Gallery Aferro believes that open doors can lead to open minds, so this year’s Newark Arts Festival will see us throwing open our doors to celebrate the beginning of a new season and a new opportunity to heal through the power of art. On Friday, October 7th, Gallery Aferro invites artists and art lovers alike to enjoy three new exhibitions inside the 19-year-old organization’s reverberant walls.

The fall exhibitions will feature the brilliant works of visual and literary artists against a backdrop of a society standing at the precipice of great change, where hurting and harming can give way to healing and helping and knowledge builds bridges, not walls.

In the Main Gallery, Danielle Scott’s solo exhibition, Ancestral Call, embodies the artist’s work and dedication to social commentary and ancestral storytelling. Manifesting the internal into the external, she creates a connection through color, texture and technique that weave together the fables and stories of legend that are true. Poised to be stories of sadness, Scott as a cultural explorer and activist channels the power and resilience of these figures … these warriors … these kings and queens for all the world to see.

Multitudinous, located in the Memorial Gallery, not only showcases eight wonderfully talented recipients of Gallery Aferro’s two fellowship programs, but also asks each artist to answer the question: How do we first come to understand each other as a purposeful community of artists? As expected, these exceptional minds rose to the occasion, each with a profound representational artwork that makes connections by expanding beyond our idiosyncrasies, our differences, and our approaches to art-making.

Delighting the ear as much as the soul, the third exhibition, Poem Booth: Make Me Wanna Holler, is the latest incarnation of Aferro’s newest permanent sound installation, where visitors get to step into a vintage 1960s-era wooden telephone booth to revel in an immersive experience unlike any other. Once inside, 13 unique voices spin a yarn with humor, wit and anecdotal sarcasm, bringing the salve of comedy to tales of woe.

The free, all-ages event scheduled from 6-9pm will serve refreshments. Masks will be required at all times, except when eating and drinking. Join us!