‘Italian Ice’ by Philadephia-based artist Jim Brossy. Photo courtesy of Noyes Arts Garage of Stockton University
(ATLANTIC CITY, NJ) -- The Noyes Arts Garage of Stockton University will open three new summer exhibitions on July 11, 2026 — one documenting how the COVID-19 pandemic affected city businesses, one featuring the "crackpot realism" of artist Jim Brossy, and the third highlighting the works of multidisciplinary artist Thomas Murray.
Two Stockton professors enlisted help from their students to put together “Documenting Resilience on Atlantic Ave,” which features Atlantic City’s small businesses during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Through photography and oral histories, the exhibition captures storefronts and the voices of business owners who endured the shutdown and then reopened.
Christy W. Goodnight, assistant professor of Business Studies, interviewed the businesses and storefronts with the help of Stockton students in one of her classes. Christina Walley, a Visual Arts adjunct faculty member, took many of the photos of the owners and the stores along Atlantic Avenue. She tried to highlight both the positive and negative aspects of the pandemic.
Dock’s Oyster House Executive Chef Stephan Johnson is featured as one of the businesses in the “Documenting Resilience on Atlantic Ave” exhibit. Photo courtesy of Noyes Arts Garage of Stockton University
“Documenting Resilience on Atlantic Ave” opens July 11 and runs through September 24.
Crackpot realism is an artform that uses a variety of materials, including tar, latex, cement, wax and string, along with traditional art materials such as acrylic, pastel, pencil and oil to create surfaces that carry both a literal and figurative gravity to the subjects. Brossy is a Philadelphia-based artist who earned a bachelor's degree in Visual Art from Rutgers University in 1979 and a Master of Fine Arts from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1999.
Murray’s exhibition is titled “Earth and Sky.” The Rowan professor has completed residencies in Assisi, Italy, at “Artestudio Ginestrella” and in Puebla, Mexico, at “Arquetopia,” where he was awarded an honors residency. He’s also had solo exhibitions at the Morean Arts Center in his hometown of St. Petersburg, Florida, and the Brownsville Museum of Fine Art in Texas.
Brossy’s and Murray’s exhibitions open on July 4 and close on October 3.
An example of artwork by Thomas Murray featured in the exhibit titled ‘Earth and Sky.’ Image courtesy of Noyes Arts Garage of Stockton University
An Opening reception for all three exhibits will take place on Saturday, July 11 at the Arts Garage, 2200 Fairmount Ave., in Atlantic City from 1:00pm to 3:00pm. Admission is free. The garage is open Wednesday through Sunday from 11:00am to 6:00pm. For more information, call 609-626-3805.
Stockton University is ranked among the top public universities in the nation. Our students can choose to live and learn on the 1,600-acre wooded main campus in the Pinelands National Reserve in South Jersey and at our coastal residential campus just steps from the beach and Boardwalk in Atlantic City. The university offers more than 160 undergraduate and graduate programs.
