The work of artists who competed in the Willingboro Art Alliance’s 27th annual open juried exhibition.
The oldest art organization in Burlington County is inviting anyone interested in the visual arts to join its activities.
The Willingboro Art Alliance is offering art classes, workshops, presentations from visiting artists and numerous art exhibitions.
“We offer programs, we offer workshops, we offer presentations, we offer people an opportunity to draw in person, online …” said the alliance’s acting president and Moorestown resident Ellen Miller. “Our mission is to bring together artists – skilled, unskilled – to learn, to communicate and to make the community aware of the arts.”
In 1964, artists Philip Arabia, Richard Cassel and James Hanna discussed the idea of bringing together amateurs and professionals for classes and exhibits, following a joint show of their art at Provident National Bank in Willingboro. Their mission was to help artists improve their skills, disseminate art and increase community awareness of the arts.
Their idea became a reality when they formed a small group – the Willingboro Art Alliance – and formally delineated its goals. Shortly after the Provident Bank show, the alliance was incorporated, with its first business meeting in September of 1964 at the Willingboro library. Two of its three founding members, Hanna and Arabia, are still living.
The alliance now consists of members from the South Jersey and Philadelphia areas who range from beginners to seasoned, widely recognized artists showing and selling their work in several states and even nationally. Monthly presentations consist of a speaker discussing or demonstrating various aspects of art as well as hands-on for members to experience new techniques.
The alliance had to move classes and presentations to Zoom during COVID, but meetings are again in person at its home base in Willingboro. The organization also occupies two art classrooms at the John F. Kennedy Recreation Center – formerly John F. Kennedy High School – and just wrapped its 27th annual open juried exhibition at the Dr. David Flinker Pavilion Art Gallery at Virtua Hospital in Mount Holly.
The annual exhibit is the alliance’s largest, with 102 entries and 15 prizes. Bruce Garrity, award-winning painter, educator and curator, was its juror. A recipient of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship for 2022, his work has been featured in many solo and group exhibits.
“It’s really fun because there’s so many different methods of doing a painting, whether it be pastel, acrylic, oil, watercolor,” Miller noted of the exhibit’s work. “And different people are experimenting, so you see quite a variety of work.”
To learn more about the Willingboro Art Alliance, visit www.willingboroart.org or email info2019@willingborort.org. You can also visit its Facebook page at www.facebook.com/willingboroartalliance or Instagram page at www.instagram.com/willingboro_art_alliance.
