Beth Achenbach-Peace

Curated by Catherine Hecht
Part of the Jersey City Art & Studio Tour (JCAST 2025)                                                     

October 4 & 5, 2025 — Alley Cat Gallery, Jersey City, NJ

Beth Achenbach Cancel Culture-Crushed

In what may be her final participation in the Jersey City Art & Studio Tour, artist Beth Achenbach presents One More for the Road, a two-day solo exhibition of her photographic and digital work in the intimate setting of Alley Cat Gallery. Unlike years past, when she shared exhibition walls, this year’s event is a full takeover: every wall, every image, every gaze is devoted to her creative vision.

One More for the Road-Group Image

For more than two decades, Achenbach has made JCAST weekend a homecoming of sorts — greeting friends and neighbors, meeting new art collectors, and sharing her evolving bodies of work. This October, she leans into both celebration and reflection: the show is a mark of gratitude, a moment of closure, and an invitation for viewers to journey with her through the images she has created and the stories she has told.

“For me, JCAST has always been about connection—welcoming people into the space, sharing stories, and finding beauty in unexpected places,” says Achenbach. “This show feels like a love letter to the community that has supported me since 2002. It’s both a celebration and a goodbye.”

Achenbach is also partnering with two special guest makers, who will host tables during the show:

• Saturday, Oct 4 — Vera Vixeness (www.veravixeness.com)
  
• Sunday, Oct 5 — Jaden Remy of Remy’s Studio (www.remysstudio.com)
  

Each guest artist brings their own creative energy, offering works that echo or contrast with Achenbach’s themes. Their presence is also a nod to the collaborative spirit of the arts community she’s been part of for so long.

About Beth Achenbach

Beth Achenbach has been an active voice in Jersey City’s arts community for more than 20 years, participating in JCAST since 2002. She was the first visual artist ever featured at Art House Productions, her art was included in “Vital Voices”, the first ever LGBTQ+ group show in JCAST, and she has been recognized as a Jersey City Cultural Leader by the city. Known for transforming everyday objects into striking compositions. Achenbach’s visual language hovers between fragility and resilience, which is seen in her ongoing exploration of discarded objects, still life, and textured surfaces. From her acclaimed Crushed series, in which discarded cans become poetic forms, to more recent explorations of still life and layered textures, Achenbach’s art is grounded in the act of seeing differently. Art House Productions, Inc.+1

Her exhibitions at Alley Cat Gallery have become annual touchpoints for visitors returning year after year, eager to see how her work evolves. Through her practice, Achenbach has not only shared images but also fostered dialogue—about art, community, and the stories embedded in the overlooked corners of life.

Join Beth Achenbach for One More for the Road—a singular exhibition that honors more than two decades of creativity, community, and connection in Jersey City.                                                                                                                                        

The post A Solo Exhibition by Beth Achenbach first appeared on River View Observer.

   JCs Cathedral Arts Festival to Host “Big 3-0” Gala, Sat, May 18

   Artists, Friends & Grace Church Community to Come Out & Celebrate

By Sally Deering

Itâ€s probably the hippest church in Hudson County: a congregation of people from all walks of life, where artists are not only welcomed, theyâ€re celebrated.

On Sat, May 8, beginning at 7 pm, Grace Church Van Vorst on Erie Street in Jersey City will host its 30^th Anniversary celebration of the CATHEDRAL ARTS FESTIVAL (CAF), a gala of friends and community members coming together to support the churchâ€s outreach and regale in artworks by local artists. This year, five curators have put together an exhibition of eclectic art that will dazzle and inspire.  Beth Achenbach, Cat Hecht, Robinson Holloway, Andrea Morin and Amy Elise de Jong.

The post art gala’s ‘big 3-0’ first appeared on River View Observer.

Grace Church Van Vorst celebrates Art and Community

 By Sally Deering

Back in the late 1980s and early 90s, many considered downtown Jersey City a tough and gritty place for off-the-grid artists and blue-collar workers. It was during that time Grace Church Van Vorst, an Episcopalian parish in downtown Jersey City opened its big red doors on Erie Street, and welcomed local residents, many of them artists, to participate in the Cathedral Arts Festival.

On Sat, April 18, Grace Churchâ€s big red

doors will open once again, this time for the 25^th anniversary of the Cathedral Arts Festival beckoning local residents and friends to once again enjoy a gala of art, entertainment, food and drink. Under the leadership of Reverend Laurie Jean Wurm and congregants Bayla Kallstrom as chairwoman, Amy Elise as head art curator and other dedicated artists and residents, the Cathedral Arts Festival will once again bridge art and community in this neighborhood parish.

“The artist community has a long relationship with Grace Church Van Vorst, a lot of parishioners are artists, one gentleman has his own reggae band,” Rev. Wurm says. “Art is essential to how Grace Church is known in downtown Jersey City. Thatâ€s one thing Grace has always embraced.”

The April 18^th gala will feature refreshments from area restaurants, an open champagne bar, music, dancing, a silent auction and a special performance by members of Nimbus Dance Works of Jersey City. Sixty-five artists will be exhibiting and selling their works with a percentage of each sale going to Grace Churchâ€s special programs like the Grace Senior Center for Healthy Living, and Graceâ€s Breakfast Plus program which provides weekend meals to hungry and homeless people in Jersey City.

“Art is vital to the life of the church,” Reverend Wurm says. “It can be beautiful and unifying. One of the things I love is when the paintings are hung up in the church. For me itâ€s a way to see whatâ€s going on around the world.  Bringing struggles, triumphs and joys that come with paintings and objects of art, and putting them in a sacred setting allows us to see the world in a sacred way.”

COMMUNITY & ART

Chairwoman of the curating committee, Amy Elise, has been a Grace Church congregant since 2008 right after she moved to Jersey City.

“The first time I walked through the doors, I saw art on the walls,” Elise says. “The sanctuary was an incredible space and the service was beautiful. Thereâ€s this creative energy in the church that immediately embraced me. I wanted to be involved.”

Artists from Jersey City and other towns like Newark, Morristown and New York City will be exhibiting their works chosen by Elise and four area curators – Farah Nuradeen (Greenville); Meghan McKee (the Heights); Andrea Artemis Morin (downtown); and Joe Velez (Union City). They picked artists whose work reflects the vibrancy and diversity of Jersey City.

“Jersey City is gentrifying, especially downtown, and that has to be represented because thatâ€s part of our reality,” Elise says. “We also wanted the gritty aspects of Jersey City to be represented in the art. The neighborhood that Grace Church is in currently used to have a different feel. We wanted to respect the artists who are in the downtown neighborhood now and the artists and arts that would have been in the neighborhood 25 years ago.”

 Artists exhibiting at the  25^th Cathedral Arts Festival are Beth Achenbach, Seth Alexander, Paul Andress, Ray Arcadio, Howard Berelson, Miguel Cardenas, Thomas John Carlson, Miroslaw Chelchowski, Jerome China, stephen cimini, Lisa Collodoro, Liz Defrain, Peter Delman, Martin Ramone Delossantos, Dave Dziemian, Dylan Egon, Thomas Egan, Ben Faresich, Eileen Ferara, Mark Finne, Julia Forrest, Geraldine Anderson Gaines, David Gazzo, Jamaila Hernandez, Miguel Hernández, Kayt Hester, Ann Hjelle, Lina Hsiao, Christine Johanns, Norman Kirby, Kortez, Lex Leonard, Béatrice Lebreton, Tatiana Lopez, Beatrice Mady, Julie McHargue, Meghan McKee, Andrea McKenna, Michael F. McKenna, Kathryn Mecca, Rajendra Mehta, Fermin Mendoza, Volha Mikhnevich, Andrea Artemis Morin, Ibou Ndoye, Amy Neufeld, JoanMarie Palmer, Diane Revels, Orlando Reyes, Vira Rublevska, Angelo Rusciano, Monique Sarfity, Lucille Scurti, Anthony Sienkiewicz, Elsie Sienkiewicz, Panda Suwann, Marianne Trent, Janna Maria Vallee, Herman Velez, Joe Velez, Diane Whitebay, M. H. Yaghooti, William Zbylut, and O_O.

Local Jersey City businesses have always been big supporters of the Cathedral Arts Festival and this yearâ€s sponsors include Shoprite – Inserra Supermarkets, Inc., JPMorgan Chase, Capital One Bank and PNC Bank. Some of Jersey Cityâ€s most popular restaurants are participating like GPâ€s Restaurant in Hamilton Square, The Hamilton Inn, The Bistro at Grove Square, Rustique Pizzeria, Gypsy Grill and Tommy2Scoops. The Festival will also have Le Bouquiniste, a mobile art kiosk from Curious Matter, and a live interactive weaving skill-share by relational artist Janna Maria Vallee.

The Cathedral Arts Festival is meant to bring new people into the Grace Church community, Elise says. And with Bayla Kallstrom as chairwoman, everyone is benefiting from her wisdom of what things were like 25 years ago when she and then curator artist Charles Kessler knocked on doors inviting artists to participate.

“Our theme from the very beginning was community, creativity and diversity,” Kallstrom says. “We feel artistry is a universal language. Itâ€s very spiritual. Itâ€s like religion, it floats above. It contains many voices, viewpoints and can pull people together in a spiritual way. A lot of people who came to Grace Church werenâ€t Christians but wanted to be a part of our community and every human being is better when they are part of a community; where people gather to help people become the best they can be. Thatâ€s a committed community and thatâ€s always our goal.”

If you go:

Sat, Apr. 18, 7:30 pm-12 midnight

The 25^th Annual Cathedral Arts Festival Champagne Gala

39 Erie St. (Downtown) JC

Admission:  $40 in advance; $50 at the door.

For tix:  www.gracevanvorst.org

For more info:  (201) 659-2211

 

The post 25th Cathedral Arts Festival to be held Apr. 18th in Downtown Jersey City first appeared on River View Observer.

 Good n†Plenty, Pixy Stix, Zots, Necco Wafers – these are just some of the candies kids snacked on back in the day and that still evoke childhood memories in adults of all ages. People seem to connect through the shared experience of reminiscing about candy; everyone knows someone who can wax poetic about wax lips.

 Double Bubble Bubble Gum, Bon-o-mo Turkish Taffy, Lemonheads, Dots, Pop Rocks, Candy Buttons – the candy list is endless – and photographer Beth Achenbach of Jersey City believes her photographs of candy will help people make happy connections at her upcoming exhibit NOSTALGIA at the Mary Benson Gallery in Jersey City.

“When you start talking to people about candy, it brings you back to that simple time to when you were a kid,” Achenbach says. “(Back then) the hardest decision was having a dollar and which candy did you want to buy with it. The show will bring you back to those childlike feelings. The few photos Iâ€ve posted online have already gotten real responses from people.”

One part of the exhibit will feature people blowing bubble gum bubbles.

“Popping in some bubble gum and blowing a bubble loosens you up a little,” Achenbach says.

Achenbach remembers middle school and how bubble gum was “the commodity”. She says: “You couldnâ€t chew gum in class, so kids would be selling pieces of gum for a quarter. That was our thing in middle school.”

Achenbach first got into photography working at a one-hour photo-processing lab in Chicago in the 1990s. One part of her job was processing film and printing photos; the other was selling cameras.

“They would let us take cameras home and play with them so we could sell them better,” Achenbach says, “and thatâ€s when I started liking photography.”

Achenbachâ€s sister passed along her manual Pentax to Achenbach who started taking pictures all the time, she says on her website achenbachart.com. Since then she has experimented with different equipment, subjects, mediums and presentations which, she says, have all been a great learning experience. She now manages a photo lab in New York City.

“Iâ€ve seen thousands and thousands of photos over the years and you develop an eye for what you like and donâ€t like,” Achenbach says. “I started experimenting, and I still try new things. I never showed any of my work until I moved to Jersey City in 2002. I moved here a couple of days before the Jersey City Artists†Studio Tour. I showed my work that weekend and Iâ€ve been in it every year since.”

For the exhibit at the Mary Benson Gallery. Achenbach went online to order some old time candy. She hopes her photos will inspire adults not to act their age.

“Itâ€s important to remember what you were like as a kid,” Achenbach says. “I think itâ€s good to tap into that. I find I can be really forgetful, but when something conjures up a memory, when someone posts an old photo on Facebook, then I start remembering things. Thatâ€s what the candy does and the bubble gum. They ignite some streams of thought that take us a little bit somewhere else and yet are still a part of us.”

 If you go:

Fri, Sat, Sun, Dec 5, 6, 7

NOSTALGIA, photos by Beth Achenbach

Mary Benson Gallery

369 Third Street

Jersey City

www.achenbachart.com

Fri, 5 to 10 pm;

Sat, 3-6 pm; Event Reception: Sat, 6-10

Sun, Noon to 5 pm

 

 

The post Candy Crush; New Works by Photographer Beth Achenbach Capture the Joy of Sweets   first appeared on River View Observer.