JERSEY CITY, NJ.-Jersey City Museum is pleased to present Introducing: Hunt and Gather with Michelle Loughlin and Paddy Johnson on Thursday, December 20th, at 7pm. Introducing is a program designed to address current issues in art. Its goal is to push the boundaries of the museum further into the community by inviting those who write about, think about, curate, or make art to tell us what they are looking at now.

Michelle Loughlin, artist and producer of a new website designed to show case women artists, exhibitions, and books will talk with Art Fag City blogger and sound artist Paddy Johnson about their work and their lives in the art world. The discussion will be geared towards skills emerging artists’ need like writing press releases, curating shows, and the art scene in general.

Michelle Vitale Loughlin is an artist, independent curator, and educator who lives and works in Jersey City. In 1999, Loughlin began to explore fibrous materials with paint and created a series of exhibitions showcasing these hybrid forms. In 2004, the artist received a Puffin Foundation Grant to purchase a knitting machine and since then Ms. Loughlin has used a knitting machine to create large-scale architectural forms for a variety of national and international institutions including Jersey City Museum, Hogar Collection, NY, and Casaterra Artist Residency Program, Italy.

Paddy Johnson, born in Canada, received her MFA from Rutgers and is a sound artist. She is author of the blog Art Fag City, is a web designer and art critic who lives and works in Brooklyn. Her writing has been featured in the New York Observer, Flavorpill, FlashArt, NYFA Current, ArtKrush and has built and maintained several websites viewed by over 25,000 people monthly. She has lectured at Yale University and the Whitney Independent Study Program and will be attending the icommons conference this year in Croatia as a visiting critic. Paddy also writes a regular column on art film and video for The Reeler.

Jersey City Museum’s gallery hours are Wednesday and Friday from 11am to 5pm, Thursday from 11am to 8pm and weekends from 12pm to 5pm. Admission is $4 for adults, $2 for seniors and students, and free for children under 12 and museum members. Admission is free for all on Thursday evenings from 5 to 8pm. Jersey City Museum is located at 350 Montgomery Street at Monmouth in the Historic Downtown District of Jersey City, within walking distance of the Grove Street PATH and Jersey Avenue Light Rail stations. For more information, visit www.jerseycitymuseum.org or call 201-413-0303.