Gleaming displays at Salt & Smoke, on Prospect Avenue. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank may have lost one of its oldest neighborhood butcher shops last summer, but new owners are giving the space a new, spicier lease on life.
Also in this edition of redbankgreen‘s Retail Churn, a pottery instruction business takes over a tiny, hard-to-see spot in the heart of downtown.
Detour Gallery on opening night in 2016. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
See CLARIFICATION below
By JOHN T. WARD
Seven years after it opened in Red Bank with a splash, Detour Gallery is heading for the Highline.
The art gallery plans to relocate to open a new space in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood, though much of its collection will remain in the converted warehouse owner Kenny Schwartz calls home, he told redbankgreen Tuesday.
The Basie acquired this onetime residence in the professional office zone. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Less than two years after completing a $25 million expansion, the Count Basie Center for the Arts has added to its Red Bank real estate holdings.
But the nonprofit theater has no plans to seek an exemption from property taxes on the newly acquired site, a spokesman told redbankgreen.
Debbie Eisenstein at the Red Bank Artisan Collective earlier this month. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Five years ago, Debbie Eisentein opened the Red Bank Artisan Collective at 43 Broad Street, following her parents into the world of retailing downtown.
Though her family is an owner of the building, Eisenstein said she pays market rent, which is covered by subrents and consignment fees from the artists and craftspeople selling their works in the space.
redbankgreen visited Eisenstein recently for chat that revives the long dormant Human Bites feature.
Charlie Puth with Count Basie Center president and CEO Adam Philipson at the kickoff of Puth’s ‘One Night Only’ tour in Red Bank Sunday night.
Press release
Pop music star Charlie Puth has been named honorary chair of the Count Basie Center for the Arts‘ ‘Forever For Everyone’ endowment campaign, the Red Bank venue announced Sunday.
The aim of the drive is to raise $20 million to fund hundreds of scholarships in perpetuity for students interested in studying the performing arts at the Count Basie Center Academy, the nonprofit organization said in an announcement.
A scene from the Little Shakespeare staging of ‘Much Ado About Nothing.’ (Photo by Steve Rogers. Click to enlarge.)
Press release from ‘Here’s the Story‘
“A Little Shakespeare” at the Two River Theater in Red Bank introduces the work of the Bard to young actors. The program produces one of his plays with a full cast and crew of teens directed by a seasoned professional.
The result is anything but unripened. The process and production is extensive, inspiring and life-changing for the participants and the audiences for the play.
Led by video documentarian Steve Rogers, ‘Here’s the Story‘ explores the programs’s creation of ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ in a film to be premiered by NJ PBS August 10.
Ani Art Academy, as seen before a facade makeover in April. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Press release
Previously limited to military veterans, Red Bank’s tuition-free Ani Art Academy is now open to all adults, and has scholarships available to beginner artists.
After six years in business, the Red Bank Family Pharmacy has ended operations. And the Broad Street building it which it operated has changed hands.
Only the posts remained after a chainlink fence that had barricaded a car in Red Bank was removed late last week.
What’s Going On Here? Here’s the latest on the dispute in which an art gallery owner had his car boxed in by a fence last week.
A fence erected Monday enclosed a car owned by Kenny Schwartz behind his art gallery. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
In another context, it might be seen as artistic commentary on modern existence: a car boxed in between two buildings and a chainlink fence, and no way out.
But to Red Bank art collector Kenny Schwartz, it’s no ironic statement. His car will need “wings” to escape from his gallery’s backyard after a “heavy handed” move involving a couple of real estate powerhouses, he said Monday.
‘Circus Summer,’ above, is one of two paintings by Red Bank artist Eileen Kennedy that’s slated to go to the moon this summer.
Phoenix Productions’ home at 56 Chestnut Street was painted over with a two-story mural last month. (Photo by Allan Bass. Click to enlarge.)
Press release from the Count Basie Center for the Arts
The Count Basie Center for the Arts and Red Bank-based Phoenix Productions intend to merge, allowing the community theatre company to officially become part of the organization which has hosted its productions for more than 30 years, the two nonprofits announced Tuesday.
The nonprofit theater company Phoenix Productions is getting a hard-to-miss new look for its Red Bank home.
The two-story, full-width mural on the facade of the performing arts center at 59 Chestnut Street was approved by the borough council in November. The building’s neighbor out back, the Monmouth Conservatory of Music, also sports a full-facade mural.
Early reviews are welcome in the comments. (Photo by Allan Bass. Click to enlarge.)
A utility box at the corner of Monmouth and Broad streets in Red Bank is popping with bright colors and images these days, courtesy of a borough artist.
A vivid new mural began taking shape Tuesday at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Monmouth County unit in Red Bank, courtesy of artist Stacey Pritchard.
With funding provided by the Monmouth Arts Signs of Hope program, Pritchard said the finished mural will include “words of inspiration” (at right) provided by children who attend the club, at Drs. James Parker Boulevard and Bridge Avenue.
(Photos by Allan Bass. Click to enlarge.)
A pinhole camera image from Jay Sullivan’s ‘Out of the Box’ exhibit at Red Bank Frameworks. (Jay Sullivan photo. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
After completing a project about his father that took a heavy emotional toll, Red Bank photographer Jay Sullivan “decided to do something lighter” for his next series of pictures.
“Something lighter” turned out to be images from his backyard taken over the next seven years with a camera made from a hexagonal hatbox.
Doug Booton, center, and Anthony Jude Setaro with artist Maria Chamra and her mural of Sassano, Italy. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Before they began resettling in Red Bank in 1895, Anthony Jude Setaro and Doug Booton’s ancestors lived for at least 400 years in Sassano, a village in Italy’s Campania region.
Now, a bay window at the family’s Oakland Street homestead frames an idyllic vision of a faraway place that to the new owners still qualifies as home.
Press release
The Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank has announced the retirement of Yvonne Lamb-Scudiery, founder of the nonprofit organization’s performing arts programs and a member of the Basie Center family for more than two decades.
Red Banker Mike Quon, below, is among the visual artists and craftsmakers selling their wares in a pop-up bazaar in the former Alfonso’s Bakery storefront on Broad Street. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
The holiday season is popping in Red Bank, with a number of organizations applying the retail ‘pop-up‘ concept in coming days, not just to storefronts but also to entertainments.
The Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank raised the curtain on its new performance space, called The Vogel, with a concert by singer/guitarist Grace Potter Thursday night.
The Vogel will host its first performance October 22. (Photo courtesy of Basie Center. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank plans to get back to the business of entertaining with the opening of a new theater dubbed the Vogel this month.
Kicking things off with a two-night stand starting October 22 is singer/guitarist Grace Potter, the Basie said in an announcing the first five acts for the freshly constructed space.
The exhibit includes a 1908 wedding dress made of silk messaline satin “in a formal Gibson Girl style,” according to the catalog. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The Shrewsbury Historical Society plans an unusual unveiling this weekend.
Or perhaps it’s more apt to call it a veiling, because the subject is wedding dresses across more than a century and a half of American life.
The Vogel features socially distant tables. (Photo courtesy of Basie Center. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
After seven months in darkness, the Count Basie Center for the Arts plans to snap the lights back on in October.
The Red Bank venue announced Tuesday that it will again host indoor performances with the opening of The Vogel, seating audiences of up to 150 in a new space built for up to 800.
A new season began last week, which means it’s time for fresh mural on the side of Fair Haven Hardware in Fair Haven. As always, Jim Fitzmaurice of Rumson was on location Friday, creating his latest traffic-calming landscape.
The week ahead promises to bring a palette of seasonally appropriate weather to the Greater Red Bank Green, ranging from clammy to cool and dry. See the extended forecast below.
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Jeremy Grunin, left, with Basie Center President and CEO Adam Philipson. (Mark Sullivan photo. Click to enlarge.)
The Count Basie Center for the Arts, the not-for-profit performing arts center with a mission to “Inspire, Educate and Entertain,” announced today that Jeremy Grunin has accepted the role of Chairman of its Board of Trustees.