Some fresh faces on display

Art exhibit livens up Princeton Shopping Center

By: Courtney Gross
   The ConTEMPORARY Arts Center in the Princeton Shopping Center has a new face. In fact 22 of them.
   As part of an Arts Council of Princeton class last year, students aged 4 to 9 created portraits that are now hanging outside the council’s temporary location. From bottle-cap noses to doorknob eyes, the exhibit livens up the interior walkways of the shopping center, gallery Manager Maria Evans said.
   The exhibit should remain until the arts council relocates to its new building now under construction at the corner of Paul Robeson Place and Witherspoon Street sometime this fall, Ms. Evans said.
   "It basically functions as a sign," Ms. Evans said while pointing to the colorful display.
   And it has its share of masterpieces.
   A red canvas covered with two bottle cap eyes and a button mouth is the work of 8-year-old Noah Jenei.
   "It’s fun," Noah said of his class at the arts council. "You can do whatever you want. You can make whatever you want," he added, explaining his interest in art.
   Dressed in pink from head to toe, 6-year-old Quetzal Baum said her work was a self-portrait. And just like her outfit, it, too, was her favorite color — pink.
   The exhibit was constructed earlier this year, but it has since received a red background and key to direct pedestrians toward certain artists. The class instructor, Libby Ramage, said the exhibit serves as another venue to display students’ work.
   And the kids, she added, just love it.