Category Archives: Past Exhibition
The Fires: Hoboken 1978-1982
January 22, 2023
We are proud to announce two exhibits by photo-based artist and arts educator, Christopher López. “The Fires: Hoboken 1978-1982” shines a light on horrific events from Hoboken’s early period of gentrification. This visual and oral history project will be on display in our Main Gallery through the summer, closing date to be announced. A companion installation “(UN)ERASED” will be on display in our Upper Gallery through Sunday, February 19. On Friday, January 20 at 7pm, López was interviewed on the Museum’s YouTube channel by Museum Director Bob Foster as part of our ongoing “Artist Talks” series. Click here to view, or simply scroll down to the “Artist Talk” link below. Scroll down to see the Sunday afternoon series of special EXHIBIT EVENTS that will provide additional data, perspective and context. Scroll down for links to SELECT ELEMENTS FROM THE EXHIBIT AVAILABLE ONLINE
In the late 70s, as Hoboken became more desirable to ‘young urban professionals’ who could afford to pay higher rents, there was a plague of fires in buildings that housed mostly Puerto Rican families. Nearly every fire, investigators determined, was the result of arson. This exhibit addresses many factors at play at that time. It highlights the fifty-six people, mostly children, who were killed and the eight thousand that were left homeless. The exhibit also features QR codes which allow visitors to hear survivors tell their own stories.
López says, “Gentrification remains a critical subject in small cities like Hoboken as well as on a global scale creating an epidemic of displacement and violence alongside ‘urban renewal’. The visceral ramifications of gentrification are evidenced throughout the living history of Hoboken. This project is a work in progress and will be the first to offer a thorough analysis of the intersecting histories that transformed the city from a working-class community to one of the most expensive and exclusive cities in New Jersey.”
López’s work is augmented by the contributions of humanities scholars Yomaira Figueroa-Vásquez, Ph.D. and Dylan Gottlieb, Ph.D. Dr. Figueroa-Vásquez is a co-creator of The Diaspora Solidarities Lab, a multi-institutional Black feminist partnership that supports solidarity work in Black and Ethnic Studies. López says, “Yomaira grew up in Hoboken. We connected because of our shared interest in this history and the toll it took on the vast Puerto Rican community here. Yomaira is writing a book slated for release in 2024, and she will be dedicating a chapter to the fires. I’m honored to be working with her.” Of Dylan Gottlieb, López says, “He wrote a very compelling essay on the history of the fires that was tremendously influential to me and really sparked all of the work you see today. But besides his essay, there is no history. My work aims to change that.”
The companion installation “(UN)ERASED,” uses both contemporary and appropriated archival imagery to construct a visual dialogue through collage that evidences the human toll that arson played on mostly migrant communities during Hoboken’s gentrification. López says, “Stories have the potential to be erased depending on who is driving the narrative. In gentrified cities like Hoboken, it happens through this self-anointed position of pioneerism and the cultural appropriation of urban spaces. In its perversity, it picks and chooses the things it likes and discards the rest. The rest, in this case, are actual human lives. Gentrified cities are very cookie cutter and are not actually designed by people, but rather, by developers and banks to meet the demands of an upper tier consumerism. The palpable sense of community is no longer present. The creation of this absence is exacting in its design and predominant function, which is to rebrand a city’s already existing cultural capital and replace it with a newer fiscal capital.”
Christopher López (b.1984), was born in The Bronx and was raised between New York and Northern New Jersey. He has been working as a visual artist since 2005. To date, many of his works have been made on the island of Puerto Rico. Often by exploring diminishing histories, his photographs celebrate the richness of culture as well as portray the complexities of identity both on and off the island. His work was most notably exhibited in the exhibition, “Caribbean; Crossroads of the World” which spanned three museums in New York City and showcased over 100 years of Caribbean art from the region’s most prominent artists.
Christopher has been awarded fellowships at The Laundromat Project and The Diaspora Solidarities Lab. He is a current member of Diversify Photo, an initiative started to diversify the photography industry and has given lectures at Barnard College and Cornell University among others. His artworks are currently in the permanent collections of El Museo Del Barrio, The World Trade Center Memorial Museum, and The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.
EXHIBIT EVENTS take place on Sunday at 4pm, and are free unless otherwise noted
February 19: “Yuppies Invade My House at Dinnertime” Reading of a hybrid /documentary play by Mile Square Theatre’s playwright-in-residence Joseph Gallo. Nearly every word is taken verbatim from primary source documents of the time. Dylan Gottlieb, PhD, Historian of American Cities and Capitalism leads the talkback. Tickets are $20, available here.
March 5: Pastor Elaine Thomas, Rector of All Saints Episcopal Parish. Thomas will speak on her doctoral dissertation, “The Mile Square Cathedral: The Church as Community Healer.”
March 12: Janet Ayala, survivor of the fire at the Pintor Hotel which killed 13 people, including 7 children. Exhibit curator Christopher López will be present.
March 26: Bill Bayer, photographer for the Hudson Dispatch newspaper during the time of the fires.
April 2: “The Fires and the founding of The Hoboken Shelter”. Mark Singleton in conversation with the Museum’s Collections Manager Rand Hoppe: Mark grew up in Hoboken and was board president of the Hoboken Shelter for many years. Rand is a long-standing Shelter board member.
April 16: Yomaira C. Figueroa-Vásquez, Ph.D. Hoboken-born consultant on the exhibit. Award-winning writer, scholar, and associate professor of afro-diaspora studies at Michigan State University.
SELECT ELEMENTS FROM THE EXHIBIT AVAILABLE ONLINE
The Introduction – The Hoboken Fires: A Call to Witness, by Yomaira C. Figueroa-Vásquez
Text from the Timeline, based on Hoboken Is Burning: Yuppies, Arson, and Displacement in the Postindustrial City by Dylan Gottlieb
Click on the portraits below to be taken to a YouTube video where you can hear each person’s Oral History recording
Tapia Family |
Tirado Family |
Janet Ayala |
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Marisol Zenon |
Ana Mercado |
Antonio Olavarria |
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Robert Burzichelli |
Bill Bayer |
Rose Orozco |
“The Fires: Hoboken 1978-1982” was produced by Christopher López, in partnership with the Hoboken Historical Museum.
These exhibits were made possible with funds from The New Jersey Council for the Humanities, The Diaspora Solidarities Lab, and with support from a block grant from the State/County Partnership program for the Arts, administered by the Hudson County Division of Cultural and Heritage Affairs.
“Making the Sinatra Bust” by Chris Dahlberg
September 11, 2022 – October 20, 2022
On Sunday, December 11, we kicked off the House Tour with the unveiling of our new bronze bust of Sinatra by master sculptor Chris Dahlberg. The bust can be viewed until Friday, December 23 in our Upper Gallery where you can also view large scale prints depicting various stages of the complex and fascinating production process. The bust was made possible by an anonymous gift from a Museum supporter, to whom we are extremely grateful. When the Museum re-opens on Sunday, January 22, the bust can be viewed at its new permanent home in the Sinatra lounge.
Chris talked with Bob Foster on Friday December 16 about the bust and his work in general. Click here to view on YouTube.
Chris Dahlberg was born and raised in Madison, Connecticut and attended Lyme Academy of Fine Arts with a concentration in traditional figurative sculpture. He later attended Parsons School of Design and received his MFA. Chris has created numerous bronze sculptures for private collectors and public spaces. One of his notable pieces is a bronze bust of James Madison. He was commissioned by both Madison NJ and Madison CT, where each sculpture resides in their town centers.
Chris entered into the toy and entertainment industry in the early 90’s where he utilized his traditional sculpting techniques in the commercial field. He designed and created action figures and collectible statues for Mattel as well as Harry Potter, Masters of the Universe, DC Comics and numerous other movie related themes. He currently owns and operates Lone Horsemen Toy Design and works with multiple toy and entertainment companies.
Chris moved to Hoboken in 2023 where he now works and resides. He continues to work within the commercial field while maintaining his passion for traditional bronze sculpture. See more of his gorgeous work on Instagram here.
Unclassical: Contemporary Still Lifes by Deborah Pohl
September 11, 2022 – October 20, 2022
We are thrilled to present recent paintings by a longtime Hoboken resident. Our new Upper Gallery exhibit, “Unclassical: Contemporary Still Lifes by Deborah Pohl” has its opening reception Sunday, September 11 from 2 – 5pm. The show’s run has been extended until until Sunday, November 27.
Deborah Pohl has been a proud and involved Hoboken artist since 1996. Deborah’s connection with the Hoboken artist community began with figure drawing classes at the Liquid Lounge. She later started working out of an art studio in the Neumann Leather Building and has been displaying her work through the years in the city’s local art spaces and citywide arts tours.
Deborah was recently awarded a 2022 Fellowship for painting from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Her numerous exhibitions include a solo show at the Trenton City Museum (reviewed by the NY Times) and the “Re-emergence” exhibit currently at the New Jersey State Museum.
In her words, “My paintings occupy the category of still life while working against the genre’s expectations by presenting objects in unfamiliar and surprising compositions. Working solely from real life, I explore light and color as I set up each painting’s composition. The objects themselves are distinctive: Classic still life objects, like fruit and drapery, are combined with overlooked and often discarded relics of our everyday lives. I use traditional oil painting methods in order to beautify the ignored and mundane. Objects speak to our senses, recalling our interactions with the world, evoking our memories. Poetic combinations of objects create new meanings. “
Deborah received a BFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. Her painting education is ongoing, as she still takes courses to hone her technique. Her educational life includes receiving a master’s degree in counseling, which also supports Deborah’s desire to create compositions that speak to our shared humanity.
The exhibit is supported by a block grant from the State/County Partnership program for the Arts, administered by the Hudson County Division of Cultural and Heritage Affairs.
Carol Halebian: When We Were Young
July 10 2022 – September 4, 2022
We are thrilled to present photography by Carol Halebian, in our new Upper Gallery exhibit, “When We Were Young.” We’re showing select images form the Kodachrome film she shot of Hoboken Street life between the late 70s and early 80s. The exhibit opens Sunday, July 10 with a reception at 2 pm and runs until Sunday, September 4. Before the opening, Carol will be interviewed by Museum Director and photographer Bob Foster in an online Artist Talk Friday, July 8 at 7pm, streamed out live on both YouTube and Facebook
Carol Halebian grew up in Bergen County. She attended Syracuse University and majored in Photojournalism. On a trip to Europe, she found herself marveling at the sights along with her with fellow photography students. A professor remarked, “Don’t overlook your own backyard!” Her initial awareness of Hoboken came from the signs she saw on the approach to the Lincoln Tunnel. She was intrigued, and made her first visit here on Election Day, 1976. Carol was fascinated at how “the sidewalks became like second living rooms,” hosting card games and all manner of get-togethers. She loved the low buildings and vibrant street culture. She also was seeing the urban landscape “change rapidly.” The words ‘gentrification’ and ‘yuppie’ were commonly used in the conversations naming these changes. Carol realized that the rapidly changing Hoboken was just the place – her “own backyard” – to focus her photographer’s eye. So she began chronicling the street life in Hoboken regularly and in earnest, with her beloved Kodachrome film. “When We Were Young” shows select images taken between the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Carol’s grandmother emigrated to the US in 1920 when she was 17 as a refugee from the Armenian Genocide. She came in on a ship that docked in Hoboken and was quickly taken home by a member of her extended family that was already here for a bath. Poor immigrants traveling over the Atlantic in ‘steerage’ were vulnerable to lice, among other medical issues, and the fortunate ones had family or friends ready to administer the serious baths needed to minimize and address infestations.
As she prepared for this exhibit, Carol found herself reflecting. She was moved to describe her impressions of Hoboken, and the circumstances that led her to photograph in Hoboken forty years ago. These are her reflections:
“The first time I saw Hoboken, I thought it was a period piece in slow progress. It was a presidential election day, 1976, Ford vs. Carter and my first day off from work. I had recently graduated from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University with a photojournalism major and a sociology minor. Employed at a photography magazine, my plan was to photograph, maybe even start a long-term project. Until that day, Hoboken was a word on a traffic sign, the place a motorist would avoid by turning in the direction of the Lincoln Tunnel for Manhattan.
Hoboken was literally “the road not taken.” It was also the butt of endless jokes, an underdog. My cousin Barbara and I, both having grown up in Bergen County, decided to explore. We parked and wandered around, smelling coffee in the air for blocks from Maxwell house, the world’s largest coffee plant. I shot one roll of my favorite film, Kodachrome. Not only the subject of a hit Paul Simon song, Kodachrome was considered to be the most stable of the slide films. Black and white could last forever, but color could fade.
It was a brief, but memorable visit. I had stumbled upon a photographic gem, a place where people are open, the quality of light is warm, bright, and beautiful. The predominant color matched my favored film’s distinctive red. In this mile square city, the street was a second living room, a meeting ground, and a melting pot. It was not unusual to see three generations enjoying an afternoon on a stoop. My first impression was that the clock had stopped about forty years ago.
My photographic approach was direct. In most situations, I walked up to people because I was attracted to an expression, a gesture, stance, attitude, or activity. Each encounter became a mini collaboration. There were so many kinds of people of different ages, classes, and cultures living side by side. The mix was changing because Hoboken was in the process of being “discovered” by people priced out of Manhattan who appreciated the proximity to New York and the charm of a unique city with a rich history. While some people may laugh at the very sound of “HoBoKen,” its inhabitants are house and city proud.
I spent many days slowing scouting about, familiarizing myself with the grid of short blocks and long streets. There were no concrete canyons to block the sun, only an unending tangle of telephone wires. Few buildings were more than four or five stories high. A curious situation was obvious, in several places row houses were crumbing, while in other areas they were being painstakingly renovated. It was the beginning of gentrification. Selected to be part of the federally funded “Model Cities” plan, the availability of low interest loans resulted in an influx of families seeking bargain brownstones along with speculators and investors. There were fires, some most likely arson, lots of “For Sale” signs and telltale scaffolding. There was development, re-development, and restoration. Hoboken entered a new stage of life, no longer the butt of jokes, and still a rich and vibrant community.
I continued to photograph in Hoboken until about 1984 when President Reagan passed through during his re-election campaign. While there have been many changes, Hoboken remains a unique city with a rich past and a promising future.”
The exhibit is supported by a block grant from the State/County Partnership program for the Arts, administered by the Hudson County Division of Cultural and Heritage Affairs.
Lou Carbone: COVID
May 7, 2022 – July 3, 2022
We are thrilled to present the recent work of Hoboken master painter Lou Carbone. “COVID” debuts in our Upper Gallery on Saturday, May 7 with an opening reception with the artist from 2 – 5pm. The exhibit consists of 25 16 x 20 acrylic paintings done under quarantine. On Friday, May 6 at 7pm, tune in and chat with Lou at a live, online Artist Talk on our YouTube channel here. Lou Carbone’s “COVID” exhibit runs from Saturday, May 7 until Sunday, July 3.
With diverse influences that include cubism, surrealism and the Mexican muralists, Lou’s paintings are a series of pictorial spaces borne of personal experience as filtered through dreams and illusions. The images of anonymous figures in common settings depict ritual happening combined with feelings of sexual tension that are woven with a quiet elegant motion.
Each canvas is a merging of fact and fantasy that opens a window to animated yet mysterious places. Many of the objects and figures are structured, ordered and linear yet they create elements that have references to the mystical and spiritual, using multiple perspective and intense color. Lou has developed an assortment of visual symbols in an effort to pare cultural traditions and rituals to their essence and intensify the relationships between his subjects. His tools may be color, line and composition but the imagery is formed through the visceral process of thought.
To see more of Lou’s work, click here.
The exhibit is supported by a block grant from the State/County Partnership program for the Arts, administered by the Hudson County Division of Cultural and Heritage Affairs.
Liz Ndoye and Ibou Ndoye – “Adjacent”
March 6, 2022 – May 1, 2022
The artwork of Liz Ndoye and the artwork of Ibou Ndoye are featured in our Upper Gallery exhibit, “Adjacent.” The show runs from Sunday, March 6th until Sunday, May 1st. There is an opening reception on Sunday, March 6 from 2 – 5pm. Ms. Ndoye and Mr. Ndoye will present an online-only Artist Talk Friday, March 4 at 7 pm. Click here for more details.
Ms. Ndoye and Mr. Ndoye are accomplished artists, showing their work for well over 20 years. They each have dozens of solo and group show credits in the greater New York City area. Mr. Ndoye additionally has shown in: Indianapolis, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Washington DC, Germany, and Senegal.
Ms. Ndoye works in mixed media and fiber, including installations. After teaching in Australia and the U.S. and traveling extensively throughout the world, she has spent the last two decades creating soft sculpture that she calls her “dolls”. She has become so deeply involved with these creatures that she has crafted a rich and lively culture around their “way of life” – including a language, religion, and governmental structure. Ms. Ndoye depicts all these activities and cultural constructs in her drawings, paintings, and installations. Her passion and love for her doll creatures is evident in the lively and playful compositions of her work. To learn more about Liz Ndoye and her artwork, visit her website here.
Ibou Ndoye works in mixed media and glass painting. He was born in West Africa’s most progressive capital city, Dakar, Senegal. His mother made her living as a dressmaker while his grandmother worked as a tie-dye artist. Regularly surrounded by colorful African textiles and fabrics, Mr. Ndoye says he “socialized with art and cohabited with colors” from a very young age. He further shares, “My paintings are 100% social, in the sense that they have social functions which allow the viewer to deal with all the social ethics of modern and traditional life. They are the short stories from oral traditions that teach, inform, awake and communicate with your subconscious.” To learn more about Ibou Ndoye and his artwork, visit his website here.
The Museum is thrilled to feature the work of these two established artists and we are intrigued to see what will happen when Ms. Ndoye’s and Mr. Ndoye’s artwork is “Adjacent” to the other’s.
The exhibit is supported by a block grant from the State/County Partnership program for the Arts, administered by the Hudson County Division of Cultural and Heritage Affairs.
Karen E. Gersch – “CIRCUS LIVES: Hovering Above, Balancing Below”
January 9, 2022 – February 27, 2022
To highlight its current exhibition “Washington St.” and to bring attention to the prestigious circus school that once operated there in the late 1970’s, the Hoboken Historical Museum is bringing a visual spectacle to its Upper Gallery.
“CIRCUS LIVES: Hovering Above, Balancing Below” by celebrated circus artist Karen E. Gersch opens January 9th and runs through February 27th, 2022. On opening day Sunday, January 9 at 3:30, Gersch will present a slideshow/talk about the Circus Arts Center. She trained there as an acrobatic base or ‘understander’ before spending 30 years “running around rings and stages with a woman on her head. It was – like painting has always been for me – very centering. I miss it now.” She will be joined by many of her colleagues from those days and images of their acts will be shown.
The multi-media exhibit will feature dancing horses, performers on tight wire and trapeze, alluring backlot scenes and portraits of jugglers, balancers and – the remarkable Russian couple who founded and ran the Circus Arts Center at 412 Washington St.
For Gersch, who holds a BFA from Pratt Institute, the tented world has remained a passion since childhood. She grew up in what was then rural Rockland County as an athletic tomboy who sketched from life. Her art portfolio garnered her a scholarship to Pratt at 16. After graduating the school with Honors, she studied ballet in Manhattan, then met the duo who would become her Master Teachers: Nina Krasavina and Gregory Fedin. Gersch says, unapologetically, that she has always “juggled” parallel careers: that of performing and painting.
She was already featured in shows here and abroad, especially for Warner Bros. Records and Henson Associates, before becoming a founding member of the Big Apple Circus and of Vermont’s Circus Smirkus. Most of the acts that composed the first two years of BAC were her fellow students: all of them chose to leave the show to keep working at the Circus Arts Center.
During the decades when Gersch traveled extensively with three-ring shows throughout the country and one-ring shows in Europe, her art materials were her constant companion. By day, she practiced and performed, by night she sketched and painted – several pastels and line drawings from life on the road are included in the exhibition.
She works in a multitude of mediums (although oils are preferred), and is in private collections around the world. Highlights of her exhibition history include having had several works in “Dusty Glory: The Circus in American Art” at the Cahoon Museum of American Art in Massachusetts, alongside legendary circus artists Chaim Gross, Walt Kuhn and Reginald Marsh. In 2017, ten of her paintings were chosen to be part of the Smithsonian’s FolkLife Festival: “Circus on the Move” in the Arts and Industry Museum.
Gersch still remembers vividly commuting from her loft/studio on the Bowery in Manhattan to Hoboken every day. “There was something magical about stepping out of the terminal from the Path train and taking back streets, many still cobblestone, with laundry lines hanging from open windows. It felt almost European in contrast to the bustle of NYC.”
Hurry, hurry, hurry – step right up! Come bask and delight in a panorama of daring, grace and physical artistry – that which the world of circus exemplifies.
For more of Gersch’s work, visit her website at www.artbykarenegersch.com. To learn more about the physical arts teaching programs she has created, see http://www.facebook.com/artofbalancebykeg. To view the short film “I Control the Balance” of Gersch interviewed by Creatives MX, click here https://www.youtube.com/
The exhibit is supported by a block grant from the State/County Partnership program for the Arts, administered by the Hudson County Division of Cultural and Heritage Affairs.
Frank Hanavan – “The Sidewalk is the Studio”
November 14, 2021 – January 2, 2022
Frank Hanavan’s last exhibition in the Hoboken Museum’s Upper Gallery showcased his temporary departure from painting with acrylics into working with watercolors. The resulting series of watercolors were beautiful, but he has since returned to painting with acrylics – always en plein air, French for painting on site in front of the subject – for his latest exhibit, The Sidewalk Is the Studio, which opens Sunday, Nov. 14, with a free opening reception from 2 – 5 pm. The exhibit will be on view until Jan 2, 2022.
Hanavan says that even his brief foray into painting with watercolor was transformative. His style in acrylics has changed – he’s painting many of the same subjects, sidewalk scenes in Hoboken – and his canvases are still recognizably Frank Hanavans, but his brush strokes are looser and more experimental.
“Working in acrylics, I found my technique was getting tighter and tighter,” he says. “But working with the watercolors helped loosen me up.”
What he means by tight, he says, is that for every brush stroke he would usually make, he would go back and dab a couple more strokes around it to refine and blend each stroke to achieve the realistic impression he was going for. He says the resulting paintings were more precise renditions of the scenes he was depicting, but they could be stiffer, with less implied motion than in real life.
Now, he says, “Each brush mark has its own personality, they’re more “messy” or gestural, and each brush stroke has to do more of the work.”
“I feel better while painting — more in the moment. Each painting goes more quickly, and I have to paint with more confidence and awareness, instead of second-guessing and third-guessing each stroke.” Even though he calls his new style “messy,” he likes the new paintings, and he’s finding people are responding well to his new style.
“Working this way makes conversations with passersby more disruptive,” he says, as he has to focus more. “It’s sort of like a juggling act, keeping all the balls in the air at once, for a couple hours a day.” While he misses the frequent conversations with random strangers, he is now waking up for each day of painting with a renewed sense of enthusiasm, he couldn’t wait to get back to work.
Hanavan has been a fixture on Hoboken’s sidewalks for over two decades now, but he has been painting more New York City and Jersey City scenes over the past few years. This summer, in preparation for the exhibition at the Hoboken Museum, he spent more time in Hoboken, and kept seeing people he hadn’t seen in years, from former Mayor Dave Roberts to his former landlord and people he knew from his favorite Hoboken drinking hole.
Most of the 16 – 17 paintings in the exhibit are of Washington Street, which was purely coincidental to the current Main Gallery exhibit, “The Avenue.” He was particularly taken with the sidewalk café umbrellas as a subject. A few paintings are of night scenes, which, in contrast to the plein air paintings, were painted in his home studio from photographs.
For one painting, he returned to a classic image of his: A Mr. Softee truck. The new painting features the Empire State Building in the background and Hoboken in the foreground.
When he’s not painting, Hanavan indulges his fascination with all things nautical. He has served as a volunteer at the South Street Seaport Museum working on restoring old sailing ships, and has become an expert in nautical knots. Lately, he’s been creating hand-sewn canvas bags with nautical themes, sewed with old sail cloth in the time-honored techniques that were used to stitch sturdy sails in the olden days, which he learned about from a book. For more of his work, visit his website at www.frankhanavan.com.
The exhibit is supported by a block grant from the State/County Partnership program for the Arts, administered by the Hudson County Division of Cultural and Heritage Affairs.
Joan Michel – “Cavemen Built My Skateboard”
September 19, 2021 - November 7, 2021
Joan Michel is an award-winning professional photographer-filmmaker with an impressive list of clients in the fashion world and other businesses. After starting her photography studies at School of Visual Arts in New York nearly a decade ago, she recently completed her Bachelor of Arts degree at New Jersey City University, majoring in Media Arts with a concentration in film making.
Jersey City born and raised, Michel began pursuing a passion to interpret the world through a lens in high school, when she bought her first digital SLR camera. While at SVA, she learned to appreciate the unique qualities of working with analog film, which informs the way she shoots even when using digital equipment.
Her final thesis project, completed earlier this year, was inspired by her interest in skateboarders. She produced a fascinating film, “Cavemen Built My Skateboard,” about a young skateboarder, Iggy Manzanero, whom she met in Jersey City. Impressed as much by his warmth and openness as by his dedication to perfecting his skills, Michel captures this special young man’s character in a short film that showcases her skills with a variety of shooting styles and techniques. Her artist’s statement about the project appears below.
The show in the Museum’s Upper Gallery is based on stills from the film, which can also be viewed on YouTube. Learn more about Michel’s work by visiting her website at www.joan-michel.com.
My project, “Cavemen Built My Skateboard,” has been a process from March to August 2021. The subject was a 16-year-old named Iggy Manzanero.
During Covid-19, my therapist recommended that I do something my younger self always wanted to do and I told her I always wanted to skateboard. So going to the skate park is where I met Iggy in 2020 and he encouraged me to go out there, skate and have fun. I was taken aback because I was just a stranger to him at first and he showed his kind-hearted personality, which to me was the total opposite of the stereotypical skater. I believe it’s rare to meet kind people, so if you do, you keep them close because it’s a cruel world out there—or maybe that’s just me being traumatized.
I kept an eye on him for months at the skate park and then approached him about this project. It’s not about being the best skater for me, it’s about the importance of being a good human. He mentioned he has never worked on something like this, and because he is a minor, I had to ask his mother for permission to document him.
I did my research and bought many photo books related to skateboarding. I’ve even contacted other photographers/directors who film skate videos to ask for advice on how to capture and print the photos I want. Artists who inspired me were Greg Hunt, Rafael Gonzales, Spike Jonze, French Fred, Ari Marcopoulos, and many more. I even reached out to pro skaters, and talked to the local skaters in Jersey City to practice when I wasn’t photographing/filming Iggy.
I recorded him on 16mm, Super 8 motion picture film, and also captured him on color and black-and-white film. It was a struggle doing everything by myself and at times I had to shoot with multiple cameras so I wouldn’t miss the shot. It taught me how to multitask in a way I never knew I could accomplish. It was also a pretty expensive production, so I ended up creating a crowdfunding campaign for the first time. I was able to raise $7,500 in a month! It opened my eyes to how many people out there believe in my vision and want to see what I make come to life.
I’m very thankful for Iggy’s patience with my process and with doing tricks over and over again until he landed them. Sometimes under the hot sun, it would get tiring and exhausting even for myself but we kept going. Especially when we both got physically hurt, we still kept going, and I think that’s what people admired the most as they were witnessing the process of filming and taking photos for this project. There was a lot of preparation in figuring out what film stocks to use, in which locations, and factoring in the weather and our schedules.
After every weekend, I would go to the lab and drop off my film, then pick it up, and scan the images at home. I would study what I needed to improve on and what was missing in the sequence of my photos. I would then plan out how to execute and capture the missing pieces for the next shoot. I decided to photograph with film stocks such as Kodak Colorplus and Portra for color film, because it offered the greatest saturation, since I usually shoot during a sunny day. I felt the vibrant colors worked with the action and movement I was trying to capture as he skated.
Despite all the work and struggles, it was rewarding to see the results in the end. It was also exciting for me to see the images come to life in print. Being in the darkroom created an even deeper connection for me with my work. I had to look closely at all the details to do the color correction and adjust the sharpness to get an accurate image. I felt sentimental when the project finally came to a close.
The exhibit is supported by a block grant from the State/County Partnership program for the Arts, administered by the Hudson County Division of Cultural and Heritage Affairs.
The Avenue: A History of Washington Street
August 1, 2021 - December 23, 2022
There’s an old Hoboken saying: “If you can’t find it on Washington Street, you’re not looking hard enough.” The Museum’s curatorial team has taken up the challenge with its latest exhibition: “The Avenue: A History of Washington Street.”
Visit the Digital/Virtual Exhibit “The Avenue!”
Tracing almost two centuries of vibrant community and commercial life along Hoboken’s main artery, the exhibit packs in hundreds of artifacts and photographs from scores of beloved and largely family-owned establishments that have drawn people to The Avenue for generations.
Visitors can figuratively stroll the length of “The Avenue,” teleporting back and forth in time, as they search for artifacts from their favorite businesses and discover the wide variety of businesses that catered to earlier residents of the Mile Square City. Stretching nearly the full length of the Museum’s north wall, an enlarged, detailed reproduction of the 1951 Sanborn fire map (from the Jersey City Library’s Hudson County History collection) shows every building block-by-block from Observer Highway to 14th Street.
Above and below the map are displays from the Museum’s collections of both physical artifacts and interactive photo screens, near the corresponding addresses on the property maps. Vintage signs from long-time Washington Street stalwarts such as Schnackenberg’s and Kelly’s Pub are on view, along with an 1899 silk banner from the United Decorating store and a clock customized by Mayor Tom Vezzetti that reads, “Welcome to Your City Hall.”
Over the Museum’s 35 years of collecting, many families of former business proprietors have donated cherished items from their parents’ and grandparents’ businesses to the Museum. For example, the Museum has a rich collection of items from Schnackenberg’s luncheonette (1110 Washington), Schoning’s City Hall Bake Shop (95 Washington) and United Decorating (421 Washington) that illustrate the history of Hoboken’s enterprising immigrant populations.
Also on display are film clips and images from many parades, especially the 1955 celebration of Hoboken’s centennial, with floats from major manufacturers Maxwell House and Tootsie Roll, along with high-stepping baton-twirlers and marching bands. This celebration was immortalized in the Swiss photographer Robert Frank’s black-and-white images, “City Fathers” and “Parade, Hoboken, NJ,” published in ‘The Americans,” a photo essay on mid-century America.
The bunting, flags and costumes that decorated the floats and festooned the buildings along the route were mostly supplied by the Kirchgessner family’s United Decorating. The exhibit includes a bust of The Avenue’s namesake, George Washington, which once stood proudly in United Decorating’s window.
Mile-Wide Photo Project
For reference, graphic designer McKevin Shaughnessy has stitched together a hyper-detailed, continuous panoramic photo of contemporary Washington Street, so visitors can compare the current streetscape to The Avenue of years past. For even deeper context, the exhibit also includes early renderings of Washington Street in 1851, when it was a sleepy little town, by lithographer John Bornet, from the collections of the New-York Historical Society.
Among the more curious artifacts is a set of vintage bowling pins salvaged by woodworker Anton David from a Washington Street property. They were donated to the Museum collections, and executive director Bob Foster says the building had been home — at different times — to both the local Democratic and Republican committees, each of which applied for bowling operator licenses in the 1920s-1940s.
Accompanying the exhibition will be a full range of educational programs, including a lecture series and walking tours. For school children of different ages, we offer exhibit-related programs — contact the Museum director at info@hobokenmuseum.org or call 201-656-2240 for details. The Museum welcomes visits from almost every grade and every school in Hoboken – public, charter and private.
THE AVENUE was produced by Melissa Abernathy, Bill Curran, Robert Foster, Frank Hanavan, Rand Hoppe, Holly Metz, and McKevin Shaughnessy.