Asbury Park’s First Saturday events include food, drinks, music and more on the first weekend of every month. And thanks to a contest run by the Chamber of Commerce, the city uses its local artists to promote the events.
The 2,500 postcards circulated around town to advertise each First Saturday feature original designs from artists. This year, the Chamber picked 11 winners from 130 submissions.
Tonight, those designs will be unveiled. The Chamber of Commerce will celebrate with its second annual LOVE Launch Party at the Asbury Park Musical Heritage Foundation headquarters, 708 Cookman Ave., where The ShowRoom was formerly located, from 6 to 8 p.m.
The Chamber enlisted ArtsCap and SICA [Shore Institute of Contemporary Art] to spread the word among area artists. The three organizations joined again to judge the entries.
“I feel like it’s Christmas every day [when] opening each piece of art,” said Chamber executive director Jackie Pappas of the judging process, “and then it’s Christmas all over again as the original pieces of art arrive in my office leading up to the launch party.”
In addition to seeing his or her work on promotional materials all over the city, each artist will receive 250 copies of his or her postcards. The artwork also appears on the chamber’s Facebook page and on the First Saturday webpage of the chamber website.
Each month is assigned a theme — light in January, love in February, luck in March, excitement in April, memories in May, fresh in June, salute in July, vacation in August, cruise in September, howl in October, thanks in November and joy in December.
The art comes mostly from the Monmouth County area, but sometimes winning artists hail from farther away. This year’s winners are from Asbury Park, Philadelphia, Bay Head, Red Bank, Fair Haven, Spring Lake, Wanamassa, Belmar and Brooklyn.
The work used media like photography, watercolor, acrylics, pencil drawings, cartoon cell and gouache, a technique using paints similar to tempera on canvas.
The event will feature sweets and soda, cupcakes donated by Confections of a Rock Star, and live music sponsored by the Asbury Park Musical Heritage Foundation.
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[CORRECTION: A previous version of this article erroneously stated that the event would take place at SICA headquarters instead of the Asbury Park Musical Heritage Foundation building.]
