Main Street Highland Park, the Highland Park Art Collective, and the Highland Park Arts Commission have teamed up to bring the artwork of local artists to the town’s storefronts through Highland Park’s Window Art Show. Running from Sept. 2 through Sept. 30, the art initiative pairs local artists with local shop owners to display the artists’ artwork and showcase the host shops.
Jenni Chapman, owner of Through the Moongate and Over the Moon Toys (440 Raritan Avenue), is one of the shop owners who take great pride in featuring artwork in their stores. “Our business is two shops in one space,” she explained. “Through the Moongate features local art and handmade items as well as other fair trade hand crafted items, while Over the Moon Toys is a toy and gift shop with a focus on American toy crafters and eco-friendly toys and gifts.” She participates in the event each year because, “the Window Art Show is a great vehicle for local artists of all ages to showcase their work in downtown shop windows for an entire month. It’s a wonderful social event.”
As a kick off to the event, a Window Art Crawl took place on Saturday, September 17 from 5-7 pm at Highland Park’s newest art store, Tiger Art Supply (427 Raritan Avenue), with a “crawl”–an artist-led tour around downtown of the window displays. Following the event, a reception was held at Pino’s, where participants were able to talk to some of the participating artists.
“The Window Art Crawl was a smashing success, and we cannot thank our tireless local art champions enough for helping pull together such a wonderful showcase of art, artists, and our downtown businesses,” said Rebecca Hersh, director of Main Street Highland Park.
Commenting on the success of the art crawl Jenni said, “the tour is a great way to get people into the downtown, to introduce them to our business people and to the artists. The Art Crawl drew a great crowd, even bigger than last year’s. The feedback was extremely positive–our store was packed with art lovers and people who just wanted to be a part of a community event.”
With artists aged 10 to 80 displaying their work in 25 businesses around town, this year’s collection appeals to both art lovers and window shoppers. “It’s a holistic community event,” Jenni added, “and we love it!”