PARTY PARTY PARTY! ArtsEcho Galleria...another really cool idea...

Dear Friends:

I'm here in our little sweet shop on a lovely, bright, sunny (and cold!) end-of-January day. The Beatles are singing "Strawberry Fields" to us and several of our regular customers are perusing the new clothing and jewelry, hopefully to wear to great parties over the weekend.

And speaking of parties...well, some backstory first:

At the Art Vivo! exhibition that we were honored to curate at the Brennan County Court House in JC, we displayed a few items of our spectacular ArtsEcho Galleria jewelry in antique display cases together with 2000 year old Roman coins, 12th century native arrowheads, Appalachian dulcimers, handmade silk quilts, and other things that make us...well, ArtsEcho Galleria! When we went to take down the exhibit (which took 2 hours as opposed to the 18 that it took to mount it)...there were several women waiting for us...they wanted to purchase our unique, "I've-never-seen-anything-like-it-before" jewelry.

This gave us (lightbulb going off over the head time) a great idea. We are going to start "ArtsEcho Galleria Art & Accessories" home/company/fundraising parties!

Since so many of you have told us about friends who would love our shop, our wares and our ARTWORK, but live too far (like Bergen County or NYC or Massachusetts) to come here, we have decided that we will go out to the world! And not just with our gorgeous jewelry, scarves, bags, etc, but also with a few wonderful pieces of art so that lots of people get to see (and perhaps even purchase) the amazing artwork that we proudly display here (all by incredible NJ artists).

There are several companies that do this kind of thing with jewelry (did you think I was smart enough to innovate a truly great idea out of thin air??) but they are "for profit" companies and their "bottom lines" are filled with $$$$$ dollar signs (they are also VERY expensive). We are a non-profit arts organization and our bottom line is promoting and presenting superb art and music in an intimate setting for a wonderful community! (Well, we do have to pay for our lovely items, rent, bills & (our very modest) salaries...we also pay performers & take no commission when we sell artwork...that's our mission.)

We're still working out the details, but part of the proceeds will go to the host(ess) or company who hosts a party who can then decide to keep their share of the moolah or donate it to their favorite charity.

Whaddaya think? Good idea?

Have a great weekend,

Warm (as in keep warm) regards,

Sandra and the amiable, avid, attractive, & appealing ArtsEcho Galleria team, Karina, Arianna, Crystal, Ben and Lina.

PS: Thanks for the GREAT RESPONSE to the little Monday Sales email...I will keep them coming so you all know everything that's going on here...

PPS: And remember, Mondays are 20% off your entire purchase!!

PPPS: We're here (yessss!!!) M-W 11-7, Th-F 11-8, Sat 10-6 and we're at 3809 Park Avenue, Union City, across from the Weehawken Pathmark parking lot and you can call to say hi at 201-617-1110.

PPPPS: Please PLEASE forward this email to any of your friends who would love our shop and get them to sign up for these emails! You know best who they are!!!

PPPPPS: Ladies, leave this email sitting around so that your guy will buy you a great piece of jewelry at ArtsEcho Galleria for VALENTINE'S DAY!

PPPPPPS: Guys! We have GREAT PRESENTS for VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

PPPPPPPS: Enough is enough...

Yves St. Laurent and ArtsEcho...a contest!

Dear Friends: This week we are going to compare some new ArtsEcho Galleria agate earrings with some new Yves St. Laurent agate earrings. This is to give you all a genuine, concrete reason WHY you love to shop at ArtsEcho Galleria (other than the charming ambiance, our unique clothing, bags, jewelry, and chocolate).

OK, the one on the left is Yves. It is certainly lovely. Agate (discovered in Greece over 3000 years ago and often found in ancient sites inside volcanic rock) has endless variations, shapes and amazing colors. The one on the right is, of course, ArtsEcho Galleria. Also beautiful. Here are the differences: Yves' earrings are "silver-tone metal" and ours are STERLING SILVER!!! (...we are such a class act...)

And now for the real difference. Are you ready?

Yves (well, the huge corporation who bought his name) charges...are you sitting down...$545 for these earrings!!!!!!!!!

ArtsEcho Galleria charges $18 (and in case you forgot, ours are real silver).

So, if there are any name-dropping snobs among you, please drop the name ArtsEcho Galleria, and those in the know will know that you are both fashionable and SMART!!

*****

We have TONS of new items in our charming little place in addition to our agate jewelry.

We also have tons of NEW IDEAS like these:

1 We will soon be giving out PREFERRED CUSTOMER CARDS so our "frequent shoppers" (and you know who you are...) will always get a healthy discount no matter what is on sale.

2 And we're also creating cute little STAMP cards so when you buy over $25 you will have your card stamped and after 7 stamps, you get a $25 ARTSECHO GIFT CERTIFICATE (for free, of course) for you to use or to give!!

Warm regards,

Sandra and the always hard-working and charming ArtsEcho Galleria team, Karina, Ben, Crystal, Arianna and Lina.

PS: To brighten your day, here is a photo of Guy and John...Guy from today (in the office) and John from about 1964 (on a poster that we are framing for the store).

PPS: ON SALE THIS WEEK! Jewelry (which almost NEVER goes on sale here) is BUY ONE GET ONE HALF OFF!! That's for (hint hint) Valentine's Day! And wait 'til you see the new things we have here!

PPPS: Speaking of Valentine's Day, those lovely (and pricey) roses will be gone in a week...the chocolates will be gone in much less time(!), but a piece of exquisite, unique, jewelry from ArtsEcho Galleria (in an elegant box with our red paper and lovely black/white gift bags with gold stickers) will REMAIN FOREVER!

PPPPS: Have a lovely weekend and come visit us. We are here (3809 Park Avenue in the up-and-coming Watertower District) on M-W 11-7, Th-F 11-8 and Sat 10-6 and you can reach us at 201-617-1110.

PPPPPS: Please send this email on to a friend!

Art and the Meaning of Life

Dear Friends:

Well, the 5 million hours spent hanging the work of eight splendid artists for our show Art Vivo! was time well spent! If you haven't yet been inside the incredible Brennan Courthouse (now celebrating its 100th year), do try and get there....it's only about 20 minutes from here (straight down Palisade Ave to the end, turn right, park, and cross the street!) Here are some photos to whet the appetite:

We have heard from the powers-that-be at the Courthouse that Art Vivo! is generating a lot of interest. The reception turned into a full-blown party (of course...) with singing and playing (that's the wonderful Jorge Chiquillo, Columbian singer/guitarist), international food, wine, tours of the spectacular historic Courthouse and mostly, wonderful artists and people (not to say that artists aren't people...oh, you know what I mean).

Speaking of wonderful people, today we are saying not goodbye but farewell to our terrific Lil Rodriguez. Lil is leaving us for the business world (she will be getting actual benefits...what does that mean, again?) at State Farm Insurance in Jersey City (...now you'll really have a friend at State Farm). Lil has been with us since before the Galleria opened and, needless to say, we will miss her terribly. However, I try never-ever-ever to lose contact with great people, so Lil will continue on our Board of Advisors (which means that I can email her frequently for her input) and, hopefully, you will see her here at every event (including "Bravo Brazil" coming up on Friday, March 14th...save the date!)

Lil just reminded me that I have to remind you to remind your significant others that Valentine's Day is rapidly approaching you should remind them to SHOP HERE! We have the loveliest presents! And they will be wrapped in beautiful RED Valentine's paper in our adorable gift bags with our cute gold stickers (what would I do without adjectives?). Here are a few more appetite-whetting photos of our gifts and some new things that have just arrived at ArtsEcho:

Hope you all have a lovely weekend; stop by for the BUY ONE GET ONE HALF OFF SALE on our delightful clothing collection all next week.

Warm regards,

Sandra and the hard-working, ever-cheerful ArtsEcho Galleria team, Lil, Karina, Crystal, Ben, Arianna and Lina.

PS: If anyone has a few hours a week to volunteer at the Galleria, we need you! In exchange, you will get as many chocolate kisses as you can eat and "funny money" that is good on purchases here at the shop.

PPS: Hours are, as always, M-W 11-7, Th-F 11-8, Sat 10-6. You can reach us at 201-617-1110.

PPPS: Tomorrow morning, Knitty Gritty in Union City with Toni Figaro!

ArtsEcho in Court! (well..Courthouse...) & What Makes America Strong

Dear Friends: This has been an exceptionally busy week...so busy, in fact, that it is the first time that I did not get this email out to you all on Friday! The reason is that we were "hanging" our upcoming group art show Art Vivo! at the magnificent Brennan County Courthouse, the seat of government (and the Arts Council) in our county. This is our first experience curating and hanging a major art show (other than in our own sweet Galleria) and there is quite a learning curve...as a matter of fact, by 5pm on Friday we were finally getting the hang of it (sorry about the pun...you know I can't resist). It looks magnificent and the building itself is a major part of the wonder. This year begins the Centennial year for the Courthouse and we are highly honored to be the first exhibit of the new Centennial in the Rotunda Gallery

Brennan County Courthouse is one of the great buildings in the US and certainly one of the finest in NJ and Hudson County. Built originally in 1910, the building was closed for many years and almost demolished during those mid-20th Century years in which architects and city planners thought that anything old was not worth keeping (like the old Penn Station, priceless statues and all, now buried somewhere in the Meadowlands). By the 1960s, the courthouse was in terrible disrepair and was occupied by raccoons, mice and squirrels. The snow that fell on Jersey City at that time landed right on the main floor of the building. It was reopened in 1985 and has been wowing people ever since.

Hudson County, like New Jersey, is one of the most ethnically diversified places in the world and this, I believe, is one of our great strengths. The artists in Art Vivo! certainly reflect this. Jan Hinsch was born in Germany, Amado Mora in Ecuador, Sergio Rivero in Cuba, Ben Roman in Puerto Rico, Gerardo Latino in Nicaragua, Janet Diaz in Peru. Michele Papavasiliou Pattwell's parents are from Ireland and, well, Dexter Lane traces his heritage back to the Mayflower. Quite a diverse and fascinating group of artists and you will see the influences in their artwork.

Join us on Monday from 6 - 8pm at the Courthouse. You will see not only the work of eight amazing New Jersey artists, but also the soaring Corinthian columns, exquisite marble balconies, decorative scrolls, granite lion heads, a copper "victory torch" cupola, a bronze great seal of the State of New Jersey and marble pillars that support the most amazing stained glass dome (way up at the top) cirled by the astrological symbols! If that's not enticement enough, we will all be there (dressed to the 9s in ArtsEcho Galleria glory)!!! We are closing our charming little shop an hour early so we can celebrate (with great wine, food, company, neighbors, politicians, artists...)

Here's the info: 1/11/10, 6-8pm, Brennan Cty Courthouse, 575 Newark Ave, JC...or call us at 201-617-1110. Hope to see you there!

Warm regards,

Sandra and the ArtsEcho Galleria team, Lil, Ben, Karina, Crystal, Arianna & Lina

The New, the Old and the Vintage

Dear Friends:

Today we are jumping headlong into a decade for which we don't even have a name. The teens? The 10s? (Anyone?)

These historical milestones always make me think about the past. It's hard to believe that in the decade beginning with 1910, aviation really got off the ground (sorry....) with commercial planes, freight planes, stunt planes...and not one security check! Actually, it really is hard to believe, since the Wright brothers (intrepid bicycle mechanics that they were) had only invented the darn flying machine a few years earlier in 1903 in the backyard of their home (probably with their mom yelling at them from the kitchen to do their homework and stop wasting time trying to get a machine to fly in the air...ridiculous!)

During the 1910 decade, Henry Ford invented the assembly line and managed to sell 10,000 cars...many to his own workers to whom he paid a wage high enough to buy them! In 1915, my own BFF, Albert Einstein, invented his General Theory of Relativity (which I don't understand but I know it's mind-bogglingly important, emphasis on the mind-boggling). The unsinkable Titanic sank in 1912 and the Great War (nicknamed "The War to End All Wars" and later known as World War I...so much for nicknames) brought lots of inventions, many used to kill people, such as the tank and the machine gun. On the positive side, a First Class stamp cost only 2 pennies.

In the 1910 decade, modern women began wearing much looser clothing and abandoned the corset (and thereby stopped fainting all the time). Feathers were on every woman's hat, and lo and behold, they are back again! In honor of the past, we have put together a little album of photos of some of our spectacular vintage dresses and feather headpieces from the past century. And here are our own Lil, Arianna and Karina modeling them:

We wish you all a wonderful New Year with health, happiness, enough money, and most of all, lots of laughter.

Warm regards,

Sandra and the ArtsEcho team, Lil, Crystal, Ben, Arianna, Karina & Lina

PS: All week long is Buy One Get One Half Off week! This including our stunning and fabulous jewelry (and even those amazing vintage dresses...but Lil and Arianna don't go with them...)

An (Almost) End-of-Year Letter From Your Favorite Local Boutique/Art Gallery/Cabaret (...now who else could it be?)

Dear Friends:

Art will get you through times of no money

Better than money will get you through times of no art...

Have you ever thought what our lives would be like without the arts in all their vast and varied glory?

There would be no music...no Mozart, no Phoenix, no Beatles, no Abba

There would be no film or television...no Gone With the Wind, no MadMen, no Friends

There would be no actors...no Meryls, no Denzels, no Carys, no Audreys

There would be no storytelling...no oral history, no creative use of language

There would be no literature...no Jane Austen, no Pablo Neruda, no Mark Twain

There would be no humor...no jokes, no Chris Rock, no hilarious stories

There would be no painting or sculpture...no Monets, no DaVincis, no Kahlos

There would be no design...no useful objects, beautifully made

There would be no architecture...no warm and inviting houses to shelter and form us

There would be no fashion...no lovely fabric or jewelry with which to adorn ourselves

There would be no cuisine...no paella, no sushi, no ArtsEcho cheesecake!

Art is all of the creative accomplishments that have been achieved by ourselves and the twenty billion people who have gone before us on this planet. Art is of the highest importance in making our lives livable, enjoyable, meaningful, understandable.

This is our (possibly not too subtle, but only once a year) way of asking you to make an end-of-year, totally tax-exempt contribution to our extremely worthy non-profit organization, ArtsEcho. We use our charming, neighborhood-uplifting and warm little shop to present the most marvelous artists in our gallery (and sell their work with no commission). And as many of you know, we convert ourselves into a cabaret every so often to produce and present fantastic concerts right here since we believe that there is great value in experiencing superb live music in a close and intimate setting (for FREE)! All of this is done on the proverbial shoe-string budget by good people who care a great deal about art, community, our neighborhood, and the future. And just so we never get bored (LOL) we also produce and present the math show "Arithmetickles" for school assembly audiences thoughout the US.

If you want your donations to have a STRONG LOCAL IMPACT and to go to an organization that will use EVERY SINGLE PENNY of your contribution to promote its mission (and not to fly its Executive Director off to a meeting in the South of France...hmmm, that doesn't sound too bad), please consider making a donation to ArtsEcho. We are a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization and official New Jersey charity, and will IMMEDIATELY provide you with a lovely letter (for Uncle Sam) signed by me (the one who's not going to the South of France...darn).

Here are a few pictorial reminders of who we are, how hard we work, and how much fun we have doing it:

That's Karina after dressing her BFF, Raquelle, in a perfect-for-New-Year's-Eve-outfit; a surprised Arianna putting a scarf on the "lady lamp"; me at my desk after I cleaned it (!), and Ben F. demonstrating a new, handmade feather headband.

We wish you all a delightful Holiday season, a productive and healthy New Year (more on that next week) and time to relax and enjoy the good things in life.

Warm regards, Sandra and the ArtsEcho Galleria team, Lil (returning from Florida today), Crystal (snowmobiling in Maine), Ben, Arianna, Karina & Lina.

PS: Oh yes, "ArtsEcho" goes on the dotted line...and the address is 3809 Park Avenue, Union City, NJ 07087.

PPS: All this week our wonderful collection of clothing is on a TWOFER sale! That's TwoFer One Price!

PPPS: This week we're open M-W 11-7, Thurs 11-whenever (New Year's Eve...), closed Friday (January 1st...sleep, sleep, sleep!) and open Saturday 10-6. You can reach us at 201-617-1110 if you are as confused as I am.

PPPPS: More soon about the ArtsEcho Galleria exhibit in the Brennan County Courthouse Rotunda Gallery (this is a BIG honor for us!) opening on January 11. It's called "ART VIVO! A Wealth of New Jersey Artists" (and truer words were never spoken).

Why Are We Smiling At ArtsEcho Galleria?

Dear Friends:

Question: Why is our Arianna smiling in the following photo?

Answer: Because she is wearing one of our new, handmade white MINK headbands (you can't see the jewels and feathers on it, but they are there...) (Also, she's glad that she is standing next to peacock feathers and not the whole peacock.)

Question: Why is our Lil smiling in the following photo?

Answer: Because that ArtsEcho Gift Certificate says $1,000,000! (And, as you all know, Lil is worth every penny.) You, too, can get an ArtsEcho Gift Certificate (in a lovely envelope and adorable gift bag like the one in the photo) for $25 or $50 or $100,000...whatever....so that the special person(s) in your life can choose from among our amazing collection of gorgeous things like some of these great bags and scarves...(or even that vintage Sputnik lamps from the 60s!)

Last one:

Question: Why are we ALL smiling at ArtsEcho Galleria this week?

Answer: Because our wonderful new neighbors, the "Touch of Spice" Indian Restaurant is opening today! We are very excited about it since the owners, Prevan and Pepita (and all of Pepita's sisters) are among our favorite ArtsEcho friends. Last year they came into our charming little shop and asked if we thought an Indian restaurant in the "Watertower District" (that's our slice of Park Avenue heaven) would be a welcome addition. Well, after we finished jumping up and down and screaming "yessss" for 15 minutes, they got the idea. Yesterday Lil and I had the honor of being in the ribbon cutting ceremony (with the charming (and surprisingly funny!) Mayor Turner and Weehawken Councilfolk) and then SAMPLING THE FOOD. OMG...very, very delicious.

Merry Christmas to all, have a lovely week, stop by and see us, get a kiss (Hershey's, that is), soak up the warm and inviting atmosphere, buy some lovely gifts and try to RELAX!

Warm regards,

Sandra and the delightful ArtsEcho team, Lil, Crystal, Ben, Arianna, Karina, Lina & Dina.

PS: ON SALE THIS WEEK!!!!! CLOTHING AT (gasp!!) 50% off!!! OUR GORGEOUS ONE-OF-A-KIND JEWELRY, SUPER-DUPER TRENDY BAGS & COLORFUL SCARVES are 25% off!!!

PPS: We are at 3809 Park Ave, lest you forget, and we're open from 11-7 M-W, 11-8 Th (Friday is Christmas!!!!) and 10-6 on Sat.

PPPS: You can see lots more on our Facebook page. Please become a FAN! We're at "ArtsEcho". (I love Facebook...)

PPPPS: Please forward this to all of the trendy and cool people you know (and a few who aren't but could be if they shopped here!)