About Museum of Whimsical Art!
The MUSEUM OF WHIMSICAL ART (MOWA) was established by Jeff Denholtz in 2007. It is located at 169 Smithtown Road, Mount Olive (GPS Hackettstown) and it can be visited FREE by appointment only. Call Jeff Denholtz 201-315-3094 for appointments. MOWA offers scholarships to high school students who produce whimsical art. Visit our student benefits page for rules and more information and explore art work in our gallery page.
NONPROFIT STATUS: The museum is a 501 C(3) non-profit organization.
About Jeffrey Denholtz
Executive Director, Museum of Whimsical Art
Jeffrey Denholtz, a resident of Mount Olive Township, New Jersey, completed his first oil painting in first grade. The principal at Mount Pleasant Elementary School in Livingston, NJ liked it so much that he hung it in his office. Since then, he has been painting as a self-taught artist following in his father’s (Melvin Denholtz) footsteps who often created whimsical art. Jeff enjoys creating whimsical art too. Whimsical art expresses humor and light hearted images. In his early days, Jeff was influenced by surrealists, Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte. Later he became more influenced by pop artists, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Tom Wesselmann and others.
Today, Jeff’s art work is uniquely his own style characterized by 3D protrusions attached to his canvases. The 3D component usually imparts humor. When a viewer smiles or chuckles at his art, Jeff feels delightfully affirmed. Jeff believes that much art produced within the professional art world has become stuffy, pretentious, complicated, and frequently not relatable to many art viewers. Whimsical art images, on the other hand, are immediately clear and understandable.
Our Board of Directors:
Jeff Denholtz
Budd Lake resident, artist & Executive Director
Richard Reiss
West Orange resident, art collector & connoisseur
Lloyd Leone
Flanders resident, board member of other non-profit organizations
Don Fast
Roxbury resident, entrepreneur, board member of other non-profit organizations
Cheryl Blakut
Roxbury resident, art liaison with school boards. Advisor to the executive director.
