“The Monmouth Teen Arts Festival is an exceptional experience for emerging teen artists of all disciplines to come together in a creative atmosphere of workshops, evaluations and community,” said Mary Eileen Fouratt, Executive Director of Monmouth Arts. “The Monmouth Teen Arts Festival is the only event of its kind in the county that brings together student artists, professional artists, teachers and arts groups to meet, engage and celebrate the arts.”
Nearly 2,000 teens attend each year, representing different middle and high schools in Monmouth County as well as home-schooled students. During the two-day event, over 30 artists/teachers present workshops, conduct critique sessions and teach master classes in their individual specialties, including drama, filmmaking, voice, acting, and instrumental music.
For junior and senior emerging visual artists, a juried exhibition in the Center for Visual Arts Gallery is an opportunity to show work in a college gallery. This year the theme is “Me, My Selfie and I”; the jury’s selections will reflect teen ideas about fashions, phones and self portraits.
Although it is not a competition, professional artists at the festival provide in-depth critical reviews of student work, performances, and group presentations – a process that students report to be most beneficial to their growth as artists. Students and performance groups designated as “superior” are identified as “Top of the Top” and invited to perform at the annual Monmouth Arts Education Awards & Showcase.
The programs of Monmouth Arts, such as the Monmouth Teen Arts Festival, are made possible in part through funding from the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders, and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts; additional support comes from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, New Jersey Natural Gas, the Peter Jay Sharp Foundation and the Horizon Foundation for New Jersey.
The Monmouth County Arts Council is the official county arts agency, with a mission to “enrich the community by inspiring and fostering the arts”. We achieve this through arts education, collaboration, special events, grants, and more. In addition to supporting artists and art groups through our programs and services, we bring more than 2,500 high-quality, inexpensive or free concerts, films, dance and theater productions, musicals, creative writing programs, art exhibitions, and arts education programs to over 700,000 children and adults throughout the region each year. There are few things as powerful as the arts when it comes to community building. Art impacts all members of a society; it inspires, connects, educates, heals, motivates, and gives voice to communities. The importance of the arts throughout the course of our lives can never be underestimated. For more information about Monmouth Arts, visitwww.monmoutharts.org