Art through Social Consciousness:
Visions of Community Justice
Last
Friday Newark Community Solutions and the Newark Municipal Court collaborated
on one of the coolest events I have been a part of since I started working with
the program. But first a little background - several months ago with the
blessing of Chief Judge Pratt and the Mayor Baraka, NCS applied to have the Newark
Municipal Courthouse be a part of the Newark Art’s Council’s Open Doors City
Arts Festival. Once the application was accepted, a joint NCS –
Municipal Court Arts committee was formed to undertake the task of turning a
portion of the courthouse into a gallery that would be open to the public over
a three day “Arts Crawl.” The committee came up with the theme of Art through
Social Consciousness: Visions of Community Justice and put out an open call to
local artists. In addition to art submitted by the community and local professional
artists, some in-house talent got a chance to shine. As someone with
zero ability in this area I was blown away!
Then
finally on the evening of Friday 10/21 the Newark Municipal Court gallery
opened its doors! Guests were greeted with event information (and
sparkling cider) by Newark Youth Court members and then made their way down the
first floor corridor now covered with paintings, collages, drawing and
photography. A highlight of the evening for me was meeting Vincent
A. Johnson Jr. Vincent is 14 years old
and submitted beautiful pictures he took in Newark's Branch Brook Park.
It was inspiring to hear him talk about how he got started and I’m so
glad this event gave him the opportunity to share his art with the public.
Pictures (including Vincent’s work) are below but they don't do the art
justice (pun intended) so please come down to the Newark Municipal Court to see
for yourself!
