This past Saturday was a truly special day. In celebration of our new exhibition 12”, we had teens from the School of Rock in Tenafly play an acoustic set at the gallery. It happened to be during our Advanced Teen Art Class and it gave us a chance to have those students work on a drawing assignment: capture the School of Rock players in pencil as part of a great skill building / fun one-hour project.

While this project was rooted in a basic drawing exercise, the underlying meaning was much greater to me. Music and art are in our soul. We champion sports at such a high level in suburbia and often our most creative kids get left out. I have devoted the better part of the last ten years of my life to make sure that we have the coolest places for Teens and Kids to express themselves. Seeing our School of Rock students play an amazing set while our One River students captured it in sketches brought it all full circle for me.

After the event, I saw a nod of respect from the players to the artists and vice versa. It was a signal that said all these kids are connected in a profound way. There is a Latin saying Finet Origine Pendet…”the end depends on the beginning.” If we find a way to stimulate great expressive outcomes in young folks I am sure they will continue with it as they mature. Their minds will develop into the next generation of creative thinkers and we all will appreciate it more when their worlds collide.

Monday, November 10, 2014