Reviving the arts on the green

Museum Village uses $5,000 grant to host local artists, By Vicki Botta Monroe - Even with temperatures in the 90s, Museum Village’s shade trees and luscious greens provided a wonderfully pleasant venue for more than 30 Orange County Artists to display their work last weekend, thanks to a $5,000 grant from Orange Arts, Orange County Tourism and Orange County. Some of the artists took the opportunity of creating art on the premises, allowing the public to see how they work. The grant allowed the historical site to open free of charge to the public with building interpreters to provide incentive for all to come, see the artists’ work and get reacquainted with Museum Village. None of the artists were charged for their space, which encouraged many artists who have never shown their work before to come out. The artists ranged from first-timers such as 6 year-old Bobby Bollenbach to accomplished lifelong artists, such as Ann Skier, who studied with the Masters of China in Westchester, considered national treasures. Skier’s delicate sumi ink artwork on coated rice paper were signed with a traditional Chinese chop and a Chinese symbol for woman in the house. She and her husband Donald Skier sold mostly $12 note cards and said that they were sure that those who attended were not there to spend a large amount of money no matter what the art was worth. They did say they would come back again, adding that they loved the venue, perfect for showing artwork, if only more people came to see it. They chuckled, admitting that they came out of curiosity, thinking that with all the buses and cars they saw in the parking lot from Route 17, it must be a busy place until they found out that the parking lot was for the commuters - not Museum Village. The young abstract artist, Bobby Bollenbach, whose full-sized acrylic paintings for such a young age had to be seen-to-be-believed, sold three of his works for a total of $30. Bobby is home-schooled and has been painting since he was two and a half. He said he was inspired by his grandmother, Lillian Bollenbach of Monroe. He is also a young actor, having appeared in the productions of “Oliver” and “Two From Gallilee” at the Lycian Theater in Sugar Loaf. He was discovered when Kathie Andreas, of Next Stop Broadway, an acting school in Warwick, who heard his voice singing on their answering machine. Other artists included photojournalist Allyse Pulliam, a Pratt student who just finished her second year, who had captured on film some of the plight of New Orleans as she and her dad participated for a week with Habitat for Humanity between semesters. While she hadn’t sold anything, she said it was great to meet people and network. She hopes to work for National Geographic some day. Maryellen Count, executive director for the museum, noted that “Museum Village is not funded by federal, state or local government and has not received any financial support from relatives of the original founder for the three years that I’ve been here.” Though she says the Museum Village is enjoying a Renaissance, with volunteers sprucing up the grounds and reviving the buildings with fresh coats of paint, what it needs now are benefactors and business partners willing to give back to the community. One such benefactor is Provident Bank whose grant supports its “WE Program,” which stands for “Welcome Everyone” and is for people who have a special need to have a chaperone who gets in for free. This applies to physically challenged children and school-age children from a financially troubled area; it also supports the Big Brother and Big Sister organizations by allowing them to reduce the price of admission for these groups. “We would love to have Museum Village open free of charge to the public all the time with events like this, but the reality of the cost of building maintenance and materials are a very big factor in keeping the site going,” Count said. The trustees of Museum Village had sold off a parcel of land behind the museum to an excavating company for $200,000 to start a trust foundation from which the museum could benefit. They hope that through contributions from businesses and those in the community who love Museum Village and want to see it stay around for a long time to come, that they can keep it going and keep it a viable part of the community. The museum hosts two pottery groups who have built a 55 cubic foot working outdoor kiln and fire their work there for $500 per firing. Pottery also is demonstrated there for the school children. There is a resident weaver who demonstrates and programs for children on many things from puppet-making to learning to spin yarn. Count said that though it rained on Saturday, they still had more than 200 people attend and another 300 on Sunday. See next page for more photos