The Jersey City Independent "

Woolpunk Studios will be selling the Jersey City Museum’s gift shop through it’s gallery space downtown. That’s including the Museum’s jewelry collection, which features vintage and locally made pieces–just in time for Valentine’s Day. The jewelry will be included and on sale at Woolpunk’s “What’s Love Got to do With It” exhibition, on view until [...]

How did Jersey City, population 250,000 — a city without a museum, music venue or dedicated bookstore — manage to edge out the likes of Boston and Philadelphia by placing tenth on The Atlantic magazine’s list of the top artistic cities in the United States?

The medical center wants to purchase the foreclosed building to use its second and third floors for office space, according to hospital CEO Joseph Scott. All of the art in storage would remain there, he says. The museum and Caroline L. Guarini Theater would reopen to the public in some capacity, though the details have yet to be worked out.

When the annual Artists’ Studio Tour kicks off this weekend, Pro Arts will be at the helm – as it has been almost since the very beginning. But this year it will be led a new executive director, Sean Hollingsworth. An event producer with a deep love for the arts, Hollingsworth’s job is to build on the group’s existing work and, he hopes, make the nonprofit an even more vital part of the arts scene.

“I have lived in Jersey City since 1995, and I have been involved with the art community the entire time,” Michelle Vitale Loughlin says. “It is a great environment and there are so many people that are here already, or moving into the city, that appreciate art; WOOLPUNKstudios just adds another layer to city’s established creative fabric.”

Ward E councilman Steven Fulop’s proposal to draft a committee charged with taking an inventory of the troubled Jersey City Museum’s permanent collection was not well-received at Monday night’s City Council caucus meeting, even though in principle both the council and the administration seem to agree on the inventory’s necessity.

The committee, which would be created by the City Council and chaired by Cultural Affairs director Maryanne Kelleher, would include a museum-appointed representative, one council member, and a member of the city’s Law Department. Each council member would also be allowed to appoint one person “familiar with museum best practices” to the committee.

The United Way of Hudson County no longer plans to purchase the Jersey City Museum building and the museum’s Montgomery Street headquarters is facing “imminent” foreclosure by Sovereign Bank, according to a memo obtained by JCI. In addition, two of the museum’s board members have resigned in recent months as a result of the turmoil.

While the fate of the troubled Jersey City Museum remains unclear, a Jersey City-based nonprofit’s quest to purchase the museum’s Montgomery Street headquarters received a boost at last week’s City Council meeting.

The Jersey City Museum is in dire straits, with a massive debt load forcing it to lay off its staff, miss payments to vendors and, most recently, close its doors to the public entirely. However, through all the reporting done on the institution’s problems, one question has remained largely unasked: what do Jersey City’s artists make of this mess?