Teens the arts

Matawan Regional High School displays creative works at the Teen Arts Festival. You don't have to be an aspiring visual or performing artist to enjoy, appreciate and participate in the annual Monmouth County Teen Arts Festival.

"I think the arts are a way of developing creativity that crosses over every discipline," said Mary Eileen Fouratt, executive director of the Monmouth County Arts Council, which presents the Teen Arts Festival. "The basic idea is if you are creative, it's natural you're not just going to be creative in the arts. You'll be creative in everything you do.

"It's important to expose as many kids as possible to the arts. It's a way of expressing yourself, of figuring out the world around you," Fouratt continued. "It's really important to kids; the arts are what they absolutely love. It's not that they're all going to be professional artists, but that they'll appreciate the arts.

"For so many of these kids, it's so exciting to meet other kids who love the arts like they do," she said. "They get energy from that, and their teachers get energy from meeting the other teachers, too. It builds support for the arts.

Lyndsay Malloy, a senior at Matawan Regional High School, performs a song from "Hello Dolly" at the Teen Arts Festival at Brookdale Community College. According to MCAC, more than 1,500 middle and high school students involved in the creative arts participated in the 2006 Teen Arts Festival held March 16-17 on the campus of Brookdale Community College in Lincroft.

The two-day festival brought together teens and teachers involved in all disciplines of the arts to participate in workshops, performances, exhibits and critiques of their work.

Artwork and performances by the students was adjudicated by professional artists. Those chosen will go on to the New Jersey State Teen Arts Festival held in May.

This year's event was the 17th for the Teen Arts Festival, which gives students the opportunity to work with professional artists, to try different disciplines, have a more in-depth experience with an art form, and receive feedback on their work. Teaching artists lead student workshops in visual arts, creative writing, music (choral and instrumental), theater, improvisation, dance, film/video and development. Workshops ran the gamut from "Jazz Phunk" to "Limerick Writing."

Max Moreno and Rick Westerkamp, of the Matawan Regional High School drama club, perform a piece from "Hello Dolly" at the festival. Special events included an Open Mic Poetry Slam, continuous loop screenings of teen video entries, and the opportunity to jam with professional musicians.

The theme for this year's festival was a collaborative community arts project, "Envisioning Peace."

For the countywide community arts project, K-12 students, educators, artists and community groups created banners in response to their feelings on peace, which were on display at Brookdale's Center for the Visual Arts gallery. "Envisioning Peace" inspired inter-disciplinary work that included music, spoken word and dance.

PHOTOSBY JEFF GRANIT staff Kathy Hesslein, of Tinton Falls, peruses the artwork on display. According to Robyn Ellenbogen, MCAC arts education director and coordinator of the festival, the project investigated the concepts, struggle and efforts behind peace. The theme was introduced to students throughout the county from fifth-graders to college students and resulted in shared conversations and discussions, Ellenbogen said.

"There were many moments of discovery," Ellenbogen wrote in a statement in the arts festival program, "which often revealed the understanding that the process of making peace lay within each individual."

As an offshoot of the Teen Arts Festival, Red Bank-based MCAC announced it is launching a new student membership that will give students discounts on performances, e-mail updates on opportunities for students, jobs, special activities designed for them, and a special Web page on the MCAC Web site.

The 24 schools that participated are Allentown High School; Asbury Park High School; Barkalow Middle School, Freehold Township; Coastal Learning Center-North, Morgan-ville; Coastal Learning Center-South, Howell; Dance Plus, Little Silver; Eisen-hower Middle School, Freehold Township; High Point Adolescent School, Morganville; High Tech High School, Lincroft; Hope Academy Charter School, Asbury Park; Keyport High School; Long Branch High School; Matawan Regional High School.

Also, Memorial Middle School, Eatontown; Monmouth Regional High School, Tinton Falls; Neptune High School; Oak Hill Academy, Lincroft; Ranney School, Tinton Falls; Red Bank Catholic High School; Red Bank Charter School; Red Bank Regional High School, Little Silver; Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School, Rumson; The Rugby School, Wall; and Shore Regional High School, West Long Branch.