Monmouth County art show to honor murdered NJ woman Sarah Stern

🎨 An Asbury Park art show next week is in honor of Sarah Stern

🎨 Donations collected will benefit a scholarship in her name to help budding artists

🎨 Local artists, along with Sarah's art will be showcased

ASBURY PARK — A Monmouth County art show will be held next week to honor Sarah Stern, the young woman from Neptune City who was murdered in 2016 by a former friend for money.

The first-ever Sarah Stern Memorial Art Show, coordinated by her cousin, Lindsey Bahr, also a local artist, will be held on March 25th, the day after what would have been Stern’s 26th birthday at the Bond Street Basement Bar in Asbury Park from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m., said Sarah’s father, Michael Stern.

About 20 local artists will be on hand to showcase their artwork and Sarah’s art is also expected to be on display, as well.

Attendees are invited to make $5 donations, which will go to the Sarah Stern Memorial Scholarship for the Arts at Neptune High School, which has been in existence for six years now.

Every year the art department at Neptune High School picks a few students who are interested in art either as a career or a vocation.

“The idea was to give them a little bit of scholarship money to pursue their career,” Stern’s father said.

Eligible scholarship winners must be graduating high school seniors.

Stern loved everything about art and she was so creative, her dad said. She dabbled in everything from pencil drawings to watercolors, to painting, to sculpting, and multi-media art.

“After her mother died, it was something that she got into very heavily and she just directed all her efforts to that and she became a very talented artist within a few years,” Stern’s father said.

His daughter just enjoyed being creative and exploring all avenues of art. She especially loved animation and drawing various Disney characters.

Since his daughter never got the chance to see where her artistic talent would take her in life, Stern said he wants this art show to be for those who love art and who loved Sarah. “If your passion is art, you should pursue it,” he said.

He said it’s great to see art created and hopefully, the art show dedicated to Sarah will bring out other budding artists.

Stern vanished on Dec. 2, 2016, after her car had been found abandoned on the Route 35 bridge between Belmar and Neptune earlier in the day. Even though her body has never been found, Stern’s high school friend Liam McAtasney was convicted of strangling the 19-year-old and enlisted Stern’s prom date, Preston Taylor to help throw her body off the bridge.

Prosecutors argued that McAtasney killed Stern for thousands of dollars that she had inherited from her mother, who died of cancer in 2013. McAtasney was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Taylor was sentenced to 18 years behind bars.

Jen Ursillo is a reporter and anchor for New Jersey 101.5. You can reach her at jennifer.ursillo@townsquaremedia.com

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