Maureen Bennett, a Demarest resident, community activist and artist, has been accepted as a 2021 Artist in Residence (AIR) at the Oyster Point Hotel in Red Bank, NJ. From 1996-2000, Bennett was the Cultural Arts Director in the Demarest Public Schools, NJ. As an Artist In Residence at the Hotel, her work will be displayed in the fifth floor hotel guest rooms for 2021. She will be granted a solo exhibition in the hotel’s gallery spaces. It will run from March 16th, 2021 – May 2nd 2021 with an Opening Reception on Friday, April 9th from 6 – 8 p.m.
As a community activist, Maureen has been awarded numerous grants to support art as a transformative force for social change. She designs and implements creativity workshops about education, earth awareness, wellness, nonviolence and peace. Maureen created the ongoing global traveling art project – Peace By Piece. The project involves thousands of participants creating canvases and writings that express personal statements about peace. She is also the recipient of the NYC Circle of Mercy Award.
Maureen’s solo exhibitions include:
“Faces That Transcend”, at the Leonard J. Hansen Art Gallery of the Englewood Public Library, Englewood, NJ, 2016; “Nature Observed” at the Edna Kawulitzki Art Gallery of the Tenafly Public Library, Tenafly, NJ, 2015; and “Transcendent Faces” at the Borghi Fine Art Gallery, in Englewood, NJ, 2011.
Her work has been included in numerous prestigious group exhibitions including:
- The “Black & White Show”, Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, Brooklyn, NY September 2020;
- Eat! 2020, an online art exhibition at the J Mane Gallery, in which she won an Honorable Mention;
- “Drawn From Life 2”, at the Upstream Gallery, Hastings-On-Hudson, NY, August 2020;
- Monmouth Museum Juried Photography Exhibition, Lincroft, NJ, 2019; and “Art & Soul,
- Dress For Success Hudson County” at Mana Contemporary, in Jersey City, NJ, 2016
- The Small Works Show, at Boltax Gallery in Shelter Island, NY, 2011.
Maureen was a Teaching Artist/Creative Consultant Teaching Artist Residency at the Dwight-Englewood School in Englewood, NJ, from 2017-20. She’s been a Teaching Artist and Creative Consultant at the Mercy Center in the South Bronx, NYC, from 1993 – to the present.
She is the recipient of numerous Awards/Grants/Residencies including the Circle of Mercy Award, NYC, 2008; the Bronx Council on the Arts Grant, Bronx Outreach Project, NYC, 2005; the Center for Arts Education New York PAAP Grant, NYC, 2003; TV/Film Mandala Peace Project, (https://vimeo.com/327055119) ; and the Susan K. Black Foundation Grant, Mercy Center, South Bronx, NY.
