13 minute read
Education Resources
The Craig School
15 Tower Hill Rd, Mt Lakes 973-334-1295 | www.craigschool.org Age Groups: Grades 2–8
Morristown-Beard School
70 Whippany Rd, Morristown mbs.net Age Group: Grades 6-12
The Craig High School
310 Lathrop Rd, Boonton 973-334-1234 | www.craigschool.org Contact: Nicole Moon Email: nmoon@craigschool.org Age Groups: Grades 9–12 The mission of the Craig School is to provide students a strategy-based, comprehensive, and challenging school experience that acknowledges their learning disabilities build on their aptitudes, and strengthens their self-awareness and self-esteem. They help parents assess their child’s true potential understand the nature of learning disabilities and provide families an internal support network within the Craig community.
Mount St. Dominic Academy
3 Ryerson Ave, Caldwell 973-226-0660 www.msdacademy.org Age Groups: Ages 14-18 (girls only)
Open House: March 31, 6:30pm Oak Knoll School of the Holy Child
44 Blackburn Road, Summit 908-522-8109 | www.oakknoll.org Grades: PK-6 (coed); 7-12 (all girls)
Winston Preparatory School
901 Route 10 East, Whippany | 973500-6480 www.winstonprep.edu Admissions Director: Meredith Fisher Email: mfisher@winstonprep.edu Age Groups: 2-12 grade
To schedule a visit, contact the school office or visit the website.
Winston Prep is a highly individualized and responsive setting for students in grades 2-12 with specific learning differences, including language processing disorders such as dyslexia, nonverbal learning disabilities such as Asperger’s, and executive functioning difficulties such as ADHD.
A Place to Be UNDERSTOOD.
Finding the right school for your child with a learning difference is essential. Winston Prep New Jersey is a leading school for students with learning differences, including dyslexia, ADHD, and nonverbal learning disorders.
Register for an OPEN HOUSE today! https://www.winstonprep.edu/admissions/open-houses
The Winston Preparatory School does not discriminate against applicants and students on the basis of race, color, or national or ethnic origin. The WPSLI campus is not associated with the Half Hollow Hills Central School District.
DEZIGN-ING WOMAN
By Deborah Schapiro, photos by Dan Epstein
No, the title of this article is not a mistake. It is a reference to House of Dezign, a school in Chatham where kids, teens and adults learn how to create their own fashions.
House of Dezign was founded last July by Chatham resident Roya Ranjbar. While not a designer herself, she has extensive experience in the fashion industry, including a seven-year university program and stints at Chanel and Anne Fontaine.
House of Dezign aims to, in Roya’s words, “build back skills that have been lost in many fashion schools today.” These lost skills include both hand and machine sewing, pattern-making and draping. At the same time, House of Dezign is also a cutting-edge school, using digital design programs and offering lessons in upcycling garments.
Roya Ranjbar and Instructor Josh Moss Roya Ranjbar and Instructor Josh Moss
Evelyn Kang and Roya Ranjbar Evelyn Kang and Roya Ranjbar Yasmin Acosta with Instructor Joss Moss Yasmin Acosta with Instructor Joss Moss
Roya Ranjbar and students
The school offers beginner, intermediate and advanced classes, as well as summer camps, “Sip & Sew” nights, and bachelorette and birthday party packages. Additionally, Roya has established a partnership with Montclair State University’s Department of Art & Design: Students in that department pursuing a BA in Fashion Studies can earn course credit working as House of Dezign interns.
Students at House of Dezign learn to work with a variety of fabrics and other materials to create both garments and accessories. Those who want to go into the industry are also taught how to create a portfolio and entire collection. Roya notes that only a few of her students plan to go into the fashion industry professionally; most simply love creating and discussing fashion.
When they are not cutting, sewing or draping, House of Dezign students are learning about the history, cultural significance and economic value of the fashion industry. Adds Roya, “We also discuss fashion etiquette, such as why we wear fancy clothes to a wedding.” Regardless of their future plans, students at House of Dezign find a calm, focused and nurturing environment. Ranjabar has cultivated a safe space for kids, teens and adults to express themselves. She says that unlike the cutthroat world of fashion depicted in Project Runway, “There is no competition here; everyone’s work is great.”
House of Dezign
11B Roosevelt Ave., Chatham 973-908-3575 www.houseofdezign.com
Joseph Borzatta
Whimsical & Provocative
Portrait of the artist and story by Dan Epstein
Joseph Borzotta makes paintings that are both delightful in their whimsy, and never fail to provoke the viewer to questions. A kind of Renaissance Man, he was born and raised in NJ, and studied at both the Rhode Island School of Design as well as The School of Visual Arts in NYC. He’s owned bars in both New York City and Hoboken; operated a well-known gallery in Asbury Park called Palette ArtSpace; maintains a blog called The Gallery Guy; his film, Across The Bar, was accepted into the Garden State Film Festival; and he can often be found in comedy clubs in the tri-state area doing standup. Currently, an exhibit of his recent paintings are on display until February 20th at the Visual Art Center of New Jersey, in Summit.
Who Is It Get Off My Lawn
THE PAINTINGS OF JOSEPH BORZATTA
Combining collage, as well as both abstract and representational images, this series of 9x12 paintings were all completed during the quarantine phase of the current Covid crisis. In First Week Last Week, we see a businessman, painted over the ghost of his daily calendar, inexplicably sporting the ears of a rabbit. He stands on an abstract field. Maybe the artist/businessman is questioning the absurdity of trying to do business during the strange time we all experienced in the early days of Covid 19. Who knows? What we do know is that the painting makes us both smile, and wonder.
Take Me To The River, referencing an old Talking Heads song, we again see a solitary figure with which Borzatta once again comments on the loneliness and separation so many of us experienced during quarantine as well a time of great political unrest wherein many of us felt clearly on one side or the other. Working with the combination of collage and acrylic paint, Who Is It, was the first of this series Borzatta completed. The background may be a random abstract, or is it a landscape in which a lone figure, both painted and made with collage, wonders if there’s someone else there? Also in the exhibit is a larger painting: Get Off My Lawn, a 30x40 acrylic and collage, in which Borzatta reflects an urban life left as he moved, along with his wife and child to the suburbs of NJ. He’s included this work he believes is the precursor which led him to the rest of the body of this work. A background of mid-century developer houses under a stormy sky behind a solitary figure whose arms are outstretched pleading for something. It’s up to the viewer to decide what.
You can see many more works on his website, and see a selection in person at the Visual Art Center of New Jersey.
Joseph Borzotta
josephborzatta.com | https://www.artcenternj.org Take Me To The River
Artwork photos supplied by the artist
Curious Kids Will Love the Museum of Early Trades and Crafts
The next time your kids ask you about the past, you can take them to the Museum of Early Trades and Crafts in Madison, where they will enjoy learning about NJ during the colonial era through the age of industrialization. The museum is the perfect way to bring much of what children are reading about in school to life. It boasts a robust collection of artifacts and tools and features a variety of permanent and special exhibits. METC’s newest exhibit, Working the Land – Life, Family and Change in Early 1800’s NJ, tells the stories of people’s daily lives, struggles, families and more. You can learn more at metc.org.
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A Renovating Project with a Goal to Make the OLD LOOK NEW and the NEW TO LOOK OLD
Taking that extra step when it comes to customer service is something building contractor Victor Zucchi & Son has been doing for 85 years. “My father and my grandfather believed in providing next-level customer service,” says Chris Zucchi, who represents the builder’s fourth generation.
The contractor is currently working on a $2.5 to $3-plus million construction project in Englewood—adding an 11,000 sq. ft. addition to a 4,000 sq. ft home. “We take customer service very seriously,” Zucchi emphasizes. “During 2021 we saw significant material price increases and construction material delays.” Yet, to the delight of the client, the project has remained on schedule. “This is why pre-construction services— which include sourcing materials, pricing materials, and scheduling material delivery to coincide with the production schedule—take on new urgency as 2022 gets underway,” he adds. Victor Zucchi & Son’s Englewood project also came with another big challenge: The client wanted the addition to match the original home. To do so, Victor Zucchi & Son went to a reclaimed brick company in Iowa to source and secure a particular type of 19th century brick—a clinker brick—for the home’s façade…and the match was made. Work is proceeding on the interior of the home for which the homeowner also wants a match between the new structure and the original, down to the moldings and woodwork. “The client wants the old to look new and the new to look old,” Zucchi states. “It is a challenge, but it is also fun for us.”
The client has been so pleased with Victor Zucchi & Son’s attention to detail and craftsmanship that they have added on projects that include a porte-cochère, a proposed wine cellar, a new pool house and pool renovation, and other items to the initial project. Passion that makes hard work fun may set Victor Zucchi & Son apart from the rest, but it is truly customer service that makes this building contractor stand out. “We do go about our business differently than most contractors,” says Zucchi. “We keep our clients in the loop throughout the project to ensure everyone’s needs are met and questions and concerns are addressed.”
More than that, clients can contact the building contractor 24/7. “I give my clients my cell number so they can reach me at any time.” That is what you call next-level customer service.
Victor Zucchi & Son
129 E. Main Street ,Bogota www.vzsconstruction.com
Explore the Galaxy…
Jersey City’s Liberty Science Center has long been a destination for exploration and educational fun. The Center’s Jennifer Chalsty Planetarium, which opened in 2017, continues this tradition by being an awe-inspiring vehicle for wonder and learning.
Step out and explore the sky… the galaxy... and the universe— practically in your own backyard!
Made up of a 89-foot full dome, the Jennifer Chalsty Planetarium is the biggest planetarium in America. With a resolution of 88 million pixels, a lighting system producing over 281 trillion colors, and speakers producing 30,000 watts of digital sounds, it is an all-encompassing experience that is truly out of this world.
“You can fit any other planetarium in the Western Hemisphere inside the Jennifer Chalsty Planetarium,” said Paul Hoffman, Liberty Science Center President and CEO. “Add in the stateof-the-art technology and you have a spectacular unique theater like none other in the world. Visitors will be able to fly through the universe, experience the grandness and vastness of space, roam planetary surfaces, navigate asteroid fields, and watch the latest full-dome movies.”
When you step inside the Planetarium’s theater, you are truly stepping into another world that gives you the opportunity to explore the universe. From the comfort of your seat, look up and take in the stunning view of the night sky or distant
Right in Jersey City
galaxies. Travel through the canyons on Mars, watch spewing geysers on Neptune’s moon Triton, and even find your way out of a black hole.
The Planetarium currently has a variety of shows that will take you across the universe and back to your theater chair! See the universe through telescopes, robot probes and the naked eye in “Wonders of the Night Sky.” Learn about our solar system by seeing the planets up close and personal in “To Worlds Beyond.” Journey inside a black hole in “Black Holes: The Other Side of Infinity,” a bizarre trip that will teach you about the most mysterious phenomena in the universe. Families with young kids will also appreciate “One World, One Sky: Big Bird’s Adventure” and the “Winter Pop Laser Show,” which allow even the littlest space fans to experience the planetarium.
The spectacular attraction is named after Jennifer Chalsty, a New Jersey philanthropist and Liberty Science Center Board Member who donated $5 million to create the planetarium. Her gift has allowed the Center to build a state-of-the-art experience that combines the very best of sight and sound with educational opportunities, fascinating space science, and childlike wonder.
Whether you love outer space yourself or want to foster a love of astronomy and space science in your children, the Jennifer Chalsty Planetarium is the perfect day trip destination. There is no better (or bigger!) place in America to explore the vastness of our universe.
Liberty State Park, 222 Jersey City Boulevard, Jersey City 201-200-1000 | www.lsc.org
