New Jersey

N.J. art gallery opens a show of places you can no longer visit

Published

2 years ago

January 14, 2024

N.J. art gallery opens a show of places you can no longer visit

From Camden and Cherry Hill to Trenton and the Jersey Shore, what about life in New Jersey do you want WHYY News to cover? Let us know.

The Rowan University Art Gallery and Museum in South Jersey will soon open an exhibit of hundreds of small paintings depicting nostalgic places that no longer exist

Artist Ellen Harvey began her Disappointed Tourist project 5 years ago.

“They kind of look like those old postcards that were sort of printed in black and white and then hand-colored sometimes,” she said.

Artist Ellen Harvey at work on The Disappointed Tourist project. (Courtesy of Etienne Frossard)

All of the paintings have names and dates on them. The dates are all when those places were destroyed, she said.

“So it’s a room full of almost painted postcards of places you can’t go,” Harvey said. Harvey embarked on this project in 2019, when she began inviting people from around the world to send her suggestions of places they would like to visit, but they only exist in their memories..

She said The Disappointed Tourist collection includes submissions from 40 countries.

“There are lots of, of course, happy childhood memories and places people wish they could have gone, and then of course very sad and traumatic stories as well,” she said.

Gary Marino, 72, of Newfield, New Jersey, had suggested painting the Vineland Speedway because he has fond memories of going there with his father in the 1950s. The Speedway closed in 1967.

He said he was shocked when he found out Harvey had painted it.

“It made me feel like I was there at the time, back when I was young, it’s a feeling of remembrance, the good old days,” he said.

Marino, who works at Rowan University, said he got a sneak peek at the exhibit being assembled.

“I could spend hours in there, every painting looks like a personal postcard,” he said.

A painting of peaches — Harvey’s Zee Peach Farm painting, part of The Disappointed Tourist collection. (Courtesy of Ellen Harvey)

Harvey, who is now a resident of New York City, said she began working on The Disappointed Tourist at a time when many people felt divided and isolated.

Harvey said the project gained momentum at the start of the pandemic.

“I began to wonder what is it about the physical world that people love, what do they miss, where would they like to be able to go, that’s what I was thinking,” she said. “I wanted to make an art project that was incredibly welcoming to everyone, and that kind of took seriously the fact that we all feel nostalgic for things, but we all have very different nostalgic stories.”

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New Jersey

White Christmas in the Philadelphia region this year? Cecily Tynan breaks down our chances

Published

5 hours ago

December 19, 2025

Press Room

White Christmas in the Philadelphia region this year? Cecily Tynan breaks down our chances

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — Is there anything more magical than waking up on Christmas morning to a fresh blanket of white outside?

Well, if you’re dreaming of a white Christmas in the Philadelphia region, keep dreaming. Our chances are really low.

By definition, a white Christmas is defined as having at least an inch of snow on the ground.

But since 1950, we’ve only had eight of those in Philadelphia, the latest in 2009, 1998 and 1995.

Statistically, the chance of a white Christmas in the Poconos is 40%. But then it really drops as you head to the south — Lehigh Valley at 90%, Trenton 12%, Philadelphia, Wilmington, and the Jersey Shore are all less than 10%.

And this year, it’s even less than that because temperatures will be at or above average from Christmas Eve through the 28th.

So Cecily’s official forecast for Christmas: it’s not white, it’s mostly cloudy, seasonable highs in the mid to upper 40s.

There’s always next year!

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New Jersey

Future Home to Paramount, 1888 Studios in Bayonne Breaks Ground | Jersey Digs

Published

17 hours ago

December 18, 2025

Press Room

Future Home to Paramount, 1888 Studios in Bayonne Breaks Ground | Jersey Digs

Construction has officially begun at 1888 Studios, which will revitalize 58 acres of land near the Bayonne Bridge. Image courtesy Choose New Jersey.

A large film production studio in New Jersey is officially underway as construction has begun to revitalize 58 acres of land near the Bayonne Bridge.

Public officials and film industry executives took part in a groundbreaking ceremony for 1888 Studios, a motion picture and television production complex that will rise at the foot of Avenue A in Bayonne. The event took place inside a tent on the studio construction site, which had been a Texaco refinery that closed in the 1980’s.

Jersey Digs was the first outlet to report on the studio plan back in 2022. Bayonne passed a rezoning plan in 2020 for the land, which overlooks Staten Island and the Kill Van Kull.

1888 Studios Bayonne 7 — The full plan for 1888 Studios. Image courtesy of Gensler.

Designed by San Francisco-based firm Gensler, 1888 Studios will consist of a mix of studio sound stage buildings complemented by attached office structures. The complex will include a post-production office and several mill buildings for stages to be constructed and stored.

The new facility will span 23 soundstages and more than one million square feet. The construction phase is expected to produce 2,300 union jobs and when the facility is complete and operational, it is expected to produce 2,000 union jobs.

1888 Studios Bayonne 8 — Rendering of the studio complex. Image courtesy of Gensler.

Arpad Busson, the President of the 1888 Studios, said during the ceremony that the production complex “will reshape the city for generations to come” and would make Bayonne “a global connector.” Film powerhouse Paramount signed a 10-year agreement back in October to be the facility’s primary tenant.

Other aspects of the plan for 1888 Studios include a lighting and grip building, a central utility plant, a utility yard, a trash and recycling area, and a facilities yard to support the studio use, along with surface parking. Four subterranean parking structures would be built on the site, providing a total of 2,127 parking spaces.

1888 Studios Bayonne 6 — 1888 Studios. Image courtesy of Gensler.

Paramount’s Global Operations executive Jose Turkienicz attended the groundbreaking and called the studio complex “a major step forward” and a source of “creative momentum.” A former New Jersey resident, Turkienicz thanked the state’s public officials for supporting tax credit programs for the film industry in the Garden State.

Outgoing Governor Phil Murphy said that New Jersey has an “innovation economy,” which includes film and digital industries. He noted that New Jersey gets back $7 for each $1 invested in the film industry and lauded the state’s Film Ready program that prepares communities for the movie and television business.

Among the celebrities at the ceremony were model and businesswoman Elle Macpherson; Emmy Award-winning actress Tammy Blanchard, a Bayonne resident; Mark Lipsky, executive producer of such Eddie Murphy films as The Nutty Professor, Beverly Hills Cop II, and Coming to America; and actor and executive Paul DeAngelo, a Bayonne resident.

1888 Studios is one of three major film production facilities under construction in New Jersey, with Lionsgate breaking ground recently on a studio in Newark and Netflix building another facility at Fort Monmouth.

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