‘Art in the Factory’ on tap this weekend
BY LINDA DeNICOLA
Staff Writer

ROOSEVELT — When the original 200 Jewish garment workers settled in Jersey Homesteads, now Roosevelt, it is entirely probable that they never envisioned their factory being used as an art gallery.

But the creative, adventurous spirit that led them from life in a big city to a rural area in the middle of the woods is alive and well.

The Roosevelt Arts Project is poised to hold its first "Art in the Factory" show of Roosevelt artists.

The art exhibition and 2 p.m. opening reception will feature many accomplished artists, some of whom have become internationally known. The show and sale will be held from 2-5 p.m. on June 5 and June 6.

Only Roosevelt artists will exhibit, said Jim Hayden, an abstract artist who works mostly with acrylics.

"We have over 30 artists and well over 100 pieces of art and sculpture," Hayden said. "I think of myself as one of the new generation of artists and writers," he added. "I’m very excited and very humbled by the artists around me."

The show will feature Jonathan Shahn’s sculpture, Sol Libsohn’s photography and Robert Mueller’s line drawings of famous classical composers, as well as works by Naomi Brahinski, Robin Middleman and Miriam Bell.

Volunteers took time over the Memorial Day weekend to clean up the space and freshen the walls, Hayden said.

"It has the original wood floor with great space open to the ceiling," he said. "The higher windows toward the roof line allow quite a bit of light in."

The factory and the artists who make the town a haven for creative types are both integral parts of this unique community.

Part of the original design of the cooperative community, the factory was constructed in the 1930s to provide work for the families that moved into the Bauhaus-type houses. It was to be financed by private funds at a total cost of between $30,000 and $35,000, according to a federal Department of the Interior memo written about the New Deal project.

"The factory will have private support to the extent where the homesteaders will be assured of a definite cash income," the memo states. "Occupants of the homesteads will follow their ordinary occupations," reads the memo. "The factory will remain in contact with the New York market for its supply of unfinished goods and for disposal of its finished product."

The factory was built to provide workers with satisfactory working conditions, with the goal of adapting to full coopera­tive ownership in the future, according to the memo.

"For years the congestion of the needle trades has been regarded as unhealthy, both socially and industrially," the memo states. "Members of the Jewish race rep­resent the biggest single group among needle workers. They have greatly suf­fered from insufficiency of light, ventila­tion and other unsatisfactory working conditions," the memo reads.

The modern, multiwindowed factory was dedicated on Aug. 2, 1936. Its trade name was "Tripod," which reflected the community’s unique status as a triple co­operative of factory, farm and community stores.

The steel, glass and concrete structure was credited with being the most modern needlework factory on the Atlantic seaboard.

But the factory did not suc­ceed and was leased to a hat manufacturer in 1940, accord­ing to Edwin Rosskam’s book "Roosevelt, New Jersey: The First 50 Years, 1936-1986."

Although the factory and the farm failed, the sense of com­munity and the arts thrived.

"This town has enough creative people in it that there is an understanding that art is a form of work and you don’t inter­rupt them while they are doing it," ac­cording to a New York Times article writ­ten in 1969.

Among the artists living in town at that time were Jacob Landau, Ben Appel, Robert Mueller, Gregorio Prestopino and his wife Elizabeth Dauber, Franklin Fol­som and his wife Mary Elting, Stefan Martin, son of artist David Stone Martin, as well as Bernarda Bryson Shahn, widow of Ben Shahn, and writer and pho­tographer Edwin Rosskam.

Rosa T. Gilette, who owns an art gallery in Pennsylvania, is the curator of Landau’s work. She represented him while he was alive and continues to do so. She said there will be two original record album covers in the show that he de­signed.

Landau, who died on Nov. 24, 2001, is buried in the tiny Roosevelt Cemetery. He has been called one of the foremost American artists of the 20th century. Having lived in Paris and then in Flush­ing, N.Y., he moved to Roosevelt in 1954.

After moving to Roosevelt, Landau be­came friends with artist Ben Shahn, who also lived in town. He helped found the Roosevelt Arts Project and was the orga­nization’s first president.

Over the years, the factory has been occupied by many different business, but since 1979 it has been occupied by Action Packaging Automation Inc.

Owner John Wojnicki is allowing the Roosevelt Arts Project to use the space in the factory, which also houses Jonathan Shahn’s studio space.

The original idea for the factory was to provide work. And it may well be that us­ing the space as a gallery for working artists — in the community that is so supportive of the arts — is just a logical extension of its original purpose.