By John Burton
MIDDLETOWN – The arts matter and can be a part of everyday lives, believes Brookdale Community College President Maureen Murphy.
When asked about it this week, Murphy responded by quoting Winston Churchill. “The arts are essential to any complete national life,” she said with a nod toward Churchill. “And I think that is really true and important,” Murphy continued, offering her own support for the arts. “Arts should be integrated into everything that we do.”
Murphy, along with Red Bank RiverCenter Executive Director James Scavone and Margaret Mass, executive director of the Red Bank Visitors Center, will be honored by the Monmouth Arts Council at its fundraising gala to be held on Oct. 23 at the Edgewater Beach and Cabana Club, Sea Bright.
Mary Eileen Fouratt, the council’s executive director, said honorees are selected for their “impact on the arts in a significant way.”
“We look for people we feel really push forward our mission to inspire and foster the arts,” Fouratt explained.
This is the 10th year the council has been conducting its Celebration of Arts gala.
Brookdale Community College’s role in the local arts scene is invaluable, Fouratt explained. She pointed to the college’s various programs, including its performing and visual arts disciplines, and especially through the annual Teen Arts Festival. That festival, done in cooperation with the council and college, attracts about 2,000 teens and gives them “the opportunity to come together each year, to learn from professional artists and see other kids in the county who are interested in the arts,” Fouratt said.
“It is through art that we make meaning of life,” Murphy offered.
Murphy was an English major as an undergraduate, an aspiring poet, she acknowledged, finding out that “one of the things we learn as English majors is how to analyze things from different perspectives.”
Studying literature and history, “We become accustomed to looking at things that are complex, that don’t have black and white, right or wrong answers,” Murphy maintained, “and we become use to reconciling things that seem to be contrary.”
These are valuable skills, and that is why all students, regardless of major, are required to take humanities and arts-related courses, she said.
“And that’s what the arts do,” she continued. “They force us to look at things from different perspectives and we grow from that.”
Brookdale has continued to expose the community to the arts through its Visiting Writers Series and the newer Visiting Artist Series, begun last year, and free arts education programs, lectures and demonstrations.
Last week, the college at its CVA Gallery, held a public reception of the new exhibit. That exhibit, entitled “We/Re/Emerge” offer mixed-media displays of the artwork produced by college employees. That exhibit was used as the site to celebrate the college reorganization.
Another point that Murphy stressed is that the arts can offer a path to a career and a life. “People do go to work in the arts,” she said.
A relatively new program at the college, growing in popularity, is showing a way for students to channel their passion into a career. The college’s music technology program “is putting the arts to work,” teaching students real world skills and “students are flocking to it,” she said.
The arts, Fouratt added, “is not something for the special occasion.”
And the efforts of Scavone and Mass put the arts in Red Bank on display regularly for all, Fouratt noted.
RiverCenter, which oversees and advocates for the borough commercial special improvement district, and the visitors center, which promotes the community and provides information, “completely get that the arts are critical to a vibrant downtown,” Fouratt said, explaining the naming of Scavone and Mass as this year’s honorees.
With the Two River Theater and Count Basie Theatre, the Bow Tie Cinema, with a collection of art galleries and other artistic venues, “We” at the arts council, “would like the public know the arts are accessible,” to all, Fouratt offered.
The Oct. 23 fundraiser will benefit arts education and community arts programs in Monmouth County. This year’s event is also intended to highlight the council’s MoCo Art Corridor, promoting the county’s art offerings.
