Manifesting Beloved Community

Healing of the planet for the good of humanity

​Exhibition dates: January 7 to March 1, 2025
Reception: January 10, 2025

West Windsor Arts Council and Art Against Racism, (both 501(c)(3) organizations), invite artists to submit artwork for “Manifesting Beloved Community” a juried exhibition of work exploring the interrelationship of community health and efforts to create an antiracist society that share in the responsibilities to create a healthy planet for the good of humanity.

“Manifesting Beloved Community” invites artists to visualize what it means to create and live in a nation or world designed around social and economic justice beyond the ills of structural racism. Inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “Beloved Community” references a caring vision where we all share in the well being of global communities and the healing of the planet for the good of humanity. We ask that artists explore one or more themes in their work that relate to:

• Economic justice
• Healthcare
• Housing
• Employment
• The environment
• Cultural expression

Selected work will be shown at West Windsor Arts and in online galleries at Artagainstracism.org and WestWindsorArts.org

JURORS: ISABEL NAZARIO and JULIO NAZARIO

ISABEL NAZARIO is a visual artist living in Highland Park, NJ since 1992. She was born in Puerto Rico and raised both in the Island and in the South Bronx NYC. She attended the High School of Music and Art and earned a Master of Fine Arts in Queens College, CUNY, where she taught Caribbean art history courses. Over the years she worked in museum education, managed a community art gallery in the Queens Museum of Art, and was an associate in the museum program in New York State Council on the Arts. She retired from Rutgers University as the Associate Vice President for Strategic Diversity Initiatives in the Arts, and Humanities, a post that she held since 2004. In the university she had oversight responsibility for the Center for Women in the Arts and Humanities and for twelve years, beginning in 1992 she was the founding director of the Rutgers Center for Latino Arts and Culture.

JULIO NAZARIO is a photographer and printmaker living in Highland Park NJ, born and raised in “el Barrio” Harlem, NYC. Nazario is a graduate of Mason Gross School of Arts, Rutgers University with an M.F.A. in Visual Arts and Queens College (CUNY) with a B.A. in Philosophy. His black and white photographs have been exhibited in El Museo del Barrio and in other venues in New York City. He was Instructor of Photography for 10 years at the International Center of Photography in New York City; and an adjunct Associate Professor at La Guardia Community College (CUNY) for 17 years. For decades he also created mixed media prints of images referencing medals he received when he served in the Vietnam War including a Purple Heart. Nazario retired in 2019 from Rutgers University where for 20 years he was an Assistant Dean for Outreach, Special Initiatives and Assessment in the School of Arts and Sciences Honors Program. Currently, he is founding codirector of the West Strand Art Gallery in Kingston New York, which he runs with his life-time partner artist Isabel Nazario. They both divide their time between New Jersey and Kingston NY.

TO ENTER YOUR ARTWORK, please refer to the open call listing on the For Artist page:
Open Call to Artists for Manifesting Beloved Community Art Show 

To meet the accommodations of all our patrons

we have several enhancements to make everyone’s visit enjoyable.

For the visually impaired or those with low vision:
Alt Text for each piece of art can be accessed in our online store through a QR code

  Artwork labels will have large font of 18 point

  Audio tour will be available for a selection of the art.

For the hearing impaired or those with some hearing loss:
Audio tour with closed captioning will be accessible on most devices through a QR code. Plus we will have a  limited number of devices we can loan out. 

At the opening reception:
Listening Devices will be available for the presentation during the opening reception. This can be accessed to those that have Bluetooth enabled hearing aids. We will also have a limited number of devices we can loan out.