HILLSBOROUGH: Artists tapped for county project

By Eileen Oldfield, Staff Writer
   For the next three years, art by residents Joe Kazimerczyk, Shaun Daley and Elisa Rodriguez will be stopping traffic in Somerset County.
   That’s because pieces by each Hillsborough resident will be installed on the traffic boxes used at pedestrian crossings around the county for the Somerset County Cultural and Heritage Commission’s first public art project, Gallery 24/7.
   ”I think it’s an absolutely wonderful opportunity for artists to get exposure,” Ms. Rodriguez, 29, of East Brookside Lane, said. “I psyched myself out because I convinced myself I wouldn’t win.”
   The Somerset County Cultural and Heritage Commission selected works by 10 visual artists for Gallery 24/7, and expects to have them installed by Oct. 8, according to a release from the commission. The pieces will remain on the boxes for three years.
   The commission received about 72 submissions from 40 artists before selecting the 10 that will be used for the project, Patricia McGarry, manager for the commission, added.
   ”It was a mix, a little bit of everything,” Ms. McGarry said. “There was so much enthusiasm from the arts community, so it was really, really nice. And we want to continue this.”
   ”I was very surprised because normally, my sort of artwork is not as appreciated as a landscape (or other artworks),” Mr. Daley, 40, of Tudor Court, said. “I don’t title any of my pieces because I don’t want anyone to know what I was thinking when I created it.”
   The contest also allows an exposure to the arts for those who are not normally artistically inclined, which Mr. Daley liked, he said.
   The program aims to integrate the arts into non-traditional venues, but did not specify whether future installments would be limited to the traffic boxes or whether it would expand to other areas. The project also expands exhibition opportunities for New Jersey artists, according to the commission.
   ”It’s just exciting to have your art out in public like that as oppose to in an art gallery,” Mr. Kazimerczyk, 49, of Long Hill Road, said. “It should just make the roadsides a little more interesting for those driving by and riding by.”
   The New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the State and County Partnership Local Arts Program Grant provided a grant to fund the project, the commission said. The grant funding comes from the New Jersey hotel and motel occupancy tax.