12th Annual Highlands Juried Art Exhibit
SEPTEMBER 21 TO DECEMBER 7, 2025
Presented by the NJ Highlands Coalition
Fine art & photography of the 4-State Highlands Region of NJ, NY, PA & CT
OPENING RECEPTION
Sunday, September 21, 2:00 to 5:00 p.m.
at Maxfield Engine House, Boonton NJ
FREE & Open to the Public
PLAN YOUR VISIT Location, Hours, Contact & more to do while you're in town!
Artist talk
JEREMY TRAVERS
Award-winning Photographer, Author, Environtalalist
Thursday, Nov. 13, 7:30 to 9:30 p.m.
Sunday Nov. 15, 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.
FREE & Open to the Public
Maxfield Engine House
713 Main Street, Boonton NJ
About The Author
Jeremy is a founding board member of the non-profit group PEACENJ in Hackettstown NJ, actively providing the community with environmental education opportunities as well as spearheading local projects in conjunction with local officials businesses and other organizations.
Jeremy grew up on Lake Hopatcong, the headwaters of the Musconetcong River, where his love of the water was cultivated and encouraged by his friends and family. In his youth he spent countless hours exploring New Jersey's largest lake. It wasn't until he returned to New Jersey after a period of traveling around the country and living in Vermont that his passion for the Musconetcong Watershed took hold. He began documenting every kayak trip he took within the watershed and surrounding lakes through video, photos, and the written word. He volunteers with the Musconetcong Watershed Association and their river monitoring program as well as the Lake Hopatcong Foundation where he co-leads kayak paddles around Lake Hopatcong to help raise money for the organization and share the rich history of the lake with paddlers. By sharing his experiences on and around the water with others his hope is that they will be inspired to go out and have their own experiences and work to keep that wild and open space.
Description
Flat Water Kayaker is the story of my time spent on and around the upper Musconetcong River watershed and surrounding waters in north west New Jersey. It explores my passion and experiences kayaking local waters. It is the story of not only kayaking local but also how I developed my passion of the water and nature in general as well through sharing my experiences and encounters. It is not only a story about kayaking in north western New Jersey which has some amazing wild and open spaces to explore but is a broader story of doing what you love and spending time developing and cultivating that passion. Flat Water Kayaker explores the history of the area through the eyes of the author and personal experiences growing up on New Jersey's largest lake. He gives insights to what his time was like living in a summer community as a year round resident and how that influenced the person he would become with a strong love for nature and the water. READ MORE
About our Exhibits
About the NJ Highlands Coalition & Maxfield Engine House
Proceeds support the NJ Highlands Coalition's mission to help preserve the natural and cultural resources of this remarkable region of our State that supplies clean drinking water to over 6.2 million people.
The artists who are inspired by the natural beauty of the Highlands region of NJ, NY, PA & CT are advocates for protecting the Highlands natural and cultural resources as much as we who strive for protective policies; beauty is worth fighting for to protect. The landscapes of the Highlands, the great biodiversity of plants and animals, the broken, half-hidden remnants of the early industrial age that has since returned to forest, the granite outcrops and strewn, truck-sized boulders deposited by the glaciers, the cold and deep glacial lakes and ancient rivers, the narrow valleys crossed by patinated iron truss bridges, the undulating farm fields and wildflower meadows, the “asunals”, the ceremonial rocks placed by the Lenape as wayfinders and to carry the prayers of successive generations — these are the same vistas and scenes that inspired an entire movement in art. The artists of our Juried Art Show and Entr’Exhibits are the inheritors of the masterful Hudson River School. We are so pleased and honored to host their inspired works. Every show is a celebration of their creativity. READ MORE...
About NJ Highlands Coalition & Maxfield Engine House
Maxfield Engine House
713 Main Street, Boonton NJ
The Center for the Study of Cities and Small Towns (CSST) Foundation renovated the firehouse according to a preservation study done by researchers from Penn Praxis at the Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania. Constructed in 1893 by civic-minded Boonton citizens led by then City Council president, Esli B. Dawson, great, great grandfather of CSST board members Ryan Dawson of Mendham and Rebecca Birch of New York City, the firehouse occupies a prominent location in the center of Boonton, NJ’s Main Street Historic District. It has served a variety of functions since the town’s fire engines became too large for its original use.
CONTACT: Eugenie L. Birch FAICP
Nussdorf Professor of Urban Research
Department of City and Regional Planning
Dean, Graduate Studies
Stuart Weitzman School of Design
Chair, Graduate Group in City and Regional Planning
co-Director, Penn Institute for Urban Research
University of Pennsylvania
210 S. 34th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104
Tel: 215 898 8330 Cell: 917 412 7911
Twitter: @DrGenie_Birch
The New Jersey Highlands CoalitioN
Our mission is to protect, enhance and promote the vital water and other natural & cultural resources of the New Jersey Highlands. The Coalition represents a diverse network of organizations — small and large, local, regional, statewide and national — and individuals.
We represent their common goal to protect, enhance and restore the New Jersey Highlands and to preserve the quality and quantity of drinking water both for the 850,000 people in the Highlands as well as the more than five million people in surrounding areas who depend on Highlands water.