Film Festival Schedule, Exhibit Opening and More at MAM's Free First Thursdays

The Montclair Art Museum will offer free admission and be open late between 5 to 9 p.m. on Thursday.

Free First Thursday Nights at the museum, located at 3 S. Mountain Ave., will include access to current exhibits The New Spirit: American Art in the Armory Show 1913, and Oscar Bluemner's America: Picturing Paterson, New Jersey.

Tours of Oscar Bluemner's America: Picturing Paterson, NJ will be offered every hour on the half hour — 5:30, 6:30 and 7:30 p.m.

There will be a full-service bar with special prices at the event provided by Egan & Sons Restaurant and Bar. The bar will be cash only. Live music will be provided by the Montclair State University John J. Cali School of Music Jazz Studies Program, led by saxophonist Dan Braden.

The opening of Bloomfield Avenue Hotline will also be at 6:30 p.m. The Hotline is a joint project by artists Karina Aguilera Skvirsky and Liselot van der Heijden, who were selected to be the first Bloomfield Avenue Prize. 

A lecture will be offered at 7 p.m. with Adrienne Baxtor Bell about how Montclair's terrain inspired artist George Inness to produce some of the greatest contributions to 19th-century American art.

This lecture is in conjunction with the year long Montclair State series "Jersey: A Sense of Place."

At 8:30 p.m., Montclair Film Festival Artistic Director Thomas Powers will give the first public presentation of the lineup for the second festival going on between April 29 to May 5.

This year's festival has plans for over 80 films and events, almost doubling in size from last year. Powers will take you behind the scenes of how films are selected and answer questions to give you an insider's look at how this event comes together.

A drawing workshop will be offered, too. Grab a pencil and some paper and try your hand at sketching with one of the Yard School of Art's teaching artists. Take your turn at drawing from a live model or observe as an expert captures a likeness. Supplies are provided for this free activity.