In the Arts

The fourth annual Walt Whitman Poetry Festival will take place Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., at Auditorium Square Park, Ocean Grove. Sixty-two award-winning New Jersey poets will be reading, leading workshops, lectures, tutorials and open mics. There will be walking tours of The Grove. The event is free. For information, call (732) 741-8966 or e-mail whitman festival@aol.com.

The Arts Coalition of Asbury Park (ArtsCAP) is featuring Asbury Park's own Ray Sternesky in a solo show at the John C. Conover Real Estate Agency, 200 Main St. (corner of Cookman) Oct. 7-14. The opening of the show coincides with Asbury Park's First Saturday festivities. Sternesky's lyrical, evocative vignettes of Asbury Park's landmarks are featured on banners hung throughout the city.

Art Deco, jazz trio-in-residence at Brookdale Community College, will showcase some of the best music that jazz has to offer Oct. 7 at 8 p.m. at the college's Performing Arts Center, 765 Newman Springs Road, Lincroft. Tickets are $20, $15 for seniors (62+), $5 for BCC students with ID. For tickets and information, call (732) 224-2411 or e-mail to pac@brookdalecc.edu.

The Art Society of Monmouth County welcomes art enthusiasts to its Oct. 18 meeting at the Monmouth Beach Cultural Center, 128 Ocean Ave. A social half-hour with refreshments begins at 10:30 a.m. followed by an informative presentation on creating pastel portraits by artist Elaine Smith.

An exhibit of works by art society members will run Oct. 7 to Dec. 27 at Little Silver Borough Hall, 480 Prospect Ave. The juried exhibit is the annual H. & E. Luhrs Show, made possible through the Luhrs Endowment Fund. For additional information, call (732) 229-3377.

Kathy Shumway-Tunney, award-winning pastel artist, is the juror for the Guild of Creative Art's 14th annual open juried show.

Media include oil, watercolor, pastel, colored pencil, pen and ink, acrylic, sculpture, photography, mixed media and collage. An opening reception will be held Sunday, Oct. 8, 3-5 p.m. Awards will be presented at 4 p.m. and the exhibit will continue through Oct. 26. Artists 18 years and older who would like to submit one or two original pieces of artwork should contact the guild at (732) 741-1441 for a prospectus. The guild is located at 620 Broad St., Shrewsbury. Hours at the gallery are noon to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday. For information, visit www.Guildofcreativeart.com.

"Metro 24," a traveling exhibit, is currently featured in the Hallway Gallery at the Monmouth Museum and Cultural Center. More than 50 small works by dozens of artists from Newark and the New York metro area are included in the exhibition, which runs through Nov. 4. "Metro 24" is City Without Wall's 24th consecutive annual small works show, which travels to more than a dozen venues throughout the state. For more information, call (973) 622-1188 or visit www.cwow.org. The museum is located on the Brookdale Community College campus in Lincroft. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Sunday 1-5 p.m. Admission is $6. For information, call the museum at (732) 747-2266.

Monmouth Players presents J.B. Priestley's "An Inspector Calls" Oct. 7, 14, 20, 21, 27 and 28 at 8:15 p.m. and Oct. 8, 15 and 22 at 2:30 p.m. at the Navesink Library Theatre at the corner of Sears and Monmouth avenues in the Navesink section of Middletown. Tickets are $15, and $12 for seniors and students. For reservations or further information, call Lori at (732) 291-9211 or visit www.monmouthplayers.org

The Monmouth Conservatory of Music Youth & Children's Chorus, Red Bank, is accepting new members ages 7-18 for the fall semester. Vocal training is provided by an experienced choral director. Acceptance is by audition limited to voice typing, pitch and rhythm matching. Rehearsals are Monday evenings at 6 p.m. for grades two through six, and 7 p.m. for grades seven through 12 at Trinity Church hall, 50 White St., Red Bank. Tuition for the fall semester is $150. The last day to join for fall is Oct. 16. For audition information, call (732) 741-8880.

The Fall 2006 Visiting Writers Series at Brookdale Community College will present a reading by Robert Olen Butler, author of 10 novels and three volumes of short fiction, including his Pulitzer Prize-winning collection, "A Good Scent From a Strange Mountain," Wednesday, Oct. 11. Butler is director of the creative writing program at Florida State University in Tallahassee. The presentation will be held in the Warner Student Life Center, Navesink Room III, beginning at 7 p.m. A donation of $3 at the door will support the activities of the English Club. For more, contact Laura McCullough, director of the series, at (732) 224-2053 or e-mail to lmccullough@brookdalecc.edu.

An exhibit of works by members of the Freehold Art Society will be at the Monmouth Museum's Nilson Gallery Oct. 13-Nov. 12. An opening reception will be held Oct. 13, 6-8 p.m. Gallery hours are Tuesday-Saturday 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Sunday 1-5 p.m. The museum is located on the campus of Brookdale Community College, Lincroft. Admission is $6.

For information, call (732) 747-2266 or visit www.freeholdartsociety.homestead.com.