Some well-known names help artist open Beatles exhibit

From left, Dennis Ferrante, Dennis Diken, May Pang, Shaun Weiss and Joe Orlando. (Photos courtesy Jennifer Vanderslice.)

   Shannon and Mark Weiss.

When you're about to have an exhibition of your artwork about the Beatles, it's nice to have a little help from some friends.

 The unveiling of works in "The Beatles by Shannon (A Hard Decade's Night)," an exhibit by artist Shannon of her "Hard Day's Night Hotel Collection," which went on view starting last Thursday at NJPAC_New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, N.J., was highlighted by the appearance of a few familiar names.

They included May Pang, author of "Instamatic Karma," Dennis Diken, drummer for the Smithereens, photograher Mark Weiss and Sid Bernstein, promoter of the Beatles' Shea Stadium and Carnegie Hall concerts.

  Also on hand was Grammy award winning recording engineer Dennis Ferrante, who worked on John Lennon's albums from "Imagine" through "Rock n' Roll" and Shaun Weiss who was present for the Beatles' appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" and the Shea Stadium concert.

In addition, a contest was held for fans to win an invitation to the reception with the winner getting to unveil one of the eight paintings. The winner's was Kim Evanoff, who traveled from Calgary, Alberta, Canada  to attend the reception in Newark.

 After the unveiling, Shannon gave a speech, thanking everyone, posed for pictures and signed autographs.

 The exhibit runs through Sunday night.