By Audrey Levine, Staff Writer
Growing exhibit to feature more than 300 works
For the sixth year, the township’s Cultural Arts Commission will be holding its annual art exhibit at the municipal building, which will be open to the public from 3 to 9 p.m. May 20 and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. May 21.
And, as it has for the past couple years, the exhibit will feature not just artwork, but will showcase the very best the township has to offer.
”I came to the Hillsborough Township Cultural Arts Commission two years ago with some ideas to transform the annual art show into something really special,” said Kevin Murphy, a member of the commission and owner of the Art Academy of Hillsborough on Jill Court. “One idea was to make sure we showcased the very best art being produced by the young people in our community by asking area high school art teachers to select the best pieces from their students and to have the artwork judged by my peers in the professional art world.”
From there was born the annual competition with an expected 300 pieces on display and $3,000 in prizes being given out in two separate divisions. The two categories are student two-dimensional art and photography created by high school students in Somerset County and the same title for adult artists in the township alone.
May 20, the judges, who are all professional artists in a variety of disciplines, will speak with entrants and guests and judge the work.
The second idea he brought, Mr. Murphy said, was for the beginning of a public art collection that would consist of portraits of notable Hillsborough residents, both current and past. Each portrait, he said, would be painted by the student grand prize winner from the art show, who would receive a $1,000 commission to do the work.
”And (the student) would have the opportunity over the course of the year to work with me in my studio in much the same way I was mentored when I was a young artist,” he said.
The first portrait in the collection, of Assemblyman Pete Biondi, was painted by Mr. Murphy and donated to the township in 2009 at the art show.
This year’s painting is being done by Gabrielle Fiorillo, a Montgomery High School student, who is creating a portrait of late opera singer and former Hillsborough resident Anna Case Mackay.
”Although she is not well-remembered today outside the world of classical music, she was a huge popular star in the first half of the 20th century,” said Greg Gillette, chairman of the Cultural Arts Commission. “She was also a pioneer in almost every field of music and entertainment she entered.”
Mr. Gillette said Ms. Mackay, who died in 1984, was the first singer to perform at the Metropolitan Opera without any European training in 1909, sang in the first experimental radio broadcasts and starred in one of the first sound movies in 1926.
”And she became known as the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ singer, singing the anthem at many important national events, such as the 1924 Democratic National Convention and Charles Lindbergh’s homecoming after his transatlantic flight in 1927,” he said.
The decision to create the portrait of Ms. Mackay, Mr. Gillette said, came in part because she was the most nationally famous person to come from Hillsborough, but also because the town itself helped in her success. Having grown up as the daughter of a local blacksmith in South Branch, he said, she actually did not have the money to pay for music lessons.
”Yet the Hillsborough community recognized her enormous talent, loaned her money, paid to see her at a concert at the Neshanic Reformed Church and encouraged her to continue against all odds,” he said. “From the time she signed her first contract with the opera, right up through the rest of her career, the village of South Branch was an important part of nearly every story of the rise of Anna Case.”
The purpose of the public art collection, Mr. Murphy said, is to honor and remember people from Hillsborough who have made a difference. Although the portrait of Assemblyman Biondi was not commissioned, but was donated, it still is serving as the first piece in the collection as a dedication to him for his service to the town.
And the upcoming portraits, Mr. Murphy said, will help remind residents about the history of the town.
”In its simplest form, these paintings will beautify the spaces they are hung in,” he said. “As the collection is built, it will function as a history of our town for future generations. The memory and achievements of Anna Case Mackay could have faded away, but we have now assured that they will not. In our collection, she is now immortal.”
For more information about the show or to enter work in the adult division, contact Marie Hankins at 908-672-7041 or [email protected] or Nancy Edwards at 908-359-2516 or [email protected].
