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CHANGE IS CONSTANT
The 12th Annual Benefit Art Auction & Party In A Box
October 31st, 12PM
to
November 28th, 7PM

The start of this new decade has been nothing like what anyone expected, and many are still uncertain about what lies ahead. That’s why Gallery Aferro is embracing the enigma and reminding everyone that “Change Is Constant,” so why not honor 2020 resilience with art from a community of creative iconoclasts and celebrate for a night marking a new era of transformation and rebirth. This year’s benefit will take place in two dynamic forms — an online auction and a Party In A Box.

Not since 2001 has a blue moon fallen on Halloween, but the calendar read 1944 the last time the entire globe experienced a blue moon together. Combine this with the “extra” hour of nightfall thanks to the end of Daylight Savings Time occurring overnight, this year’s All Hallows’ Eve will be beyond exceptional and deserving of a singular event to honor the occasion. To bless the thinning of the veil, Gallery Aferro invites everyone, beginning at 12 Noon on Saturday, October 31st, to enjoy an online auction of more than 100 works by local, national and international artists who continue to persist and insist in a time of unprecedented change. 

After 5 weeks, the auction will culminate in another extraordinary event for our less-than-ordinary times: a Party In A Box. This unparalleled fete brings an end to the fundraiser in a “party-together-apart” virtual jubilee with a special package delivered to patrons’ doors filled with limited edition art, a personalized music playlist, ready-to-enjoy nibbles and cocktails, and memorable prizes that the community has come to love at an Aferro annual benefit.

Party guests will order their boxes in advance, then on November 28th, join the festivities online in a counter-consumer celebration where all attendees will open their packages at 7pm and revel in the collective joy that only inclusivity, resilience and creativity can bring.

Everyone is welcome to bid in the online auction for free starting at 12 Noon on Halloween. The Party In A Box packages range from $50 to $200, and must be ordered by 12 Midnight on Halloween.

For more information about the online auction and the Party In A Box, visit www.aferro.org or contact: Candace Nicholson, Gallery Manager, (973) 353-9533, cnicholson@aferro.org.

#galleryaferro #aferrocreateschange

Top image: Dahlia Elsayed

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Remarkable times call for remarkable celebrations. So this year, Gallery Aferro is kicking off their annual fundraiser on a special night (the first global blue moon Halloween since 1944 which also falls on the evening before Daylight Savings Time ends overnight), and closing the fundraiser with an unforgettable event held 5 weeks later on the day we remind ourselves that it is community, family and friends that make our lives rich, not things.

On Saturday, November 28th, join us for an unparalleled fete where we will “party-together-apart” in a virtual jubilee. Each party guest will order a special package filled with limited edition art, a personalized music playlist, ready-to-enjoy nibbles and cocktails, and memorable prizes to be delivered to their door.

Then all attendees will open their packages at 7pm and revel in the collective joy that only inclusivity, resilience and creativity can bring. The Party In A Box packages range from $50 to $200, and must be ordered by 12 midnight on Halloween.

For more information about the online auction and the Party In A Box, visit www.aferro.org or contact: Candace Nicholson, Gallery Manager, (973) 353-9533, cnicholson@aferro.org. #aferrocreateschange #galleryaferro Image design: Dahlia Elsayed

Reserve your box today!

 

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People’s Open Mic Online on October 28th
Online @ Instagram Live! with Gallery Aferro

Every Last Wednesday of the Month
7-9pm @ Gallery Aferro Instagram Live!

Newark’s longest continuously running open mic usually takes place on the second floor of Gallery Aferro in the Eleta J. Caldwell and Rodney M. Gilbert Memorial Gallery space, but due to important quarantine restrictions and our desire to keep everyone as safe as possible, we’re hosting the events online. This monthly event welcomes all people and emphasizes inclusivity, love and respect.

Feel free to listen and enjoy from the audience, or participate with your own poetry in front of a supportive, yet passionate crowd.

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Born in Flames, Lizzie Borden

November 5th
Online Screening @ Vimeo with Gallery Aferro

As an accompaniment to our ongoing Past and Power series concerned with women, art, and radicalization, this free online screening presented in partnership with First Run Features, will take place on Thursday, November 5th.  Born in Flames is set in a hypothetical United States where a peaceful revolution has led to the country’s first openly socialist-run federal government. Directed and written in 1983 by Lizzie Borden, the 79-minute film takes place 10 years after the revolution, where the problems of contemporary era are far from being solved from the top-down.   Many of the issues that plagued society prior to the revolution are still very much a part of the sociopolitical landscape, greatly affecting minority and disenfranchised communities. What has changed?

With the backdrop asking the question, “What do you do when the peaceful path doesn’t produce the results you worked so hard for?” different groups of women in New York City decide to mobilize and push for more substantive change … by any means necessary.

Borden worked largely with non-actors, including legendary activist lawyer florynce kennedy, to create a convincing and immersive fictive universe, using a low budget, cinéma vérité approach. The texture of the women’s lives, and the enormity of coming together across race and class, is evoked by Borden using “twentieth century collage” techniques similar to Past and Power: 1972 artist Anne Q. McKeown.

Using the password aferro, viewers will be able to access the full-length feature here for 24 hours starting at 12:01am on Thursday, November 5th. Born in Flames is both a film about our past and our present, reflecting on the visceral roller coaster the citizens of a country experience when faced with slow or no change regarding complex problems that may or may not have easy solutions.

A jarring and seductive documentary-style film, Born in Flames, won the 1983 Reader Jury prize at the Berlin International Film Festival and the Grand Prix at the Créteil International Women’s Film Festival. The film was restored in 2016 by Anthology Film Archives, which has since gone on to receive positive reviews from respected critics such as Richard Brody (The New Yorker) and Melissa Anderson (The Village Voice). Borden was invited to show the new 35mm print in Brussels, Barcelona, Madrid, San Sebastian, Milan, Toronto, The Edinburgh Film Festival, The London Film Festival, along with screenings in Detroit, Rochester, San Francisco, Los Angeles and including in series of “films of resistance.”