ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — The New Jersey Arts and Culture Recovery Fund has awarded $2.6 million in grants to more than 100 nonprofit organizations across the state in its initial round of grantmaking. Grants will provide critical financial support for organizations and individuals in the cultural sector hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the initial round of grants, funding was awarded to the following Essex County organizations:
- From Montclair, Jazz House Kids, Montclair Film Festival, Music Beyond Measure, Sharron Miller’s Academy for the Performing Arts, Studio Montclair Gallery and Vanguard Theater Company.
- From Newark, Arts Ed Newark, Gallery Aferro, Lincoln Park Coast Cultural District, Newark Arts, Newark Boys Chorus School, Newark School of the Arts, New Jersey Historical Society, Project for Empty Space and Trilogy: An Opera Company.
- From Orange, University of Orange.
- From Verona, Pushcart Players.
- From West Orange, Luna Stage and Arts for Kids.
As of December, New Jersey’s nonprofit arts industry reported losses of more than $100 million because of pandemic-related closures and cancelations, and more than half of the state’s creative workforce has been laid off or furloughed.
NJACRF was established last year and is hosted by the Princeton Area Community Foundation. Established with a gift from the Grunin Foundation, based in Toms River, NJACRF quickly gained support from a coalition of funders who came together to ensure the strength and survival of the nonprofit arts, cultural and historical sector statewide.
Most recently, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Amazon have made leadership gifts to NJACRF, and PNC Bank and TD Charitable Foundation became major supporters of the fund, which is working to help save the nonprofit industry that employs thousands of people, provides educational programming in schools and communities, and serves as an essential component of local and state economies.
“NJARCF is doing extraordinary work ensuring the arts and culture sectors of New Jersey not only endure the pandemic, but also afterward rebound in an equitable manner,” said Jillian Irvin, Amazon’s New Jersey public policy manager. “The grants being announced today will ensure these vital community touchstones remain after COVID-19 is gone, and continue contributing to New Jersey’s rich cultural tapestry and local economy.”
Applications and program guidelines for the next round of grants are now available. To learn more or apply, visit www.NJArtsCulture.org.
“The support from the NJ Arts and Culture Recovery Fund — and its donors — has made so much of our work possible again,’’ said Alysia Souder, executive director of The Institute of Music for Children, an NJACRF grantee.
Souder’s organization is running 80 weekly group online classes and private lessons for more than 200 young people, and they are serving another 250 students through a Newark in-school residency program. The institute was also able to keep 35 teaching artists and youth leaders employed with a living wage.
“NJACRF has helped make it possible for us to continue to engage our children with essential social-emotional arts learning,” Souder said. “Elizabeth — a largely black and Latinx city, and its surrounding neighborhoods — were devastated by the pandemic, leaving so many of our families dealing with disproportionate levels of illness, hospitalizations, death and unemployment. Together with our philanthropic partners, we helped close the digital divide by providing devices, instruments and art supplies so that every student can participate with the tools they need to succeed.”
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