75 Mercer County Artists on Display in Mercer County Artists 2014 Exhibition, Now thru 4/3

The talents of 75 Mercer County artists will be on display at the Gallery at Mercer County Community College (MCCC) in the exhibit "Mercer County Artists 2014," which runs from today, March 11 to April 3. The MCCC Gallery is located on the second floor of the Communications Building on Mercer's West Windsor campus at 1200 Old Trenton Road.

The community is invited to an Opening Reception and Awards Ceremony, to be held Thursday, March 13 from 5 to 7:30 p.m. The awards ceremony will begin at 5:45 p.m., with representatives from the college, the Mercer County Cultural and Heritage Commission and the West Windsor Arts Council on hand to make presentations. More than $1,000 in prizes will be awarded, including multiple Purchase Awards from the Mercer County Cultural and Heritage Commission. Artwork selected for Purchase Awards will become part of the county's permanent collection.

According to MCCC Gallery Director Dylan Wolfe, the show will feature 96 works in a variety of mediums selected from 227 pieces submitted by 137 artists. "The volume of quality artwork submitted for this exhibit is a clear affirmation of the vibrancy of the arts in Mercer County," he said.

Dallas Piotrowski, who served as the juror for the show, said it was privilege to be invited to serve as judge. "Being a judge at any art exhibition is not an easy job, but the number of wonderful artists made this especially difficult."

Piotrowski is a professional artist who has been the curator for The Gallery at the Chapin School in Princeton for the past eight years. She is a 1975 MCCC alumna, where she earned her associate degree with honors Visual Arts. She continued her art studies at Trenton State College (now The College of NJ) and also studied at Rider College (now University) and Princeton University. She is a realist painter primarily of the natural world who has had 25 solo exhibits and has been featured in over 200 juried exhibitions. Her works are in the permanent collections of numerous organizations, including Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School, the Princeton University Firestone Library Graphic Art Collection and the Trenton City Museum.

Gallery hours for this show are: Mondays and Wednesdays, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The exhibition is co-sponsored by and supported through a grant from the Mercer County Cultural and Heritage Commission, with funding from the New Jersey State Council of the Arts/Department of State, a partner of the National Endowment for the Arts.

For more information about this and other exhibits at the MCCC Gallery, visit www.mccc.edu/gallery. Directions to the campus and a campus map can be found at www.mccc.edu.

Pictured: "Grandpa Joes Patent 1935," a ceramic piece featuring patent drawings by Deena Miller of Lawrenceville.