CAPE MAY POINT — Daniel Magariel has been appointed at the new director of arts for the Cape May Point Science Center.
Magariel, an accomplished novelist and educator, brings a wealth of literary and academic experience to his new role.
He is the author of the critically acclaimed novels “One of the Boys” and “Walk the Darkness Down.” His works have garnered widespread praise and are celebrated for their emotional depth, compelling storytelling and intricate character studies.
A native of Kansas City, Magariel holds a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University and a master’s degree from Syracuse University. He currently teaches at Columbia, where he mentors the next generation of writers.
Magariel, who lives in Cape May, also founded Convent Arts Fellowship, a fully funded writers and artists residency in Cape May, further demonstrating his commitment to the arts.
In his new role at the Science Center, Margariel will lead initiatives to elevate the institution’s arts programming, fostering a dynamic environment for collaboration and creative expression across multiple disciplines. His appointment comes as the center continues to expand its reach and impact within the arts community.
“I am honored to accept the position at the Cape May Point Science Center. It is so exciting to join a place that is not just a beacon for the sciences and the arts, but one that has the potential to explore the ways the two scaffold one another,” Magariel said.
The center’s arts initiatives span multiple disciplines, including music, visual arts, painting, drawing, video and exhibits. Notably, it was home to the bronze statue of Harriet Tubman, known as the “Beacon of Hope,” during the first stop of its Freedom Tour.
The statue’s display highlighted Tubman’s historical significance to Cape May as a stopover on the Underground Railroad. In the early 1800s, escaped enslaved people crossed Delaware Bay, using the Cape May Lighthouse as a wayfinding tool before continuing up Delaware River toward Philadelphia for emancipation.
Located in one of the world’s most biodiverse and vital regions, the Cape May Point Science Center’s mission is to provide unique opportunities and funding to advance ecological research, education and advocacy, and to encourage the protection of its piece of nature’s heaven. The center further aims to uncover and preserve history, the building it calls home and the community of Cape May Point.
Convent Arts Fellowship is a week-long writers retreat at the Cape May Point Science Center. Steps from the ocean and abutting a stunning state park, the historic facility, which once operated as a convent, is now a burgeoning capital for environmentalists, ornithologists, oceanographers, ecologists and, as of this summer, writers, too.
Convent Arts Fellowship provides support, stillness and community while encouraging artistic courage and originality in writers of all disciplines.