July 28, 2021

State Theatre NJ Holds “Christmas in July” Sale

COMING TO THE STATE THEATRE: American Repertory Ballet’s production of “The Nutcracker” is among several events planned for the winter holidays.

State Theatre New Jersey is holding a Christmas in July sale through Saturday, July 31. During the sale, tickets for select holiday shows are 20 percent off with promo code HOLIDAY20.

The newly renovated theater’s lineup includes Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Musical on November 29-30; A Very Electric Christmas with Lightwire Theater on December 1; Cirque Dreams Holidaze on December 8-9; The Nutcracker with American Repertory Ballet on December 17-19; and The Hip Hop Nutcracker on January 2.

If a State Theatre performance is postponed, rescheduled, or canceled due to COVID-19 containment efforts, STNJ’s flexible ticket policy provides the original purchaser with several options, including a full refund.

The Christmas in July Sale is for select holiday shows and expires on July 31 at 11:59 p.m. Discounts are not retroactive and cannot be combined.

Tickets can be purchased online with the promo code or when calling Guest Services at (732) 246-SHOW(7469). For information, visit STNJ.org.

“Legacy of Love” Streams Through End of August

A SPECIAL STREAMING: Doylestown, Pa. native Andrew Polec recreates his solo concert debut in “Legacy of Love,” to benefit Bucks County Playhouse.

Doylestown, Pa., native Andrew Polec, star of the international show, Bat Out of Hell: The Musical, reprises his solo concert debut, Legacy of Love, on the streaming platform Stellar, beginning July 30.

Filmed before a live audience at Bucks County Playhouse earlier this year, the concert will stream in high definition from July 30 through August 28, with a special live stream debut, hosted by Polec, at 2:30 pm on July 30.

Backed by The Michael Bond Quartet, Polec debuted the concert at Bucks County Playhouse in June as part of its Broadway Spotlight Concert Series. The streaming event will feature all the music from the live event and include a variety of genres including traditional musical theater (Dear World, The Fantasticks, Camelot, Rent, Floyd Collins), film (The Greatest Showman) and rock n’ roll (Queen, Bon Jovi, Three Dog Night, Kings of Leon ) with a homage to the recently deceased rock legend Jim Steinman. more

Performance, Free Classes By Princeton Ballet School

A WEEKEND OF DANCE: Dance for Parkinson’s is among the free classes being offered this weekend by Princeton Ballet School in the courtyard of Princeton Shopping Center.

Princeton Ballet School (PBS), the official school of American Repertory Ballet (ARB),  will host “A Weekend of Dance” outdoors in the courtyard of the Princeton Shopping Center beginning on Friday, July 30 at 5:30 p.m. with a performance featuring students from its Summer Intensive program, and continuing with a series of free dance classes on Saturday, July 31.   

“We welcome every opportunity to introduce dance to our community and the joy of moving to music,” said School Director Aydmara Cabrera. “Dancing is a wonderful activity for all ages and abilities: it develops healthy habits, builds self-confidence, and allows individuals the important social connection with friends and peers.” 

On Friday, July 30 at 5:30 p.m., intermediate and advanced students will perform a mix of styles, from classical ballet to new contemporary, musical theater to flamenco. The program will also feature professional guest artists Jonathan Montepara and Andrea Marini from American Repertory Ballet.  more

Family-Friendly Festival Comes to New Brunswick

HAVE A HEART: The New Brunswick Heart Festival celebrates the art and history of the city and Middlesex County with performances, crafts, family-friendly activities, and more.

State Theatre New Jersey, New Brunswick Cultural Center, New Brunswick Performing Arts Center (NBPAC), and Above Art Studios present the New Brunswick HEART Festival on Saturday, August 14 from 4-7 p.m.; hosted by New Jersey Radio Hall of Famer Bert Baron and Founder of TSO Productions, Sharon Gordon.

This festival celebrates arts and history that New Brunswick and Middlesex County have to offer with live performances, interviews, crafts, and more. The festival will take place in Monument Square, 2 Livingston Avenue, and will be live streamed on YouTube. For more information, visit NewBrunwickArts.org.  more

“Creating Joy” Exhibit Coming to Artists’ Gallery

“THE CANAL IN LAMBERTVILLE”: This painting by Carol Sanzalone is featured in “Creating Joy,” her dual exhibit with Alla Podolsky, on view at Artists’ Gallery in Lambertville August 5 through September 5. 

Artists’ Gallery, 18 Bridge Street, Lambertville, presents “Creating Joy,” featuring member artists, Alla Podolsky and Carol Sanzalone, August 5 through September 5. A Meet the Artists event will be held on Saturday, August 7, from 2 to 5 p.m.

The beauty of people and places inspires the work of Podolsky and  Sanzalone. 

Podolsky, a native of Kiev, Ukraine, chooses to paint people and their environments in a wide range of settings. Her oil paintings feature a variety of situations and individuals, capturing their thoughts and moods. She describes herself as a “human painter,” exploring the interactions between reality and imagination, constructing creative visual narratives. more

Mercer County Senior Art Show Announces Winners

“INDIAN SUMMER” This watercolor by Leslie Hatch of East Windsor was awarded Best in Show — Non-Professional in the 2021 Mercer County Senior Art Show, which is being held online at mercercounty.org through August 6.

A professional juror has selected the winners from more than 80 entries in this year’s Mercer County Senior Art Show, which is being held online through August 6. The exhibition can be viewed on the Mercer County website at www.mercercounty.org.

“We have so many older adults who are tapping into their creativity to create new works of art,” said Mercer County Executive Brian M. Hughes. “I commend everyone who entered their work in the County show and thank them for sharing their artistic talent with us.”

Each year, the Mercer County Division of Culture and Heritage partners with the Mercer County Office on Aging to produce the Mercer County Senior Art Show. First-place winners from the County show advance to the New Jersey Senior Citizen Art Show held in the fall. more

Mural Dedication Concert at Princeton Shopping Center

“BRING ON THE JOY”: A team of Arts Council of Princeton artists transformed a courtyard wall at the Princeton Shopping Center with the first in a series of three murals. The community is invited to a Mural Dedication Concert on Thursday, July 29 (rescheduled from July 9) at 6 p.m. (Photo courtesy of Princeton Shopping Center)

The Arts Council of Princeton (ACP) and Princeton Shopping Center invite the community to a Mural Dedication Concert on Thursday, July 29 (rescheduled from July 9) at 6 p.m. in celebration of the recently completed artwork in the Princeton Shopping Center courtyard. Leadership from the Arts Council of Princeton and Princeton Shopping Center owner, EDENS, are expected to speak, in addition to Princeton Mayor Mark Freda.

The outdoor mural celebration kicks off with We May Be Right, a Billy Joel tribute band, along with family-friendly activities in the shopping center courtyard hosted by Princeton Public Library. For more information, visit princetonshoppingcenter.com.

“Color Wheel” Exhibit At Gourgaud Gallery

“COLOR WHEEL”: The Gourgaud Gallery at Town Hall in Cranbury will feature works by Tatiana Sougakova. The exhibit will be open weekdays from August 2 through August 27.

The newly reopened Gourgaud Gallery at Town Hall, 23-A North Main Street, Cranbury will host an exhibit entitled “Color Wheel” by Tatiana Sougakova. It will be on view Monday, August 2 through Friday, August 27. Hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., weekdays.

“Color Wheel” is a collection of large abstract wall scrolls on sewn canvas each depicting a nature force or a theme.  more

Making U.S. Olympic Fencing Squad as an Alternate, PU Alumna Van Brummen Ready to Contribute at Épée

TOGETHER IN TOKYO: Anna Van Brummen, right, and Kat Holmes display their intensity as they competed for the Princeton University women’s fencing team. Van Brummen ’17 is currently at the Tokyo Olympics as an alternate on the women’s épée team which also includes former Tiger teammate Holmes. Van Brummen, an NCAA individual épée champion at Princeton, was part of the bronze medal U.S. épée team at the World Cup in February, 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic forced the one-year delay of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. (Photo by Beverly Schaefer, provided courtesy of Princeton’s Office of Athletic Communications)

By Justin Feil

Anna Van Brummen’s biggest challenge at the Tokyo Olympics is to remain ready for the United States women’s épée team competition.

It shouldn’t be a problem as the 2017 Princeton University graduate has spent the last five years preparing for this chance.

“I feel great about where I’m fencing,” said Van Brummen, a Houston, Texas, native who won the NCAA individual épée title in 2017, a first for the Tiger women’s program.

“And I feel great about where the rest of my team is fencing. I’m really excited. I have a really good feeling. I think we can do great.”

Van Brummen is an alternate on the women’s épée team which also includes former Princeton teammate Kat Holmes ’17. She didn’t compete in the individual women’s competition that was held July 23, but must be substituted in for one of the three épée spots when the team competition started on July 27.

“I don’t know when exactly,” said Van Brummen. “That’s my place. I’ll be subbed in at some point, I just don’t know when. It could be the gold medal bout, it could be any other bout, I just have to be ready.”

The team competition features nine bouts. While Van Brummen doesn’t expect to sub in for the anchor who would finish off the team competition, she knows she could be thrown in at any time.

“The challenges are just staying ready throughout the whole day,” said Van Brummen.

“So I have to be really ready and be really flexible. There are definitely times when they can be like, ‘We’ll put you in to push and make a last-ditch effort to score a lot of points.’ Or the opposite, maybe it’ll be, ‘Keep the advantage we have.’” more

Led by Water Polo Star Johnson, Rowers and Fencers, PU Athletes Off to Good Start at Tokyo Olympics

REACHING FOR GLORY: Ashleigh Johnson leaps to make a save during her career with the Princeton University women’s water polo team. Last weekend, Johnson ’17 helped the U.S. women’s water polo team get off to a 2-0 start in Group B pool play at the Tokyo Olympics. Johnson, who helped the U.S. take gold at the 2016 Summer Games in Rio, made 15 saves as the Americans routed Japan 25-4 last Saturday in its opening contest. The U.S. defeated China 11-7 two days later and will look to keep rolling as it plays Hungary on Wednesday in its next Group B matchup. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

After producing a dominant run to the gold medal in the 2016 Summer Games in Rio, Ashleigh Johnson and the U.S. women’s water polo team picked up where they left off as they got into action at the Tokyo Olympics last weekend.

Former Princeton University star goalie Johnson and the U.S. routed Japan 25-4 last Saturday in the opening contest of Group B pool play.

Johnson, who became the first African American to make the U.S. Olympics women’s water polo team when she starred at Rio, finished with 15 saves before being pulled for the fourth period. The 25 goals tallied by the U.S. are the most it has scored since a 23-22 shootout victory over the Netherlands at Princeton for the 2019 Holiday Cup.

Two days later, Johnson and the U.S. overcame a 4-2 deficit against China and pulled away to an 11-7 victory. The U.S., which also won the gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics, will look to keep rolling as it plays Hungary on Wednesday in its next Group B matchup.

Another former Princeton standout, Gevvie Stone ’07, enjoyed success on the water as she and partner Kristi Wagner rowed the U.S women’s double sculls to a spot in the A Final after rallying for a third-place finish in the A/B Semifinal on Saturday at the Sea Forest Waterway near Tokyo Bay.

Stone and Wagner were sixth at 500 meters of the semi but trailed Australia by just .17 seconds for fourth and France by .28 seconds for third at 1,000 meters. more

After Helping Georgetown Soccer Make NCAA Final 16, PHS Alumna Lis Stars for Real Central NJ in Debut Season

CENTRAL ROLE: Devon Lis controls the ball in action this summer for Real Central New Jersey during its inaugural season in the Women’s Premier Soccer League (WPSL). Lis, a former Princeton High girls’ soccer standout and a member of the Georgetown University women’s program, helped Real Central NJ make the WPSL Metropolitan South Division title game. (Photo by Jeremy Ryan, provided courtesy of Real Central New Jersey)

By Bill Alden

After her junior season for the Georgetown University women’s soccer team was moved to this spring from last fall due to COVID-19 concerns, Devon Lis has been making up for lost time.

Lis, a former Princeton High girls’ soccer standout, helped Georgetown thrive despite the delay as the Hoyas went 12-0-2, winning the Big East tournament and advancing to the Round of 16 in the NCAA tourney where they fell to TCU in early May on penalty kicks after the foes had tied at 1-1 through 90 minutes of regulation and 20 minutes of overtime.

Weeks later, defensive midfielder Lis was back on the pitch, competing locally for Real Central New Jersey as it kicked off its inaugural season in the Women’s Premier Soccer League (WPSL).

“It is great to be able to go right from being in the NCAA tournament to already being able to practice at a local place with high quality level players,” said Lis. “I haven’t had to transition that much.”

Playing this spring did require a transition for Lis. “It was definitely different because we started out with it being so cold out in January and February; normally our season we start out going back in August and it is super-hot in the summer time,” said Lis. more

Led by Davidson’s Clutch Shooting Down the Stretch, LoyalTees Tops Majeski in Summer Hoops Series Opener

NICK OF TIME: Nick Davidson unloads the ball in recent action for LoyalTees in the Princeton Recreation Department Men’s Summer Basketball League. Last Monday night, Davidson scored 18 points to help LoyalTees edge Majeski Foundation 45-42 in the first game of the league’s best-of-three championship series. Game two is scheduled for Wednesday night at the Community Park courts with game three, if necessary, set for Friday at the same site. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

Nick Davidson took it easy last week as he went on a family vacation to Massachusetts.

The relaxation came to an end last Monday as Davidson returned to the area to play for LoyalTees when it faced Majeski Foundation in the first game of the best-of-three championship series of the Princeton Recreation Department Men’s Summer Basketball League.

Davidson knew that the two-time defending champion LoyalTees would have its hands full in the match-up with Majeski, which is comprised of players on The College of New Jersey men’s hoops team.

“They are all in shape, they have a great chemistry,” said Davidson.

“They do a lot of things well on the court, they move without the ball. You just have to be really disciplined with them. They are all searching for the that three-ball, they can all shoot.”

In order to deal with Majeski, LoyalTees was emphasizing perimeter defense. more

July 21, 2021

Local Hero

Ross Colton, right, signs a jersey for Jackson Purdy last Friday at the Ice Land Rink in Hamilton in one of his stops with the Stanley Cup after he helped Tampa Bay Lightning win the NHL title. Former Princeton Day School boys’ hockey star and Robbinsville native Colton scored the lone goal in Tampa Bay’s 1-0 victory over Montreal on July 7 in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup final as it won the series 4-1 and earned the franchise’s second straight NHL title. For more details on Colton’s Stanley Cup experience, click here. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

HPC Considers Club Row Historic District

By Donald Gilpin

Resuming a process that began in 1992 before lying dormant for the past 26 years, the Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) held a concept discussion on Monday, July 19, on the designation of a Club Row historic district on Prospect Avenue.

Club Row is already on the National Register of Historic Places, but designation as a local historic district would provide a greater level of future protection to the Prospect Avenue streetscape with its stately eating clubs and other buildings on both sides of the street. It would also prevent future demolitions or construction without town approval.

The creation of the district could not have any direct effect on pending applications before the Princeton Planning Board, according to New Jersey’s time of application rule, and historic preservationist Clifford Zink assured the HPC, “This process is not being done to try to make changes to existing applications. This is about the long-term future. This is not an effort to stop what is going on now.”

But Princeton University’s pending application to move its 91 Prospect Avenue building, the former Court Clubhouse, across the street in order to make room for construction of the “gateway” to its new Environmental Sciences and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences complex was a significant factor in instigating Monday’s proceedings. more

New Public Transit Is About More Than Replacing the FreeB

By Anne Levin

Following a 16-month suspension due to the pandemic, free public transit is about to return to Princeton.

Starting next month, fully accessible, free bus service will resume weekday mornings and afternoons on a continuous 30-minute loop. This is a three-month interim program that will follow a route similar to the one covered by the now-defunct FreeB buses, focusing on residents of senior and affordable housing communities.

Once the three months is up, the town, in partnership with Princeton University, is planning for an expanded, more ambitious program that not only replaces the former service, but also adapts to the needs of a growing population.

“We’re looking at how public transit can be a solution to a whole host of issues,” said Princeton Councilwoman Mia Sacks, who serves on Council’s Public Transit Advisory Committee. “It will alleviate pressure on things like permit parking and congestion. We’ll be growing at a tremendous rate in the next few years due to affordable housing. So it’s not just about replacement, but what we need for real transit right now. That’s the big question.”

The partnership with the University is part of the transit committee’s work, over the past year, to significantly enhance Princeton’s system of free public transportation. Several subcommittees were involved, doing outreach to underserved community members and other constituencies. more

Under the Big Top—Trenton Circus Squad Looks Ahead with New Tent and Big Plans

CIRCUS MAGIC: The Trenton Circus Squad, a nonprofit teaching both life skills and circus skills, recently completed a one-week residency in Camden, with more than 1,000 local youths participating. The organization, which is also touring to Asbury Park and Newark this summer before returning to Trenton, has just received a $250,000 gift to purchase a big top circus tent, which, starting in 2022, will house their expanding endeavors. (Photo by Avi Steinhardt)

By Donald Gilpin

The Trenton Circus Squad (TCS), whose mission is all about inspiring youths to take big leaps in life, is preparing to take some big leaps of its own. The TSC has just received a gift of $250,000 for the purchase of a big top circus tent, currently being manufactured in Italy by the same company that creates tents for the Cirque de Soleil.

“This grant will certainly inspire TCS to take a huge leap as an organization,” said TCS executive director and co-founder Tom von Oehsen. “This is very exciting. What it will mean is bringing together all the locations that we’ve been serving throughout New Jersey so it’s building community statewide instead of just locally in the Mercer County area.”

Pamela Carter, trustee of The Carter Rowe Charitable Trust, which made the gift, is one of many fans and supporters of the TCS. “I have been a proud benefactor since the Squad’s first day,” she said. “The tent is a gift to show my complete awe of this successful project. May it last for generations. In 25 years this has been the most incredible and successful project for the CRCT to support.”

Carter’s son participated in the TCS’s after-school program at Princeton Academy of the Sacred Heart, one of several area school residencies they have held in recent years. more

Local Teenager Launches Ambitious Project, Helping Peers Get Informed and Involved

By Donald Gilpin

Aashi Chandna

In early 2020, Aashi Chandna, at the time a ninth grader at West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North, observed her world in the midst of a spreading pandemic, climate crisis, and widespread social unrest. She wanted to get involved, to make a difference for the better.

“For me, natural disaster relief is something that I really care about,” she said. She had lived through a deadly tsunami with her family in Japan in 2011.

Chandna found that her friends had their own experiences that connected them with certain causes, but none of them knew what to do or how best to participate beyond posting on social media and making small donations.

“It shouldn’t be this difficult to get involved,” said Chandna. So she came up with a solution to help teenagers to get involved, make a difference and keep up to date with the latest headlines.

“Everyone’s biggest excuse for why they don’t know what’s going on in the world is that they don’t have time to read the news,” she said. “It’s difficult to take time out of your day to read the news.”

Last month Chandna launched Project Involve, an online platform she created which now has more than 1,000 users, who can catch up on the daily news in five minutes—or more if they wish— then connect with a related organization that they can immediately begin to support.

“Under each article is a ‘help now’ button,” she said. “I believe that when you’re reading about something, learning about something in the moment, you’re more likely to help out than a few days later when you may have forgotten that you cared about this. The ‘help now’ button takes you to a partnered NGO (nongovernmental organization) in the same category.” more

Wild Weather is No Match For Shakespeare Theatre

IMPALED AND UPTURNED: The set for the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey’s summer productions took a brutal beating from a storm on July 6. But “The Comedy of Errors” and “Snug” are back on track.

By Anne Levin

As if coming back from COVID-19 wasn’t enough, the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey had a new hurdle to overcome this month when a ferocious storm ripped up the set of its Outdoor Stage — just days before the scheduled openings of Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors and Snug, artistic director Bonnie Monte’s homage to A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

But Monte and her staff were not about to let this latest assault keep the company off the Outdoor Stage, which is in Morristown. After scrambling to get things back on track, the opening was delayed by only one week. The shows are scheduled through August 1.

Monte spoke about the storm, the recovery, surviving the pandemic, and more, in a telephone conversation a day after the deluge. The company had been scheduled to rehearse for the upcoming performances, but the ravaged set – some of it was actually impaled – made that impossible.

“We are fighting the clock to get everything not just rebuilt, but rehearsed,” she said. “The weather during the entire 10-day period when we are typically scheduled to set up, rehearse, and tech, was rain, rain, and more rain. Then, when the big storm hit, we weren’t ready. So we have had no rehearsal yet. These are very complicated shows, so we are getting really nervous. But the show must go on, as they say, and we will open. My company is extraordinary.” more

“It Is Lyrical” — Reading Hemingway on His Birthday

By Stuart Mitchner

Ernest Hemingway began The Sun Also Rises (1926) on his 26th birthday, July 21, 1925. “Everybody my age had written a novel,” he told the Paris Review’s George Plimpton, “and I was still having a difficult time writing a paragraph.” He finished the first draft exactly six weeks later in Paris.

I came back to Hemingway’s “Lost Generation” novel by way of John McPhee’s April 19, 2021 piece in the New Yorker (“Tabula Rasa: Volume Two”). Referring to a passage in which the protagonist Jake Barnes and his pal Bill Gorton are walking “across a meadow and through rising woods and across high open fields and down to a stream,” McPhee, who turned 90 on March 8, observes how “each successive sentence, in stairstep form, contains something of its predecessor and something new — repeating, advancing, repeating, advancing, like fracture zones on the bed of the ocean. It is not unaffective. It is lyrical.” Years later when he was teaching his Princeton course in creative non-fiction, McPhee assigned the passage to writing students, “asking if they could see a way to shorten it without damaging the repetition.”

Don’t Touch a Word

Reading the opening chapters of The Sun Also Rises for the first time in decades, I was surprised to find evidence of the “elephantine facetiousness” Scott Fitzgerald pointed out in the ten-page-long handwritten letter he sent to Hemingway in the spring of 1926. I was 16 when I first read the book, although “read” isn’t the word for it. I drank it down like an underage drinker on a binge.

Three years later I opened A Farewell to Arms (1929) to one of the most celebrated examples of Hemingway’s “repeating, advancing, repeating, advancing” don’t- touch-a-word-of-it prose topography:  more

Hub City Sounds Festival Is Virtual and In-Person

FREE AND FAMILY-FRIENDLY: The 11th annual Hub City Sounds brings art, music, food and more to New Brunswick starting August 7.

New Brunswick Cultural Center/Arts New Brunswick presents the 11th annual Hub City Sounds series, taking place this summer to fall from August 7 through October 31. The free series combines performing, visual, and culinary arts and has events for all ages and tastes. This year’s festival is both virtual and in-person.

Hub City Sounds events include the Indo American Festival on August 7, the New Brunswick HEART Festival on August 14, the Sixth Annual Carifest on August 21, the 10th Annual Central Jersey Jazz Festival on September 11, Arts New Brunswick Festival and MCFOODS Food Drive on September 18, and the Corazon Latino/Dia De Muertos/Halloween Celebration on October 31.  more

Horn Player from Princeton Studies with Her Idol

LESSONS FROM THE BEST: French horn player Elizabeth “E.J.” Ferrara took lessons from Philadelphia Orchestra member Jennifer Montone at a recent summer music festival.

French horn player Elizabeth “E.J.” Ferrara, 17, of Princeton, was among the students at the Philadelphia International Music Festival (PIMF), which resumed its in-person summer model while retaining its popular online option.

Elizabeth studied with her idol Jennifer Montone, who plays French horn with the Philadelphia Orchestra, during the session June 19-July 2, on the campus of Valley Forge Military Academy in Wayne, Pa. The second session runs through July 30. Montone was among 25 members of The Philadelphia Orchestra to work with students in individual and group lessons and master classes, and inspire them in faculty recitals.

“PIMF was a breath of fresh air for me, and I loved every second of it,” said E.J. “This was my first opportunity in over a year to share my love of music with others. My favorite part was that everyone was as in love with music as I was. My roommate and I even woke up to a different orchestral piece every morning as our alarm.” more

“The Art of Robert Beck” Exhibit at Michener Museum

“CARNEGIE HALL”: This painting by award-winning artist Robert Beck is featured in “It’s Personal: The Art of Robert Beck,” on view July 30 through January 2 at the Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pa.

The Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pa., presents “It’s Personal: The Art of Robert Beck,” opening July 30. The exhibition focuses on Robert Beck’s place in the storied world of the New Hope-Lambertville arts community.

Beck has played an important role in advancing and expanding the region’s traditions of Impressionism and Urban Realism, with distinctive oil paintings of the people, places, and occupations of our time. He is well known for documentary paintings, as he refers to his paintings done on site in one go. Whether single works or multi-image “visual essays,” these distinct paintings record his world much like the Pennsylvania Impressionists recorded theirs in their time. Unlike those images, Beck describes a world that contemporary audiences recognize as their own.

Viewers respond to his keen perspective on the storefronts, street corners, bars, restaurants, carnivals, basketball games, funeral homes, and parades. While New York, Bucks County, and the villages along the upper coast of Maine present subjects and contrast for his examinations, the exhibit includes work from series he created in the American West, Europe, and Africa.

“For more than 30 years, Beck has been an integral part of the Bucks County art community as both a leader and an iconoclast,” says Curator David Leopold, who organized the exhibition. “A generation has come to expect Beck at his easel wherever they are in the community. For the first time we have gathered paintings for all parts of his career and will present them in an installation that will also include short videos of different aspects of his work, along with audio of Beck recounting remarkable stories.” more

Art at Small World

Paintings by Adriana Groza are featured at Small World Coffee, 14 Witherspoon Street, through August 3. The show includes original artworks from several series including Abstracts, Beach, Floral, and Underwater Worlds, all informed in one way or another by her interpretation and perception of time.

West Windsor Arts Council “Across the Board” Exhibit

West Windsor Arts Council presents “Across the Board: Garden State Watercolor Society,” an in-person and online exhibition of original fine art for sale, on view through August 27. The exhibit spaces are at West Windsor Arts, 952 Alexander Road, Princeton Junction, with gallery hours by appointment, and at the new Whole World Arts in the MarketFair shopping center on Route 1. The current hours of operation for this new location are Wednesday through Friday, 3-6 p.m. and Saturday 1-4 p.m. more

Borscht Belt Delicatessen in Stockton Highlights NYC Jewish Deli Favorites

DEFINITIVE DELI: “I enjoy creating experiences for people, and I like to see people eat and enjoy themselves. In addition to being chef, I oversee the operations, and we are tweaking things every day to be sure we get it right.” Nick Liberato, owner with Mike Dalewitz and Steve Lau, of Borscht Belt Delicatessen in Stockton, is shown with one of the deli’s signature sandwiches: chopped cheese, with ground beef blend, cheddar, caramelized onions, lettuce, tomato, and mayo. (Photo by Gab Bonghi)

By Jean Stratton

Comfort and conversation, connection and culture, flavor and atmosphere; over-stuffed, piled-high delicious deli sandwiches; expertly-made egg creams; 1950s sound track vibrating in the background. Where can you find such an energizing experience?

It’s not far away!

The new Borscht Belt Delicatessen is located in the Stockton Market at 19 Bridge Street in Stockton. Just opened on June 19, it is already attracting hungry visitors who are lining up around the block to sample both its New York City-style Jewish deli atmosphere and its variety of classic deli culinary treats.

Owners Nick Liberato, Mike Dalewitz, and Steve Lau wanted to bring something unique to Stockton.

Family and Friends

“We thought there was a need for something like this in Stockton,” says Chef Liberato, who also oversees the operations. His longtime background in the food and restaurant business includes serving as “Chef to the Stars” when he opened a catering company in Los Angeles, and then as host of the popular Bar Rescue and Restaurants on Edge TV shows. The latter experiences included helping at risk bars and restaurants to regain both popularity and profits. more