Arts group and Woodbury in tiff bad for both

To understand what the arts can do for a place like Woodbury, visit the city's "American Quilt" bridge.

The once-drab span near downtown was transformed into a beauty spot 15 years ago, thanks to the late painter Narcissa Weatherbee's grassroots mural-making project.

"People would be walking by and say, 'How nice,' " says Weatherbee's collaborator, printmaker Doris Nogueira-Rogers. "We'd say, 'Do you want to paint?' It was all about community participation."

With its intricate, lavishly colored panels depicting Woodbury's history and heritage, the 101-year-old bridge on Hunter Street still delights the eye.

But Nogueira-Rogers and other artists involved in similar but more recent ventures - sponsored by what has been renamed the FAF (Fall Arts Festival) Coalition - contend that official Woodbury is thwarting the nonprofit group's efforts to revitalize itself and the city.

FAF's 2012 and 2013 festivals, which showcased dozens of local artists and featured live music, drew thousands of people downtown.

But founder Jacqualynn Knight says plans to expand the number of events in 2014, after FAF split from the dominant downtown promotional group Main Street Woodbury, were essentially "shut down" by City Hall.

"People don't want to see things change around here," says Knight, who moved to the city in 2004. "I have no idea why. Because FAF wasn't their idea? Because they couldn't control it? Because it was too big, too successful?"

Although the city of just over 10,000 people has a rich history, attractive neighborhoods, and beautiful parks, downtown has struggled since Deptford Mall opened in 1975. Except during business hours, there's not much life on Broad Street.

"I wish they [FAF] would put on more events," Mayor Bill Volk says. "I fully support them."

He says "hurt feelings" arose because the city has legitimate concerns about liability and public safety.

"People are taking it personally," Volk adds. "But I understand they want to have events and do things right for the community."

Woodbury "has been supportive of FAF and numerous other organizations," City Council President David Trovato says in an e-mail. "We are anxiously awaiting future events FAF might have."

"Their success," says Councilman Dave Swanson, also by e-mail, "is a success for Woodbury."

The city government has an unusual way of showing support, say FAF-ers, as they call themselves.

New municipal regulations about alcohol sales at outdoor events - implemented after FAF sought to host three such fund-raisers last year - went "overboard," says Knight, who participated in negotiations about the measure.

"Nobody was talking about having a frat party downtown," says Tim Zatzariny Jr., a former colleague of mine who lives in Woodbury and is a FAF volunteer. "We weren't putting on Mardi Gras."

Making the regulations - now under review, the mayor acknowledges - even more galling to FAF, Zatzariny adds, the requirements were not fully followed when another organization sold alcohol at a recent event.

Whether a required fence wasn't erected at some downtown bash or another is of much less concern to me than whether Woodbury, a city with no shortage of problems, can figure out a way to embrace what FAF brings to the table.

If turf (of which there's also no shortage in Woodbury) prevails, the city will squander a source of civic energy, enthusiasm, and know-how other towns would kill for.

"You have to have a vision," Nogueira-Rogers says, standing on the bridge that wouldn't exist as a work of art were it not for Narcissa Weatherbee's vision.

"You have to be adventurous."