RED BANK: MUSIC PHOTOG BREATHES LIFE INTO SICKLES SPACE

Photographer Danny Clinch (in the tan hat) stands at the center of the pop-up launch party. (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)

By BRIAN DONOHUE

Since the stunning downfall into bankruptcy of local institution Sickles Market, the store’s former Red Bank location inside the brick Anderson Building has gotten, well, a little sleepy.

That ended in loud fashion Wednesday when David Bowie, Eddie Vedder and a solid turnout of revelers appeared for a bash organizers hope will herald a new beginning for the space.

It was the opening party for Transparent by the Tracks, a pop-up gallery featuring works by renowned, Jersey-bred photographer Danny Clinch.

The pop up is an offshoot of his Transparent Clinch Gallery in Asbury Park and features images he’s taken over the years of The Beastie Boys, Patti Smith, H.E.R., Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam and a star-studded list of others.

For the Anderson Building pop-up, Transparent staff transformed the entrance area where Sickles cash registers had been into a gallery lined with Clinch’s photos and couch seating where folks can take it all in.

The pop up runs for two months, and along with Booskerdoo Coffee still operating on the ground floor, turns the building into more of a draw for visitors until a new tenant can be found.

Glen Goldbaum, founder of Lambs & Wolves hair salon and beauty boutique on the second floor of the building hatched the idea as a way to “create a new energy, a new vibrancy” for the building and neighborhood after the Sickles collapse.

“Right away the story and the dialogue was very negative, ‘the community can’t support high rent, it’s too expensive down there,” he said. “Everything was negative. And I kept thinking ‘no it was a bad business. It’s not a bad community. “

“I watched a business go out,” he added. “I didn’t watch a community fail.”

He reached out to Transparent Clinch Gallery manager Tina Kerekes whom he said almost immediately agreed to create a pop-up.

After the solid turnout, music performance by the band Surfing for Daisy, and general infusion of good vibes into the space, Goldbaum said the next day “I’m still buzzing.”

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