Art Spring

Songwriting, drawing, jewelry making (chain maille), intro to pastels, and ways to drastically improve your guitar playing are among the workshops being offered beginning May 22 through June 6 by the West Windsor Arts Council. Even while their working hard towards opening the WW Arts Center at the beautifully renovated Princeton Junction Firehouse, the folks at WWAC continue to bring professionally taught art opportunities to regional adults and teenagers. For full information, click on the Arts Workshops Spring 2010 icon on their website.

Until the WW Arts Center officially opens its doors in September 2010, these weekend workshops will take place at the West Windsor Senior Center in the West Windsor Municipal Complex, 271 Clarksville Road, West Windsor.

Going out on a Limb

Have you been pondering your family tree lately? Unsure of how to get started? The Historical Society of Pennsylvania is offering a series of helpful and very affordable genealogy workshops this fall. A beginner workshop, only $15 for non-members of the Society, will provide novice genealogists with the tools you’ll need to begin your own family research. It will cover everything from how family interviews should be conducted, to what resources are available (including public records, federal and local repositories, historical societies, ancestral DNA testing, and genealogical databases) and how best to use them.

The workshop will be offered on two separate dates: Wednesday, October 28 at 6 pm and Friday, October 30, at noon at the HSP: 1300 Locust Street, Philadelphia, PA.

Instructor: Lee Arnold, family historian and director of the library and collections at HSP (who has been researching his own family since 1980). He received his masters in library and information science from the University of Wisconsin and his masters of liberal arts with a concentration in archives management from Temple University.

Upcoming workshops include information on tracing your Civil War ancestors. Cost includes a one-day admission to HSP's research library. To register online click here. Or call 215-732-6200 ext. 214 for more information.

Preserving the History Around Us

Do you live in a historic house, work in a historic property, own land near some of the County's many historic areas? On Wednesday, October 28, the D&R Greenway and the NJ Historic Trust
are offering a workshop “Easements, an Under-Utilized Tool for Protecting New Jersey’s Historic Resources” to share private-land protection options and strategies.

A 5-person panel of experts will discuss currently available tax and land-saving opportunities, particularly for historic properties. This event is open to all, with an emphasis on historic homeowners, municipalities, architects, attorneys, realtors, historic preservation specialists and historians. The keynote speaker is Paul Edmondson, Esq., Vice-President, Law and General Counsel, National Trust for Historic Preservation, who will discuss legal issues in the easement process, including IRS regulations. Other panelists are Susanne M. Curran, Curran Realty Advisors, John D. Snook, Senior Advisor, Brandywine Conservancy, Kate Marcopul, from the NJDEP Historic Preservation Office and Kevin Tremble, private homeowner who is donating a preservation easement.

The workshop is from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at D&R Greenway’s Johnson Education Center. Registration starts at 9:30 am. You must register in advance (by October 23) by contacting Mary Penney at the D&R Greenway: 609-924-4646, x. 127 / mpenney@drgreenway.org. The $25 fee is payable by credit card or a check made out to D&R Greenway. Lunch and registration refreshments are included. D&R Greenway is located at One Preservation Place, Princeton, just off of Rosedale Road. For directions go to www.drgreenway.org

Print! Print! Print!

The Fall 2009 line-up of workshops from the Printmaking Council of NJ is now available on-line. The Council is the only open print-making studio in the state, and they've been offering programming for 35 years! Annelies van Dommelen (image above) is offering a variable relief monotype workshop, and Melissa Pepin is holding a "Bigger Print" workshop. Students working in mixed media, collagraph, dry point and/or monotype in Pepin's workshop will have the chance to experiment on the Council's new 36" x 60" Charles Brand Press.

While you're up there, check out their exhibition space. Coming up in their gallery is BELOW THE SURFACE: a cooperative Book Arts fxhibition between The Book Arts Roundtable and The Printmaking Council of NJ. October 10 through December 5, 2009. Anyone want to drive up?

NJ Printmaking Council

440 River Rd
Branchburg, NJ 08876
(Get Directions)
Email: director@printnj.org
Phone: (908) 725-2110