TOWN TOPICS, PRINCETON, N.J., WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2018 • 18
Art
PDS STEAM EXHIBIT: Digital and physical displays of student-created shoes are one of many STEAM projects on display at the Anne Reid ’72 Art Gallery at Princeton Day School now through January 11.
PDS Presents Student STEAM-Based Exhibit
An exhibit of STE A Mbased student innovations is featured at Princeton Day School’s Anne Reid ‘72 Art Gallery through January 11. The Gallery is open to the public and all are welcome to explore the exhibit during school hours on days when classes are in session. User-centered design thinking is at the heart of the innovations on display, which were developed to solve real-world challenges and user needs in multiple STEAM courses offered at PDS (along with a few independent projects submitted by students). The School’s STEAM faculty team has developed a curricular approach that relies on facilitating students to empathize with end-users and their challenges, desires, and needs, then ideate possible methods and solutions, prototype ideas into physical or digital form, and test their designs to observe, collect feedback, and refine their efforts. Among the exhibit highlights are an automated garden hydration process using Arduino programming, based on watering and habitat research; Arduinoprogram-based thermostat innovations; LED displays programmed to dim and brighten using multi-meters; eyewear designed using Adobe-based vector graphics that guide laser cutting and engraving; a series of drawing styles to facilitate design development, including point perspective, orthographic, isometric, mechanical, exploded view, technical
packaging, and color material finish drawing techniques; presentations on innovations of some of the most creative user-centered industrial designers, including Peter Behrens, Le Corbusier, Henry Dreyfuss, Luigi Colani, Charles, and Ray Eames, and others; and athletic and other shoe designs, including digital and physical models, from a project that included Google-hangout sessions with Nike Jordan footwear designer Israel Mateo. The STEAM Innovation exhibit was conceived of and installed by STEAM coordinator Jonathan Tatkon-Coker, with a focus on some of this fall’s hands-on student projects utilizing circuits, computer programming, computer graphics, art, design, and physical materials and engineering. Tatkcon-Coker says, “A key goal of the exhibit is to convey particular information about the excitement of STEAM innovation and make sure that the students are engaged with the possibilities. By showcasing this STEAMrelated student work, we want to raise awareness not only among those at PDS but in the community beyond the School about what has been going on here and where we are going.”
“Music Made Visible” at Bernstein Gallery
T he B er nstein G aller y at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs now presents the exhibition “Music Made Visible: Metaphors of the Ephemeral” by artist Marsha LevinRojer. The exhibit is on view
until January 31, and a public reception at the Gallery is scheduled for January 9 at 6 p.m. These events are held in conjunction with Princeton University Concerts’ 125th anniversary, as well as the residency of Maestro Gustavo Dudamel, director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. A complementary panel on El Sistema, Jose Abreu’s (1939-2018) music education program originally created to benefit low-income children in Venezuela, will be held January 9, 4:30 p.m., in McCosh Hall. Sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School’s Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies, the panel will be chaired by Center Director Stan Katz, professor of public and international affairs, and will include Gustavo Dudamel as well as additional advocates for accessible systematic music education. For Dudamel, the power of music lies in its invisible beauty, “the fact that sound, vibration, and harmony can create something in us.” It is this connection between the physical and spiritual worlds that inspires the artwork of Marsha Levin-Rojer. How can something invisible and ephemeral feel so concrete? How might we visually grasp the complexity of a musical composition? Using her background in mathematics to explore these connections, Levin-Rojer conceives these inherent relationships in terms of mappings and dissections, and she expresses them through drawings that incorporate a variety of media and some-
times move off the wall and into space. Levin-Rojer’s work has been included in the U.S. Ar tists Exhibition at the Armory in Philadelphia and the NJ Arts Annual. She has exhibited widely, both regionally and internationally, including in New York City; New Brunswick; Philadelphia, Pa.; Princeton; Colmar, France; Cluis, France; Sydney, Australia; and Amsterdam, Holland. An active member of MOVIS, a multidisciplinary art group in Princeton, Levin-Rojer is also a past president of the Princeton Artists’ Alliance. For the Arts Council of Princeton, Levin-Rojer has served as a member of the board of trustees, chair of the Exhibition Advisory Committee, and curator for “Drawing Beyond: An Exhibition of Contemporary Drawing.” For Princeton University’s Performances Up Close Concert Series, Levin-Rojer created a set of three drawings-in-space titled “The Musical Line.” The Bernstein Gallery is located in Robertson Hall’s Bernstein Lobby. The gallery is free and open to the public. Due to constr uction, access to the Gallery is limited to the Washington Road entrance as well as the tunnel from Bendheim Hall (the only ADAaccessible entrance). Hours during the academic year are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Open Call Exhibit at Gourgaud Gallery
Gourgaud Gallery in Cranbury presents its 10th annual open call exhibit, “Alive-Human, Animal and Plant Life,” January 6 through January 25. A reception with light refreshments will be held on Sunday, January 6, from 1 to 3 p.m. “Alive-Human, Animal and Plant Life” includes any art medium that illustrates any form of life in the artwork, and any theme either as the main subject or incorporated in the piece. There will be paintings, drawings, collages, and photography. Cash or a check made out to the Cranbury Arts Council is accepted as payment. All art that is sold gives a 20 percent donation to the Cranbury Arts Council in order to continue in its mission to promote and support the arts through its programs, classes, exhibits, summer art and technology camp and winter theatre camp. For additional information, visit www.cranburyartscouncil.org. Gourgaud Gallery is at 23A North Main Street, Town Hall, in Cranbury. It is free and open to the public Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and the first and third Sunday of the month.
“FINDING PEACE IN THE TIME OF TURMOIL”: This painting by Linda Gilbert is featured in “Alive-Human, Animal and Plant Life,” the 10th annual open call exhibit at Gourgaud Gallery in Cranbury. It runs January 6 through January 25, with a reception on Sunday, January 6 from 1 to 3 p.m. and animals that can be Wildlife Photo Exhibit At East Amwell Museum found in the Sourlands, as The East Amwell Historical Society and the Sourland Conservancy will present “An Exhibition of Photographs of Plants and Animals Native to the Sourlands by Jim Amon” at the East Amwell Museum, 1053 Old York Road, Ringoes. The exhibit will be on display January 5 through February 15. An opening reception is scheduled for January 11 at 7 p.m. Amon, a resident of Lambertville, has a deep and long connection with the Sourlands. In the 1980s, he and three others founded the D&R Greenway Land Trust, which now has nature preserves extending over several hundred acres in the Sourland Region. Then, in 2005, upon retiring after 30 years as executive director of the Delaware and Raritan Canal Commission, he became the director of stewardship for D&R Greenway. In that capacity, he did ecological restoration on the Greenway’s nature preserves and built about 20 miles of recreational trails. Upon retiring from the Greenway, he served on the board of directors for the Sourland Conservancy. For the last five years, the Conservancy has been publishing Seeing the Sourlands, Amon’s monthly photo essays on the plants
an eNewsletter feature. This series can also be found on the Sourland Conservancy’s website www.sourland.org, Amon studied at the Maine Media Workshop and took several classes elsewhere. His work has been published in many local newspapers, magazines, and planning books. He has exhibited at the Perkins Art Center, the Phillips’ Mill Photography Exhibit, Galler y 14, and other venues in central New Jersey. “The East Amwell Historical Society show brings two of my great passions together,” Amon said. “I think that it is important for people to realize the ecological value of native plants, but also to realize that they are every bit as beautiful as exotics from foreign lands that are promoted for your home landscape. Stalking butterflies with my camera, posing native wildflowers with formal black backgrounds, and always being alert for the special beauty of the natural world brings me great pleasure.” Admission to the East Amwell Museum and exhibit is free and open to the public on weekends from 1 to 4 p.m. For more information, visit www.eastamwellhistory. org and www.sourland.org.
Family Owned and Operated Charlie has been serving the Princeton community for 25 years
FLESCH’S ROOFING For All Your Roofing, Flashing & Gutter Needs
• Residential & Commercial • Cedar Shake • Shingle & Slate Roofs
• Copper/Tin/Sheet Metal • Flat Roofs • Built-In Gutters
• Seamless Gutters & Downspouts • Gutter Cleaning • Roof Maintenance
609-394-2427
Free Estimates • Quality Service • Repair Work
LIC#13VH02047300
“SONG SPARROW”: This photo is one of many to be featured in “An Exhibition of Photographs of Plants and Animals Native to the Sourlands by Jim Amon,” running January 5 through February 15 at the East Amwell Museum in Ringoes. An opening reception is Friday, January 11 at 7 p.m.