Visual Arts League December 24, 2002

"PIPE DREAMS" NJ Merges With "THE GREAT PIPE DREAM", NZA global A global community project sponsored by Visual Arts League (VAL), East Brunswick, NJ

Press Release  for immediate release

Lincoln Center’s Cork Gallery, Avery Fisher Hall at 65^th Street & Broadway, NY

Reception date: January 18, 2-5 pm.

Hours: 10 am to hall closing Mon. -Sat
Sun. noon to hall closing.

New Jersey Contact: Judith Wray, phone: 732-254-7611; fax: 732-254-2707; e-mail: valweb@valweb.org

"PIPE DREAMS", NJ

Began one sunny afternoon with 5 students from Freda Rhodes classes at the Paul Robeson School as a low budget, community project. Two years down the track it has blossomed into an international collaboration created through the world wide web, bringing together artworks by both international, Statewide and local New Jersey children and professional Artists. School children from eight schools in New Zealand, a 14 yr old boy in St. Petersburg, Russia, 5 students from Paul Robeson School, New Brunswick, NJ; students from the Kendall Whittier School in Tulsa, Oklahoma; students from Camp Daisy in East Brunswick, NJ have merged with professional digital artists and sculptors and painters from around the world. PIPE DREAMS leaps boundaries of age, background, medium and space in a project designed to travel and visit welcome sites, gathering new dreams along the way.

"The Great Pipe Dream" NZ, New Zealand

Contact:Henry Sunderland, e-mail: henrysue@paradise.net.nz

By a striking coincidence, Henry Sunderland discovered the "Pipe Dreams" New Jersey project by using Internet search engines for projects of a similar theme as his own. His own project "The Great Pipe Dream" was underway in Christchurch, New Zealand. Twenty Canterbury schools transformed waste into a forest of purple plastic piping. Featuring fabulous names like Utilis, Tubulus, Plasticus.The amazing botanical sculptures, selected from the KidsFest exhibition held in the Botanic Gardens in June and July this year, "The Great Pipe Dream", are made from PVC piping and recycled plastic, and represent fantastic plant forms.

"The New Zealand pieces will tour other galleries and schools on the eastern seaboard of the US, after the New York season closes, and will eventually be donated to schools in the area. We hope to make connections between the children in Christchurch and children in the US schools so that these creative dreamers and decision makers of tomorrow will "think globally and work locally" said Judith Wray, the VAL’s President and concept creator for the "Pipe Dream" NJ show. "Being invited by VAL to take part in their "Pipe Dreams" project is just the beginning of an ongoing international relationship with other artists and children in America and elsewhere," said Henry Sunderland, the creator and coordinator for the New Zealand exhibition.

"The project would provide excellent opportunities for New Zealand children and their families to develop ties with United States children, their families and their schools." He sees ties like this to be a valuable link in maintaining harmonious international relationships between communities.

VAL is demonstrating "thinking globally, working locally" via art projects.