North Branch, NJ.- Raritan Valley Community College are the teaching grounds to several esteemed recent recipients of the N.J. State Council of the Arts grant, honoring choreographers, painters, composers, and artists alike.
Two painters, Robert Di Matteo and Darren McManus, received perfect scores from the council and were awarded $9,500 for their submitted artwork. Among the other award winners whom also teach at R.V.C.C. are Loretta Fois for her choreography, James Wesley Sherman for painting, and Jeffery Mason and Samantha Palmeri for drawing.
Many of the artists who submitted their applications (some even applied as early as 2009) were overcome with complete surprise when told about their accomplishment, after hearing the council decided to cancel the program due to state funding being cut by 25%.
“I was surprised to hear that I was awarded this grant. I had completely forgotten about it for over a year and at first thought it was a joke when I was told”, McManus, head of the graphic design department at R.V.C.C., said after he found out from a journalist that emailed him who was covering the event.
McManus has been studying art since grade school, and after completing high school, was awarded a full scholarship at Hartford Art School in Connecticut. While in his junior year, he studied abroad at the Glasgow School of Art in Glasgow, Scotland, and completed with a double Bachelors Degree in Graphic Design and Experimental Studio. McManus then attended Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, where he received his Masters in Painting.
This is not the first grant McManus has earned. He recently was awarded the August 2011 residency in the Salzburg Kunstlerhaus, in Salzburg, Austria. McManus has also received grants and residences from places such as Chashama North in Pine Planes, New York, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, The Artists’ Enclave at I-Park, and the Cooper Union School of Art: Drawing and Painting Residency Program.
One of the other painters in the awarded group is Robert Di Matteo. Di Matteo has been studying painting for over 20 years, studying at Pratt for his undergraduate work, and then earning his M.F.A. in Painting from Yale. He was influenced by his brothers who were also involved in art and at age 10, visited Italy and saw a lot of Renaissance art which impacted him as well.
He has also received a fellowship from the Brodsky Center at Rutgers and a residency at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire, where Di Matteo went through a huge artistic transition. Upon starting the residency, Di Matteo was a realistic-type painter, and upon completion 2 months later, he was painting completely abstract and has never looked back.
“Time is the most valuable commodity to an artist- it is artistic wealth,” says Di Matteo.
For Loretta Fois, head of the dance department at R.V.C.C., this award came as a shock as well. She also states that this award is an affirmation of her work as a choreographer.
“It is also very important for artists to find funding, especially when you work with a (dance) group,” Fois says. “I had a dance company for a number of years and just to pay the dancers is quite an expense. Renting a theatre, paying crew, etc….audience members don’t realize how expensive it is for companies to show work!”
Fois’ starting point in dance choreography was in college, attending Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts, earning her B.F.A. in Chemistry and Theatre. Fois had amazing support from her biology and dance professor, encouraging Fois to find her artistic voice and create dances. Eventually, Fois enjoyed the challenge of creating dances enough that she chose to make it her career and went to Ohio State where she earned her M.F.A. in Dance.
James Sherman’s approach to art started just as a hobby while majoring in Biology & Physiology, and working in the Physics department as a lab assistant at Texas A&M University. “I had always drawn growing up, but never thought of myself as an artist,” Sherman says. “When I started painting though, I could only see myself in the light of being an artist. It fit like a good shoe and science part of my life all of a sudden felt like a cheap suit.”
Sherman attended Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University for his graduate work and also to study under Thomas Nozkowsi. “It was an important move for me. My wife and I were living in Tennessee when we decided to move to New Jersey for me to go back to school. Studying with Nozkowski, being closer to New York City’s art world, seeing paintings in person I had only previously seen in books; all of it had a major impact on my work.” Shortly after completing his graduate work, Sherman began adjunct teaching at R.V.C.C.
R.V.C.C. continues to offer affordable accredited college courses to students, and has an easy transfer credit program for many 4-year institutions within New Jersey, while maintaining its versatility for out of state transfers. Earning an Associate’s Degree at a community college to then continue an education further is becoming a more popular route within the state, due to rising tuition costs of 4-year schools and the state of the economy as a whole.
Later studying at Bloomsburg State College to get a musical degree, he dedicated his life to performing. Becoming somewhat of a campus rockstar, he continued to play shows almost nightly, even taking on a manager.