2021 Spotlight Gala @ Home Journal

spotlightgala@home
A YEAR LIKE NO OTHER
Women@NJPAC grew in
new directions throughout
an extraordinary season
Even as NJPAC’s theaters remained closed for
more than a year, Women@NJPAC’s unquenchable
“sisterhood for good” branched out into new
directions to fulfill its mission to inspire and educate
women and girls, celebrate the voices of women
and bolster NJPAC’s many programs for children
and families.
In Fall 2020, Women@NJPAC’s first-ever virtual
celebration, the Spotlight Gala @ Home, brought
the organization together to host a much-needed
fundraising event that brought in more than
$1.8 million to support the Arts Center. Broadway
legend Brian Stokes Mitchell starred in and hosted
the hour-long concert portion of the evening, the
first to be shared with all of New Jersey as a free
broadcast on NJ PBS.
December brought the Women@NJPAC Annual
Meeting — or, as outgoing President Marcia Wilson
Brown dubbed it, “our Women@NJPAC Zoom
Hollywood Squares annual meeting” — which
included a Leading Ladies panel discussion with
the team behind the newly created New Jersey Arts
and Culture Recovery Fund: Evelyn McGee Colbert,
President of Montclair Film; Sharnita Johnson of the
Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation; Ann Marie Miller of
Art Pride New Jersey; and Allison Tratner, Executive
Director of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
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In March 2021, the third annual Women@NJPAC
Gathering of Givers event was held. This time, the
celebration of the impact of women in philanthropy
was a virtual event devoted to examining the role
34 njpac.org/gala
Andrea Jung, former CEO of Avon
and current President and CEO of
Grameen America, was one of the
women philanthropists featured
at the Women@NJPAC Gathering
of Givers, to mark International
Women’s Day.