Clockwise from top left: Rachael Ray, NY Giants RB Ahmad Bradshaw, Queen Latifah and Ralph Nader have all decorated chairs in years past for the Monmouth Museum’s CHAIRISH THE MUSEUM promotion, the 2012 edition of which commences Saturday in Lincroft.
Are you sitting down? If proximity to famous folk causes you to be a bit unsteady on your feet, be advised to exercise caution when parking your carcass at the Monmouth Museum this weekend — you might just be parking it on one of their objets d’art.
While the staff isn’t precisely promising a star-studded gala on Saturday afternoon, the Museum has traditionally used the generally dreary midsection of January to bring out the colorfully creative side of a wide range of people — including occasional armchair artists from the worlds of sports, entertainment, broadcasting or politics.
The occasion is the 33rd annual appearance of the Museum’s Juried Exhibition, a whoÂ’s-who of regional painters, sculptors, photographers, illustrators and crafters that kicks off with a free opening reception between 4 and 6 p.m. on January 14 — and continues during regular hours throughout the gallery areas of the Museum (on the Lincroft campus of Brookdale Community College) through February 26.
Concurrent with the debut of the exhibition — judged this year by noted art dealer Island Weiss (of Manhattan’s Island Weiss Gallery) — is the sixth annual roll-out of Chairish The Museum, a fundraising vehicle in which dozens of artists and artisans are invited to design, decorate (or, in the case of some of the participating celebs, happily autograph) a chair, to be displayed both at the museum and at numerous other Monmouth County shops and galleries through February 8.
The whimsical, wild and wacky chairs — all of them offered for sale as way of furnishing revenue for the ongoing programs at the museum — will be moved to Lincroft on Saturday, February 10 for a silent auction that begins at 6 p.m. (and for which the $10 admission price can be applied to any chair purchase).
Additional info on the Chairish promotion, the auction event or the ongoing Juried Exhibition can be had by calling (732) 747-2266.
