Oxen to Stampede Into Hopewell Valley in a New Way to Celebrate Art; Meeting 10/30

With a call to the citizens of the Hopewell Valley to "celebrate art in the everyday," the newly-created Hopewell Valley Arts Council is embarking on the first of a series of inaugural initiatives to give all kinds of art a permanent home and high visibility in the Hopewell Valley, starting with a "stampede" of fiberglass oxen that will roam through the Valley.

A grassroots non-profit organization, the Council works to inspire the creation and implementation of a wide variety of arts programs, educational classes, events, performances and celebrations. The Council's guiding principle is that the arts sustain and enhance the health, happiness and vitality of the Hopewell Valley community and beyond.
The HV Arts Council's first initiative, "The Stampede," - a collaboration of big and small, for-profit and not-for-profit organizations, schools, families and individuals - is a public art project featuring life-sized fiberglass oxen which will be decorated by professional and amateur artists and placed in public spaces throughout the Valley, which includes Hopewell Borough, Hopewell Township and Pennington Borough.

Artists and the public are invited to attend a meeting Wed., Oct. 30 from 5:30 - 6:30 p.m. at the Hopewell Valley Vineyards, 46 Yard Rd. in Pennington, to learn more about the Stampede.

The oxen will be ready for decorating in February 2014, and the first decorated oxen should appear in the summer of 2014, roaming the Hopewell Valley landscape in a variety of public spaces, from quaint downtowns to local neighborhoods and along rural roadways.

Established this year by Hopewell Valley residents who share a passion for the arts, the HV Arts Council is dedicated to using art to nurture a vibrant and involved Hopewell Valley community. The Arts Council's guiding principle is that art sustains and enhances the health and well-being of a healthy community and everyone who touches and is touched by that community.

Pictured: OLLIE ARRIVES - Members of the Hopewell Valley Arts Council gather around Ollie, the first of dozens of oxen that will "roam" the Valley over the next year as the council's first initiative, a stampede of first naked and then decorated oxen, takes off. Celebrating the arrival of the first fiberglass statue of an ox are first row, from left, Liz Bell, HV Arts Council Co-chair Betsy Ackerman, Co-Chair Randee Tengi; second row, Chris Fossel, Heide Kahme, Susie Henkel, Drew Schoenholtz, Kristin Tunkel, Kathleen Belton, Michelle Needham, Becky Taylor, Lisa Wolff, Ray Disch, Vanessa Sandom, Carol Lipson.( Photo by Tom Grimes.) Not pictured but members of the council are Bob Prewitt, Rachel Torpey, Linda Bradshaw, Chad Goerner, Bruce Gunther, Liza Morehouse, Will Mooney, Alisandra Wederich, Erica Disch, Kurt Vollherbst and Eileen Heinzel.