Home Care In New Brunswick, NJ

NEW BRUNSWICK – Andy Warhol’s photography is ready for its close-up at Rutgers.

The Zimmerli Art Museum’s latest exhibition, “Andy Warhol: On Repeat,” brings together the late pop artist’s early durational films and later serial photographs to examine repetition and duration as central forces in his art.

“They’re both so key to Warhol’s art, whether talking about his pop work like the Brillo boxes or the soup cans, or his film and photography,” said Jeremiah William McCarthy, the museum’s chief curator and curator of American art.

“It’s 2026, and everyone is experiencing media fatigue or struggling with attention and distraction. Repetition and duration are two techniques artists and others use to combat this. Warhol’s genius was to anticipate our media-saturated landscape.”

“On Repeat” opens Wednesday, Feb. 11, and continues through July 31 in the Voorhees Gallery of the museum at 71 Hamilton St.

The exhibition includes nearly 70 black-and-white photos and color Polaroids from the Zimmerli’s collection – some on view for the first time – as well as a suite of films on loan from the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.

A reception will be held during SparkNight from 5-8 p.m. on Feb. 12.

Additional events include Polaroid workshops on March 11 and April 16, and a family workshop on April 12.

The exhibition and the events are free.

McCarthy said the exhibit offers a rare look at how Warhol used time, stillness and seriality to “chart the shifting terrain of identity.”

Although Warhol’s pop imagery is known the world over, this exhibit reveals a deeper, more searching artist at work, McCarthy said.

The exhibition presents iconic films of well-known Warhol “Superstars,” including Edie Sedgwick, alongside lesser-exhibited examples from his screen tests, the nearly 500 durational film portraits the artist created during the mid-1960s.

They highlight figures from Warhol’s world, including avant-garde actors Rufus Collins and Kyoko Kishida, queer performer Mario Montez and Donyale Luna - the first Black model to appear on the covers of Harper's Bazaar and Vogue.

“The exhibition reflects our museum’s commitment to original scholarship, and it underscores our role as a place where familiar histories are reconsidered and reimagined for new generations,” said Maura Reilly, director of the museum.

Within the galleries, films such as 1966’s “Outer and Inner Space,” one of Warhol’s most formally and conceptually ambitious projects, are projected as wide as 16 feet to create immersive environments.

Polaroids are presented in vertical towers that evoke photobooth strips, and multiple photographs of the same individual or object reveal Warhol’s obsession with repetition and extended looking as not only a personal preoccupation but also a distinctly American commentary on visibility, performance and the limits of seeing.

Visitors will also be able to capture their own screen tests in an in-gallery interactive experience.

“Warhol understood that cameras don’t just record people, they transform them,” McCarthy said. “By filming a static sitter for three minutes or photographing someone repeatedly, Warhol preserved individuals either blooming or disappearing under the pressure of being seen. It remains a very relevant insight for our image-obsessed culture.”

originally published: 01/30/2026

Sun Ra: Do The Impossible, a feature length documentary by Christine Turner, is a cosmic journey into the life and work of the visionary jazz musician, composer and poet, Sun Ra. Poet, philosopher, Egyptologist, bandleader. Jazz visionary Sun Ra was all of these—and more. With his ever-evolving band the Sun Ra Arkestra, he produced more than 200 albums, stretching the boundaries of free-form jazz while weaving ancient Egypt, interstellar metaphors, and scientific musings into a singular musical and spiritual vision of Afrofuturism that continues to reverberate across generations. Director Christine Turner takes us on an illuminating journey through the life of this multi-faceted artist, gracefully balancing recollections from the Arkestra’s still-devout band members and dancers with insightful interviews from music scholars, and unforgettable film and performance footage of Sun Ra himself. The result is a portrait—informative, inspiring, and mind-bending—of a man whose audacious vision, otherworldly imagination, and uncompromising artistry helped shape not only the sound of jazz, but the cultural landscape of the 20th century and beyond.

Sun Ra: Do The Impossible screens at the New Jersey Film Festival on Friday, January 30, 2026 In-Person only at 7PM in Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901! Rutgers University Professor Alex Zamalin, who appears in the film and is a Sun Ra expert, will be doing a Q+A with the audience after the screening. Get more info and buy tickets here.

The 44th Bi-Annual New Jersey Film Festival will be taking place on select Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays between January 23-February 22, 2026. The Festival will be a hybrid one as we will be presenting it online as well as doing in-person screenings at Rutgers University. Most of the films will be available virtually via Video on Demand for 24 hours on their show date. VOD start times are at 12 Midnight Eastern USA. Each General Admission Ticket or Festival Pass purchased is good for both the virtual and the in-person when both are offered. The in-person screenings will be held in Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ beginning at 5PM or 7PM on their show date. General Admission Ticket=$15 Per Program; Festival All Access Pass=$120; In-Person Only Student Ticket=$10 Per Program. For more info on the Film festival go here:

Albert Gabriel Nigrin is an award-winning experimental media artist whose work has been screened throughout the world. He is also a Cinema Studies Lecturer at Rutgers University, and the Executive Director/Curator of the Rutgers Film Co-op/New Jersey Media Arts Center, Inc.

NEW BRUNSWICK – Sarah and Usra Attalla have spent weeks focused not so much on reinventing the wheel as figuring out how to make one that’s attention-grabbing, able to spin easily and light enough to hang on a storefront window.

Their contribution to the annual Windows of Understanding art installation project that kicks off Sunday and runs through March 31 is a wheel that will be displayed inside Gallo Felix restaurant at 160 French St.

The concept of the wheel was inspired by their partner organization, Meals on Wheels of Greater New Brunswick. Trying to figure out how to bring it to life was the kind of challenge the twin sisters and Mason Gross School of the Arts graduates relish.

“That’s part of being an artist,” Sarah said. “I feel like the trouble is like the problem-solving aspect or like a designer would face. Being a designer, a lot of is problem-solving and research. So, that’s kind of just something we expect in the process. And, the more you challenge yourself, the better the work comes out.”

“We had a professor at Mason Gross who used to say, ‘The bigger, the better,’” Usra said. “So if we made something 8 by 10 (inches), she would be like, ‘Why didn’t you make it 24 by 34?’ ”

“Then we were doing exhibitions that were like two walls,” Sarah continued. “It’s like we just expanded to just putting ourselves out there.”

Sarah and Usra, two of TAPinto New Brunswick’s People to Watch for 2026, want their art to underline Meals on Wheels’ motto: More than a meal.

The Meals on Wheels of Greater New Brunswick serves about 31,000 meals a year to mostly seniors living in New Brunswick, Highland Park, North Brunswick and Edison. While delivering one hot meal and one cold one, the Meals on Wheels volunteers often say hello or even strike up conversations. For their clients, this might be the only human contact they have all day.

That’s the part of Meals on Wheels’ service that has connected with Sarah and Usra.

So, not only will their artwork hang in the restaurant’s window, but there will be premade cards inside. Customers will be invited to write notes of compassion or messages of encouragement that will then be delivered with the meals.

Sarah and Usra will also be working with students in the New Brunswick Public School District. The students will also be writing notations on cards the twins designed. Then, Meals on Wheels volunteers will distribute them on their appointed routes.

“The purpose of art is that it invokes a reaction,” Sarah said. “And I think we love to uplift people, like seeing something that affects other people, seeing something that’s colorful, seeing something that is new, like different than what you usually see,” she said. “I want people to feel that there’s always someone there for other people and that the world can be more colorful.”

The twins are very close, but what would you expect when they were born 3 minutes apart? They get along great and rarely quarrel. When they do, it dissipates in minutes. They finish each other’s sentences and even ordered the same iced mocha latte drinks at a George Street shop one recent afternoon.

The way Usra puts it, it’s like having a built-in best friend.

They discovered art together, got accepted to Mason Gross together, took classes together and even started an organization there together. Muslim Feminists for the Arts was created to raise awareness about what Islam does for women. It became so successful that 150 people attended the opening exhibition.

After graduation, there’s been a few ups and downs. The COVID-19 pandemic led to layoffs. There’s also been mini-projects for friends and acquaintances and part-time gigs.

Usra is now working in pharmaceutical advertising, Sarah is in commercial advertising.

They’re both on hybrid schedules, so they sit side by side on the bus to New York when they have to go into the office. On work-from-home days, they work in close quarters.

This will be the fourth year that they are contributing to Windows of Understanding, an urban art initiative that began in New Brunswick in 2017 with the vision of using art to transform window fronts at shops, hotels and offices into spaces where the community can learn about positive strides being taken by local organizations around a wide array of social justice issues.

Although Windows of Understanding has since spread to Highland Park, Metuchen, South Plainfield, Rahway, and – for the first time – Perth Amboy, it continues to use art to spread educational messages about some of the partner organizations.

This year’s participating organizations include Global Grace Health, Elijah’s Promise, Middlesex RIDE, Replenish, Latino Action Network, Human Rights Watch Coalition of New Jersey, the New Jersey Consortium for Immigrant Children, DIRE (Deportation & Immigration Response Equipo) and Fish, Inc., in addition to Meals on Wheels.

For Sarah and Usra, the idea of getting their design approved before they knew how it was going to be constructed is part of the process.

“To me, just a blank paper is scary,” Usra said. “Before you start something, it’s like, ‘OK, there’s nothing here. How am I going to make something? You just kind of have to trust the process.”

Other New Brunswick People to Watch in 2026:

Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill and Lt. Gov.-elect Dale Caldwell announced their pre-inaugural schedule on Wednesday, a series of events that include a scholarship breakfast and a museum discount day.

On Friday, Sherrill and Caldwell will attend an interfaith prayer service in New Brunswick and a Veterans and Military Family Appreciation Day event in East Rutherford.

Sherrill said she is “excited to celebrate Inauguration Day with people across the state and for the chance to speak with our faith communities, veterans, military families, and residents ahead of taking the oath of office. At a time when partisanship and division are rising, I look forward to bringing people together, honoring our state’s proud history, and continuing the long tradition of peaceful transfers of power in our state.”

On Saturday, Caldwell will promote Free and Discounted Museum Day, with stops at the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton and the Battleship New Jersey Museum in Camden.

The museums also participating in Free/Discounted day include: Liberty Science Center, The Hermitage, Edelman Fossil Park & Museum, Red Mill Museum, New Jersey Aviation Hall of Fame, Nordlandz, Paranormal Museum, Monmouth Museum, Sterling Hill Mine, and New Jersey Maritime Museum.

On Sunday, the day before Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Caldwell, a pastor, will hold an MLK Day service in New Brunswick. Later that afternoon, he’ll help in a Jersey Cares Coat Sorting event in Freehold.

On Monday, Caldwell will attend the 45th Annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Scholarship Breakfast in Princeton, and Sherrill will attend an MLK Day service event in Camden. Sherrill will attend a soup kitchen event in Trenton later that morning.

“It’s fitting we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. and bring our state together to celebrate our democracy one day after another,” Caldwell said. “It was only through the tireless advocacy of Dr. King and millions across our state and country that we were able to make our democracy truly equal by guaranteeing the right to vote for all.”

Sherrill’s swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday will be held at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, and her inaugural ball later that night will be at the American Dream mall in East Rutherford. Before swearing in, though, Sherrill and Caldwell will attend the Military Park Inauguration Day Festival in Newark.

This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Researchers seek participants for a federally funded study to determine if benfotiamine, a synthetic version of thiamine (vitamin B1), can h

Researchers at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick are enrolling participants in the National Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study, which seeks to determine whether benfotiamine, a synthetic form of thiamine (vitamin B1), can help slow cognitive decline in people with mild cognitive impairment and early Alzheimer’s disease.

Rutgers is one of about 40 sites in the United States and the only site in New Jersey. This 18-month, Phase 2 clinical trial will evaluate whether benfotiamine, an oral, easily absorbed form of thiamine, can improve cognitive function and help preserve or potentially improvement participants ability to carry out daily routine activities.

“Over 7 million people in the U.S. are living with Alzheimer’s disease and an estimated 200,000 Americans ages 30 to 64 have younger-onset dementia, which underscores the need for new treatment options for people living with this progressive disease,” said Fred Kobylarz, a professor at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in the Parker Health Group Division of Geriatrics and principle investigator of the study, citing figures from the Alzheimer's Association.

Kobylarz, a geriatrician at Rutgers Health and the RWJBarnabas Health Medical Group, said the brain needs glucose for energy, “but in people with Alzheimer’s disease, brain cells often struggle to process that fuel. Benfotiamine works by significantly raising the levels of thiamine in the blood – up to 100 times higher than normal. It also reduces harmful changes to proteins and other molecules that depend on thiamine, including inflammation, buildup of harmful compounds that stick to proteins and form plaques and tangles that lead to nerve cell damage.”

By increasing thiamine levels, the treatment aims to help cells process glucose more efficiently, reduce inflammation and stop the buildup of harmful proteins that damage nerve cells.

Researchers are enrolling 10 to 15 participants between 50 and 89 years old who are experiencing mild memory concerns or have been diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease. Participants can be living at home or in an assisted living facility and should be steady on their current medications for at least three months.

Participants will take benfotiamine or placebo twice daily for 18 months, attend periodic clinic visits for memory tests, blood work and MRI scans and will be monitored for safety and participate with a study partner.

This trial builds upon research from a 12-month, single-site pilot trial in people with early Alzheimer’s disease demonstrated benfotiamine was safe and well tolerated, with encouraging results in how the body processed and responded to the treatment. The study, published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease in 2020, suggested a slowed rate of cognitive decline in 35 participants with cases of mild cognitive impairment or early Alzheimer's disease who took 300 mg benfotiamine pills twice daily.

For more information on the clinical trial, email Fei Chen at [email protected] or call 732-667-0746.