Morey's Piers Brings artBOX to the Jersey Shore

Every summer, my family and I spend a lot of time on the New Jersey boardwalk. There are soft pretzels, rides, and plenty of gorgeous views. However, Morey’s Piers is showing off something really big this year.

The seaside amusement park is currently hosting an exhibition called artBOX. It’s actually a 10,000-square-foot “artists’ colony,” where visitors can check out local artist studios, a café serving fresh sushi, a museum shop, and live musical entertainment. However, the hook here is that the makeshift town was actually crafted out of 11 repurposed shipping containers.

No crawling or crouching necessary; the containers are clean and measure from 8-by-20 feet to 8-by-40 feet each.

Located on Morey’s Piers on the boardwalk in Wildwood, New Jersey, visitors are invited to stroll through each container to view the work of local and regional artists, as well as live demonstrations. Exhibits will include surf art, glass blowing, artisanal jewelry, speed painting, and live music nightly from School of Rock’s performance program.

To help kick off the festivities, artBOX organizers have invited 11-year-old artist and child prodigy Autumn de Forest to visit the tiny, improvised town on July 2, 2013. Autumn will unveil a tribute painting that she created to honor the rebuilding efforts after Hurricane Sandy. Her original work will be auctioned off with 100 percent of the proceeds going to the Hurricane Sandy NJ Relief Fund. At 2:00 p.m., a 40-foot replica of that same piece will be unveiled on the outside of artBOX’s only vertical shipping container.

Visitors can find artBOX on Adventure Pier at Spencer Avenue and the boardwalk. The exhibit will be open daily from 4:00 p.m. to midnight through the end of August.