Newark arts organizations receive state grants

NEWARK, NJ — The New Jersey Arts and Culture Renewal Fund has awarded more than $500,000 in grants to nonprofit organizations that will use the funds to help artists, teaching artists and history professionals recover from the financial devastation of the pandemic, according to an April 14 press release. In Newark, Newark Arts and Project for Empty Space were both given grants.

This third round of grants brings the total amount of funding awarded by NJACRF to more than $4.5 million in support to 172 nonprofits working in the arts, culture and history sector.

The fund, which is hosted by the Princeton Area Community Foundation, was named the New Jersey Arts and Culture Recovery Fund when it was founded in 2020; the name of the fund was recently changed from “Recovery” to “Renewal” to signify the fund’s support of a strong comeback for smaller arts and culture organizations and funding for a sustainable future.

“Recovery to renewal signifies a shift from crisis support to an opportunity to change the actual system itself,” NJACRF Co-chairperson Jeremy Grunin said. “We always knew that smaller nonprofits most vulnerable to disruptions and those historically underfunded prior to the pandemic were going to need longer-term support. The New Jersey Arts and Culture Renewal Fund will create an additional resource of fast and flexible funding that wasn’t previously available, helping to build a much stronger arts, cultural and historical ecosystem in New Jersey.”

There have been fewer grant programs to help individuals than those that help organizations. The NJACRF Steering Committee made it a priority to create an opportunity for artists and history professionals to receive funding to offset the detrimental financial impact of the pandemic.

“It was important to allow arts and history organizations to create grant programs that would reach a diverse cross section of individuals,” NJACRF Executive Director Lynne Toye said. “They know their communities best. Grants were awarded to organizations that could demonstrate a well-established network of artists and/or history professionals to have a broad reach.”

The NJACRF funds New Jersey nonprofits whose missions focus on arts and culture, arts education, or history and whose budgets are $5 million or less. It prioritizes organizations led by those who are black, indigenous, or people of color and those that have made a demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, access and inclusion in their work.

“I am so proud of how the NJACRF Steering Committee has reimagined what equity in grantmaking looks like for small arts, culture and historical organizations,” NJACRF Co-chairperson Sharnita C. Johnson said. “Our steadfast commitment to stabilizing organizations most at risk and setting them up for a sustainable future ensures all communities have access to New Jersey’s cultural resources.”

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