Kafi Benz (born 1941) is an American author and artist who began participation in social entrepreneurship through environmental preservation and regional planning in 1959 as a member of the Jersey Jetport Site Association, which opposed plans by the New York Port Authority to found a new airport in the Great Swamp, the central feature of a massive 55-square-mile watershed in New Jersey bounded to the south and east by the Watchung Mountains, 30 miles west of Manhattan.Great Swamp in New Jersey, Donated to Government as Wildlife Area, to be Dedicated , United States Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, May 25, 1964, P.N.46917-64
During the 1980s, she also became very active in historic preservation, founding a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, Friends of Seagate Inc., for that purpose. The organization later was expanded to include concerns for additional areas in the arts and sciences. At the same time, she founded the official web site of the sculptor Jim Gary. In 2001, it was moved to another web site she created and planned to be able to feature other artists as well, Kafi Benz Productions.Kafi Benz Productions is a web site that in 2001 succeeded the Jim Gary Web Site by Kafi Benz
Early life Born during 1941 in Chatham, New Jersey, her mother was a commercial artist, graphic designer, and illustrator and her father was a prominent physician and surgeon who also was chief of staff at a hospital in Morristown, president of several medical societies, and trustee of the state medical association.
Initial environmental conservation The Jersey Jetport Site Association was a small, but effective conservation organization, circumventing the efforts of the Port Authority to replace Newark Airport with a much larger complex farther to the west. After infiltrating meetings of the powerful authority headed by Austin J. Tobin, that were held to marshal support among construction companies and unions, the members of the association distributed opposition literature and drew public attention to its efforts. Greater opposition arose among the residents of the massive area that would be affected once the issue was revealed by coverage of the expulsion of four of the JJSA members (Kafi Benz, Joan Kelly, Esty Weiss, and Betty White) from a meeting at a Newark hotel, the Essex House, in a local newspaper, the Newark Evening News, on Thursday, December 3, 1959.Hamilton, Leonard W., PhD, Keynote Address to the Tenth Anniversary Celebration , Ten Towns Committee (Great Swamp Watershed Management Committee), Sustainable Stewardship, June 24, 2005 Coverage quickly included publications such as the New York Times.Dean, Clarence, Plan for Airport Argued in Jersey; Port Authority Expert Takes Stump in Madison but Audience Is Dubious, The New York Times, January 14, 1960, page 34, U.S. edition
The JJSA was closely followed by a sister organization, a new sub-committee founded in Washington, D.C. within the North American Wildlife Foundation, and these combined efforts led quickly to the establishment of the park that would become the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge by an act of Congress on Thursday, November 3, 1960. Residents such as Geraldine R. Dodge and Marcellus Hartley Dodge, Sr. contributed the funds necessary to purchase the core of the swamp as the legal opposition progressed into a victory for the preservationists that led to the perpetual protection of the important natural habitat. Along with providing the funds to seek other donors, the influence of such prominent residents opened doors to legislators. Marcellus Dodge also was instrumental in establishing dialogue with established conservation groups.
The initial donation of land to the federal government as a park was . The park now consists of or almost 12 square miles of varied habitats. It was declared a National Natural Landmark in 1966 and given wilderness status in 1968.
During the final period of the founding of the park, United States Secretary of the Interior Stewart Lee Udall headed the federal department that was in charge of parks. He supported the efforts of these conservationists and commented that he believed they mounted the greatest effort ever made by residents in America to protect a natural habitat. Several national news magazines also noted the success the tiny organization achieved.
In 2023, her home town named a room of a new municipal community center in one of its historic buildings to honor Benz for her role in the effort to protect the Great Swamp.Stanley Center, Chatham, New Jersey
Fine arts activities In the late 1960s, Benz became a director of the Somerset Art Association,The Center for Contemporary Art (formerly known as the Somerset Art Association) is a regional art center with a comprehensive studio art school then located in Bernardsville, New Jersey, exhibited fine art, and participated in the planning and administration of its annual competitive regional art show. The organization has been renamed as, The Center for Contemporary Art (CCA), is located in Bedminster, and is noted as a regional art center with a comprehensive studio art school, professional exhibition program, and a community outreach component. Her painting and sculpture works are held in private collections in several states. Occasionally sitting as a model for sculpture classes taught at the association by Berta Margoulies (a 1946 Guggenheim fellowship recipient),Art: Sculpture in Manhattan, Time, Monday, April 25, 1938 – review of exhibition by a Manhattan Sculptors Guild organized by fifty-eight sculptors, "able and varied work was on hand [by sculptors] William Zorach, Warren Wheelock, Harold Cash, Herbert Ferber, José de Creeft, Chaim Gross, Maurice Glickman, Hy Freilicher, Berta Margoulies, Concetta Scaravaglione..." from magazine archivesBerta Margoulies O'Hare obituary, Friday, March 22, 1996, San Francisco Chronicle, page A.22 many sculptures of Benz have been exhibited by these students. At that time a friendship with sculptor Jim Gary developed that would lead to her representing the sculptor at many times, eventually becoming his publicist, creating Wayback Machine display of portions of the original site and maintaining the official web site for Gary and his work,Jim Gary's Twentieth Century Dinosaurs , Kafi Benz Productions, September 22, 2009 and becoming the director of his studio, Jim Gary's Twentieth Century Dinosaurs, marketing and placing his works and exhibition.
When Gary died in January 2006, Benz established a memorial fund and led efforts to bring about the placement of sculptures from his traveling exhibition,retrieved January 2006 from web site of Belk College of Business of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte as a single collection in a suitable museum or institution where the sculptures in the collection would remain open to the public.Benz, Kafi, Sculptor Jim Gary Memorial Fund - and early tributes, Jim Gary Website by Kafi Benz, the first version of the official Jim Gary site published on Kafi Benz Productions (kafi-benz.com), Wayback Machine archive copyTalbot, Jonathan, Jim Gary's Twentieth Century Dinosaurs, archive and studio of sculptor Jim Gary, The Arts Map, March 20, 2012, Wayback Machine archive copy By 2009, negotiations with a site in Sarasota seemed assured and much publicity ensued,Cougars move over, dinosaurs on the way, Longboat Key News, September 25, 2009, p.15 through 2010. That contract was not executed, however, and negotiations were redirected successfully to a museum in Tallahassee.Tallahassee Museum will host Jim Gary sculpture exhibit, Kafi Benz Productions, August 22, 2011
In August 2011, twenty-one Gary sculptures were packed into vans and moved from Colts Neck, New Jersey for a ten-year display at the Tallahassee Museum in Florida.Martin, Laura, Jersey's Loss is Florida's Gain: Remembering an Arts Icon, Jim Gary Sculptures Move to Tallahassee Museum, Asbury Park Press, 2011.09.12 Entertainment, the Arts, front page When National Geographic Magazine was unable to meet the schedule, Benz invited three free-lance photographers to document the preparations and complex move with videos and still photographs.Moving Jim Gary works from Colts Neck , Kafi Benz Productions, September 13, 2011
She represented painter Lee W. Hughes also, principally while he was a transparent watercolor artist,Lee W. Hughes Legacy – Juried Art Show, Bernardsville Public Library, Bernardsville, New Jersey, June 21 through July 30, 2007 honored the artist with a studio and gallery in Mendham, New Jersey. She also represented his wife and her longtime friend, pencil medium artist Sue Hughes (née McQuillan), while she was working out of a studio in New Jersey and later, in California.
A search committee headed by Virginia Laudano,Slide show of significant paintings prompted by the 9-11 terrorist attacks, L J World, featured a painting by Virginia Laudano, accessed 2001 of the Art Club of Sun City Center,Art Club in Sun City Center, Sun City Center, Florida, September 2011, newsletter includes a photograph of three instructors, including Virginia Laudano invited Kafi Benz to judge its thirty-sixth annual art show held during February 2003Sun City art show today, St. Petersburg Times, Brandon Times on-line version, published February 7, 2003, 36th annual show held by SCC in February 2003 jointly with the prominent Tampa Bay areaGainor Roberts listing , The Arts Map, Robin Colodzin and Jonathan Talbot Gainor Web Site multi-media artist, Gainor Roberts.Gainor Roberts Fine Art America profile Soon thereafter, Benz participated in a project with transparent watercolor artist, John Crawford, to publish his research of an early Renoir painting of Marie Le Coeur, that was among his art collection since its acquisition in Chicago during the 1930s.Johnson, Rachel, Local Man Discovers Masterpiece, The Sun, a Media General Publication, August 8, 2001 He is the namesake of the John Crawford Art Education Studio that was created after his death at SouthShore Regional Library of Hillsborough County,SouthShore Regional Library , Ruskin, Florida which now features many of his own paintings.John Crawford Art Rooms shown on the lower right The planned book was not published before his death.
Murals and film Among several positions working with Denise Kowal, the founder of the Sarasota Chalk Festival, in 2012, Benz became the manager of its mural committee, ‘’Going Vertical’’, locating sites and co-ordinating the work of the international artists who performed their work as muralists on buildings in the region as part of the festival. During this time she developed a relationship with the French graffiti artist, MTO,Street art and murals by MTO, Flicker, accessed 2012.10.12Hyper realistic street art portraits by MTO that eventually, led to Benz being identified by him as the curator for several of the murals he later created independently.Road Trip mural on The Players theater in SarasotaMTO's Road Trips In Sarasota and Miami, Florida, Urbanite, November 29, 2013MTO – Road Trip Part 2 New Mural @ Florida, USA, Ozarts Etc, December 3, 2013