By: Leah Duffill
(Photo Credit: @bcthsfashion Instagram)
From March 5 – March 26th, 2023, the Belskie Museum in Closter, NJ opened to exhibit the artwork and projects of Bergen Tech students. Juniors and Seniors, a part of the Fashion, Digital Media, and Commercial Art majors, submitted pieces for the museum, with many notable award winners and projects to highlight.
The museum consisted of an open gallery, a theater, and fashion looks represented throughout the decades. The gallery contained pieces of photography, painted portraits, digital art/graphic designs, sculptures, and a preview of work in the theater next door.
Among the biggest hits of the gallery were the CLAWS AP Art Concept portraits, created by BT students. The inspiration behind the project sparked when AP Art teacher Mrs. Pavese read an article about a similar project done by a junior high school. She was finally able to incorporate the project into this year’s AP Art curriculum to have her students create fun portraits of dogs in the CLAWS shelter that are up for adoption.
To create the portraits, students had to follow the objective of using the skills that they have learned in the exploratory portion of the AP Art curriculum. Overall, Mrs. Pavese used the opportunity of a Belskie exhibit to reach out to CLAWS to combine community outreach and art within the exhibit.
Meanwhile, the fashion students created the theme of designing and constructing outfits inspired by issues throughout the decades that connect to issues in society today. The list of issues that inspired the designers are as follows:
1900s – Immigration + the treatment of immigrants then vs. now (Chloé O’Neill, Alexa Papasavas, & Izabella Boldina)
1930s Great Depression -> the economic recession (Isabella Taveras, Isabella Aslanian, Sophia Sancilio, Alexandria Nowik)
1940s Women in the Workforce – women entering the workforce during WW2 -> women in the workforce today (Charissa Soh, Sofia Diamantopoulos, and Hanan Awawdeh)
1960s Civil Rights Movement -> racial injustice then and now (Alliyah Arcilla, Estella Burke, and Mackenzie Burke)
1980s AIDS Epidemic (LGBTQIA) – aids epidemic -> progress within the LGBTQ+ community today. (Ngawang Sodon, Gyuri Kim and Madeleine Mazgaj)
All of these designs and looks were extremely well-constructed and inspiring to make people realize the growth of our society, while also highlighting the struggles it took to get to where we are today. However, the underlying theme of it all was that while our society has made great progress from our struggles, there are still many more issues and complications that need to be fixed. These outfits made clear statements that truly influenced the need to recognize change from the past, present, and future.
After spectators traveled through the gallery, they likely made their way to the adjacent theater, where they were greeted with a number of snacks and refreshments to lead them into the visual art within it. This room was within the Closter Public Library that projected numerous films, photographs, dance and music videos, and other auditory projects.
Once the museum closed its showings, select students were given awards for each category they were placed in.
The award winners are stated as follows:
Best of Show:
Melania Vorona Through the Eyes of a Child, acrylic on canvas
Teacher: Bridget Centeno
Fine Art:
Christine Kim Grandmother’s Love, watercolor on paper
Teacher: Bridget Centeno
Fashion:
1990’s Immigration The Pursuit of a Dream
Chloé O’ Neil, Alexa Papasavas and Izabella Boldina
Teacher: Anna George
Graphic Design/Digital Art:
Lesa Jae Paridae to Paradise, digital print
Teacher: Bridget Centeno
Film/Video:
Ellia Hamabuchi Sadako and the Thousand Paper Crane
Teacher: Bruce Miller
Congratulations to all the participants who submitted their incredible projects! The exhibit was truly inspiring and represented the talent and creativity within our school! Thank you to Mrs. Centeno, Ms. George, Ms. Pavese, and Mr. Miller for your help with this article and for helping create the Belskie museum opportunity for BT students. I can’t wait to see what is in store for next year!
Sources: @bcthsfashion Instagram account, Mrs. Centeno, and Ms. George.
More photos from the Belskie Exhibit:
