenges of running an art space in Jersey City. They also focus on what Jersey City does have: self-reliance and determination.

“Jersey City has a large and active artist population. Yet there’s a lack of exhibition venues, which I know is frustrating,” says Bruso. “But what these challenges have created is a healthy do-it-yourself ethic. The artists are creating opportunities for themselves all the time.”

The best action Curious Matter can take to promote the gallery does not include gimmicks, and they know this.

“We can hand out business cards and direct people to our website. And talk and talk about our gallery,” Bruso remarks. “The best thing we can do is present amazing exhibitions
that people talk about, and this we do.” How would Mingst describe the overall experience of running Curious Matter? “You’re more likely to have a diverse audience here, not merely art world insiders,” he says. “We get a very savvy crowd, a more colorful mix than any Thursday in Chelsea.”

Taking it to the Streets

Curious Matter is not content to sit and wait for the audience to come to them. These guys are men of action and refinement. If people cannot attend the gallery, they bring the gallery to them, literally.

Le Bouquiniste, the mobile kiosk, is their most recent project. It features books, prints, broadsides, chapbooks, and zines, all of which are published by small and independent presses. Inspired as much by the booksellers of Paris as Fourth Avenue in New York, Le Bouquiniste is a special project of Curious Matter, created to expand the audience and scope of work the gallery presents.

“We figured not everyone is inclined to visit a gallery, but if we were right out on the street,” Mingst says, “there’d be no way to avoid us.”

Photos by Christopher Lane