College Recognized for Historic Preservation of Art
PARAMUS, N.J. – In recognition of a comprehensive project to restore a collection of outdoor sculptures at Bergen Community College’s main campus in Paramus, the institution has received a “Bergen County Historic Preservation” award from the Bergen County Historic Preservation Advisory Board. A ceremony recognizing the College, and eight other preservation projects completed in the county, took place on May 8 at Valley Brook Golf Course in River Vale. Bergen Professor Tim Blunk led the sculpture renovation effort.
“This award is the culmination of the work of many people on our campus, including our library staff, art history professors, and student researchers over the last ten years,” he said. “These sculptors, many of whom have since passed away, worked at the highest level and have pieces in the most significant museums and art collections in the world. It had become a minor tragedy that the community was completely unaware of the works on campus.”
Originally created by artists of international acclaim, many of the sculptures first came to the College at the conclusion of an outdoor exhibition at Van Saun County Park in 1974. At the time, the “New York Times” referred to the Van Saun exhibition as the “largest collection of outdoor sculpture ever assembled in one place.” With its parklike grounds, institutional appreciation for the arts and close proximity to Van Saun, the College’s 167-acre Paramus campus appealed to the New Jersey Cultural Council, which championed the sculptures’ relocation to the campus. College officials agreed, accepted the sculptures and placed them throughout the campus.
Over time, however, the sculptures began to deteriorate due to weather, age and environmental conditions, necessitating an investment in restoration.
In 2023, Blunk applied for, and ultimately received, a $12,000 grant from the Bergen County Division of Cultural and Historic Affairs for a project that would seek to restore the sculptures to their original form.
In consultation with the sculptors or their descendants, sandblasting, welding repairs by Professor Mark Balzarette and students from the industrial technologies program and painting, the sculptures now once again feature their original surfaces and colors.
Blunk, who also directs the efforts of the institution’s Gallery Bergen art exhibition space, said the award especially recognizes the individuals who helped bring the project to life.
“We saw this as a learning opportunity and assembled a fantastic group of students who researched the individual artists as well as the Minimalist period of art out of which these sculptures were born,” he said. “The project was also directly hands-on: last summer, a team of students became proficient in some advanced techniques in art preservation.”
Since 1982, the Bergen County Historic Preservation Advisory Board has recognized more than 300 individuals, organizations and businesses as part of an annual program celebrating the preservation, restoration and adaptive use of buildings, houses, schools, houses of worship, cemeteries and other historic sites.
Based in Paramus, Bergen Community College (www.bergen.edu), a public two-year coeducational college, enrolls more than 13,000 students at locations in Paramus, the Philip Ciarco Jr. Learning Center in Hackensack and Bergen Community College at the Meadowlands in Lyndhurst. The College offers associate degree, certificate and continuing education programs in a variety of fields. More students graduate from Bergen than any other community college in the state.
Photo Caption: Students participated in the restoration of outdoor art sculptures at Bergen Community College such as “Black & Red” by Eric Snowden.
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