Jim Toia & Lee Upton reception for "The Never Lost Forest" exhibition at The Hunterdon Art Museum

Jim Toia and poet Lee Upton are collaborating on a new project, The Never Lost Forest, which will be on view from September 21, 2025, through January 11, 2026 with an opening reception on Sept. 21 at the Hunterdon Art Museum in Clinton, NJ. This is Upton and Toia’s second collaboration and will focus on Upton’s poems and thoughts on forests and trees, which were interpreted, articulated and produced by Toia in the Hunterdon Art Museum’s River Gallery.

Toia worked with Lafayette senior and CaPA scholar Duncan White this summer in the Art Department's 3D and tech lab on their laser curtter in the Williams Visual Arts Building to cultivate works on a variety of organic materials to help Toia material his vision for Uptons poems. Toia and Upton started working on ideas for their collaboration four years ago when Toia approcahed Upton asking if she would write some short works meditsting on trees and forests. Upton produced a myriad of one sentence poems along with longer works for Toia's contemplation. The project resulted in a dozen works, eight of which will be on view unti January 11, 2026.

The museum will host two additional programs, an evening on Oct. 2 with the artists including a short discussion about the collaboration and a book reading by each artist, who both have books being published this year. 

And a poem and art workshop on November 11 at 1:00 PM. For more information contact the Hunterdon Art Museum at info@hunterdonartmuseum.org, 908.735.8415.