A street scene from the 2009 Edgewarter Arts Festival.

The 19th  Annual Edgewater Arts & Music Festival, issues its “Call for Artists” for this prestigious juried art festival, to be held in Edgewater, NJ on Sunday, September 12, 2010.  The festival is the borough’s most popular cultural event, and it returns as a free celebration of the arts, featuring artists, sculptors, jewelry makers, photographers, designers and musicians.

Edgewater’s Arts & Music Festival will again be located along the Shadyside section of Old River Road, in Edgewater, NJ. It runs from 11 AM to sundown.

The day-long festival includes a juried fine arts, crafts, sculpture and photography competition with awards that total $3,000.  The juried competition prizes are:

• Best of Show: $1,000
• Best of Crafts: $ 500
• Best of Photography: $ 500
• Best of Sculpture: $ 500
• Best in Fabric Design $ 500  (this is a new category)

Applications for participation in the Festival may be downloaded from the Arts Council’s website: edgewaterarts.com, or by contacting Lynne Grasz at 201-886-9532. Rain date is Sunday, September 19, 2010.

At the Shadyside location, there will be live music and other activities all day on the outdoor stage. Restaurants will be open, and food will also be offered by local vendors.

Across River Road, in Edgewater Commons, visitors can attend the 7th annual Vintage Automobile Show featuring Fords assembled in the Edgewater Ford plant from 1930-1954. Awards will also be given to outstanding vintage automobiles.  The Vintage Automobile show is organized and hosted by the Edgewater Cultural & Historical Committee.

Since 1998, the Borough of Edgewater has closed the Shadyside section to traffic so visitors can stroll freely on Old River Road. Free shuttle busses transport them to and from Edgewater Commons Shopping Center, for the auto show and free parking.

According to Neda Rose, founder and president of the Edgewater Arts Council which sponsors the annual festival, for the last few years attendance has averaged an aggregate 2,500 visitors during the seven or so hours before the sun goes down,  the tents are folded and the caravan of cars moves out of Thompson Lane.

The Edgewater Arts Council is a non-profit, non-partisan, private organization of volunteers, dedicated to broadening awareness of visual and performing arts and crafts. In addition to their own projects, the local group has supported others with contributions, co-fundraising – and by showing up.

The Edgewater Arts Council has also sponsored concerts and other artistic events. The Arts Council established a gallery at the Community Center, to display indoor art, and introduced outdoor art with three sculptures it donated to the borough, which sited them in public places around town. One of them is on Thompson Lane, at the entrance to the Arts Festival.

Support for the Arts Council traditionally comes from commercial and private benefactors, advertising in Festival Program Books and banners, fundraising projects and grants from the Borough of Edgewater.

Additional funding is made possible in part by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the Department of State, through grant funds administered by the Bergen County Department of Parks, Division of Cultural and Historic Affairs.