Last Week for Bloomfield Avenue Hotline Art Exhibit

_{Artists and creators of The Bloomfield Avenue Hotline Karina Aguilera Skvirsky and Liselot van der Heijden describe the interactive art project at the April 4th opening.}

In conjunction with The Bloomfield Avenue Hotline interactive art exhibit, Montclair Art Museum is offering free admission to its galleries during the period of the Hotline installation (April 4–June 16) to all Bloomfield College students with a valid I.D.

The Bloomfield Avenue Hotline, a public art display created by artists Karina Aguilera Skvirsky and Liselot van der Heijden, was installed on April 4th in the college library and Lehman Court in the museums main entrance. Using repurposed telephone booths the exhibition features a phone with prerecorded messages from residents of Bloomfield and Montclair. The residents of Bloomfield will hear messages from residents of Montclair and vice versa. There is an option to record one’s own message by calling a number and responding to a question from a set of cards at each site. (Calls must be made from a working phone; the phone booths are not fully operational.)

The artists shared how the exhibit was created. “We asked students to give us their responses to questions, then asked them to go out into the community and record responses from residents of both towns,” explained Skvirsky. “We were pleasantly surprised at the richness of the stories we received, from what you could buy for $5 in the respective towns to what are your financial concerns,” said van der Heijden.

The exhibit will be in place until June 16, 2013. The exhibit resides in the college library and is available during normal library hours Monday through Thursday: 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. The museum hours are Wednesdays through Sundays, 12:00 p.m. to 5 p.m.

The Bloomfield Avenue Prize is funded by the Predominately Black Institutions Formula Grant.