By: Maria Genovezos, Follow South Jersey Community Journalist
ATLANTIC CITY – Denton Burrows’ mural piece, “A Little Bit of Everyone,” located on Pacific Avenue in Atlantic City, was refurbished this past August. Alongside Burrow, two other artists, Evan Lovett, “NJ Osprey Project,” and Felipe Ortiz, “Oystercatchers,” had the opportunity to reinstall their murals.
The Atlantic City Arts Foundation (ACAF) is a nonprofit organization that has maintained a commitment to supporting the creative community. They have supported 105 murals since 2017, with a mission to enrich the quality of life for residents in Atlantic City by creating an environment of cultural programs and diverse arts.
Tina Notaro is a full-time program manager at ACAF. Before her full-time position, she worked with the Arts Foundation in 2016 as an artist on the side. As ACAF is a non-profit, her full-time employment at the time was a significant milestone.
The murals are part of their signature program, 48 Blocks Festival. Working alongside 80 artists, the murals not only support artists but also create a sense of unity among the community. The artists bring their unique perspectives to their art, interacting with residents and business owners, and most importantly, creating a bridge between art and the community. According to Notaro, art speaks to people, and one of the main points of the murals is to inspire people as the city is being built up.
“It is generally a way to beautify the neighborhood, you know, in a place that’s very often overlooked in some neighborhoods,” Notaro said. “The Arts Foundation is kind of leading the charge of beautifying things through public art, which is accessible and free to everybody, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, because it is on the street, anybody walking by can see it.”
Murals come to life once the creative journey is complete; however, the process of creating murals is just as impactful as the results. Residents provide new perspectives to the artists, and the engagement of the two can lead to inspiration.
“Especially during the installation of the art. While the artists are working, people are seeing the transformation in real time,” Notaro said. “So a lot of times the artists take some inspiration from the community as the art is being installed because they get to interact with people that are just going about their day, and they get to get this little piece of joy seeing art happening right in front of them.”
Artist Denton Burrows piece, “A Little Bit of Everyone,” is an example of artists obtaining inspiration from the community. When he was asked to do the mural in 2019, he was in the middle of another job, and due to a tight schedule, the mural was not initially community focused.
“I couldn’t get down there. I couldn’t really experience the area and that kind of stuff, which I like to do, of course, before I paint,” Burrows said. “But what was cool about it was, it sort of developed into that when I was working there.”
One of the most beautiful aspects of art is that ideas can change, and surroundings can become influential.
“My ideas sort of changed, and there were things that were originally going to be in it that were not, and it just sort of came from spending 12 hours a day in that lot, meeting people from all walks of life, and you know, also spending many days in Atlantic City,” Burrows said. “I think that it’s important to engage with the community, even though it can be distracting, but it’s important to make that time, because I think it affects the mural.”
With the experience of being in Atlantic City in 2019, during the refurbishment of the mural “A Little Bit of Everyone” in August, Burrows noticed the growth in Atlantic City and reflected it through the mural.
“The original was kind of like this guy who, I don’t know, is made up of all the kind of strange elements of Atlantic City, and I mean that in the best way, kind of observing this thing that is maybe growing and changing,” Burrows said. “So to me, when I came back, it was an opportunity to, you know, see Atlantic City again many years later, and notice that there has been some growth, and there has been some change, more murals and more beauty. So I kind of wanted to make it seem like that happened around him.”
“A Little Bit of Everyone” not only holds meaning to residents of Atlantic City and Burrow, but also to Notaro.
“This was one of the first mural projects that I did once I got here. So this kinda has special meaning for me, having seen that mural before I worked here, and then being one of the first projects once I got to the Arts Foundation,” said Notaro. “We brought Denton back, and not only did he touch it up, but he added some new elements to it.”
This September will be the second time the 48 Blocks Festival is presented as a festival. In the past, the 48 Blocks Festival was known as 48 Blocks Atlantic City. It would happen city-wide, with multiple venues taking place over two to three days. Whereas the 48 Blocks Festival is one day and one time to bring everyone together.
“The word ‘festival’ implies a lot of things. It helps people understand what it is, and the fact that it was in Uptown Park one day helped people get to that one place,” Notaro said.
Atlantic City Arts Foundation, in addition to the 48 Blocks festival, is hosting its first community meetups, Outside Lines. An opportunity for artists, neighbors, collaborators, and anyone curious to gather in person, strengthen connections, and create. In a world of artificial intelligence, the need to gather people together, face to face, inspired the vision of Outside Lines.
“There’s so much online discourse and online bombardment of information from all over the place, it’s overwhelming, and sometimes people forget that the things that they can have the most impact on and of are in their own community,” Notaro said. “Being able to maintain this face-to-face connection with people is very important, especially now, for me in the age of artificial intelligence and not being able to believe things that you see on the internet anymore. You can only believe what’s in front of you.”
The need to gather face-to-face is only a piece of the puzzle. Collaboration for artists and businesses is essential. By taking community artists and local businesses to public spaces, introducing them to the public ignites community interests and strengthens the art community.
“Sometimes it’s about putting people in the same space so they can make those connections that otherwise would have taken a lot longer,” Notaro said. “There are all different types of creative folks, not just visual artists, but even craftspeople, performing arts, and getting to see them intermingling.”
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