Report To The Community 2022
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<strong>2022</strong><br />
report to<br />
the community<br />
setting the stage<br />
for the next 25 years
what’s next ...<br />
report to<br />
the community<br />
<strong>2022</strong><br />
4 past as prologue:<br />
setting the stage for the future<br />
10 programming:<br />
creating experiences,<br />
curating content<br />
24 education:<br />
collaborative learning<br />
through the arts<br />
40 real estate:<br />
a new vision for downtown Newark<br />
52 community engagement:<br />
redoubling our commitment<br />
64 women@njpac:<br />
leading ladies who power the arts<br />
70 njpac short stories<br />
77 financials and leadership<br />
Honoring our past and looking<br />
forward to the future at the<br />
<strong>2022</strong> Spotlight Gala.<br />
2<br />
njpac.org
there’s so much to look forward to!<br />
a message from<br />
john schreiber<br />
President and Chief Executive Officer<br />
As the boss of a performing arts center, my days are a<br />
delightful, dizzying marathon. Every day there are meetings,<br />
conversations, urgent phone calls and the occasional inspirational<br />
opportunity to drop in on a rehearsal, a sound check in<br />
progress or an arts education class full of young people.<br />
And NJPAC, of course, is not just any performing arts center — we’re<br />
an anchor institution that prides itself on entertaining visitors at our<br />
theaters, sure, but also on delivering performances in every corner<br />
of our community and beyond, and using the power of the arts to<br />
serve an ever-growing constituency in new and exciting ways.<br />
All of that keeps us hopping!<br />
But now and then, just for a moment, I’m able to pause and look at<br />
what all that activity, all that planning, plus the support and advice<br />
from a huge circle of supporters and advisors, has wrought.<br />
Sending you this little book — a chronicle of all we have<br />
accomplished this past year, and more importantly, all we<br />
have done to ensure that NJPAC is of even greater service to its<br />
community in the decades to come — is one of those moments.<br />
This season, NJPAC’s 25th anniversary, has been a time<br />
of unparalleled evolution for this organization. We have<br />
set the Arts Center firmly on a path that will expand its<br />
work, its reach and its impact for years to come.<br />
We’re building an Arts Center for the next generation — of<br />
arts lovers, of students, of Newarkers — and this <strong>Report</strong> to<br />
the <strong>Community</strong> explains how. Consider it your roadmap<br />
to the Arts Center’s growth over the next 25 years.<br />
<strong>The</strong> future — and how NJPAC will evolve alongside its<br />
home city — is what’s guiding our decisions as we plan<br />
everything from the concerts on our main stages, to how to<br />
best use every inch of our downtown Newark campus.<br />
And the future is very, very exciting.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re are four main branches to our approach to how we<br />
will position this Arts Center to thrive in the years to come,<br />
and simultaneously do as much as it can for the city and<br />
the state we serve as an anchor cultural institution:<br />
• While we continue to present and produce world-class<br />
performances on our main stages, ones that speak to the<br />
incredible diversity of Newark and New Jersey, we will also<br />
focus on creating new content that can be performed on stages<br />
across the country or can be shared via film, broadcast and<br />
virtual events. <strong>The</strong>se new productions — like our beloved holiday<br />
property <strong>The</strong> Hip Hop Nutcracker — will not only serve as what<br />
my colleague David Rodriguez calls “an artistic endowment<br />
fund” for the Arts Center, but they will advance Newark’s growth<br />
as a center for creative individuals and artistic innovation.<br />
• In our Center for Arts Education and, soon, in our new<br />
Cooperman Family Arts Education and <strong>Community</strong> Center,<br />
we will continue to advance an innovative, collaborative<br />
and supportive method of teaching through the arts.<br />
Mentoring, career counseling, the teaching of social<br />
and emotional skills and the support of social workers<br />
are all part of a new approach to using arts training to<br />
help citizen-artists grow and tell their own stories.<br />
• <strong>The</strong> redevelopment of our campus will create an exciting<br />
new neighborhood of homes, shops, cultural venues and<br />
educational spaces that bring this city’s downtown to vibrant<br />
new life on days, nights and weekends. And we’re expanding<br />
into the South Ward by bringing Lionsgate Newark to the city,<br />
building New Jersey’s first purpose-built film and TV studio<br />
on the site of the abandoned Seth Boyden housing project.<br />
When it opens in 2025, it will offer new jobs, apprentice and<br />
internship opportunities for Newark’s young people and bring<br />
the excitement of the TV and film industries to our hometown.<br />
• And finally, we are redoubling our work in the community,<br />
bringing the performing arts off our stages and into<br />
neighborhoods across the city through a variety of initiatives,<br />
from our new Arts & Well-Being programming vertical that<br />
will advance and study the use of the arts to boost physical<br />
and mental health, to our new ArtsXChange initiative that<br />
will establish performance and arts education spaces around<br />
the city in partnership with established community groups.<br />
All of these projects are already underway. But each effort is poised<br />
to grow and expand its reach exponentially in the years to come.<br />
Here is your guide to the results of all that strategic, intentional<br />
planning. We can’t wait to see these plans become the Arts Center’s<br />
new reality — and we are so glad that you’re part of the NJPAC<br />
family that has made this remarkable evolution possible.<br />
All good wishes,<br />
John Schreiber<br />
We’re building an<br />
Arts Center for the<br />
next generation —<br />
of arts lovers,<br />
of students, of<br />
Newarkers — and<br />
this <strong>Report</strong> to the<br />
<strong>Community</strong> explains<br />
how. Consider it your<br />
roadmap to the Arts<br />
Center’s growth over<br />
the next 25 years.<br />
njpac.org 3
how can an arts center help transform a city?<br />
“NJPAC signaled the<br />
rebirth of downtown<br />
Newark ... When NJPAC<br />
opened, our business<br />
jumped 20%. And it<br />
never dropped.”<br />
– Michael Brummer, co-owner,<br />
Hobby’s Delicatessen, Newark<br />
“When I look around today, the city’s<br />
rebound is palpable — from the Arts<br />
Center to the museum, to the arena, to the<br />
proposed residential development at the<br />
old Bears Stadium. <strong>The</strong>y didn’t all happen<br />
because of the Arts Center. But none of<br />
this would have happened without us.”<br />
– Marc Berson, Founder and Chairman, <strong>The</strong> Fidelco<br />
Group; NJPAC Executive Committee Member<br />
“When I was a child, the<br />
conversation about Newark<br />
was about crime. Now, the<br />
conversation is: Newark<br />
is the home of a major<br />
performing arts center, an<br />
arena, so many anchor<br />
institutions. That really<br />
reshapes the narrative<br />
of what Newark is.”<br />
– Shennell McCloud,<br />
Newark native and CEO, Project Ready<br />
“<strong>The</strong> city has become a nucleus<br />
of arts and culture. People<br />
used to go into New York City<br />
for concerts or conversations.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y come here now.”<br />
– Deborah Smith Gregory,<br />
President, Newark Chapter, NAACP<br />
“NJPAC is the most diverse<br />
performing arts center in<br />
the country — its concerts, its<br />
audience and its staff all reflect<br />
the global city that Newark<br />
has become. It’s a place for<br />
performances that speak to the<br />
heritage of so many, a place<br />
for celebrations of every kind,<br />
and a place for important<br />
conversations about justice<br />
and equity. I am proud to<br />
have, at the heart of our city,<br />
this special place designed to<br />
welcome and lift up all of us.”<br />
– Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka<br />
“When I started here, people<br />
were always asking us: What’s<br />
the fastest way to the Parkway?<br />
<strong>The</strong>y didn’t want to be on the<br />
streets of Newark. We don’t<br />
hear that anymore.”<br />
– Yesenia “Jessie” Jimenez,<br />
Senior Director of Ticket Services<br />
and Sales, and a 26-year<br />
NJPAC employee<br />
past as prologue: setting the stage for the future
njpac’s first<br />
quarter-century<br />
<strong>The</strong> evolution of a performing arts center into an<br />
anchor cultural institution<br />
1987<br />
July: Gov. Thomas<br />
Kean announces plans<br />
to build the New Jersey<br />
Performing Arts Center<br />
(NJPAC) in Newark.<br />
1988<br />
NJPAC is established<br />
as a nonprofit<br />
corporation with<br />
Ray Chambers as<br />
Chairman. Fundraising<br />
to build the Arts<br />
Center begins.<br />
1989<br />
Lawrence P. Goldman<br />
is hired as NJPAC’s first<br />
President and CEO.<br />
1994<br />
NJPAC’s Arts Education<br />
program launches.<br />
June: <strong>The</strong> NJPAC<br />
Women’s Board<br />
Association (later<br />
Women@NJPAC)<br />
established; Diana<br />
T. Vagelos named<br />
founding President.<br />
1996<br />
Women’s Board holds<br />
its first Gala, Passport<br />
to the World, at<br />
Continental Airlines<br />
hangar at Newark<br />
International Airport.<br />
Ray Charles performs.<br />
1997<br />
August 16: <strong>The</strong> Hard<br />
Hat Concert, for<br />
construction workers<br />
who built NJPAC, held<br />
in Prudential Hall.<br />
October 18: NJPAC<br />
officially opens;<br />
its inaugural<br />
Gala Celebration<br />
attracts celebrities,<br />
political leaders and<br />
community members.<br />
Opening concert<br />
recorded for PBS’ Great<br />
Performances series.<br />
1999<br />
May: <strong>The</strong> Arts<br />
Center’s Sounds of<br />
the City free summer<br />
concert series<br />
launches.<br />
2001<br />
October 11:<br />
Affirmation of Culture<br />
and <strong>Community</strong><br />
concert, featuring the<br />
NJSO, Newark Boys<br />
Choir and NJPAC’s<br />
Jubilation Choir, held<br />
at NJPAC in memory of<br />
the victims of 9/11.<br />
2002<br />
September: Lionel<br />
Richie headlines the<br />
Spotlight Gala; the fifth<br />
anniversary of NJPAC’s<br />
opening is marked<br />
with a campus-wide<br />
dance party.<br />
2004<br />
NJPAC launches<br />
its second Capital<br />
Campaign, focused<br />
on developing the Arts<br />
Center’s Endowment<br />
Fund, raising $182<br />
million over five years.<br />
2006<br />
Summer: After the<br />
opening of the light<br />
rail station on Center<br />
Street, Queen Latifah<br />
arrives aboard a<br />
light rail train for the<br />
premiere of her film,<br />
Hairspray, at NJPAC.<br />
2008<br />
January: NJPAC<br />
selects Dranoff<br />
Properties of<br />
Philadelphia as<br />
its partner in the<br />
construction of Two<br />
Center Street (later<br />
One <strong>The</strong>ater Square)<br />
on the Arts Center’s<br />
campus, the first<br />
newly constructed<br />
market-rate residential<br />
tower built in<br />
downtown Newark<br />
in decades.<br />
May 4:<br />
Bruce Springsteen<br />
takes the stage in<br />
Prudential Hall when<br />
he is inducted into<br />
the inaugural class<br />
of the New Jersey<br />
Hall of Fame.<br />
2009<br />
<strong>The</strong> Geraldine R.<br />
Dodge Foundation<br />
selects NJPAC as<br />
the new site for<br />
<strong>The</strong> Dodge Poetry<br />
Festival, which moves<br />
to Newark in 2010.<br />
2011<br />
May: <strong>The</strong> Dalai Lama,<br />
Goldie Hawn and<br />
Deepak Chopra are<br />
among the celebrities,<br />
officials and Nobel<br />
Laureates who<br />
attend the Newark<br />
Peace Education<br />
Summit at NJPAC.<br />
June: John Schreiber,<br />
a <strong>To</strong>ny and Emmy<br />
Award-winning<br />
producer, becomes<br />
NJPAC’s second<br />
President and CEO.<br />
1997<br />
<strong>2022</strong><br />
2012<br />
July: America’s Got<br />
Talent begins a run of<br />
18 broadcasts from the<br />
Prudential Hall stage,<br />
bringing hopefuls and<br />
guest stars like Justin<br />
Bieber and Green Day<br />
to the Arts Center.<br />
October: First TD<br />
James Moody Jazz<br />
Festival held. <strong>The</strong><br />
Sarah Vaughan<br />
International Jazz<br />
Vocal Competition,<br />
designed to launch the<br />
careers of novice jazz<br />
singers, is inaugurated.<br />
2013<br />
October: Black Girls<br />
Rock! films at NJPAC<br />
for the first time. <strong>The</strong><br />
show features Regina<br />
King, Queen Latifah,<br />
Misty Copeland and<br />
Jennifer Hudson.<br />
2014<br />
A new department<br />
of <strong>Community</strong><br />
Engagement is<br />
established to<br />
strengthen NJPAC’s<br />
relationships with the<br />
state’s many distinctive<br />
communities.<br />
December:<br />
<strong>The</strong> Hip Hop<br />
Nutcracker, a<br />
reimagining of<br />
Tchaikovsky’s holiday<br />
classic through hip hop<br />
dance, premieres at<br />
NJPAC, creating a new<br />
winter tradition for the<br />
Arts Center. <strong>The</strong> show<br />
will go on to tour more<br />
than 50 venues across<br />
the country annually.<br />
2015<br />
February: NJPAC<br />
announces its first<br />
co-production with<br />
the nearby Prudential<br />
Center, Ladies Night,<br />
paving the way for<br />
future collaborations<br />
with “<strong>The</strong> Rock” and<br />
other large venues.<br />
2018<br />
One <strong>The</strong>ater Square<br />
opens to residents; John<br />
Schreiber is among<br />
the first to move in.<br />
2019<br />
April: NJPAC announces<br />
it will construct a new<br />
building on its campus,<br />
the Cooperman Family<br />
Arts Education and<br />
<strong>Community</strong> Center, to<br />
house its Arts Education<br />
and <strong>Community</strong><br />
Engagement programs<br />
and two professional<br />
rehearsal studios.<br />
October 5: NJPAC<br />
receives a New<br />
York Emmy for its<br />
production of <strong>The</strong> Hip<br />
Hop Nutcracker on<br />
public television.<br />
October 15: NJPAC<br />
announces All <strong>To</strong>gether<br />
Now: <strong>The</strong> NJPAC<br />
Changemaking<br />
Campaign, a $225<br />
million capital<br />
campaign, the third<br />
in the Arts Center’s<br />
history. $100 million had<br />
already been raised<br />
by the campaign’s<br />
announcement.<br />
2020<br />
March 13: As the<br />
coronavirus sweeps<br />
across the nation,<br />
NJPAC closes its theaters<br />
and pivots to become<br />
one of the nation’s<br />
largest producers of<br />
virtual programming,<br />
presenting more than<br />
500 virtual events<br />
during the pandemic.<br />
May 5: Anthony<br />
Davis receives the<br />
Pulitzer Prize for his<br />
opera, Central Park<br />
Five, which was<br />
premiered by Trilogy:<br />
An Opera Company<br />
at NJPAC in 2016.<br />
2021<br />
June: NJPAC<br />
announces the next<br />
phase of its masterplan<br />
for its campus will be<br />
the construction of<br />
a neighborhood of<br />
low- and high-rise<br />
multifamily buildings,<br />
condos, retail and<br />
cultural spaces on what<br />
is now Parking Lot A.<br />
<strong>2022</strong><br />
May: <strong>The</strong> Arts Center<br />
partners with Great<br />
Point Studios to build<br />
Lionsgate Newark, a<br />
new film and television<br />
production studio in<br />
Newark’s South Ward.<br />
October 1: NJPAC<br />
celebrates its 25th<br />
anniversary season<br />
at its first in-person<br />
Spotlight Gala in<br />
three years.<br />
6<br />
njpac.org
1 performing arts center<br />
25 years<br />
11 million visitors<br />
2 million children and<br />
families served through Arts Education and<br />
<strong>Community</strong> Engagement programs<br />
2,500 free programs<br />
and performances<br />
across Greater Newark<br />
50 features and<br />
broadcast programs filmed<br />
on our campus<br />
and so much more to come …<br />
njpac.org<br />
9
the show is<br />
just the start<br />
“<strong>The</strong> whole structure of our<br />
business is transforming …<br />
it’s now about creating content at<br />
NJPAC that moves out far beyond<br />
the walls of any one theater.”<br />
As the Arts Center evolves,<br />
producing content<br />
nationally becomes a vital<br />
part of programming<br />
<strong>To</strong>day, when visitors to<br />
Newark think of the Arts Center,<br />
often they’re thinking of its<br />
largest space, Prudential Hall:<br />
A gorgeous wood-paneled<br />
theater, a fitting place for<br />
world-class artists to reach<br />
their fans in the Garden State.<br />
And of course, it is that.<br />
Almost every night of the year<br />
at NJPAC, the lights go up<br />
on the Betty Wold Johnson<br />
stage, an audience quiets<br />
and an artist steps into the<br />
spotlight — a comedian, or<br />
an emcee or a salsa sonero.<br />
But we’ve entered an era<br />
when NJPAC programming is<br />
no longer limited to the Arts<br />
Center’s Newark stages. NJPAC<br />
as an institution has grown<br />
into a larger role — becoming<br />
a producer of performing<br />
arts content, on stages and<br />
screens around the country,<br />
as well as a presenter.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> whole structure of our<br />
business is transforming,”<br />
says Executive Vice President<br />
and Executive Producer<br />
David Rodriguez.<br />
“It’s not just about putting people<br />
in seats, drawing people into<br />
a particular building. It’s about<br />
creating content at NJPAC<br />
that moves out far beyond the<br />
walls of any one theater.”<br />
And those performances, reborn<br />
as content for touring, broadcast<br />
and streaming, bring in revenue —<br />
serving as “an artistic endowment<br />
fund” for NJPAC’s arts education<br />
and community engagement<br />
work, Rodriguez says.<br />
By shifting to content creation as<br />
a central facet of its programming<br />
model, NJPAC raises funds for<br />
free performances in parks<br />
and libraries, and scholarship<br />
assistance for talented young<br />
people, while simultaneously<br />
ensuring that it has a pipeline<br />
of great performances to offer<br />
New Jerseyans — performances<br />
that speak to an incredibly<br />
diverse range of audiences.<br />
“When you look for content<br />
that focuses on diverse<br />
communities and speaks to<br />
those communities there’s a void,<br />
and we have the opportunity<br />
to fill it. Often what people<br />
find on concert stages doesn’t<br />
speak to African Americans, to<br />
Latinos, to Koreans, to people<br />
of Indian heritage, and so<br />
on,” says Evan White, Vice<br />
President of Programming.<br />
But the content found on<br />
NJPAC’s stages does.<br />
Clockwise from top: NJPAC collaborated with Audible on <strong>The</strong> Book of<br />
Baraka, an audio memoir by Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka (center in<br />
photo); Represent! gathered jazz musicians and spoken word artists with<br />
an eye toward creating new content; Broadway leading lady Melissa Errico<br />
performed as part of a new season of American Songbook at NJPAC on<br />
NJ PBS; Netflix returned to film Whitney Cummings: Jokes at the Arts Center.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Arts Center has already<br />
proved its mettle in producing<br />
content that addresses a<br />
wide array of audiences.<br />
<strong>The</strong> wildly successful <strong>The</strong> Hip<br />
Hop Nutcracker grew from a<br />
sell-out stage performance<br />
exclusively at NJPAC, to<br />
a national touring sensation,<br />
to an Emmy-winning PBS<br />
special broadcast, to an<br />
all-star television production<br />
streaming on Disney+.<br />
For young audiences, NJPAC<br />
developed productions<br />
like Showtime for Shakespeare<br />
and virtual arts education<br />
classes during the pandemic.<br />
NJPAC also collaborated<br />
with Audible to produce<br />
audio memoirs for Newark<br />
Mayor Ras J. Baraka and the<br />
Newark-raised “Godfather<br />
of Funk,” George Clinton.<br />
In almost all the work<br />
that Rodriguez and the<br />
programming team at<br />
NJPAC do, there’s a focus on<br />
creating new content — from<br />
pairing a jazz artist with<br />
dancers to create exciting<br />
new works at the TD James<br />
Moody Jazz Festival,<br />
to filming exceptional<br />
interpreters of American<br />
Song on NJPAC’s stages<br />
to create a PBS series, to<br />
partnering with Netflix to<br />
capture a comedian’s latest<br />
stand-up set for streaming.<br />
Shows that bring multiple<br />
artists together on one stage<br />
are often seen at NJPAC, and<br />
then at performance venues<br />
in New York City, Boston or<br />
Philadelphia; today, 40% of<br />
events managed by the Arts<br />
Center’s programming team<br />
are booked into other theaters<br />
around the tri-state area, or<br />
even around the country.<br />
That mindset not only<br />
serves NJPAC, it serves<br />
programiming: creating experiences, curating content<br />
— David Rodriguez<br />
10<br />
njpac.org
the city of Newark and the<br />
arts community nationally.<br />
“For me, the big question<br />
isn’t: How do we create a<br />
particular show, a product?<br />
<strong>The</strong> question is: How do we,<br />
here in Newark, create a home<br />
for artists to not just create<br />
new work, but to disseminate<br />
that work through a variety of<br />
platforms?” Rodriguez explains.<br />
“What I see, five years from now,<br />
is that an artist will be able to<br />
come to Newark and create a<br />
project. If they want to tech that<br />
performance on a big stage,<br />
NJPAC can do that. If they want<br />
to tour it, NJPAC can help them<br />
do that. If they want to present<br />
it virtually, NJPAC can help them<br />
do that. If they want to film it?<br />
Well, NJPAC is now partnered<br />
with Lionsgate Newark, a major<br />
film studio with five sound<br />
stages right here in town.”<br />
“Without distribution, a<br />
performance expires once<br />
it’s over. But with distribution,<br />
it resonates for years.”<br />
That vision — of boosting Newark<br />
toward becoming a hub of<br />
creatives who, through NJPAC,<br />
can access all the tools they<br />
need — is not a traditional model<br />
for a performing arts center.<br />
But NJPAC has a mandate to<br />
be distinctly nontraditional.<br />
“Because we are located in<br />
Newark, a great city of the<br />
arts, we have an opportunity<br />
that not all venues have,”<br />
says NJPAC’s President and<br />
CEO John Schreiber.<br />
“We get to be more useful to<br />
Newark by helping it grow into a<br />
city of creativity and opportunity.<br />
We have a lot of runway to do<br />
work that performing arts centers<br />
don’t typically do. Focusing on<br />
that will be transformative — for<br />
the Arts Center and for Newark —<br />
in the years to come.” •<br />
dancing<br />
across the<br />
country<br />
In its 10th anniversary year<br />
the hip hop nutcracker<br />
brought the holiday spirit<br />
to audiences far and wide<br />
“Hey, let’s get this thing in<br />
motion!” raps Rev Run, one of<br />
the founding members of the<br />
hugely influential hip hop group<br />
Run DMC, at the beginning of<br />
the Disney+ all-star streaming<br />
version of NJPAC’s production,<br />
<strong>The</strong> Hip Hop Nutcracker.<br />
But the Arts Center’s unique<br />
production of the holiday<br />
classic — which pairs Pyotr Ilyich<br />
Tchaikovsky’s beloved score<br />
with DJ scratching and explosive<br />
hip hop dance moves — has<br />
already been in frenetic motion<br />
for a decade now, and shows<br />
no sign of slowing down.<br />
First staged in NJPAC’s<br />
Victoria <strong>The</strong>ater 10 years ago,<br />
<strong>The</strong> Hip Hop Nutcracker, created<br />
by hip hop and Broadway<br />
choreographer Jennifer Webber<br />
and fronted by hip hop veteran<br />
Kurtis Blow, quickly leapt to<br />
the larger Prudential Hall stage,<br />
and then took off across the<br />
country on a national tour.<br />
A virtual tour followed during<br />
the pandemic; the filmed<br />
version of the production is still<br />
available to schools today.<br />
This season, the in-person<br />
holiday tour reached 46<br />
cities across the country —<br />
and played two sold-out<br />
shows at home at NJPAC.<br />
But it also became a small-screen<br />
sensation — for the second time.<br />
Already filmed once as a PBS<br />
special (which won NJPAC its<br />
A high-flying moment from <strong>The</strong> Hip Hop Nutcracker,<br />
at home on Prudential Hall’s Betty Wold Johnson<br />
Stage. Above: Scenes from the show’s streaming<br />
version, available on Disney+.<br />
first Emmy Award last year),<br />
this year Disney+ filmed a new,<br />
all-star version in Los Angeles,<br />
featuring Run, Blow, ballet<br />
superstar Mikhail Baryshnikov,<br />
the hip hop dance crew the<br />
Jabbawockeez, Tiler Peck,<br />
Kida <strong>The</strong> Great and So You<br />
Think You Can Dance star<br />
Comfort Fedoke as the magical<br />
toymaker Drosselmeyer.<br />
That version began streaming<br />
on the platform November 25,<br />
<strong>2022</strong>, and was downloaded<br />
more than 7 million times<br />
in less than one month.<br />
“Content creation, in success —<br />
it’s not just taking a project and<br />
having it distributed one way,”<br />
says NJPAC’s David Rodriguez.<br />
12 njpac.org<br />
njpac.org 13
“Here, we’re distributing<br />
it through tours, through<br />
public television, through<br />
arts education programs and<br />
through streaming. We’re<br />
getting the content out there<br />
four different ways. And I’m<br />
confident there’s more to come.”<br />
Even during the pandemic,<br />
Rodriguez notes, <strong>The</strong> Hip Hop<br />
Nutcracker toured virtually<br />
and reached more than 10,000<br />
children in classrooms through<br />
an educational tour, complete<br />
with master classes that aligned<br />
the show with curriculum goals<br />
and used hip hop to teach<br />
lessons about social justice.<br />
All the while, the production<br />
also served as an introduction<br />
to both classical music<br />
and the world of dance for<br />
thousands of young people.<br />
“Hip hop is really a door that<br />
opens a whole world for kids,”<br />
says Rodriguez. “<strong>The</strong>y may not<br />
go to a classical concert or to a<br />
ballet, but if you can introduce<br />
those art forms with something<br />
they’re already passionate<br />
about, that they feel they know<br />
something about, then you can<br />
demonstrate: This music isn’t<br />
completely different from what<br />
you’re listening to on the radio.”<br />
Rodriguez notes that, among<br />
NJPAC attendees, 57% of the<br />
audience at an average <strong>The</strong> Hip<br />
Hop Nutcracker performance<br />
has never seen <strong>The</strong> Nutcracker<br />
before in any form. And 20%<br />
of the audience at the State<br />
Ballet <strong>The</strong>ater of Ukraine’s<br />
traditional production of <strong>The</strong><br />
Nutcracker (another holiday<br />
favorite at NJPAC, presented<br />
annually) had seen NJPAC’s<br />
hip hop version first.<br />
“This is a show that creates<br />
links, that makes connections<br />
for a lot of people in a lot of<br />
different ways,” he says. •<br />
<strong>The</strong> Hip Hop Nutcracker<br />
toured to 46 cities across<br />
the country in <strong>2022</strong> — while<br />
its streaming version was<br />
downloaded 7.5 million<br />
times in less than a<br />
month on Disney+<br />
MC Kurtis Blow in the Emmy-winning<br />
<strong>The</strong> Hip Hop Nutcracker, an NJPAC original<br />
that has been distributed through national<br />
tours, public television, arts education<br />
programs and streaming services.<br />
right in themix<br />
At the TD James Moody Jazz Festival,<br />
jazz greats<br />
shared the stage with stars<br />
of hip hop, dance, R&B and more<br />
When GRAMMY® and<br />
<strong>To</strong>ny-winning jazz diva Dee Dee<br />
Bridgewater took the stage<br />
with NJPAC Dance Advisor and<br />
Newark tap phenom Savion<br />
Glover during Interpretations,<br />
their joint appearance at the<br />
TD James Moody Jazz Festival,<br />
she scatted exuberantly as<br />
he banged out propulsive<br />
rhythms with his famous feet.<br />
At one point, Bridgewater<br />
sat down on the floor and<br />
addressed her song to his<br />
shoes, as if serenading a duet<br />
partner. <strong>The</strong> audience roared.<br />
That was just one of many<br />
indelible moments at November’s<br />
two-week festival, which once<br />
again covered the vast range<br />
of jazz music, and explored<br />
new territory as jazz artists<br />
shared the stage with stars of<br />
hip hop, dance, R&B and more.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Bridgewater-Glover<br />
show — a pairing pulled together<br />
by NJPAC’s programming team —<br />
was a high point for many.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> two of them with their<br />
generous spirits, coming<br />
together — it was magical,”<br />
said Simma Levine, NJPAC’s<br />
Special Projects Producer.<br />
“When you see something like<br />
that, it takes your heart and<br />
mind to a different place.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> pairing was so successful<br />
that it may be recreated as a<br />
tour that visits other performing<br />
arts centers, but it wasn’t the<br />
only standout of the festival.<br />
“We want to offer unique<br />
experiences, artists performing<br />
together in ways you won’t<br />
see just anywhere,” says<br />
Craig Pearce, Festivals and<br />
Performances Producer, who<br />
helped Executive Producer<br />
Violinist and NEA Jazz Master Regina Carter on<br />
stage with Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company<br />
at the world premiere of the NJPAC commission,<br />
Jazz Legends and the Power of NOW!<br />
14 njpac.org<br />
njpac.org 15
2019 Sarah Vaughan<br />
International Jazz<br />
Vocal Competition<br />
winner Samara<br />
Joy won the 2023<br />
GRAMMY® for Best<br />
New Artist.<br />
<strong>2022</strong> Sarah<br />
Vaughan<br />
International<br />
Jazz Vocal<br />
Competition<br />
winner Lucía<br />
Gutiérrez<br />
Rebolloso.<br />
at home<br />
in the<br />
spotlight<br />
David Rodriguez and Jazz<br />
Advisor Christian McBride<br />
curate the <strong>2022</strong> Moody lineup.<br />
Another jazz-dance hybrid<br />
followed when violinist and NEA<br />
Jazz Master Regina Carter<br />
performed with the Carolyn<br />
Dorfman Dance Company —<br />
at times playing right in the<br />
midst of the choreography, with<br />
dancers swirling around her.<br />
<strong>The</strong> company presented the<br />
world-premiere of an NJPAC<br />
commission, Jazz Legends and<br />
the Power of NOW!, as well as<br />
other jazz-inspired works.<br />
<strong>The</strong> festival kicked off on<br />
November 10 with GRAMMY®winning<br />
composer and<br />
trumpeter Terence Blanchard,<br />
fresh from his triumph at the<br />
Metropolitan Opera, where<br />
his Fire Shut Up in My Bones<br />
premiered last season, making<br />
him the first African American<br />
composer to have his work<br />
staged at that prestigious<br />
venue. For NJPAC’s Moody<br />
Festival, Blanchard arrived<br />
Clockwise from top: Dee Dee Bridgewater and Savion Glover joined<br />
forces for Interpretations; big band sounds with the GRAMMY®-winning<br />
Maria Schneider Orchestra; acclaimed composer-trumpeter Terence<br />
Blanchard arrived with <strong>The</strong> E-Collective and Turtle Island Quartet;<br />
dynamic vocalist and former American Idol Fantasia in Prudential Hall.<br />
with <strong>The</strong> E-Collective and<br />
Turtle Island Quartet.<br />
That same night featured a<br />
dynamic double bill: GRAMMY®winning<br />
vocalist (and former<br />
American Idol) Fantasia<br />
along with rising jazz star<br />
Jazzmeia Horn, one of the<br />
earliest winners of NJPAC’s<br />
Sarah Vaughan International<br />
Jazz Vocal Competition.<br />
Other festival highlights<br />
included performances by the<br />
Yellowjackets, the Vanessa Rubin<br />
Trio and the Maria Schneider<br />
Orchestra. Schneider, a MacArthur<br />
“Genius Grant” recipient, was a<br />
return visitor, having established a<br />
residency at NJPAC last season.<br />
As always, the festival also<br />
included many free community<br />
concerts and educational<br />
programs. Free performances<br />
included Jazz Jams presented<br />
with Rutgers University-Newark<br />
at Clement’s Place (on the<br />
college’s campus) plus concerts<br />
at Bethany Baptist Church,<br />
Ahavas Sholom, the Jewish<br />
Museum of New Jersey and<br />
more. Fortunate students were<br />
treated to master classes with<br />
McBride and Blanchard, while<br />
McBride also guest-starred at<br />
the annual NJMEA All-State<br />
Jazz Band and Choir concert.<br />
“By now, the Moody Festival<br />
has become one of the largest<br />
jazz festivals in the country,”<br />
says Rodriguez, “and also one<br />
of the most accessible, thanks<br />
to a wealth of community<br />
and virtual programs.” •<br />
joymeets<br />
world<br />
Several winners of NJPAC’s<br />
Sarah Vaughan International<br />
Jazz Vocal Competition have<br />
gone on to impressive careers.<br />
But perhaps none have had<br />
as high-profile successes as<br />
the 2019 winner, Samara Joy,<br />
who in February 2023 picked<br />
up not one but two GRAMMY®<br />
Awards for her debut album on<br />
Verve Records, Linger Awhile.<br />
<strong>The</strong> 23-year-old picked up<br />
the Best Jazz Vocal Album<br />
prize first — then returned to<br />
the stage to receive the Best<br />
New Artist trophy during<br />
the televised portion of the<br />
awards show, in front of a<br />
bevy of music superstars, from<br />
Lizzo and Adele to Beyoncé.<br />
“All of you inspire me because<br />
of who you are. You express<br />
yourselves for exactly who<br />
you are, authentically — so<br />
to be here by just being<br />
myself, by just being who I<br />
was born as, I’m so thankful,”<br />
she said as she accepted.<br />
Born and raised in the Castle<br />
Hill section of the Bronx, Joy<br />
came from a musical family;<br />
her grandparents were leaders<br />
of the Philadelphia-based<br />
gospel group the Savettes,<br />
and her father is a singer and<br />
producer who toured with<br />
gospel artist Andraé Crouch.<br />
She had already performed<br />
at jazz hot spots like Dizzy’s<br />
Club Coca Cola, Mezzrow<br />
and the Blue Note when she<br />
entered the Sarah Vaughan<br />
competition. In addition to<br />
performing often at NJPAC<br />
since her Sassy Award win —<br />
including at a Jazz Vespers<br />
program at Bethany Baptist<br />
Church in April — she’s been<br />
touring to support her album. •<br />
“When I’m on stage, that’s<br />
when I’m happiest,” said<br />
Lucía Gutiérrez Rebolloso,<br />
a 21-year-old vocalist born and<br />
raised in Veracruz, Mexico, as<br />
she introduced herself at NJPAC’s<br />
Sarah Vaughan International<br />
Jazz Vocal Competition on the<br />
final night of the TD James<br />
Moody Jazz Festival.<br />
Feeling comfortable in front<br />
of an audience makes sense:<br />
Rebolloso started singing<br />
as a 5-year-old, performing<br />
son jarocho (a musical style<br />
originating in the Gulf Coast of<br />
Mexico) with her parents’ group.<br />
Rebolloso, who charmed judges<br />
with her rendition of Charlie<br />
Parker’s “Donna Lee,” took<br />
first place in the 11th annual<br />
competition, which drew over<br />
200 submissions from more than<br />
25 countries around the globe.<br />
Second place went to 23-year-old<br />
Cameroonian American vocalistsongwriter<br />
Ekep Nkwelle, who<br />
hails from Washington, D.C., and<br />
third place to Harlem-based Allan<br />
Harris. Kristin Lash of Bratislava,<br />
Slovakia and American Armenian<br />
vocalist Lucy Yeghiazaryan<br />
(graduate of NJPAC’s Arts<br />
Education programs) were<br />
also among the finalists. •<br />
16 njpac.org<br />
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at the corner of<br />
poetry &<br />
music<br />
Multiple generations, multiple<br />
genres share the stage at<br />
represent!<br />
In his opening remarks,<br />
Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka<br />
described Represent! A Night<br />
of Jazz, Hip Hop & Spoken<br />
Word as “historic.” It was<br />
an apt description for the<br />
several generations of Black<br />
talent gathered for a single<br />
performance that underlined<br />
the connections between jazz,<br />
spoken word poetry and<br />
hip hop — and served as the<br />
high point of NJPAC’s <strong>2022</strong><br />
TD James Moody Jazz Festival.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re was an interwoven feeling<br />
to the performance; artists often<br />
appeared together, as when<br />
Yasiin Bey (the rapper and<br />
actor once known as Mos Def)<br />
sang “Umi Says,” accompanied<br />
by alto saxophonist Ravi<br />
Coltrane, son of jazz legends<br />
John and Alice Coltrane.<br />
Baba Don of <strong>The</strong> Last Poets<br />
drummed while Bey, Dupré<br />
“DoItAll” Kelly, jessica Care<br />
moore and Speech recited<br />
Gil Scott-Heron’s poem,<br />
but we haven’t before done a<br />
concert that’s addressed the<br />
correlations between jazz,<br />
hip hop and spoken word,”<br />
McBride told the Asbury Park<br />
Press in advance of the show.<br />
Highlights of the event included<br />
Speech bringing the audience<br />
to its feet with “Everyday<br />
People,” the 1992 hit from his<br />
group, Arrested Development.<br />
Apropos and moore joined<br />
forces for a soulful duet to<br />
the Motown hit “Simple,” and<br />
authentic voices of the<br />
people of Greater Newark.<br />
“EvoluCulture’s participation<br />
bridged our work in the<br />
communities with our main<br />
stage programming,” says<br />
Jennie Wasserman, Producer,<br />
Programming at NJPAC.<br />
“NJPAC was happy to boost<br />
their grassroots efforts in<br />
poetry and the spoken word.<br />
<strong>The</strong>ir inclusion in Represent!<br />
acknowledged how valued<br />
they are as City Verses partners<br />
This page: Legendary<br />
poet and Black Arts<br />
Movement leader<br />
Nikki Giovanni.<br />
Opposite page (l-r):<br />
Alto saxophonist<br />
Ravi Coltrane,<br />
rapper-musician Black<br />
Thought, Yasiin Bey (the<br />
rapper-actor formerly<br />
known as Mos Def) and<br />
music director Christian<br />
McBride, NJPAC’s<br />
Artistic Advisor for<br />
Jazz Programming.<br />
In addition to Baraka, a raft<br />
of headliners took the stage,<br />
including rapper and musician<br />
Black Thought (Tariq Trotter)<br />
of <strong>The</strong> Roots, saxophonist<br />
Javon Jackson and those<br />
forefathers of hip hop, <strong>The</strong> Last<br />
Poets. In all, more than a dozen<br />
artists appeared, accompanied<br />
by a band led by music director<br />
and co-producer Christian<br />
McBride, NJPAC’s Artistic<br />
Advisor for Jazz Programming.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> evening was historic<br />
because of the way everyone<br />
was together on stage to<br />
witness each other,” says<br />
director and co-producer<br />
Angélika Beener, an awardwinning<br />
journalist, DJ,<br />
producer and host of WBGO<br />
Studios’ Milestones podcast.<br />
“We could see the rollout of<br />
artistic resistance, art and<br />
activism coming together.”<br />
“<strong>The</strong> Revolution Will Not Be<br />
Televised.” Kelly, currently a<br />
Newark Council member, first<br />
made a name for himself as a<br />
founder of the hip hop group<br />
Lords of the Underground.<br />
Other times, the evening’s<br />
connectedness was underlined<br />
as performers sat on stage, on<br />
a loveseat or on club chairs,<br />
to watch what unfolded.<br />
<strong>The</strong> show, which took place<br />
November 19 in Prudential Hall,<br />
paid homage to the evolution<br />
of hip hop, African American<br />
literature, Civil Rights activism<br />
and the Black Arts Movement,<br />
and honored the timeless<br />
intersection of jazz and poetry.<br />
“We’ve covered so much over<br />
the last decade [of the festival]<br />
in terms of presenting different<br />
styles of jazz and spoken word,<br />
septuagenarian Nikki Giovanni<br />
recited her poem “Ego Tripping<br />
(there may be a reason why),”<br />
receiving thunderous applause<br />
after the line, “I am so hip<br />
even my errors are correct.”<br />
Representing today’s<br />
generation of Newark poets,<br />
Sean Battle and Treasure<br />
Borde opened the second<br />
half of the show, melding<br />
Borde’s lyrical vocals with<br />
Battle’s strong words. <strong>The</strong>ir<br />
Newark-based organization,<br />
EvoluCulture, hosts poetry<br />
readings and is an important<br />
part of the cultural fabric of<br />
the city. EvoluCulture is also<br />
a community partner of City<br />
Verses, an initiative of NJPAC<br />
and Rutgers University-Newark<br />
that creates opportunities<br />
to engage with jazz and<br />
poetry, and amplifies the<br />
and showed our gratitude<br />
for the vital work they do in<br />
creating welcoming spaces<br />
for artists and the public.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> composition of the audience<br />
also reflected the Arts Center’s<br />
ties with Newark. NJPAC gifted<br />
tickets to local community<br />
members including City Verses<br />
participants, teaching artists<br />
and students from area<br />
schools. Even after a nearly<br />
three-hour long show, audience<br />
members weren’t eager to<br />
leave. Hundreds gathered in<br />
the NJPAC lobby for a spirited<br />
after-party produced by the<br />
Arts Center’s <strong>Community</strong><br />
Engagement department. •<br />
18 njpac.org<br />
njpac.org 19
A quartet of Broadway stars<br />
brought a breath of fresh air<br />
to the Victoria <strong>The</strong>ater’s Lizzie<br />
and Jonathan Tisch Stage in<br />
April when they recorded four<br />
new installments of American<br />
Songbook at NJPAC, hosted by<br />
Ted Chapin. <strong>The</strong>se episodes —<br />
which comprise the fifth season<br />
of the Emmy-nominated<br />
series, produced by NJPAC<br />
in partnership with NJ PBS —<br />
were among many projects<br />
recorded at the Arts Center<br />
during the 2021-22 season.<br />
Over the course of two<br />
evenings, Debbie Gravitte,<br />
Melissa Errico, James Monroe<br />
Iglehart and Jim Dale<br />
enchanted audiences with a<br />
magical array of performances<br />
that ranged from sassy and<br />
sexy, to witty, soulful and<br />
downright scintillating.<br />
Listening to Errico share<br />
stories of her work with<br />
Stephen Sondheim, speaking<br />
in the staccato rhythm that’s<br />
a hallmark of Sondheim’s<br />
music, audiences felt what<br />
it might have been like to be<br />
on the<br />
airwaves<br />
A state-of-the-art home to<br />
broadcast productions<br />
from American Songbook at NJPAC to South Park<br />
in a rehearsal room with the<br />
musical theater master.<br />
During his performance, Iglehart<br />
shared with his audience how<br />
deeply connected he felt to the<br />
music and to the community<br />
around him. At one point, he<br />
stopped in the middle of “Here’s<br />
to the Dreamers” (from Back<br />
to the Future: <strong>The</strong> Musical)<br />
to grab his iPad for an assist<br />
with the lyrics. He explained<br />
that he’d been inspired to sing<br />
it by his close friend Roger<br />
Bart (who played Doc in the<br />
London production) so it was<br />
important to Iglehart that he<br />
get the words just right.<br />
Maybe the most enchanting<br />
American Songbook performance<br />
came courtesy of Dale — as<br />
lithe and graceful a performer<br />
as ever, at age 86 — who wove<br />
together song, dance and bawdy<br />
music hall humor to tell the<br />
story of his far-ranging career.<br />
Whether it was Gravitte injecting<br />
her trademark playfulness<br />
into a traditionally sedate<br />
number or the way she and<br />
her fellow American Songbook<br />
performers openly shared<br />
stories from their careers,<br />
NJPAC audiences enjoyed<br />
one-of-a-kind performances.<br />
Episodes from season five<br />
of American Songbook are<br />
available on NJ PBS.<br />
Other broadcasts recorded<br />
at NJPAC in <strong>2022</strong> include<br />
the Netflix comedy special,<br />
Whitney Cummings: Jokes.<br />
<strong>The</strong> special starring the multitalented<br />
funny person — a<br />
writer, producer and podcast<br />
host — was recorded in the<br />
Victoria <strong>The</strong>ater over the<br />
course of two evenings.<br />
Whitney Cummings: Jokes is<br />
currently available on Netflix —<br />
just one of a dozen comedy<br />
programs on the streaming<br />
service that were filmed at the<br />
Arts Center. (Others feature<br />
the likes of Adam Sandler<br />
and John Leguizamo.)<br />
<strong>To</strong>ny-winning Broadway actor<br />
James Monroe Iglehart during<br />
a taping of the Emmy-nominated<br />
American Songbook at NJPAC.<br />
<strong>The</strong> use of NJPAC’s campus as<br />
a filming location is a growing<br />
role for the Arts Center. <strong>The</strong><br />
New Jersey film tax credit<br />
program now incentivizes<br />
production companies to film in<br />
the Garden State, and NJPAC is<br />
particularly appealing because<br />
of its proximity to New York<br />
City and its diverse amenities.<br />
“You can achieve many kinds<br />
of shots at NJPAC, not just a<br />
theater with a stage,” says<br />
Kitab Rollins, Senior Director<br />
of Performance and Broadcast<br />
Rentals. For instance, there<br />
is the elegantly furnished<br />
Parsonnet Room, the floor-toceiling<br />
windows of the Chase<br />
Room and the green outdoor<br />
space of Chambers Plaza. One<br />
recent example of NJPAC’s<br />
versatility: <strong>The</strong> CBS series FBI:<br />
Most Wanted filmed scenes<br />
that transformed parts of the<br />
Arts Center campus into a<br />
residential apartment building.<br />
“We make it easy for them,” says<br />
Rollins, who credits convenient<br />
on-site parking and ample<br />
interior space (for both cast and<br />
crew members) among NJPAC’s<br />
amenities. Other projects filmed<br />
at the Arts Center in <strong>2022</strong><br />
include the Emmy-nominated<br />
Hulu original Wu-Tang: An<br />
American Saga and <strong>The</strong> Best<br />
Man: <strong>The</strong> Final Chapters,<br />
currently streaming on Peacock.<br />
Perhaps the most creative use<br />
of NJPAC came with a series<br />
of promotional videos shot for<br />
the 25th season of Comedy<br />
Central’s wildly popular South<br />
Park. Filmed in Prudential Hall,<br />
the promos feature a formally<br />
attired choir performing songs<br />
(some a bit racy) from the show,<br />
accompanied by an orchestra.<br />
At the conclusion, the animated<br />
stars of the series — Kenny,<br />
Cartman, Kyle and Stan — can<br />
be seen applauding from one of<br />
the NJPAC’s very own boxes. •<br />
a brand-new<br />
celebration for<br />
the garden state<br />
What kind of party could bring Alanis Morissette,<br />
Demi Lovato, Santana, Stephen Colbert, Bill Burr,<br />
Natalie Merchant, Marisa Monte, Daymond John,<br />
Jazmine Sullivan and Halsey all to New Jersey?<br />
Only one: <strong>The</strong> North to Shore Festival, a month-long,<br />
three-city festival of music, comedy, film and technology,<br />
produced by NJPAC. <strong>The</strong> Garden State’s first multi-city<br />
festival was announced by Governor Phil Murphy and<br />
First Lady Tammy Murphy at a press conference on<br />
the Prudential Hall stage in March 2023. <strong>The</strong> Festival<br />
is set to kick off the weekend of June 7 in Atlantic City,<br />
will move to Asbury Park June 14 and will close in<br />
Newark June 21; ultimately, the lineup will include more<br />
than 100 events at dozens of venues across the three cities.<br />
“Never before have so many headliners converged<br />
on the state within a short period of time,” says Evan<br />
White, Vice President of Programming, part of the<br />
team that spent much of <strong>2022</strong> booking festival events.<br />
“NJPAC is honored to produce this unique festival and<br />
to bring a diversity of talent to new audiences.”<br />
North to Shore will also feature events and exhibits<br />
highlighting New Jersey’s role as an innovator in technology<br />
and sustainability. In addition to global headliners, local<br />
artists reflecting the state’s diversity will also have a chance<br />
to step into the spotlight. NJPAC and the State of New Jersey<br />
offered grants to nonprofits, artists and small businesses<br />
to host North to Shore events in each city, with awards<br />
ranging from $1,000 to $5,000. A committee of local artists<br />
and arts activists from each city selected the grantees to<br />
ensure the programming reflects the spirit of each location.<br />
NJPAC will produce what Governor Murphy called<br />
“this superstar event” in collaboration with a cohort<br />
of producing partners, and with strategic partners<br />
including Montclair Film, Newark International Film<br />
Festival, Tech United/Propelify and MediaSense. •<br />
20 njpac.org<br />
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keeping dancers<br />
on their toes<br />
NJPAC has long been a driver<br />
of dance innovation, nurturing<br />
emerging choreographers<br />
through a fellowship in<br />
collaboration with Dance New<br />
Jersey. For five years, Jersey<br />
NEW Moves! has invited dancerchoreographers<br />
to create new<br />
work while being mentored by<br />
established professionals.<br />
In June, the most recent cohort<br />
of Jersey NEW Moves! fellows<br />
premiered works that had been<br />
scheduled for 2020 but were<br />
postponed by the pandemic.<br />
<strong>The</strong> five artists were mentored<br />
for one year by three modern<br />
dance professionals: Carolyn<br />
Dorfman (Carolyn Dorfman<br />
Dance), Sam Pott (Nimbus<br />
Dance Works) and Andy Chiang<br />
(Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company),<br />
who replaced Chen following her<br />
sudden death in December 2021.<br />
A range of styles shined,<br />
including tap, contemporary and<br />
modern dance. Participating<br />
fellows included Katelyn<br />
Halpern, Hillary-Marie, Kristilee<br />
Maiella, Sameena Mitta<br />
and Kiana Rosa Fischer.<br />
Halpern was mentored by<br />
Dorfman, who has been part<br />
of Jersey NEW Moves! since<br />
its inception. “I love working<br />
with young artists,” she<br />
says. “Mentorship is another<br />
way of learning for me.”<br />
An exuberant moment from LOVE,<br />
an original work choreographed<br />
by Jersey NEW Moves! fellow<br />
Kristilee Maiella, set to the music<br />
of Cliff Martinez, Michael Wall,<br />
David Bowie and Queen.<br />
Jersey NEW Moves!<br />
invites emerging<br />
choreographers to create<br />
new work while being mentored<br />
by established professionals<br />
Dorfman applauds NJPAC for<br />
giving “voice and space” to New<br />
Jersey artists. “<strong>The</strong> Arts Center<br />
has an ongoing commitment<br />
to supporting artists and their<br />
development,” she says, “and<br />
I see that support continue to<br />
evolve to meet those needs.”<br />
Another innovative dance<br />
experience was Urban Bush<br />
Women’s Hair & Other Stories<br />
in April. This multidisciplinary<br />
work used movement, song<br />
and conversation to reflect on<br />
concepts of beauty through<br />
the lens of Black women’s hair.<br />
This performance showed how<br />
the vocabulary of dance can<br />
contribute to impactful dialogue<br />
on race, identity and culture.<br />
Dance also has the power to<br />
bring people together. An NJPAC<br />
tradition is the annual Chinese<br />
New Year celebration by Nai-Ni<br />
Chen Dance Company. During a<br />
bittersweet time for the company<br />
following their founder’s death,<br />
Celebrating the Legacy of<br />
Nai-Ni Chen and the Year of the<br />
Water Tiger honored Chen with<br />
a program of her most iconic<br />
dances, performances that<br />
elegantly melded old traditions<br />
with new artistry — a touchstone<br />
of the dance season at NJPAC. •<br />
a tradition reborn<br />
Alvin Ailey American Dance<br />
<strong>The</strong>ater’s May engagement<br />
at NJPAC heralded several<br />
milestones. First, it marked<br />
Ailey’s exuberant return to<br />
live performances in Newark<br />
after a two-year absence<br />
due to the pandemic.<br />
<strong>The</strong> performances also<br />
celebrated the 10th anniversary<br />
of Robert Battle, the company’s<br />
third Artistic Director. Under<br />
his leadership, the company<br />
continues to promote the<br />
uniqueness of the African<br />
American cultural experience<br />
and the preservation and<br />
enrichment of American<br />
modern dance tradition.<br />
Since NJPAC’s opening, Alvin<br />
Ailey American Dance <strong>The</strong>ater<br />
has performed as the Arts<br />
Center’s Principal Resident<br />
Affiliate — and the company’s<br />
reunion with both staff and<br />
audiences was genuinely joyful.<br />
“It’s exciting to return to our<br />
Newark home while finding<br />
new ways to share artistry<br />
that renews our spirit of<br />
courage, hope and joy,” said<br />
Battle ahead of the Mother’s<br />
Day weekend residency.<br />
<strong>The</strong> performances over the<br />
weekend of May 6 – 8 combined<br />
New Jersey premieres and a<br />
new production with repertory<br />
favorites like Revelations, Ella,<br />
In/Side and Love Stories. Savion<br />
Glover, NJPAC’s Dance Advisor,<br />
hosted the first performance<br />
on Friday evening, which<br />
featured the New Jersey<br />
premiere of For Four, a piece<br />
set to a Wynton Marsalis jazz<br />
score, inspired by the pent-up<br />
energy of a world cooped up<br />
during the pandemic. Also on<br />
that program was Unfold, a<br />
After a two-year absence, Alvin Ailey<br />
American Dance <strong>The</strong>ater returns<br />
to celebrate Robert Battle’s 10th<br />
anniversary as Artistic Director<br />
revival of Battle’s sensuous,<br />
swirling duet, performed<br />
to a Gustave Charpentier<br />
aria sung by legendary<br />
soprano Leontyne Price.<br />
In addition to being wowed by<br />
the movement on stage, the<br />
public also experienced<br />
the joy of dance at Ailey<br />
Day, a free community<br />
event held in April.<br />
For <strong>2022</strong>, this annual<br />
program, a highlight<br />
for Ailey fans, included<br />
dance workshops and<br />
a conversation with<br />
former Ailey company<br />
member Nasha Thomas.<br />
Some of the community<br />
workshops focused<br />
on learning Ailey<br />
choreography. Former<br />
company member<br />
Amos Machanic Jr.<br />
taught excerpts from<br />
Wanna Be Ready and<br />
Revelations. Ronnie<br />
D. Carney, a Newark<br />
native and co-director<br />
of AileyCamp Newark<br />
(a six-week dance<br />
program for middle<br />
school students), led<br />
a seated movement<br />
class. Other workshops<br />
Alvin Ailey American Dance<br />
<strong>The</strong>ater’s Ashley Mayeux<br />
and James Gilmer in Robert<br />
Battle’s Unfold. Photo by<br />
Jeffrey Auger.<br />
included modern dance and<br />
jazz in addition to storytelling<br />
and movement. Participants<br />
were able to show off their newly<br />
learned choreography in a<br />
concluding Show & Share event.<br />
According to Battle, Ailey<br />
Day and the weekend of<br />
May performances were<br />
an embodiment of the<br />
legendary founder’s legacy.<br />
“Alvin Ailey’s unique vision<br />
opened the door for<br />
generations of artists to use<br />
dance to inspire, to unite and<br />
to enlighten,” he said. •<br />
22<br />
njpac.org
new ways to<br />
nurture talent<br />
NJPAC’s innovative, holistic approach to<br />
arts education encourages young people<br />
to be their best selves<br />
“<strong>To</strong> develop a good artist, you have<br />
to develop the entire human being.<br />
Education doesn’t just happen in the<br />
classroom. It requires a community<br />
and a support network …”<br />
– Jennifer Tsukayama<br />
Every Saturday during the<br />
school year, Franklin <strong>To</strong>rres<br />
drives his three kids from<br />
their home in upstate New<br />
York to the Center for Arts<br />
Education on NJPAC’s Newark<br />
campus. It’s a round trip of<br />
almost three hours — but<br />
<strong>To</strong>rres has no plans to stop.<br />
Nor do his three children<br />
who have participated in<br />
Arts Education programming<br />
for more than two years.<br />
“I don’t regret it one day,”<br />
says <strong>To</strong>rres. “<strong>The</strong> work that<br />
they’re doing with these<br />
kids is unbelievable.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>To</strong>rres family is one of<br />
hundreds whose children are<br />
enrolled in Arts Training programs<br />
at NJPAC. While education has<br />
been a tenet of the Arts Center<br />
since its opening 25 years ago,<br />
the programs have expanded<br />
and deepened into a national<br />
model for arts instruction, one<br />
that goes beyond a specific skill<br />
set to creating a toolkit for young<br />
people to succeed in any field.<br />
<strong>The</strong> department is firmly<br />
student-centered. In weekend<br />
Arts Training programs, summer<br />
programs and in-school<br />
residencies, NJPAC’s arts<br />
education offerings — staffed<br />
by 69 professional teaching<br />
artists — spotlight the stories<br />
students have to tell, and<br />
provide them with a platform<br />
to tell those stories.<br />
NJPAC’s acclaimed weekend Arts<br />
Training programs include classes<br />
focused on dance, jazz, theater,<br />
hip hop arts and more.<br />
“At NJPAC we focus on the<br />
whole student,” says Jennifer<br />
Tsukayama, Vice President of<br />
Arts Education. “We see our<br />
students as citizen artists and<br />
help them discover the depths<br />
of their potential as creatives<br />
and individuals. This is what<br />
every young person deserves.”<br />
In <strong>2022</strong>, NJPAC’s Saturday<br />
Arts Trainings included its<br />
long-running TD Jazz for<br />
Teens (JFT) program, as well<br />
as acting and musical theater,<br />
hip hop arts and culture and<br />
beginner band programs. All<br />
classes have opportunities for<br />
performance and collaboration<br />
between students in other<br />
classes. In addition, participants<br />
can opt into a mentoring<br />
program (Creative Coaching)<br />
and another program called<br />
In the Mix, where students<br />
across disciplines conceive<br />
and develop creative projects<br />
around social justice topics<br />
that are meaningful to them.<br />
SchoolTime performances —<br />
live shows on NJPAC stages<br />
during the school day —<br />
are another avenue for<br />
engagement. <strong>The</strong> Arts Center<br />
also reaches students through<br />
in-school residencies and<br />
professional development<br />
workshops for educators.<br />
<strong>To</strong>rres says he appreciates the<br />
nurturing faculty and students’<br />
exposure to the business side<br />
of music. He also likes how<br />
the faculty respects what the<br />
students want to pursue. For<br />
example, his daughter Abigail<br />
entered JFT as a drummer<br />
but is now a vocal student.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>y take the talent to<br />
another level,” he says.<br />
Unlike a conservatory-style<br />
program, the Arts Education<br />
department is not an exclusive<br />
training program for musical<br />
education: collaborative learning through the arts<br />
24<br />
njpac.org
NJPAC’s studentcentered<br />
programs<br />
provide a national<br />
model for arts<br />
instruction, one that<br />
creates a toolkit for<br />
young people to<br />
succeed in any field<br />
prodigies. Students at all levels<br />
are accepted, regardless of<br />
their financial needs; 95% of<br />
the Arts Education budget<br />
is funded by philanthropy.<br />
<strong>The</strong> programs are designed<br />
for students “to discover the<br />
depths of their potential and<br />
to help them be their best<br />
selves,” says Tsukayama.<br />
This was the first year Luca<br />
Duberstein, a high school<br />
senior, participated in NJPAC’s<br />
Arts Education programs. He<br />
signed up for City Verses in the<br />
summer, and from then on his<br />
creative pursuits soared. He is<br />
enrolled in his second hip hop<br />
class, participated in open<br />
mics, had a poem published<br />
by NAMI (National Alliance<br />
on Mental Illness) and was the<br />
lead at an open poetry event<br />
at the Newark Public Library.<br />
Duberstein credits NJPAC<br />
with improvements in his<br />
performance skills. “I’m more<br />
confident,” he says. “My<br />
stage presence is better.”<br />
“It was nice being around other<br />
artists,” says Duberstein. “<strong>The</strong><br />
student to teacher ratio is small,<br />
so you can get a lot of help.”<br />
He is also taking advantage<br />
of opportunities to achieve his<br />
professional goal of a career<br />
in music. For instance, he<br />
added Creative Coaching to<br />
his hip hop class so he could<br />
learn how to produce his own<br />
music. With Creative Coaching,<br />
a free program offered to Arts<br />
Training participants, a student<br />
is paired with a teaching artist<br />
who will nurture that student’s<br />
specific goal — whether it’s<br />
learning a new technical skill<br />
or developing habits that allow<br />
them to show up to gigs on time.<br />
Not only do NJPAC teaching<br />
artists listen to what the students<br />
need, the Arts Center also values<br />
supporting the family unit.<br />
“<strong>To</strong> develop a good artist,<br />
you have to develop the<br />
entire human being,” says<br />
Tsukayama. “Education doesn’t<br />
just happen in the classroom.<br />
It requires a community and<br />
a support network, which<br />
is why faculty and staff are<br />
trained in culturally responsive,<br />
anti-racist, trauma-informed<br />
and healing-centered work.”<br />
Arts Education at NJPAC is<br />
permeated with a respect<br />
for the students.<br />
“Kids aren’t empty vessels,”<br />
says Tsukayama of NJPAC’s<br />
approach. “<strong>The</strong>y come with a<br />
history that is relevant to the<br />
classroom and to the teacher.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y don’t know everything<br />
the teachers know — but the<br />
teachers don’t know everything<br />
the kids know, either.” •<br />
Opposite page, clockwise from top-left:<br />
Happy faces at the Arts Education department’s<br />
Family Day; a Saturday training program<br />
focused on hip hop arts and culture; Luca<br />
Duberstein and Melanie Harris at the City<br />
Verses jazz-poetry project; a high-energy scene<br />
from Savion Glover’s CITY KID! workshop. This<br />
page: NJPAC’s free Creative Coaching program<br />
pairs young people with teaching artists who<br />
support each student’s specific goals.<br />
26 njpac.org<br />
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school days rock<br />
“<strong>The</strong> interaction<br />
between the<br />
[Recycled<br />
Percussion] artists<br />
and the kids was<br />
amazing. We had<br />
1,500 students<br />
that day, and we<br />
know that when<br />
they went home,<br />
they said, ‘I had<br />
the greatest day<br />
today at NJPAC!’”<br />
– Craig Pearce<br />
How do you inspire children<br />
through the arts? First get<br />
them into a theater — and<br />
then, make some noise!<br />
Recycled Percussion — a<br />
performance in which common<br />
objects, from blenders to steel<br />
ladders, were turned into<br />
percussive instruments — was<br />
one of six SchoolTime shows held<br />
live at the Victoria <strong>The</strong>ater this<br />
year. This December show was<br />
a huge success by many metrics,<br />
SchoolTime audiences were<br />
mesmerized by the musicians<br />
of Recycled Percussion<br />
who played on common<br />
objects ranging from<br />
blenders to steel ladders.<br />
reaching school children<br />
in multiple ways, from mainstage<br />
shows to in-classroom programs<br />
especially that of the children’s<br />
excitement and response to<br />
the artists on the stage.<br />
“I was so proud of that one,<br />
because the interaction<br />
between the artists and the<br />
kids was amazing,” says<br />
Craig Pearce, Producer of<br />
Festivals and Performances.<br />
“We had 1,500 kids and they<br />
were so excited. <strong>The</strong> whole<br />
theater was just screaming<br />
the whole time. We know<br />
that when they walked out of<br />
that theater and went home<br />
that day they said, ‘I had the<br />
greatest day today at NJPAC.’”<br />
In a typical year, more than<br />
21,000 children from pre-K<br />
through grade 12 attend<br />
SchoolTime performances. Every<br />
performance is scaffolded with<br />
teacher’s resources which may<br />
include activity sheets, pre- and<br />
post-show videos and an NJPAC<br />
original podcast called On the<br />
Mic. Some are condensed versions<br />
of mainstage productions such<br />
as Recycled Percussion and the<br />
Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company’s<br />
Lunar New Year celebration,<br />
while others are produced<br />
especially for young audiences,<br />
such as Romeo & Juliet and<br />
Soul on Soul: A Musical Tribute<br />
Honoring Mary Lou Williams.<br />
Not all school programs NJPAC<br />
delivers are as loud as power<br />
tools, of course — and not all<br />
are held on the Arts Center’s<br />
campus. Some programs<br />
were virtual, like the special<br />
SchoolTime presentation of<br />
Echoes of the Lion, all about the<br />
colorful life and work of Newark<br />
jazz great Willie “<strong>The</strong> Lion” Smith,<br />
which was distributed online.<br />
Additionally, during <strong>2022</strong>,<br />
NJPAC trained and placed<br />
teaching artists in more than<br />
60 schools through residencies<br />
and after-school programming.<br />
“Our teaching artists are really<br />
important for bringing the arts<br />
to every student, no matter<br />
where they are,” says Ashley<br />
Mandaglio, Associate Director,<br />
Professional Learning and<br />
Program Development. <strong>The</strong><br />
residencies make participation<br />
in the arts accessible and<br />
bring value to student learning.<br />
Curriculum options include<br />
hip hop, acting, musical<br />
theater and storytelling<br />
through dance or drama. •<br />
backing<br />
artists-to-be<br />
Over his five years in NJPAC’s<br />
TD Jazz for Teens program,<br />
high school senior Clay Hudson<br />
has performed a lot — from<br />
semester-ending “Student<br />
Shares” to virtual programs<br />
and regular gigs on and off<br />
the Arts Center’s campus.<br />
But his favorite performance?<br />
That was at the Prudential<br />
Center in February. That night<br />
he was part of an ensemble,<br />
hired through NJPAC’s booking<br />
service for students and<br />
alumni, Brick City Bookings,<br />
to play at a Jazz for Prostate<br />
Cancer Awareness event.<br />
Young drummer<br />
Clay Hudson spent<br />
five years honing his<br />
professional skills in<br />
NJPAC’s TD Jazz for<br />
Teens program.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Colton Institute for Training<br />
and Research in the Arts cultivates<br />
creative pathways for young artists<br />
It wasn’t the venue that made<br />
the performance special,<br />
though. It was how he felt.<br />
“I was in the right headspace,”<br />
he says. “I connected with<br />
all the other musicians.”<br />
Diligent instruction from<br />
Arts Education faculty and<br />
Hudson’s hard work have<br />
given him the confidence to<br />
choose the groove, speed<br />
and keys of his improv sets.<br />
Hudson’s training, and that of<br />
hundreds of students, is made<br />
possible through the Colton<br />
Institute for Training and<br />
Research in the Arts, which was<br />
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teaching as an art form<br />
launched in 2021 with a<br />
$10 million gift from Judy and<br />
Stewart Colton. <strong>The</strong> Institute<br />
now houses all of NJPAC’s<br />
Saturday Arts Training<br />
classes — and supports a suite<br />
of programs that champion<br />
the whole child, paving the<br />
way toward successful careers<br />
or college trajectories.<br />
Mentoring programs, career<br />
advice sessions from working<br />
professionals, mental health<br />
support from social workers<br />
and expanded “gigging”<br />
opportunities offered through<br />
Brick City Bookings are among<br />
the initiatives the Colton Institute<br />
has enabled and expanded<br />
to benefit students, alumni<br />
and teaching artist faculty.<br />
“Our Arts Training is focused<br />
on the mental health of our<br />
students, and it’s using the arts<br />
as an outlet to be able to lean<br />
into their lived experiences,”<br />
says Vicky Revesz, Senior<br />
Director of Arts Education<br />
Operations. “Through the<br />
Colton Institute, we’re able<br />
to train teaching artists on<br />
these specific approaches.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> Colton Institute underwrites<br />
the social workers who attend<br />
to students, families and their<br />
caregivers through one-on-one<br />
and group sessions.<br />
NJPAC’s mentoring program,<br />
piloted in 2021, was expanded<br />
this year. Called Creative<br />
Coaching, it is now available to<br />
all Arts Center students, as well<br />
as to alumni ages 18 to 26.<br />
This demographic needs<br />
resources to “prime them for<br />
the start of an arts career,”<br />
says Rosa Hyde, Senior Director,<br />
Arts Education Performances<br />
and Special Events. “<strong>The</strong>y need<br />
to understand finances, how to<br />
do their taxes, how to put a<br />
resume together, how to get<br />
Creative Coaching,<br />
NJPAC’s expanded<br />
mentoring program, is<br />
now available to all Arts<br />
Center students as well as<br />
to alumni ages 18 to 26.<br />
<strong>The</strong> catalytic $10 million gift from Judy and Stewart Colton<br />
supports mentoring programs, career advice sessions, mental<br />
health support and more, all designed to launch young people<br />
onto a successful career or college trajectory.<br />
auditions. It’s learning<br />
the business of the business.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> Colton Institute funds<br />
staff for Brick City Bookings,<br />
a talent agency for students<br />
and alumni who play — for pay —<br />
at corporate events, fundraisers<br />
and on the NJPAC mainstage.<br />
Students under 18 receive an<br />
honorarium; those 18+ get<br />
paid a musician’s union rate.<br />
Thanks to the Colton Institute,<br />
Hyde is also strengthening<br />
the Arts Center’s engagement<br />
with alumni in other ways, and<br />
wants to create an Alumni<br />
Advisory Council for feedback<br />
on educational programs and<br />
insider knowledge on making<br />
a successful arts career.<br />
“I try my best to get in touch<br />
with as many former students<br />
as possible to bring them<br />
home,” says Hyde. “I want<br />
them to know this is a place<br />
they can come back to.” •<br />
“Show me how atoms in different<br />
forms of matter move.”<br />
Or “travel around the classroom mimicking<br />
an evaporating droplet of water.”<br />
<strong>The</strong>se are some of the classroom prompts<br />
envisioned by NJPAC’s new Arts Integration initiative,<br />
a professional development program focusing on<br />
the enrichment of classroom teaching through the<br />
collaboration of educators and teaching artists.<br />
In these examples, dance is a way for students<br />
to demonstrate their understanding of science.<br />
“It’s kinesthetic engagement,” says Natalie Dreyer,<br />
Director for Arts Integration. “We’re encouraging<br />
students to use their bodies to show their knowledge.”<br />
In this first year of a four-year pilot Arts Integration<br />
program, elementary classroom educators and<br />
teaching artists began to learn these techniques in<br />
a combination of virtual and in-person workshops.<br />
This professional development program helps teachers<br />
integrate visual and performing arts into the teaching<br />
of core content (math, science, social studies and<br />
language arts) in order to deepen understanding of<br />
both the arts and the subject matter. Other examples<br />
of arts integration include using musical notes to<br />
teach fractions or asking students to paint a mask<br />
to illustrate a literary character’s emotions.<br />
“We’ve moved out of the banking system of education,<br />
where it’s ‘I’m taking this knowledge and depositing<br />
it into you,’” says Dreyer. “Instead, we’re co-creating<br />
knowledge, giving students ownership over their<br />
understanding of a subject. This pedagogy incorporates<br />
students’ multiple intelligences so that teachers are<br />
meeting the needs of students with different abilities.”<br />
Teachers from Jersey City, Paterson and Newark<br />
schools currently participate. <strong>The</strong> first year of the<br />
program focuses on developing teachers’ creativity.<br />
<strong>The</strong> following years will include programs on teaching<br />
new art forms to educators, how to integrate arts<br />
into core curriculum and in-school residencies<br />
with NJPAC teaching artists. <strong>The</strong>re is no fee<br />
to participate, and teachers receive a stipend<br />
and professional development credits.<br />
Dreyer says, “We believe in investing time and<br />
resources in classroom teachers, and so we do.” •<br />
Teachers from Newark, Jersey City and Paterson<br />
schools participated in Arts Integration workshops<br />
designed to weave visual and performing<br />
arts into the teaching of core curriculum.<br />
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why do kids need an<br />
education<br />
in the arts?<br />
stefon harris<br />
explains<br />
speaking out<br />
the city verses project<br />
infused poetry with stories of struggle<br />
Being part of an arts education program<br />
was a life-changing experience for me.<br />
For the first time, I was sitting down<br />
to learn with people who were truly<br />
high-level performers — just as the kids in<br />
NJPAC’s programs do. <strong>The</strong>y challenged<br />
me in ways that no one else ever had.<br />
<strong>The</strong> thing about learning to play music<br />
is — there’s never only one right answer.<br />
But through music, you learn how to learn.<br />
When we teach children how to perform,<br />
we teach them so much more than<br />
reading notes and keeping time.<br />
At every lesson, little by little, we give them the<br />
tools they need to solve complex problems.<br />
<strong>The</strong> arts teach the highest values as<br />
well — like empathy. Only in studying<br />
the performing arts do kids get together<br />
and spend hours listening to each other.<br />
And collaboration: When you study the<br />
arts, you’re learning to create beauty<br />
that you can’t create all on your own.<br />
Those are skills that will help<br />
any young person thrive in our<br />
increasingly interconnected world.<br />
Even more than that, my instructors<br />
made me feel seen. <strong>The</strong>y saw my potential,<br />
my ability — not just to get the right answer<br />
on a test, but to find something inside of me<br />
that connected with this music, that brought<br />
something of my own to each piece I played.<br />
It meant the world to me to be seen<br />
and acknowledged that way.<br />
— Stefon Harris, jazz vibraphonist<br />
and NJPAC’s Jazz Education Advisor<br />
Writers and musicians from<br />
across the Greater Newark<br />
community — high school<br />
students to adults — were able<br />
to share their stories through<br />
City Verses, a multifaceted,<br />
multi-year collaboration<br />
between NJPAC and Rutgers<br />
University-Newark.<br />
Although the pandemic led<br />
to most City Verses programs<br />
being held virtually during its<br />
first two years, this season the<br />
program blossomed to include an<br />
in-person summer camp, public<br />
workshops and events in libraries<br />
and poetry readings across the<br />
city co-hosted with the Newark<br />
poetry collective EvoluCulture.<br />
At the City Verses summer camp,<br />
teen poets and musicians, who<br />
had studied together online for<br />
years, were able to collaborate<br />
in person for the first time.<br />
“We had some poets who<br />
started as freshmen, and they<br />
came every year, and all this<br />
time, they were getting taught<br />
by people who were masters<br />
in their discipline,” says Dimitri<br />
Reyes, a Rutgers-Newark<br />
MFA poet who served as a<br />
City Verses teaching artist and<br />
helped establish the curriculum.<br />
Students grasped the<br />
opportunity to make<br />
performance pieces that<br />
addressed potent topics.<br />
“Never underestimate high<br />
schoolers,” says Shannon<br />
Pulusan, another Rutgers-<br />
Newark MFA poet and City<br />
Verses teaching artist. “<strong>The</strong>y<br />
were thinking about the world<br />
with a wide lens, about race,<br />
gender, so many things.”<br />
City Verses also produced<br />
public performances, both<br />
City Verses offered poets and musicians from<br />
across the Greater Newark community —<br />
high school students to adults — a range of<br />
platforms to share their work.<br />
in-person at the Arts Center<br />
and virtual. Poets associated<br />
with the program performed<br />
during the TD James Moody<br />
Jazz Festival, and the initiative<br />
also produced its own virtual<br />
event, a jazz-poetry film called<br />
A Beautiful Bond, that streamed<br />
during the festival. Curated<br />
by poet and educator Vincent<br />
<strong>To</strong>ro and NJPAC Jazz Advisor<br />
Christian McBride, the film paid<br />
tribute to the ways that Black<br />
and Latinx struggles for social<br />
justice have been intertwined.<br />
“People know about Martin<br />
Luther King, but do they<br />
know of the relationship King<br />
had with Cesar Chavez?”<br />
<strong>To</strong>ro asks. “Black and Brown<br />
people have been working<br />
together for centuries to<br />
build a better world.” •<br />
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hip hop –<br />
hooray!<br />
arts center’s alumni<br />
<strong>The</strong> crowd at the Horizon<br />
Foundation Sounds of the City<br />
concert was especially large<br />
on August 4, as the show’s<br />
headliner was a local hip hop<br />
hero — Treach of the East<br />
Orange-born supergroup,<br />
Naughty by Nature.<br />
But before Chambers Plaza<br />
rang out with cries of “Hey! Ho!”<br />
step into the spotlight<br />
“Okay Say Less,” and Walker<br />
(aka “Big Jus”) spit clever<br />
bars like “I paint poetry/like<br />
my name is Mona Lisa!”<br />
All four are now college-age,<br />
studying everything from<br />
business to media arts.<br />
Though only Crockett is<br />
making a run at a career on<br />
the stage, they all returned<br />
NJPAC’s expanded work on<br />
behalf of its alumni includes<br />
career advice and mentorship<br />
from established artists.<br />
This season, Brick City Bookings,<br />
NJPAC’s booking service for Arts<br />
Education students, launched a<br />
deeper engagement with alumni.<br />
This summer, alumni were<br />
hired via Brick City Bookings<br />
to perform at the NJPAC roast<br />
of jazz superstar Christian<br />
McBride, at the Branch Brook<br />
Park Alliance Gala, at the<br />
Jersey Jazz Festival and at<br />
Juneteenth celebrations at<br />
ADP and Quest Diagnostics.<br />
Arts Education also assisted<br />
<strong>Community</strong> Engagement<br />
by programming 19 events<br />
across five Newark city parks<br />
<strong>To</strong>p: Alumni of NJPAC’s Arts<br />
Education programs (and some<br />
friends) met Treach of Naughty<br />
by Nature after opening for him<br />
at Horizon Foundation Sounds<br />
of the City. Center, left: Former<br />
NJPAC student Hezekiah “Hez”<br />
Crockett served as master of<br />
ceremonies; center, right, Treach<br />
greets the crowd. Bottom:<br />
Dancers take the stage during<br />
the alumni performance.<br />
for the “O.P.P.” star, the crowd<br />
was treated to an opening show<br />
of hip hop dancing, rapping<br />
and earworm-catchy beats<br />
performed by alumni of NJPAC’s<br />
Arts Education programs.<br />
Performers including emcees<br />
Karrington Wilson and Justin<br />
Walker, dancer Priscilla Pagan<br />
and singer-dancer-songwriter<br />
Hezekiah “Hez” Crockett got<br />
the crowd up on its feet despite<br />
the blazing heat. Hez had<br />
the audience shimmying to<br />
his Latin-flavored single,<br />
to NJPAC to perform and<br />
work as educator assistants<br />
in summer hip hop classes,<br />
thanks to the Arts Education<br />
department’s expanded work<br />
in engaging with students who<br />
have aged out of classes by<br />
offering them opportunities to<br />
use their skills — an initiative<br />
of the Colton Institute.<br />
“It was great to interact with<br />
these kids — I felt like I could<br />
really help them by sharing my<br />
experiences,” said Newark<br />
native Wilson.<br />
during Summer Fun in the Park,<br />
organized by the Newark<br />
City Parks Foundation and<br />
programmed by NJPAC.<br />
In total, alumni were hired for<br />
60 performances, reaching an<br />
audience of more than 10,000.<br />
<strong>The</strong> best part of that August<br />
Sounds show? After the alumni<br />
left the stage, they were<br />
surprised by a meet-up with<br />
Treach, who offered high<br />
fives and selfies all around.<br />
“You all are the future, you gotta<br />
keep it up!” he told them. •<br />
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keeping<br />
the beat<br />
For 25 years, TD Jazz for Teens has offered<br />
performance experience — and a<br />
When GRAMMY®-winning<br />
alto sax player and composer<br />
Mark Gross was just starting<br />
his career, he toured with Lionel<br />
Hampton. As the youngest<br />
musician on that tour, he sat at<br />
the very back of the tour bus.<br />
But the back of the bus was<br />
also its smoking section. On<br />
his first ride, Gross realized<br />
that sitting right in front of<br />
him, relaxing with a cigarette,<br />
was Dizzy Gillespie.<br />
Students from TD Jazz for Teens<br />
perform in the Chase Room<br />
with GRAMMY®-winning alto<br />
saxophonist-composer Mark Gross,<br />
NJPAC’s Director of Jazz Instruction.<br />
connection to jazz history<br />
“I’m sitting there, looking at<br />
the back of his head, thinking:<br />
That’s Dizzy! Right there!” Gross<br />
recalls. He promptly asked his<br />
bandmate to share stories of<br />
playing in the 1930s and 1940s.<br />
“I’m smiling like the Cheshire<br />
Cat, soaking it all in, and<br />
I said: ‘Mr. Diz, I’m an alto<br />
player. Can you tell what it<br />
was like to play with Charlie<br />
Parker?’ He lit up like a light<br />
bulb. For the next two weeks,<br />
I got stories about Charlie.”<br />
It was a formative experience<br />
for Gross, who went on to<br />
work with a roster of greats,<br />
including Buster Williams,<br />
Nat Adderley, Dave Holland<br />
and Wynton Marsalis.<br />
“Those legends poured so<br />
much into me that I feel if I don’t<br />
pour what I’ve gathered from<br />
being around these masters<br />
into young people, they’ll never<br />
understand the full impact of<br />
these artists,” says Gross.<br />
Which is why every Saturday<br />
morning you’ll find Gross in an<br />
NJPAC classroom teaching kids<br />
all he knows through TD Jazz for<br />
Teens, now in its third decade.<br />
(TD Bank, the longtime sponsor<br />
of NJPAC’s jazz programming<br />
and TD James Moody Jazz<br />
Festival, became title sponsor<br />
of the program this year.)<br />
Since 2015, Gross, NJPAC’s<br />
Director of Jazz Instruction,<br />
has managed the program,<br />
which has helped thousands<br />
of high schoolers learn how to<br />
play, compose, perform and<br />
advance careers in jazz.<br />
In addition to Gross, more than<br />
a dozen acclaimed musicians<br />
make up the faculty, including<br />
saxophonist Wayne Escoffery,<br />
guitarist Alex Wintz (a program<br />
alumnus), percussionist<br />
Alvester Garnett and trumpeter<br />
Valery Ponomarev. Eight-time<br />
GRAMMY®-winning bassist<br />
Christian McBride (NJPAC’s<br />
Jazz Advisor), vibraphonist<br />
Stefon Harris and MacArthur<br />
“Genius Grant” recipient Regina<br />
Carter also offer master classes.<br />
Students study listening, jazz<br />
history, theory, composition<br />
and technique. <strong>The</strong>y can also<br />
opt into one-on-one instruction.<br />
Because NJPAC Arts Education<br />
programs embrace the Maker<br />
philosophy — which holds<br />
that students learn best by<br />
creating — composition and<br />
improvisation are emphasized.<br />
Advanced students become<br />
members of NJPAC’s elite<br />
jazz ensembles, the James<br />
Moody Jazz Orchestra and the<br />
George Wein Jazz Scholars.<br />
<strong>The</strong> latter not only play<br />
together, but annually visit<br />
the Newport Jazz Festival to<br />
meet headline performers.<br />
“It’s a kid-in-a-candy-store<br />
experience,” Gross says. “<strong>The</strong>y<br />
come back over the moon.” •<br />
NJPAC’s award-winning<br />
performing arts summer<br />
programs culminated with a<br />
final performance on the Lizzie<br />
& Jonathan Tisch Stage in the<br />
Victoria <strong>The</strong>ater.<br />
all in together<br />
Summer students in the spotlight<br />
<strong>The</strong> range of performances presented on NJPAC’s stages<br />
this season was enormously broad, from stand-up comedy to<br />
salsa and symphonies.<br />
But it’s safe to say that only one performance included a<br />
production number about magical chips that turn late night<br />
snackers into orange monsters and an evil scientist named<br />
“Dr. Cheddarman.”<br />
That would be All In <strong>To</strong>gether, the summer-ending show<br />
presented by 80 students of the NJPAC’s summer programs<br />
in acting, musical theater and hip hop to a full house of<br />
cheering friends and family in the Victoria <strong>The</strong>ater.<br />
This was the first summer in three years NJPAC’s summer<br />
programs were held in person, and teaching artists worked hard<br />
to ensure that not only did students learn new performance skills<br />
but that they also had plentiful opportunities to build social and<br />
emotional skills.<br />
“Encouragement and support were so important. It’s hard to overstate<br />
what these students had endured the last two years,” says Nicola<br />
Murphy, artistic director of NJPAC’s summer theater program.<br />
In keeping with NJPAC’s embrace of the Maker philosophy, which<br />
holds that children learn best by creating, every scene of the<br />
show was crafted by the students, from the raps and hip hop<br />
beats to several short plays and musicals.<br />
<strong>The</strong> younger students offered a scene about the mystical origins<br />
of the schoolyard game rock-paper-scissors, and a musical<br />
about supernatural Cheetos, both written collectively through<br />
a process of brainstorming and improvisation.<br />
Older students took on more serious topics. Teen actors crafted<br />
a play about immigrant brothers struggling to stay in America<br />
to pursue their dreams, while musical theater students created a<br />
piece about LGBTQ+ rights in the 1920s, researched via a virtual<br />
tour of the Newark Museum of Art’s Jazz Greats photo exhibit. •<br />
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ound<br />
broadway<br />
Young people learn how to create<br />
musical theater magic<br />
Most high school students<br />
never have the opportunity<br />
to audition for a <strong>To</strong>ny Awardwinning<br />
Broadway star.<br />
But dancer Lakota Boyd<br />
has done it twice.<br />
<strong>The</strong> summer of <strong>2022</strong> was the<br />
second time she auditioned to<br />
be a part of Savion Glover’s<br />
Summer Intensive, a workshop<br />
for young people held at NJPAC.<br />
Glover — Broadway’s legendary<br />
Tap Dance Kid and a <strong>To</strong>ny<br />
winner for his choreography in<br />
Bring in ’da Noise, Bring in ’da<br />
Funk — is the Arts Center’s Dance<br />
Advisor and annually leads a<br />
troupe of young artists in the<br />
creation of a new performance.<br />
This was the fifth Intensive<br />
led by Glover, and the first<br />
in-person one since 2019.<br />
Dozens of students auditioned<br />
and 13 were selected for the<br />
free, four-week program. Boyd,<br />
who has now taken part in<br />
two intensives, described the<br />
entire experience as “magical.”<br />
“Being there was magnificent,”<br />
she says. “Mr. Glover lets<br />
you be free at expressing<br />
yourself in a way you never<br />
thought you could.”<br />
This year’s project was inspired<br />
by Adrienne Hunter’s CITY KID,<br />
a play about urban living set in<br />
the 1980s, but students added<br />
their personal experiences to<br />
the script and choreography.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y rehearsed eight hours<br />
a day, five days a week, to<br />
prepare for two performances in<br />
the Horizon Foundation <strong>The</strong>ater<br />
at the Center for Arts Education.<br />
“This is a wonderful program<br />
that puts students directly<br />
Savion Glover’s four-week<br />
Summer Intensive leads a<br />
troupe of young artists through<br />
the creation of a new musical<br />
theater performance.<br />
in front of a legend to learn<br />
how Broadway auditions and<br />
rehearsals work,” says Rosa<br />
Hyde, Senior Director, Arts<br />
Education Performances and<br />
Special Events. “It’s rigorous,<br />
it’s fun and it bonds students<br />
together as they go through the<br />
journey of producing a show.”<br />
For Boyd, the experience left<br />
her with lasting friendships<br />
and boosted her confidence.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> experience gave me a<br />
push in life,” she says. “It gave<br />
me the power and enthusiasm<br />
to strive and do more.” •<br />
a place where<br />
teachers become students<br />
Children aren’t the only<br />
ones who come to learn<br />
through the arts at NJPAC.<br />
<strong>The</strong>ir teachers do as well.<br />
“We’ve developed a national<br />
reputation as an arts<br />
education leader,” says Ashley<br />
Mandaglio, Associate Director,<br />
Professional Learning and<br />
Program Development. “We are<br />
known for providing interactive<br />
experiences that inspire,<br />
educate and reinvigorate<br />
teaching practices — and no<br />
one else is tackling social justice<br />
through arts education.”<br />
Over the course of the year,<br />
more than 100 professional<br />
development programs, both<br />
in-person and virtual, were<br />
held for NJPAC teaching artists,<br />
administrators and classroom<br />
teachers from throughout<br />
the state. Three new districts<br />
in New Jersey — Cranford,<br />
Plainfield and Rahway —<br />
sought programming for their<br />
educators and were added to<br />
the professional development<br />
In <strong>2022</strong>, more than 100<br />
professional development<br />
programs were held for<br />
educators, providing tools that<br />
turn classrooms into positive<br />
learning environments.<br />
roster in the fall of <strong>2022</strong>; the<br />
Arts Center maintains its<br />
distinction as sole provider<br />
of professional development<br />
for arts educators in the City<br />
of Newark’s public schools.<br />
While in-person trainings<br />
returned in June, the Social<br />
Justice Learning Series remains<br />
virtual to reach educators<br />
across the country. This<br />
series is a program of the<br />
Colton Institute for Training<br />
and Research in the Arts.<br />
Since its inception in 2020, the<br />
Social Justice Learning Series<br />
has hosted quarterly interactive<br />
webinars. <strong>The</strong> goal is to provide<br />
educators with the tools to<br />
turn their classrooms into<br />
positive learning environments.<br />
After two years of pandemic<br />
disruption, teachers are seeking<br />
new ways of impacting their<br />
students who now come to<br />
school weighed down by<br />
anxiety, problems at home<br />
and pervasive news of gun<br />
violence, racial disparities, toxic<br />
political discourse and more.<br />
“We developed this series<br />
in response to the needs<br />
we were hearing from the<br />
classroom teachers. We know<br />
art strategies can be used to<br />
deal with social justice issues<br />
in the classroom, because<br />
through the arts students<br />
express themselves and get<br />
out what they’re feeling in an<br />
easier way than in a math or<br />
science class,” says Mandaglio.<br />
<strong>The</strong> largest event of the year<br />
was a Day of Learning held<br />
in March, a program that<br />
included a keynote address<br />
followed by workshops on<br />
topics ranging from exploring<br />
social issues through theater<br />
to using movement to model<br />
environmental justice principles.<br />
One teacher said they benefited<br />
from “finding ways to be an ally<br />
and an advocate for anti-racist<br />
practices.” Another appreciated<br />
“providing educators with a<br />
space to speak their truth.”<br />
Fall workshop topics included<br />
“Sustaining Racial Literacy<br />
in the Education of the Arts”<br />
and “Combating Ableism<br />
in the Arts Classroom.”<br />
“We have this responsibility<br />
to make sure that teachers<br />
don’t feel alone, that they<br />
feel like they can have a<br />
community,” says Mandaglio.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>y’re a part of our family,<br />
they learn with us and grow<br />
with us year after year.” •<br />
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a new neighborhood,<br />
a new destination,<br />
a new era<br />
Advancing its work on the redevelopment of<br />
newark’s downtown will transform<br />
the Arts Center and its home city<br />
One <strong>The</strong>ater Square (viewed across<br />
Chambers Plaza), the first market-rate<br />
residential tower built in Newark in<br />
decades, brought hundreds of new<br />
residents into NJPAC’s corner of the city.<br />
NJPAC opened in 1997.<br />
But the seed of the idea<br />
that grew into the Arts<br />
Center was actually first<br />
planted in New York<br />
City, in the early 1960s.<br />
That’s when a young man,<br />
a graduate student of<br />
history at Columbia<br />
University, watched Lincoln<br />
Center being built on<br />
Manhattan’s Upper West<br />
Side, and saw how the<br />
presence of a performing<br />
arts center utterly changed<br />
the rundown area.<br />
“I could see restaurants<br />
coming in, apartment<br />
buildings, hotels, stores …<br />
it simply transformed the<br />
neighborhood,” he recalled<br />
decades later. “So the idea<br />
of an arts center as a tool for<br />
urban rehabilitation became<br />
very compelling to me.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> young man was<br />
Thomas Kean, who went<br />
on to become one of New<br />
Jersey’s most revered<br />
governors. After he<br />
handily won his second<br />
gubernatorial election in<br />
1985, he used his enormous<br />
political capital to advance<br />
the building of a performing<br />
arts center in Newark.<br />
But Newark’s performing<br />
arts center, Kean insisted,<br />
should have what Lincoln<br />
Center did not: ownership<br />
real estate: a new vision for downtown newark<br />
40<br />
njpac.org
of a piece of the downtown<br />
that its presence would<br />
rejuvenate. So NJPAC was<br />
built on a 12-acre campus —<br />
roughly twice as much land<br />
as its two theaters occupied.<br />
Thanks to Governor Kean’s<br />
insights, serving as an economic<br />
driver for the city and ensuring<br />
that Newark’s downtown<br />
would be bustling — days,<br />
nights and weekends —<br />
have always explicitly been<br />
part of NJPAC’s mission.<br />
And with room to grow, the<br />
Arts Center has been able to<br />
pursue that part of its mandate<br />
in all kinds of creative ways.<br />
<strong>The</strong> first was the building of<br />
the gleaming One <strong>The</strong>ater<br />
Square, across Center Street<br />
from the Arts Center — the first<br />
market-rate residential tower to<br />
be built in Newark in decades.<br />
When it opened in 2018, it was<br />
an immediate success. <strong>To</strong>day,<br />
the building operates at nearly<br />
100% of rental capacity.<br />
“That was the proof-point<br />
for us,” says John Schreiber,<br />
NJPAC’s President and CEO.<br />
“It was our ‘If we build it,<br />
they will come’ moment.”<br />
After One <strong>The</strong>ater Square<br />
brought hundreds of new<br />
residents into the Arts Center’s<br />
corner of the city, NJPAC’s<br />
leadership, with the guidance<br />
of colleagues at Prudential<br />
Financial, worked with RePlace<br />
Urban Studio to develop<br />
a masterplan for the most<br />
effective and impactful use of<br />
the rest of the campus’ land.<br />
“And through that process, we<br />
took a future that was inchoate<br />
and aspirational and made it<br />
into a concrete masterplan for<br />
NJPAC’s future,” says Schreiber.<br />
<strong>The</strong> execution of NJPAC’s<br />
full-campus masterplan is now<br />
underway, with multiple real<br />
estate development projects<br />
that will transform both the Arts<br />
Center’s surroundings, and the<br />
city’s downtown, in advanced<br />
stages of preparation.<br />
Groundbreakings for<br />
several projects are slated<br />
for 2023 — and by the end<br />
of 2026, the Arts Center’s<br />
campus and surroundings<br />
will have undergone a<br />
metamorphosis, welcoming<br />
“We’re<br />
reimagining<br />
what Newark<br />
can be,<br />
delivering ways<br />
for Newark<br />
to grow and<br />
prosper<br />
over the next<br />
generation,<br />
through the<br />
arts — and what<br />
could be more<br />
useful, more<br />
exciting, than<br />
that?”<br />
– John Schreiber<br />
more than a thousand new<br />
residents, more cultural spaces,<br />
a new arts education and<br />
community center and more.<br />
<strong>The</strong> redevelopment will<br />
include the replacement of<br />
some of the dozens of miles of<br />
streetscape the city has lost<br />
over the past 50 years, and the<br />
wholesale creation of a new<br />
neighborhood, deliberately<br />
designed to be welcoming,<br />
inviting and a perfect fit<br />
for Newark’s downtown.<br />
One parcel of the Arts Center’s<br />
land — currently Parking<br />
Lot A — will feature several<br />
mixed-use buildings with<br />
350 residential rental units<br />
(20% of them affordable<br />
housing), as well as more<br />
than 15 for-sale townhomes.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y’ll spread out along an<br />
extension of Mulberry Street<br />
that reaches across NJPAC’s<br />
campus to Rector Street, which<br />
will be designed to allow<br />
pedestrians, bicyclists and<br />
cars to safely share the road.<br />
A new entryway to the Arts<br />
Center will be constructed on<br />
its eastern facade, allowing<br />
corporate and social events<br />
to be held at the same time<br />
as major concerts, with each<br />
event in its own space.<br />
And Chambers Plaza,<br />
the outdoor entryway to<br />
NJPAC, will be reimagined<br />
and rearchitected by the<br />
New York-based Future<br />
Green Studios, to create<br />
a green and shady space<br />
that can be programmed<br />
and used by residents and<br />
visitors all year long.<br />
“In success, it will be a place<br />
where there’s yoga classes in<br />
the morning, concert afterparties<br />
at night and pop-up<br />
vendors and food trucks in<br />
the afternoon — and always,<br />
it’ll be a place where our new<br />
residents can relax, have a<br />
cup of coffee, meet up with<br />
friends,” says Tim Lizura,<br />
Senior Vice President, Real<br />
Estate and Capital Projects.<br />
Across the street on Center<br />
and Mulberry Streets, the<br />
Cooperman Family Arts<br />
Education and <strong>Community</strong><br />
Center will house NJPAC’s<br />
extensive arts education<br />
programs for young people,<br />
as well as new educational<br />
programs in technical theater<br />
and a pair of professional<br />
studio rehearsal spaces<br />
where new performances<br />
can be created.<br />
In five years, the Arts Center<br />
will have new neighbors living<br />
right on its campus — and<br />
more people visiting shops<br />
and restaurants, working in<br />
the studios or going to events<br />
at the Cooperman Center.<br />
“We’re really building a<br />
community, out of whole<br />
cloth, that is authentic to<br />
Newark,” says Lizura.<br />
And the Arts Center’s work<br />
as an economic driver<br />
won’t stop at the edge of<br />
its campus. In May of this<br />
year, NJPAC announced<br />
that — in partnership with<br />
the City of Newark and<br />
Great Point Studios, a studio<br />
investment/management<br />
business specializing<br />
in film and television<br />
infrastructure — it was<br />
collaborating in the development<br />
of a new, 350,000-square-foot<br />
film and television studio in the<br />
city’s South Ward. Lionsgate<br />
Newark, named for the global<br />
content producer that will be<br />
in residence at the studio for at<br />
least 10 years, will be built on<br />
the site of the long-empty Seth<br />
Boyden housing development.<br />
<strong>The</strong> studio will have the<br />
largest sound stages on the<br />
East Coast, and will bring<br />
hundreds of jobs to Newarkers<br />
when it opens in 2024.<br />
“What NJPAC is doing is<br />
creative placemaking at its<br />
best — providing genuine,<br />
equitable opportunities for<br />
Newarkers,” says Schreiber.<br />
“We’re reimagining what<br />
Newark can be, we’re<br />
delivering ways for Newark to<br />
grow and prosper over the next<br />
generation, through the arts —<br />
and what could be more useful,<br />
more exciting, than that?” •<br />
NJPAC’s multiple real estate development projects include (top to bottom):<br />
A new neighborhood along an extension of Mulberry Street, a refurbished<br />
eastern facade, the Cooperman Family Arts Education and <strong>Community</strong><br />
Center, and a greener, more community-friendly Chambers Plaza.<br />
42 njpac.org<br />
njpac.org 43
future vision<br />
NJPAC’s expanded arts district will include highand<br />
low-rise towers (creating 350 residential<br />
units, 20% of which will be affordable housing),<br />
for-sale townhomes, more green space, plus<br />
shops, restaurants and cultural destinations.<br />
With residences, shops,<br />
restaurants and more, the<br />
new NJPAC campus will be an<br />
artfully designed neighborhood<br />
that’s authentic to the city<br />
Three years from now, a walk<br />
across the Arts Center’s campus<br />
will feel entirely different.<br />
<strong>To</strong>day, parking lots surround<br />
NJPAC’s theaters, while the<br />
wide-open Chambers Plaza<br />
welcomes visitors out front.<br />
By 2026, a stroll around the<br />
Arts Center will be a walk<br />
through a densely populated<br />
neighborhood, through<br />
buildings of all sizes, where a<br />
visitor on any given day will<br />
find residents popping in and<br />
out of apartment buildings<br />
and maisonette townhouses,<br />
ducking into shops and side<br />
streets or relaxing in green<br />
spaces that dot the landscape.<br />
“It was important to create a<br />
district that celebrates NJPAC<br />
and strengthens Newark —<br />
to unite this critical cultural<br />
institution and the neighboring<br />
residential areas in a<br />
harmonious way,” says Yasemin<br />
Kologlu, Principal at Skidmore,<br />
Owings & Merrill, the celebrated<br />
architecture firm that has<br />
designed the new neighborhood<br />
that will be built on what is now<br />
the Arts Center’s Parking Lot A.<br />
As the design team worked,<br />
Kologlu said, they were inspired<br />
by a quote by the celebrated<br />
architectural critic, Herbert<br />
Muschamp, who wrote of NJPAC<br />
when it opened: “Newark’s<br />
new Center is much more<br />
than a work of architecture.<br />
It is an uproar. A commotion.<br />
A melee of civic hope.”<br />
After years of planning<br />
and preparatory work, a<br />
groundbreaking for this new<br />
district — a joint effort between the<br />
Arts Center and developers Center<br />
Street Owners (CSO), a group<br />
that includes L+M Development<br />
Partners and Prudential Impact<br />
& Responsible Investments —<br />
is scheduled to occur by the<br />
fourth quarter of 2023.<br />
<strong>The</strong> first phase of redevelopment<br />
will include a high-rise tower and<br />
two low-rise towers, creating 350<br />
residential units (some 20% of<br />
which will be affordable housing)<br />
and plenty of space for shops,<br />
restaurants and cultural spaces<br />
on each building’s ground floor,<br />
all built around a new extension<br />
of Mulberry Street through the<br />
NJPAC campus to Rector Street.<br />
Among the attractions that<br />
will draw visitors to the new<br />
Mulberry Street: Newark’s<br />
beloved jazz radio station,<br />
WBGO, hopes to move into a<br />
new purpose-built home on the<br />
first and second floors of one<br />
low-rise building, and famed<br />
restaurateur Marcus Samuelsson<br />
will establish new food and<br />
beverage spaces at the site.<br />
For-sale townhomes will line<br />
quieter side streets between the<br />
two residential buildings, and<br />
greenery will dot the landscape.<br />
“We wanted to create an active<br />
and diverse neighborhood<br />
by designing various types<br />
of residences for different<br />
lifestyles,” says Kologlu. “<strong>The</strong><br />
project also presented an<br />
enormous opportunity to<br />
bring back some of the city’s<br />
streetscape by restoring those<br />
lost urban connections.”<br />
So the high rise tower will<br />
face the Passaic River, to take<br />
advantage of the water views.<br />
Nearer to NJPAC, the scale of<br />
the buildings will be lower, with<br />
large windows and open space<br />
on the ground floors, extending<br />
the new streetscape. Balconies<br />
and terraces throughout the<br />
project will create outdoor<br />
spaces for residents.<br />
<strong>The</strong> townhomes will be on side<br />
streets closed to through traffic,<br />
creating space for children<br />
and families to play, with front<br />
gardens, stoops and internal<br />
courtyards providing greenery<br />
and gathering spots. Each street<br />
through the development will<br />
have its own character, Kologlu<br />
says, with different material<br />
delineating each space, from<br />
NJPAC’s familiar red brick<br />
on the low-rise buildings to<br />
wooden elements elsewhere.<br />
“We were inspired by the texture,<br />
color and materiality of NJPAC<br />
and the neighborhood,” says<br />
Kologlu. “<strong>The</strong> facade design<br />
of each building complements<br />
NJPAC, without mimicking it.”<br />
In addition to the development<br />
on Lot A, the project also includes<br />
the first major upgrade to<br />
NJPAC’s central building in its 25<br />
year history: A new light-filled<br />
entryway will be built on the Arts<br />
Center’s eastern facade, with<br />
expansive windows overlooking<br />
the new Mulberry Street, giving<br />
passers-by a peek at activity<br />
inside, while a wood and<br />
metal canopy shields arriving<br />
guests from the elements.<br />
Greenery-covered trellises will<br />
wrap around NJPAC’s new<br />
loading docks, and visitors will<br />
traverse a small new “pocket<br />
park” along Mulberry as they<br />
arrive at the Arts Center.<br />
This new entryway will allow<br />
multiple parties and special<br />
events to be held at the Arts<br />
Center at the same time as<br />
mainstage performances, with<br />
guests for each arriving at<br />
different spaces and entering<br />
through separate doors.<br />
“We’re creating a new arts<br />
and residential district that<br />
is grounded and embedded<br />
in Newark,” says Kologlu.<br />
“We believe it’s going to be a<br />
special place — a welcoming<br />
and vibrant neighborhood<br />
that knits the surrounding<br />
communities together.” •<br />
44 njpac.org<br />
njpac.org 45
lights, camera,<br />
On a sunny afternoon in May,<br />
NJPAC’s President and CEO,<br />
John Schreiber, was joined<br />
by New Jersey Governor Phil<br />
Murphy and Newark Mayor<br />
Ras J. Baraka for a press<br />
conference — in the middle<br />
of a vast field of rubble.<br />
It looked like the set of an<br />
apocalyptic creature-feature —<br />
but in fact, it was the site of an<br />
exciting new chapter in New<br />
Jersey’s long history with the<br />
motion picture business, and the<br />
launch of a new role for NJPAC.<br />
With construction cranes arching<br />
over them, and prominent<br />
Newarkers gathered around,<br />
the three announced to the<br />
world a deal to create Lionsgate<br />
Newark — a new, purposebuilt,<br />
350,000-square-foot, $200<br />
million film and TV studio, the<br />
first of its kind in the state, to<br />
be built on the site of the city’s<br />
long-abandoned and now<br />
demolished Seth Boyden Housing<br />
Project in the South Ward.<br />
<strong>The</strong> studio, which will include the<br />
largest soundstages on the East<br />
Coast when it opens in 2025 —<br />
and enough of them for three<br />
projects to be filmed at once —<br />
was named for its first long-term<br />
action!<br />
NJPAC assembles “a coalition of<br />
the willing” to bring a world-class<br />
film studio to the South Ward,<br />
expanding the economic impact of<br />
the arts in Newark<br />
tenant, global content creator<br />
Lionsgate. Great Point Studios, a<br />
studio investment/management<br />
business specializing in film and<br />
television infrastructure, will own<br />
and operate the studio; NJPAC<br />
will manage public affairs and<br />
community relations for the studio<br />
and create educational programs<br />
and internships for Newark high<br />
school and college students there.<br />
<strong>The</strong> project will bring hundreds<br />
of long-term jobs to the city,<br />
and is expected to bring<br />
more than $800 million<br />
into the state annually.<br />
“This is a great, great day …<br />
Newark and New Jersey are<br />
each ready for their closeups,”<br />
Governor Murphy<br />
said at the conference.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Arts Center was the prime<br />
mover in bringing together city<br />
and state officials, investors and<br />
more to make the new studio a<br />
reality — signaling a new way<br />
that NJPAC can harness the<br />
power of the performing arts<br />
to serve as an economic driver<br />
for the city and the state.<br />
Long before Governor Murphy<br />
passed a tax credit program<br />
that included incentives for new<br />
film production facilities in New<br />
Jersey, NJPAC had explored the<br />
possibility of building a TV and<br />
film studio in Newark, as a way<br />
to expand its work in broadcast<br />
production. <strong>The</strong> Arts Center<br />
has hosted numerous film and<br />
television productions on its<br />
campus over the past decade,<br />
from the TV show America’s Got<br />
Talent to awards ceremonies<br />
like Black Girls Rock! Some 15<br />
Netflix productions have been<br />
filmed at NJPAC. A studio was the<br />
logical next step in expanding<br />
what was becoming part of the<br />
Arts Center’s core business.<br />
NJPAC’s Executive Producer<br />
David Rodriguez, then-COO<br />
Warren Tranquada and the Arts<br />
Center’s SVP of Real Estate and<br />
Capital Projects Tim Lizura, had<br />
already spent years scouting for<br />
a location large enough for a<br />
first class studio, and exploring<br />
ways to fund a state-of-the-art<br />
facility, when the tax credit<br />
program made the project<br />
even more economically viable.<br />
<strong>The</strong>n developer Marc Berson,<br />
an NJPAC Board member,<br />
identified the Seth Boyden site<br />
as a possibility, and the Newark<br />
Housing Authority and the<br />
Baraka administration granted<br />
NJPAC permission to seek<br />
partners to develop that land.<br />
Thanks to the efforts of a<br />
number of NJPAC’s advocates<br />
and supporters — that<br />
Schreiber dubbed a “coalition<br />
of the willing” at the press<br />
conference — including First<br />
Lady Tammy Murphy and Aisha<br />
Glover (one-time president of<br />
the Newark Alliance, now an<br />
executive at Audible), NJPAC was<br />
able to meet and partner with<br />
Robert Halmi, founder of Great<br />
Point Studios, to pull the plan to<br />
build a Newark studio together.<br />
“This is going to be a real shot<br />
in the arm for this community, a<br />
landmark studio with the largest<br />
studios in the East — we could<br />
Hollywood on the Passaic: Last May, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy,<br />
NJPAC President-CEO John Schreiber and Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka<br />
announced the creation of Lionsgate Newark — a 350,000-square-foot,<br />
$200 million film and television studio, the first of its kind in the state.<br />
have up to a thousand people<br />
working here every day,” Halmi<br />
said at the press conference. He<br />
also noted that the studio will be<br />
built with the environment top of<br />
mind, filled with energy-saving<br />
low-power lights, covered in<br />
solar panels and even boasting<br />
green roofs where vegetables<br />
to feed the cast and crew of<br />
productions will be grown. <strong>The</strong><br />
facility will also offer a full set<br />
of production services on site,<br />
including props, set building,<br />
restaurants and location catering.<br />
“We at NJPAC have cultivated<br />
a Newark-based network for<br />
artists to create, rehearse, tour<br />
and broadcast here. Now, this<br />
studio will play a critical role in<br />
the ever-growing arts ecosystem<br />
in this city,” says Schreiber.<br />
And NJPAC will also ensure that<br />
this branch of the business of<br />
the arts is accessible to the city’s<br />
young people. <strong>The</strong> Arts Center<br />
will serve as a community liaison<br />
for the studio, and extend its<br />
education programs to include<br />
ones that bring students to<br />
the studio to learn about film<br />
and television production,<br />
or to intern at the studio.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Arts Center is even in<br />
discussion with the Newark<br />
Public Schools in hopes of<br />
developing a new high school,<br />
near the studio, that will offer<br />
a curriculum focused on the<br />
digital and performing arts. •<br />
before<br />
after<br />
46 njpac.org njpac.org 47
a ‘very joyous’<br />
building<br />
As NJPAC’s staff and the<br />
design team at the renowned<br />
architectural firm of Weiss/<br />
Manfredi leaned into the<br />
process of designing the new<br />
Cooperman Family Arts<br />
Education and <strong>Community</strong><br />
Center over the course of <strong>2022</strong>,<br />
one thing became “inevitable<br />
and clear,” says Marion<br />
Weiss, the firm’s co-founder.<br />
This building would “tell a story<br />
about welcoming everybody,”<br />
she says. “It will reach out to the<br />
city and extend an invitation<br />
to the entire community.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> Center, named for longtime<br />
NJPAC supporters Leon<br />
and <strong>To</strong>by Cooperman and<br />
their family, will be the heart<br />
of NJPAC’s Arts Education<br />
department, housing training<br />
programs for students,<br />
professional development<br />
programs for teachers and<br />
<strong>Community</strong> Engagement<br />
programs. Young people will<br />
be able to learn about the<br />
performing arts in the Izzo<br />
Family Children’s Arts Reading<br />
Room, named in recognition of<br />
a leadership gift from Karen<br />
and Ralph Izzo. In the P. Roy<br />
and Diana Vagelos Education<br />
Lab, a multipurpose studio<br />
performance space named<br />
for the Arts Center’s former<br />
Board Co-Chair and his<br />
wife, a founding member of<br />
Women@NJPAC, students will<br />
explore technical theater skills.<br />
A suite of rehearsal studios<br />
on the upper floors will be<br />
<strong>The</strong> new Cooperman<br />
Family Arts Education and<br />
<strong>Community</strong> Center<br />
takes shape<br />
available to professional<br />
artists and production<br />
companies workshopping<br />
new performances.<br />
<strong>The</strong> design that Weiss, her<br />
partner and firm co-founder<br />
Michael Manfredi, their team<br />
and NJPAC staff created<br />
is focused on concepts of<br />
inclusion and transparency.<br />
Generous windows across the<br />
front of the building will offer<br />
passers-by a glimpse of dance<br />
classes, community events<br />
and rehearsals. A plaza in front<br />
of the building’s doors, named<br />
for longtime NJPAC supporters<br />
A rendering of the new Cooperman Family<br />
Arts Education and <strong>Community</strong> Center.<br />
Marc and Randi Berson and<br />
the Berson family, will create<br />
a space for socializing.<br />
An interior “street” down<br />
the middle of the building,<br />
framed with classrooms and<br />
teaching spaces, will offer<br />
a space where creatives<br />
and students can mingle.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> idea was one of<br />
community, of immersion in<br />
and proximity to the creative<br />
energies of both students and<br />
professionals, all happening<br />
together,” Manfredi explains.<br />
“Even very young children<br />
just learning about tap or hip<br />
hop will know that there are<br />
people upstairs rehearsing,<br />
people just like them, who’ve<br />
made this their profession.”<br />
NJPAC staff ensured that the<br />
space will be perfectly suited<br />
to house all the Arts Center<br />
programs that will be held in<br />
the building once it opens,<br />
while remaining adaptable<br />
enough to serve community<br />
groups who will use the Center<br />
when classes aren’t in session.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> past year was spent<br />
making sure that, at every level<br />
of design, we were matching the<br />
spaces to the vision of what our<br />
programs there will be,” says<br />
Chelsea Keys, NJPAC’s Senior<br />
Director of Strategic Initiatives.<br />
Although “a thousand details,”<br />
Weiss says, must be finely tuned<br />
before the groundbreaking<br />
in late 2023, the overall<br />
feeling of the Center has<br />
been captured, she says.<br />
“It’s a very joyous, welcoming<br />
building,” says Weiss. “When<br />
a young person walks in,<br />
they’ll feel they belong here.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y’ll know this is a place<br />
where they can take all the<br />
chances in the world — and<br />
always be supported.” •<br />
<strong>The</strong> Cooperman<br />
Center Steering<br />
Committee is<br />
providing input on<br />
the new Center’s<br />
graphic design.<br />
designed for all, by all<br />
Yeimy Gamez Castillo, a musician and community<br />
organizer who grew up in Newark, is empathetic to people<br />
living on the periphery. A first generation American,<br />
she advocates for new immigrants and is mindful of<br />
language barriers and other challenges they face.<br />
As one of more than 30 members on the Cooperman Center<br />
Steering Committee — a group that provided input on the<br />
Center’s graphic design — Gamez Castillo brought her<br />
understanding of the immigrant perspective to the process.<br />
“I wanted it to be inclusive, to make room for communities<br />
that are excluded by language, culture or accessibility to<br />
information,” she says. “<strong>The</strong>se people need to see themselves.”<br />
At the first committee meeting, Gamez Castillo stressed<br />
exterior design elements that would entice outsiders<br />
to come inside. She suggested translucence, so that<br />
people could peer inside and feel included.<br />
On the surface, the mission of the Steering Committee —<br />
comprised of NJPAC staff, Arts Education families, educators,<br />
elders, artists and community leaders — is to provide input on<br />
interior design elements (also known as environmental design).<br />
But more important than the color of the walls or the type of<br />
flooring was the question: How should people and cultures<br />
be depicted throughout the building so that the space<br />
fosters a sense of belonging? <strong>The</strong> conversations, held over<br />
three meetings in <strong>2022</strong>, were about how to use lighting,<br />
signage, color and typography to achieve that goal.<br />
“We needed external stakeholders at the table, because this<br />
is a building where we’ll welcome a large swath of people,”<br />
says Chelsea Keys, Senior Director, Strategic Initiatives.<br />
Fostering public ownership was so important that an<br />
environmental design firm, WeShouldDoItAll, was enlisted<br />
early in the process. <strong>The</strong> committee’s recommendations will<br />
inform the plans “to ensure there is maximal and prime space<br />
for storytelling and environmental graphics,” says Keys.<br />
“As early as possible, we wanted to create ownership<br />
and foster a sense that this is a welcoming space for the<br />
students, parents and artists of our community.” •<br />
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njpac.org 49
designing toward<br />
inclusivity<br />
reimagining chambers plaza<br />
<strong>The</strong>re are fashions in<br />
public institutions, as there<br />
are in cars and clothes.<br />
“Historically, institutions have<br />
been put on pedestals, literally<br />
and figuratively, with design<br />
techniques that make people<br />
feel in awe of their grandness,”<br />
says David Seiter, design<br />
director and founding principal<br />
of Future Green Studio, a<br />
Brooklyn-based landscape<br />
design firm that has worked on<br />
outdoor spaces from Rockefeller<br />
Center to South Street Seaport.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> current movement in<br />
contemporary design looks<br />
to create more spaces that<br />
are warm and informal, so<br />
people feel comfortable,” Seiter<br />
continues. “We’re trying to<br />
design toward inclusivity.”<br />
That warmth and inclusivity is<br />
what Seiter and his team are<br />
aiming to infuse into NJPAC’s<br />
“front yard,” Chambers Plaza,<br />
as they redesign the space to<br />
create an even more welcoming<br />
entry to the Arts Center’s<br />
campus — and to ensure that<br />
this urban park space will be<br />
perpetually useful for social<br />
gatherings, markets, classes,<br />
performances (like Horizon<br />
Foundation Sounds of the City<br />
outdoor concerts) and more.<br />
<strong>The</strong> redesign will include new<br />
trees and trellises covered<br />
in vines, as well as benches<br />
outside the rotunda that<br />
houses NJPAC’s box office and<br />
double-height amphitheater<br />
seating for concerts.<br />
“We’ve asked ourselves: How<br />
do we bring life and energy<br />
to this space that’s not just<br />
about programmed events, but<br />
about the 24/7 life that makes<br />
cities tick?” Seiter explains.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re will be new lawn spaces<br />
for picnicking, and an area with<br />
moveable cafe tables and chairs,<br />
under a canopy of trees carefully<br />
selected to provide dappled<br />
light and shade. Throughout,<br />
the design will emphasize level<br />
surfaces that are wheelchair<br />
and stroller accessible.<br />
<strong>The</strong> redesigned plaza will<br />
“maximize ecological value,”<br />
Seiter adds, with elements<br />
like a rain garden that will<br />
absorb rainwater running off<br />
the plaza, and trees anchored<br />
in structural soil that will<br />
help them grow evenly in a<br />
space that’s in use daily.<br />
“When you’re designing for<br />
the public realm, your design<br />
needs to be rugged and<br />
resilient — but at the same<br />
time, we want to use natural<br />
materials that evoke connections<br />
to the landscape,” he says.<br />
<strong>The</strong> revamping will include<br />
a small “pocket park” in<br />
front of NJPAC’s new eastern<br />
facade, and improved street<br />
crossings between Military<br />
Park, NJPAC and the planned<br />
extension of Riverfront Park.<br />
In November, NJPAC announced<br />
a $5 million grant from Essex<br />
County, drawn from federal<br />
funding created to defray<br />
revenue lost during the<br />
pandemic. In recognition of<br />
Essex County’s work to sustain<br />
the performing arts during the<br />
health crisis, the new elements<br />
of Chambers Plaza have been<br />
named Essex County Green.<br />
Throughout all the work Future<br />
Green will do in Chambers<br />
Plaza — which should have<br />
its new design completed<br />
by the end of 2023 — the<br />
goal is to make the space<br />
useful to the community.<br />
“We want the landscape to<br />
be a backdrop to the theater,”<br />
says Seiter, “to imbue it with<br />
identity and character, but<br />
also get out of the way.”<br />
“We want the performances<br />
and the life of Newark to be<br />
the stars of the show.” •<br />
NJPAC’s redesigned “front<br />
yard” will create an even<br />
more welcoming entry<br />
to the campus, including<br />
new canopies of trees,<br />
lawn spaces for picnicking<br />
and amphitheater<br />
seating for concerts<br />
Essex County<br />
Executive Joseph<br />
N. DiVincenzo<br />
Jr. and NJPAC<br />
co-founder Ray<br />
Chambers at the<br />
event to announce<br />
a $5 million grant<br />
from Essex County.<br />
When plans for<br />
the redesign of<br />
Chambers Plaza<br />
were unveiled,<br />
each attendee was<br />
gifted a sapling, a<br />
symbol of a greener<br />
future for NJPAC’s<br />
“front yard.”<br />
NJPAC’s Chambers Plaza already<br />
welcomes thousands of music<br />
lovers each summer for the free<br />
outdoor concert series, Horizon<br />
Foundation Sounds of the City.<br />
50<br />
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“As an anchor<br />
institution, it’s<br />
important to us<br />
that people feel like<br />
NJPAC is their home<br />
and we are their true<br />
community partners.”<br />
– Eyesha Marable<br />
the people in<br />
our<br />
neighborhood<br />
Doubling down on its commitment<br />
to the Greater Newark community,<br />
njpac collaborations<br />
expand programming<br />
Guests sipped fruity mocktails<br />
and munched on empanadas,<br />
saffron rice and other treats<br />
from the cuisines of Ecuador,<br />
Peru, Mexico, Colombia and<br />
Argentina. <strong>The</strong> entertainment<br />
included a salsa lesson and<br />
folk dances performed by five<br />
Newark area dance companies.<br />
<strong>The</strong> food, the music, the decor —<br />
flags of Latin American countries<br />
hanging from the ceiling — gave<br />
the room a distinctly global vibe.<br />
This was NJPAC’s inaugural<br />
Hispanic Heritage Night,<br />
which took place in October<br />
in the auditorium of the Center<br />
for Arts Education, and is now<br />
scheduled to be an annual event.<br />
This special evening, which<br />
drew 140 attendees, provides<br />
an illuminating example of the<br />
collaborative process behind<br />
each event produced by NJPAC’s<br />
<strong>Community</strong> Engagement<br />
department as the Arts Center<br />
reinforces its commitment to the<br />
Greater Newark community.<br />
Hispanic Heritage Night<br />
was a joint effort of NJPAC’s<br />
<strong>Community</strong> Engagement<br />
department, Las Jardineras<br />
(the NJPAC Hispanic/Latinx<br />
Employee Resource Group),<br />
the Latino Advisory Council<br />
and one of NJPAC’s many<br />
engaged partner organizations,<br />
Mantena Global Care — a<br />
nonprofit that supports the<br />
welfare of Newark’s Brazilian<br />
community and promotes<br />
native and local culture.<br />
With events like these, “NJPAC is<br />
taking collaboration to a whole<br />
new level,” says Eyesha Marable,<br />
Assistant Vice President,<br />
<strong>Community</strong> Engagement.<br />
“As an anchor institution, it’s<br />
important to us that people<br />
In <strong>2022</strong>, <strong>Community</strong> Engagement produced 280 free events including<br />
(clockwise from top): NJPAC’s first annual Hispanic Heritage Night;<br />
the second annual Performing Arts Center Consortium Education and<br />
<strong>Community</strong> Engagement conference; Jazz Jams at Clement’s Place and<br />
Summer Fun in the Park, presented with the Newark City Parks Foundation.<br />
feel like this is their home and<br />
we are their true community<br />
partners, who are willing to<br />
collaborate and co-create.”<br />
This year, <strong>Community</strong><br />
Engagement produced more<br />
than 280 free events across<br />
Greater Newark, most made<br />
possible through the Arts<br />
Center’s deep relationships with<br />
its 170 partner organizations<br />
across the state, from public<br />
libraries and houses of<br />
worship to corporations,<br />
schools, museums and social<br />
service organizations.<br />
Additionally, NJPAC has built<br />
the foundation for an expansion<br />
of those relationships, with<br />
preparations for the launch<br />
of a new neighborhood<br />
ArtsXChange in Clinton Hill,<br />
located in Newark’s South<br />
Ward, in the spring of 2023.<br />
<strong>The</strong> ArtsXChange will be a<br />
project of the Arts Center and<br />
Clinton Hill <strong>Community</strong> Action,<br />
a neighborhood development<br />
and advocacy group. <strong>The</strong><br />
Clinton Hill location is the first of<br />
what may become a series of<br />
community engagement: redoubling our commitment<br />
52<br />
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ArtsXChange sites throughout<br />
the city, each co-piloted by<br />
an established community<br />
organization that will offer<br />
programming produced in<br />
partnership with NJPAC.<br />
Another way the Arts Center<br />
will impact neighborhoods<br />
is through a new Arts and<br />
Well-Being programming<br />
vertical which acknowledges<br />
the physical and mental<br />
health benefits of engaging<br />
with the arts. New programs<br />
for the public are being<br />
developed at the intersection<br />
of arts and health.<br />
As the groundwork is laid for<br />
this expansion, NJPAC already<br />
boasts one of the most robust<br />
<strong>Community</strong> Engagement<br />
departments in the country and<br />
has become a model for such<br />
programs at peer institutions.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> work we do is replicable,<br />
and it serves as best practices,”<br />
says Marable. “Our partners<br />
see us as an anchor institution<br />
in the state of New Jersey,<br />
but we’re really a national<br />
anchor institution.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> Arts Center’s national<br />
leadership was on display<br />
in September, when NJPAC<br />
and Lincoln Center hosted<br />
the second annual Education<br />
and <strong>Community</strong> Engagement<br />
Conference. A program of the<br />
national Performing Arts Center<br />
Consortium, the conference<br />
attracted 38 participants<br />
from 22 arts centers across<br />
the country. Over three days,<br />
they discussed the impact of<br />
arts education and community<br />
engagement on the industry,<br />
and also learned about NJPAC’s<br />
deep roster of community<br />
programming offerings such<br />
as Books On the Move — a<br />
series of interactive readings<br />
about artists of color held at<br />
community centers and libraries,<br />
led by NJPAC teaching artists.<br />
Conference-goers also learned<br />
how NJPAC’s <strong>Community</strong><br />
Engagement keeps live, free<br />
music playing year-round<br />
with programs like the wildly<br />
popular Horizon Foundation<br />
Sounds of the City (on Thursday<br />
evenings in July and August)<br />
and monthly Jazz Jams<br />
at Clement’s Place on the<br />
“With one of the most robust <strong>Community</strong><br />
Engagement departments in the country,<br />
NJPAC has become a model for peer<br />
institutions. <strong>The</strong> work we do is replicable,<br />
and serves as best practices.”<br />
— Eyesha Marable<br />
Events included Dance In Our <strong>Community</strong><br />
hosted by Akwaaba Gallery and Books on<br />
the Move at the Newark Public Library. An<br />
April performance of Urban Bush Women’s<br />
dance-theater work, Hair & Other Stories,<br />
was followed by a surprise runway show<br />
where audience members were invited to<br />
walk the red carpet through NJPAC’s lobby.<br />
Rutgers University-Newark<br />
campus, where novice and<br />
seasoned jazz artists improvise<br />
with a professional band.<br />
Also notable during <strong>2022</strong><br />
was the return of <strong>Community</strong><br />
Engagement’s pre-concert<br />
“prelude” events and a variety<br />
of post-performance offerings,<br />
that create unique experiences<br />
for ticket holders. One great<br />
example: In April, Urban Bush<br />
Women performed Hair & Other<br />
Stories, their dance-theater<br />
work that explores race, identity<br />
and beauty through the lens<br />
of Black women’s hair. <strong>The</strong><br />
performance was preceded by<br />
a panel discussion and was<br />
followed by a surprise runway<br />
show where audience members<br />
were invited to walk the red<br />
carpet through NJPAC’s lobby.<br />
“We celebrated the short, the<br />
long, the gray, the curly and<br />
the cute of every culture and<br />
person,” says Marable. “We<br />
created a platform to celebrate<br />
the essence of each individual.”<br />
Summer <strong>2022</strong> also featured<br />
the return of Summer Fun in<br />
the Park. From July through<br />
September, in collaboration<br />
with the Newark City Parks<br />
Foundation, NJPAC’s <strong>Community</strong><br />
Engagement department led<br />
the team that produced live<br />
music and dance events in<br />
five downtown Newark parks.<br />
More than 75 events were<br />
held, reaching thousands<br />
of community members.<br />
With programs both on and<br />
off the Arts Center’s campus,<br />
the goal of <strong>Community</strong><br />
Engagement’s work is to<br />
ensure that the arts are<br />
accessible to everyone, from<br />
preschoolers to elders.<br />
“We want to make sure<br />
people know that we care<br />
enough to bring the arts out<br />
to them,” says Marable. “We<br />
want their lives to shine.” •<br />
bringing it<br />
home<br />
A new partnership in Newark’s<br />
South Ward makes arts accessible<br />
This was a foundationbuilding<br />
year for an exciting<br />
new <strong>Community</strong> Engagement<br />
initiative. NJPAC is deepening<br />
its reach and bringing its<br />
productions to Newark<br />
residents through the<br />
creation of neighborhood<br />
hubs throughout the city.<br />
“We want people to know<br />
that NJPAC is their home, that<br />
we’re going to bring the arts to<br />
them,” says Eyesha Marable,<br />
Assistant Vice President,<br />
<strong>Community</strong> Engagement.<br />
“People can participate<br />
whichever way they like —<br />
whether that’s inside or outside<br />
of our downtown location.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> first site for this program,<br />
known as ArtsXChange,<br />
will be piloted in the spring<br />
of 2023 in the South Ward’s<br />
Clinton Hill neighborhood.<br />
In cooperation with local<br />
partner organizations — in this<br />
case, Clinton Hill <strong>Community</strong><br />
Action (CHCA) — arts and<br />
culture programming will be<br />
workshopped, produced and<br />
executed by residents with<br />
the support of NJPAC staff.<br />
“Partnering with NJPAC is the<br />
perfect way to showcase talent<br />
and nurture the creativity of<br />
all our neighbors in the South<br />
Ward,” says Khaatim Sherrer El,<br />
Executive Director of CHCA.<br />
“We’re proud of the history and<br />
culture of our neighborhood<br />
and strive to weave the arts<br />
into everything we do.”<br />
CHCA is a nonprofit, community<br />
development group that<br />
advocates for affordable<br />
housing, food security,<br />
economic empowerment<br />
and environmental justice.<br />
NJPAC is partnering with<br />
Clinton Hill <strong>Community</strong><br />
Action, a nonprofit in the city’s<br />
South Ward, to launch its first<br />
ArtsXChange initiative.<br />
54 njpac.org<br />
njpac.org 55
Rhenotha Whitaker, Deputy<br />
Director of CHCA, calls the<br />
ArtsXChange a “game changer”<br />
for NJPAC’s relationships with<br />
residents and partners.<br />
<strong>The</strong> goal of the new initiative is<br />
to present at least two programs<br />
each month, designed by<br />
residents and local artists, in<br />
collaboration with an NJPAC<br />
producer and a professional<br />
from ArtsXChange.<br />
<strong>The</strong> South Ward project will<br />
serve as a template for the<br />
launch of ArtsXChanges across<br />
the city in future seasons.<br />
One of Whitaker’s goals for<br />
Clinton Hill’s partnership with<br />
NJPAC is to inspire children to<br />
realize their full potential. “More<br />
and more young people are on<br />
their devices, not socializing or<br />
stretching their minds beyond<br />
that phone,” she says.<br />
She wants to pry them off their<br />
screens and engage them in<br />
plays, musical performances,<br />
festivals and the creation<br />
of walking tours of the<br />
neighborhood’s historic sites.<br />
She envisions behind-the-scenes<br />
workshops on topics such as<br />
set design or how to secure a<br />
talent agent — programs that<br />
will give young people “the<br />
tools they need to continue on<br />
their professional journey.”<br />
Whitaker, a performer herself,<br />
also wants to establish an<br />
Artists Helping Artists exchange,<br />
where local talent can be<br />
resourced and services shared.<br />
For Marable, one of the joys of the<br />
ArtsXChange is discovering and<br />
nurturing emerging talent. “It’s<br />
about sitting down with people<br />
and saying: Who’s here? Who’s<br />
been singing in grandma’s kitchen<br />
and reciting poetry?” she says.<br />
“It’s about finding those artistic<br />
jewels in the community.” •<br />
creative<br />
caring<br />
Breaking new ground<br />
at the intersection of<br />
arts and health<br />
A couple of times a month,<br />
Aly Maier Lokuta receives an<br />
inquiry from a performing arts<br />
center wanting to know how<br />
to replicate NJPAC’s new Arts<br />
and Well-Being programming,<br />
which harnesses the power of<br />
the arts to improve individual<br />
and community health.<br />
“No other performing arts<br />
center is making such an<br />
intentional commitment at<br />
the intersection of arts and<br />
health,” says Lokuta, Senior<br />
Director, Arts and Well-Being.<br />
“We’re putting New Jersey<br />
on the map as an exemplary<br />
state for this type of work.”<br />
NJPAC, an anchor cultural<br />
institution with deeply rooted<br />
community ties in Greater<br />
Newark and throughout New<br />
Jersey, is ideally situated to<br />
lead this cross-sector work.<br />
In partnership with Horizon<br />
Foundation for New Jersey<br />
and RWJBarnabas Health<br />
(RWJBH), NJPAC is breaking<br />
new ground, delivering health<br />
benefits while creating scalable<br />
resources for others to replicate.<br />
“It’s imperative that we create<br />
pathways to access the arts, to<br />
shift hearts and minds so folks<br />
understand that this is really<br />
good for them,” says Lokuta.<br />
“People who engage with the<br />
arts live healthier, longer lives.”<br />
For instance, attending a<br />
concert or visiting a museum<br />
once or twice a month can<br />
reduce the risk of depression in<br />
adults over 50 by 48%. Doing so<br />
just every few months reduces<br />
the incidence of age-related<br />
disability by 46% — a greater<br />
protective effect than physical<br />
exercise. Young people who<br />
engage in the arts have<br />
lower odds of depression,<br />
Aly Maier Lokuta is the Senior<br />
Director of NJPAC’s new Arts and<br />
Well-Being initiative.<br />
antisocial and criminalized<br />
behaviors, maladjustment and<br />
substance use trajectories.<br />
“It’s not about everybody<br />
becoming the next Yo-Yo Ma,<br />
but finding joy, connection<br />
and belonging through<br />
creativity,” says Lokuta.<br />
Arts engagement can come in<br />
many different forms. Examples<br />
include attending a live show,<br />
participating in a workshop on<br />
playwriting, supplying visual<br />
“You don’t need<br />
to be good at<br />
the arts for the<br />
arts to be good<br />
for you. People<br />
who engage<br />
with the arts<br />
live healthier,<br />
longer lives.”<br />
– Aly Maier Lokuta<br />
art projects for patients and<br />
healthcare staff at a hospital or<br />
being welcomed to a medical<br />
facility with live jazz. <strong>Community</strong><br />
programs will be developed<br />
with targeted populations<br />
in mind, such as senior<br />
citizens, veterans, formerly<br />
incarcerated individuals and<br />
people with disabilities or<br />
chronic health conditions.<br />
“You don’t have to be good<br />
at the arts for the arts to be<br />
good for you,” says Lokuta.<br />
NJPAC is committed to investing<br />
in the lives of all people through<br />
diverse, easily accessible and<br />
inclusive programs. <strong>The</strong>se<br />
initiatives, rolling out in 2023,<br />
will be developed through the<br />
prism of five pillars: Arts in<br />
Healthcare, Social Prescribing,<br />
Arts in Health Research Lab,<br />
Health Promotion <strong>The</strong>ater<br />
and <strong>Community</strong> Programs.<br />
This year has been foundationbuilding,<br />
with stakeholder<br />
roundtables, new hires, planning<br />
meetings and the achievement<br />
of important milestones.<br />
In December, an Arts in<br />
Health Research Lab got<br />
underway with the signing of<br />
an agreement between NJPAC,<br />
Rutgers School of Public Health<br />
and Mason Gross School of the<br />
Arts — the first collaboration<br />
between a school of public<br />
health, a school of the arts and<br />
an arts center. Another early<br />
launch is Social Prescribing<br />
which affirms that the arts are<br />
an essential social service. This<br />
program enables New Jersey<br />
residents to fill prescriptions for<br />
free arts events as prescribed<br />
by physicians and community<br />
health workers affiliated with<br />
Horizon’s Neighbors in Health<br />
program. NJPAC is the first arts<br />
center in the country to have<br />
an insurance carrier as a key<br />
partner in Social Prescribing.<br />
Lokuta is working toward a<br />
paradigm shift, where arts<br />
centers are recognized as<br />
community health centers,<br />
arts education becomes a<br />
public health priority and the<br />
arts are understood as an<br />
essential social service and<br />
a determinant of health.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> need for this work is more<br />
pressing now than ever,” she<br />
says, “and NJPAC is rising<br />
to the occasion, providing<br />
meaningful arts engagement<br />
to those who need it most.” •<br />
56 njpac.org<br />
njpac.org 57
homecoming for a<br />
living legend<br />
“Godfather of Funk” and Rock<br />
& Roll Hall of Famer George<br />
Clinton, the singer, producer<br />
and frontman of Parliament<br />
Funkadelic, revolutionized R&B<br />
in the 1970s, blending soul<br />
and acid rock into his own<br />
special sound. His Parliament<br />
Funkadelic recorded more<br />
than 40 R&B hit singles and<br />
three platinum albums.<br />
Clinton’s legendary career<br />
began in his hometown of<br />
Newark, where he grew<br />
up, and nearby Plainfield,<br />
where his five-decade-long<br />
career launched.<br />
Celebrating the 80th birthday of<br />
“godfather of funk” george clinton<br />
In March, NJPAC hosted a<br />
two-day celebration of Clinton’s<br />
80th birthday, a collaboration<br />
between <strong>Community</strong> Engagement<br />
and mainstage programming.<br />
What was clear from the<br />
get-go is that this octogenarian<br />
remains an electrifying presence,<br />
both on stage and off.<br />
<strong>The</strong> celebration began on March<br />
17 when NJPAC escorted Clinton<br />
to his former elementary school,<br />
Newark’s Avon Avenue School,<br />
for the official renaming of its<br />
music room, now the George<br />
Clinton Band Room. Clinton<br />
toured the school, saw his name<br />
and a new mural of his visage<br />
up on the walls and performed<br />
his greatest hits for the children,<br />
backed by a band of Avon<br />
Avenue teachers and students.<br />
After the excitement of the music<br />
died down, Clinton answered<br />
questions from the students<br />
and reunited with old friends<br />
from the neighborhood. Mayor<br />
Ras J. Baraka and Newark<br />
Schools Superintendent Roger<br />
Leon were also in attendance.<br />
At the event, co-produced by<br />
NJPAC and the Power to Inspire<br />
Foundation with Ray and<br />
Vivian Chew, more than $5,000<br />
worth of musical equipment<br />
was donated to the school<br />
through Clinton’s partnership<br />
with the music company JBL.<br />
Later, a street in Plainfield was<br />
renamed Parliament Funkadelic<br />
Way in Clinton’s honor.<br />
<strong>The</strong> next day, Clinton and his<br />
band stepped onto the Betty<br />
Wold Johnson stage to deliver<br />
the funkiest performance<br />
Prudential Hall had heard in<br />
years. <strong>The</strong>y played hours of hits<br />
for an ecstatic full house, with<br />
numerous special guests on hand<br />
including singer Nona Hendyrx<br />
of the group Labelle (best<br />
known for “Lady Marmalade”),<br />
drummer Questlove (<strong>The</strong> Roots<br />
and <strong>The</strong> <strong>To</strong>night Show Starring<br />
Jimmy Fallon), rapper and<br />
actor Ice-T, Treach of Naughty<br />
by Nature and Eric B. of the<br />
rap duo Eric B. & Rakim.<br />
<strong>The</strong> party didn’t end there,<br />
but continued in the NJPAC<br />
lobby, where the Arts Center’s<br />
<strong>Community</strong> Engagement<br />
department hosted a<br />
post-concert DJ dance party<br />
that reached across the lobby<br />
from the rotunda to the doors<br />
of NICO Kitchen + Bar. •<br />
Left: George Clinton greets<br />
students during a visit to his<br />
former elementary school,<br />
Newark’s Avon Avenue School.<br />
Right: Clinton performing for a<br />
full house in Prudential Hall.<br />
standing in solidarity:<br />
talking about race,<br />
justice and equity<br />
NJPAC’s Standing in Solidarity programs, which launched<br />
with the resurgence of the social justice movement in<br />
2020, continue to bring people together this season for<br />
monthly conversations on race, justice and equity.<br />
Donna Walker-Kuhne, NJPAC’s Senior Advisor, Diversity,<br />
Equity and Inclusion, spearheads the conversation series<br />
in partnership with the Social Justice Programming Task<br />
Force, comprised of NJPAC staff and community leaders.<br />
At a Standing in Solidarity Racial Healing Circle — the initiative’s<br />
first in-person event, held in September — two dozen people<br />
gathered to share their stories, led by Sharon Stroye, Director<br />
of the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Center and<br />
Director of Public Engagement in the School of Public Affairs and<br />
Administration at Rutgers University-Newark. <strong>The</strong> event included<br />
one-on-one and small group discussions of each participant’s life<br />
experiences — including when they felt unheard or disrespected.<br />
“I appreciated the energy of each person,” says Walker-Kuhne.<br />
“Looking each other in the eye strengthens what we learn<br />
about each other.”<br />
“We want to remove any ideas of helplessness and replace<br />
them with hope and action,” she continues. “We don’t want<br />
to only address how challenging the world is. We want to<br />
say: here’s what you can do to transform the environment,<br />
whether it’s advocating with elected officials, reading<br />
new materials or developing allies or becoming one.”<br />
Most Standing in Solidarity programs are part of the PSEG True<br />
Diversity Film Series — a virtual program for which participants<br />
watch a documentary at home, then convene online for a<br />
conversation with thought leaders on a different topic each month.<br />
Recent topics included colorism (bias against those with dark<br />
skin that occurs within and outside communities of color),<br />
environmental justice, supporting LGBTQ+ youth, hate directed<br />
against Asian American and Pacific Islander communities<br />
and challenges facing Black inventors and entrepreneurs.<br />
“Through dialogue, we’re able to unpack difficult<br />
topics but look at them through the lens of ‘I am going<br />
to be a change agent,’” says Walker-Kuhne.<br />
“I see this as a pathway toward a more harmonious,<br />
humanistic, respectful society.” •<br />
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a holiday tradition<br />
reborn<br />
kwanzaa festival<br />
returns to unite people,<br />
pride and performance<br />
seven principles, from unity<br />
(Umoja) to creativity (Kuumba).<br />
Jam-packed with activities<br />
inspired by those principles,<br />
NJPAC’s Kwanzaa celebration<br />
has become a hallmark of the<br />
holiday season in Newark, thanks<br />
to the support of Leon and <strong>To</strong>by<br />
Cooperman, and corporate<br />
sponsors ADP and Whole Foods.<br />
“As our community’s anchor<br />
institution, we’re living those<br />
principles every day, all through<br />
the year — but in December,<br />
Workshops in drumming and all<br />
kinds of dance — from salsa and<br />
capoeira to West African dance<br />
and Jersey club styles — unfolded<br />
in the Chase and <strong>Community</strong><br />
Rooms. Children and their<br />
parents were invited to make a<br />
mosaic or a mask, or to create a<br />
collage out of African fabrics.<br />
Local artisans and African<br />
American owned companies<br />
sold goods at a marketplace,<br />
offering everything from<br />
handmade soaps to kente-cloth<br />
step dance, liturgical dance,<br />
drumming and more. <strong>The</strong>re<br />
was even a fashion show.<br />
For the first time, the Kwanzaa<br />
celebration was presented in<br />
collaboration with a series of<br />
Newark partners, including<br />
the Newark Museum of Art,<br />
Newark Arts, City of Newark,<br />
Newark Symphony Hall and<br />
Newark Public Library.<br />
This year, festival crowds were<br />
joined by audience members<br />
“This is a story about<br />
Kwanzaa!” announced<br />
a storyteller from the<br />
Newark Public Library,<br />
holding up a picture book<br />
in front of a crowd of<br />
wide-eyed children in the<br />
Victoria <strong>The</strong>ater lobby.<br />
<strong>The</strong> kids’ faces were<br />
painted with swirls of<br />
color, and they clutched<br />
masks and collages<br />
they’d created at craft<br />
tables run by the Alpha<br />
Kappa Alpha and Delta<br />
Sigma <strong>The</strong>ta sororities.<br />
Such was the scene at<br />
NJPAC’s free Kwanzaa<br />
Family Festival and<br />
Artisan Marketplace,<br />
which returned in<br />
December as an in-person<br />
event for the first time in<br />
three years. More than<br />
1,000 attendees filled the<br />
Arts Center’s lobbies,<br />
hallways and gathering<br />
spaces throughout<br />
the day to shop, craft,<br />
watch performances<br />
and learn new skills.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Kwanzaa holiday is<br />
devoted to celebrating<br />
This page: Family-friendly events included face-painting, mask-making<br />
and more. Opposite page (l-r): Local artisans and African American owned<br />
companies sold goods at the Kwanzaa Artisan Marketplace; more than<br />
100 artists demonstrated step dance, liturgical dance and more.<br />
“Days like these, when all aspects of our work come together to<br />
make a whole that’s even greater than the sum of its parts —<br />
that’s what makes this Arts Center so unique and so important.”<br />
we really celebrate them,” says<br />
Eyesha Marable, NJPAC’s<br />
Assistant Vice President,<br />
<strong>Community</strong> Engagement.<br />
<strong>The</strong> facilities were decked out<br />
for the celebration with colorful<br />
quilts hanging from the first tier.<br />
A table was heaped with fruits,<br />
vegetables and cornbread, all<br />
donated by Whole Foods for the<br />
traditional Kwanzaa Mazao, a<br />
representation of the harvest.<br />
handbags and amber jewelry.<br />
Many of the <strong>Community</strong><br />
Engagement department’s<br />
partner organizations,<br />
including La Casa de Don<br />
Pedro and Clinton Hill<br />
<strong>Community</strong> Action, also<br />
had tables at the festival.<br />
And the floor of Prudential<br />
Hall was perpetually filled with<br />
music and motion as more<br />
than 100 artists performed<br />
– John Schreiber<br />
who arrived to see two sold-out<br />
performances of NJPAC’s <strong>The</strong><br />
Hip Hop Nutcracker. More<br />
families came for the Women@<br />
NJPAC Christmas event, Jazz<br />
and Gingerbread, which offered<br />
families a chance to decorate<br />
gingerbread houses while<br />
enjoying swinging holiday<br />
music courtesy of students<br />
from TD Jazz for Teens. •<br />
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an invitation<br />
new faces<br />
to all<br />
Employee Resource<br />
Groups prompt<br />
new programming,<br />
community-focused<br />
events at njpac<br />
Glittering crowns, pink<br />
pleather pants and<br />
voluminous ball gowns<br />
were the dress code at the<br />
Legacy Ball, an LGBTQ+<br />
celebration held in the<br />
Chase Room in May.<br />
But the outfits, pounding<br />
dance music and rainbowcolored<br />
lighting were not<br />
the most notable aspects<br />
of the Ball, the first of its<br />
kind held at NJPAC in<br />
more than a decade.<br />
<strong>The</strong> primary attraction was<br />
the interplay between the<br />
performers — members of<br />
Greater Newark “houses”<br />
(social organizations for the<br />
city’s LGBTQ+ community)<br />
who danced, posed or<br />
simply strutted down a<br />
central runway — and the<br />
crowd gathered around<br />
them, which greeted<br />
each new performer with<br />
applause, shouts and a<br />
tidal wave of affirmation.<br />
A ball, in the context of<br />
LGBTQ+ culture, is “not just<br />
a runway show,” says Roe Bell,<br />
Senior Manager, Schools and<br />
On-site Programs and Chair<br />
of NJPAC’s LGBTQ+ Employee<br />
Resource Group (ERG), which<br />
which helped <strong>Community</strong><br />
Engagement’s LGBTQ’s Advisory<br />
Committee organize the event.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>se performers interact<br />
with the audience. It’s not<br />
something you can just watch —<br />
you’re going to be involved.”<br />
Initially established to give staff<br />
members a platform to engage<br />
with colleagues who share some<br />
aspect of their identity, NJPAC’s<br />
ERGs have since evolved<br />
to connect the institution<br />
more closely with members<br />
of the larger community.<br />
“We put this event together<br />
for staff, but also for Newark’s<br />
LGBTQ+ community. We want<br />
people, especially young<br />
people, to know that this is their<br />
Arts Center, too,” Bell added.<br />
<strong>The</strong> ERG joined forces with<br />
the <strong>Community</strong> Engagement<br />
Department, Women@NJPAC<br />
and community groups<br />
including Newark Pride to<br />
host the event which drew<br />
more than 200 attendees.<br />
<strong>The</strong> ball was only one initiative<br />
the ERGs undertook over<br />
the course of the year. <strong>The</strong><br />
Opposite: On the runway at<br />
the Legacy Ball, organized<br />
by NJPAC’s LGBTQ+ Employee<br />
Resource Group. Above:<br />
NJPAC employees gather<br />
at NICO Kitchen + Bar for<br />
an ERG Meet & Greet.<br />
African American ERG planned<br />
events to honor Juneteenth,<br />
including a workshop on<br />
Creating Generational Wealth<br />
for Everyone, led by NJPAC’s<br />
Vice President and CFO<br />
Lennon Register. <strong>The</strong> group<br />
also interviewed Newark<br />
elders, documenting their<br />
recollections of Newark.<br />
A Cinco de Mayo celebration<br />
was one of the projects<br />
undertaken by Las Jardineras,<br />
the Hispanic/Latinx group.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y also collaborated with<br />
<strong>Community</strong> Engagement’s<br />
Latino Advisory Committee to<br />
co-host a Hispanic Heritage<br />
Dance Festival. <strong>The</strong> Women’s<br />
ERG ran a supplies drive for<br />
JBWS, a domestic violence<br />
prevention organization. In<br />
2023, Wellness and Caregiver<br />
ERGs were added to the Arts<br />
Center’s roster of affinity groups.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>se ERGs have become<br />
the heartbeat of the culture<br />
at NJPAC,” said Beth<br />
Silver, Vice President and<br />
Chief People Officer. •<br />
Like many arts organizations,<br />
NJPAC had long offered<br />
summer interships for students<br />
with an interest in the arts<br />
and arts administration. But<br />
those internships were unpaid,<br />
effectively limiting participants<br />
to those who could afford<br />
to forgo a paycheck for the<br />
season — unintentionally<br />
excluding many talented<br />
young people in the Greater<br />
Newark community who<br />
might want to learn about<br />
the multiple jobs available<br />
at a performing arts venue.<br />
This summer, in lieu of interns,<br />
the Arts Center’s People &<br />
Organizations department<br />
welcomed the first class of<br />
NJPAC Fellows — nine students<br />
from five area universities<br />
who took paid, eight-week<br />
positions in departments<br />
ranging from Development<br />
to Programming. Each Fellow<br />
also took part in training<br />
sessions the Arts Center<br />
provided that gave them<br />
insight into all the different<br />
facets of NJPAC’s work.<br />
In addition to offering young<br />
people an educational work<br />
experience, the program was<br />
also designed to identify<br />
potential new hires. <strong>The</strong><br />
program worked on both fronts;<br />
three of the Fellows were hired<br />
by NJPAC at summer’s end.<br />
Given the success of the<br />
Fellows program, the People<br />
& Organization Department<br />
hosted its first-ever College<br />
Career Day in October,<br />
which drew representatives<br />
from 15 local universities<br />
interested in having their<br />
students participate. •<br />
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celebrating<br />
<strong>The</strong> Gala performance, titled <strong>The</strong> Possible<br />
Dream, featured stars with deep Jersey<br />
roots, including Broadway’s Laura Benanti<br />
(pictured on stage), George Clinton, Dionne<br />
Warwick, Regina Belle and Savion Glover.<br />
64 njpac.org<br />
25 years<br />
<strong>The</strong> Women@NJPAC<br />
Spotlight Gala returned in<br />
<strong>2022</strong> as an in-person affair,<br />
raising $2.23 million for Arts<br />
Education and <strong>Community</strong><br />
Engagement programming<br />
women@njpac: leading leadies who power the arts
Honoring the past,<br />
looking to the future<br />
and the party<br />
continued<br />
Clockwise from top left: Spotlight<br />
Gala <strong>2022</strong> featured a bevy<br />
of NJPAC Arts Education<br />
alumni including vocalist Lucy<br />
Yeghiazaryan and pianist Lili<br />
M.; Ray Chambers and his family<br />
received the Gala’s Founders<br />
Award for their decades-long<br />
support of NJPAC; the evening<br />
welcomed performances by<br />
(left to right) GRAMMY®<br />
Award winner Regina Belle,<br />
legendary chart-topper Dionne<br />
Warwick and Wé McDonald<br />
(of NBC’s <strong>The</strong> Voice).<br />
After a three-year hiatus, the<br />
Women@NJPAC Spotlight<br />
Gala returned as an in-person<br />
affair, just in time to celebrate the<br />
Arts Center’s 25th anniversary.<br />
And while there were many<br />
nods to NJPAC’s history, the<br />
focus was clearly on the future.<br />
“Twenty-five years, 11 million<br />
visitors, and 2 million students<br />
into this unlikely enterprise, we<br />
are excited about what’s next,”<br />
said NJPAC’s President and<br />
CEO John Schreiber, welcoming<br />
the crowd to the Gala.<br />
Titled <strong>The</strong> Possible Dream,<br />
the show featured stars with<br />
deep Jersey roots, including<br />
“Godfather of Funk” George<br />
Clinton (performing with NJPAC<br />
Jazz Advisor Christian McBride),<br />
legendary chart-topper Dionne<br />
Warwick, GRAMMY® winner<br />
Regina Belle, Broadway’s<br />
<strong>To</strong>ny-winning star Laura Benanti<br />
and tap phenom Savion Glover<br />
(NJPAC’s Dance Advisor).<br />
Rising stars from the Garden<br />
State — including Wé McDonald<br />
of NBC’s <strong>The</strong> Voice, and<br />
acclaimed keyboardist Matthew<br />
Whitaker, a graduate of NJPAC’s<br />
Arts Education programs — also<br />
performed, all under the direction<br />
of Ray Chew, legendary musical<br />
director of ABC’s Dancing with<br />
the Stars and much more.<br />
NJPAC’s future was present on<br />
the stage, too, in the form of a<br />
bevy of stars of tomorrow, all<br />
students and recent alumni<br />
of NJPAC’s Arts Education<br />
programs. Several of the<br />
featured alumni subsequently<br />
studied at Berklee College<br />
of Music in Boston. Lili M. on<br />
piano, Ricky Persaud Jr. on<br />
guitar, Liany Mateo on bass,<br />
Jalin Shiver on saxophone,<br />
Alan Hsiao on trombone, Henry<br />
Spencer on drums and vocalist<br />
Lucy Yeghiazaryan jammed<br />
alongside the headlining stars,<br />
and stepped into the spotlight<br />
by themselves to deliver a<br />
jazz-infused take on “My Funny<br />
Valentine.” More young musicians<br />
were highlighted as the STAX<br />
Music Academy Rhythm Section<br />
and Alumni Band of Memphis,<br />
Tennessee, performed during the<br />
Gala’s cocktail hour and its afterparty<br />
at NICO Kitchen + Bar.<br />
Global humanitarian Ray<br />
Chambers, NJPAC’s Founding<br />
Board Chairman, and his<br />
family were honored with the<br />
Gala’s Founders Award for their<br />
decades of support for the Arts<br />
Center. <strong>The</strong> Chambers family<br />
was lauded by dignitaries<br />
including former Governor <strong>To</strong>m<br />
Kean and Prudential Financial<br />
Chairman and CEO Charles<br />
Lowrey, as well as by rising<br />
executives who benefited from<br />
Ray Chambers’ mentorship and<br />
Chambers’ family scholarship<br />
programs, including Shavar<br />
Jeffries, CEO of the KIPP<br />
Foundation, Vaughan Crowe<br />
of Newark Venture Partners<br />
and Shané Harris, President of<br />
<strong>The</strong> Prudential Foundation. A<br />
video highlighted the family’s<br />
humanitarian work, narrated<br />
by U.S. Senator Cory Booker.<br />
“Ray and his family are those rare<br />
individuals who see the future as<br />
it could be, and work like heck<br />
to make it happen,” said Kean.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Spotlight Gala was a great<br />
party and fundraising success,<br />
raising $2.3 million for NJPAC’s<br />
Arts Education and <strong>Community</strong><br />
Engagement programming. •<br />
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eunions<br />
revelations<br />
and<br />
the leading ladies of<br />
women@njpac<br />
“Women have a multiplier<br />
effect,” said Faith Taylor,<br />
President of Women@NJPAC,<br />
at the group’s Leading Ladies<br />
gathering in December.<br />
“Everything we do, everything<br />
we engage in, we multiply<br />
its effect through our<br />
friends, our families, our<br />
children, our networks.”<br />
Celebrating the ways that<br />
women amplify any enterprise<br />
was a theme running through<br />
a year’s worth of events the<br />
group produced, including<br />
that December panel, where<br />
half a dozen members shared<br />
glimpses of their communityimpacting<br />
work. Two-time<br />
cancer survivor Deb Belfatto<br />
discussed hosting Let’s Talk,<br />
a women’s health conference<br />
at NJPAC. Restaurateur and<br />
developer Adenah Bayoh<br />
discussed her mission to<br />
create affordable housing.<br />
“I grew up in affordable housing,<br />
and I knew the impact that had<br />
on my family,” she said. “If not for<br />
affordable housing, we wouldn’t<br />
have had a roof over our heads.”<br />
That event also featured<br />
leading ladies of NJPAC’s own<br />
staff — Jennifer Tsukayama,<br />
Vice President, Arts Education;<br />
Chelsea Keys, Senior Director,<br />
Strategic Initiatives; Rosa Hyde,<br />
Senior Director, Arts Education<br />
Performances and Special<br />
Events; Aly Maier Lokuta, Senior<br />
Director, Arts and Well-Being;<br />
Eyesha Marable, Assistant<br />
Vice President, <strong>Community</strong><br />
Engagement; and Vicky Revesz,<br />
Senior Director of Operations<br />
for Arts Education — discussing<br />
their roles at the Arts Center.<br />
“Our work is rooted in our<br />
belief in the extraordinary<br />
power of the arts — and our<br />
belief that we’re all in this<br />
together,” said Tsukayama.<br />
Other Women@NJPAC events<br />
ranged from educational<br />
to simply celebratory:<br />
At December’s Jazz and<br />
Gingerbread, families decorated<br />
gingerbread houses donated<br />
by <strong>Community</strong> FoodBank of<br />
NJ while listening to holiday<br />
favorites courtesy of TD<br />
Jazz for Teens students.<br />
At Showrunners: Women<br />
Who Power the Arts, a<br />
panel discussion with<br />
women executives leading<br />
arts organizations in new<br />
directions — including Brooklyn<br />
Academy of Music president<br />
emerita Karen Brooks Hopkins,<br />
National Black <strong>The</strong>atre CEO<br />
Sade Lythcott and Linda<br />
Harrison, Director and CEO of<br />
the Newark Museum of Art — the<br />
conversation turned to ways<br />
that women in leadership roles<br />
can promote social justice.<br />
“We’re not only in the business<br />
of supporting artists of color,<br />
we’re in the business of human<br />
transformation,” said Lythcott.<br />
Women@NJPAC also<br />
co-presented a PSEG True<br />
Diversity Film Series event, built<br />
around the film Not Done:<br />
Women Remaking America, and<br />
supported a Business Partners<br />
Roundtable featuring Megan<br />
Myungwon Lee, Chairwoman<br />
and CEO of Panasonic<br />
Corporation of North America.<br />
In May, the Women@NJPAC<br />
Spring Luncheon & Auction<br />
returned as an in-person<br />
event, welcoming more than<br />
500 guests to hear from iconic<br />
beauty expert and cosmetics<br />
entrepreneur Bobbi Brown<br />
and Jessica Cruel, Editor in<br />
Chief of Allure. Brown, who<br />
at 64 launched her second<br />
cosmetics company, Jones Road<br />
Beauty, talked about starting a<br />
business at an age when some<br />
are contemplating retirement.<br />
“I just don’t feel my age,” she said.<br />
<strong>The</strong> sold-out extravaganza<br />
was a smashing success<br />
as a fundraiser, taking in<br />
a record $350,000 for Arts<br />
Education and <strong>Community</strong><br />
Engagement programs. •<br />
“Women have a multiplier<br />
effect. Everything we do,<br />
everything we engage in,<br />
we multiply its effect through<br />
our friends, our families, our<br />
children, our networks.”<br />
– Faith Taylor<br />
Clockwise from top: Bobbi Brown and<br />
Jessica Cruel at the Spring Luncheon &<br />
Auction; Business Partners Roundtable<br />
speaker Megan Myungwon Lee;<br />
Showrunners, a panel discussion with women<br />
executives leading arts organizations in new<br />
directions; Jazz and Gingerbread, a familyfriendly<br />
event hosted by Women@NJPAC;<br />
featured panelists at the <strong>2022</strong> Leading<br />
Ladies gathering; PSEG True Diversity Film<br />
Series panelists at an event built around the<br />
film Not Done: Women Remaking America.<br />
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njpac short stories<br />
At the opening of Defiantly<br />
Happy, an exhibition of work<br />
by Mashell Black, presented by<br />
Newark ArtSource and Akwaaba<br />
Gallery at NICO Kitchen + Bar.<br />
Poet and novelist Sandra<br />
Cisneros was featured as part<br />
of the four-day Dodge Poetry<br />
Festival, North America’s<br />
largest poetry event.<br />
fanning the flames<br />
Christian McBride, the<br />
eight-time GRAMMY®<br />
Award-winning jazz bassist,<br />
bandleader, composer, educator<br />
and producer, who is also the<br />
NJPAC’s Jazz Advisor and Board<br />
Member, knows jazz, of course —<br />
but he also knows comedy.<br />
“I think I’ve been just as<br />
much a student of comedy<br />
as I’ve been of jazz. I’ve<br />
studied the improvisational<br />
skills of people like George<br />
Carlin and Flip Wilson and<br />
Lucille Ball and Phyllis Diller<br />
and Richard Pryor, the same<br />
way I’ve studied the skills of<br />
Charlie Parker, Miles Davis<br />
and Coltrane,” McBride said.<br />
So presumably he knew what<br />
he was getting into when he<br />
put himself in the hot seat for<br />
one of the funniest events on<br />
the Arts Center’s calendar this<br />
year — the NJPAC Celebrity<br />
Roast held in McBride’s honor<br />
in June, on the occasion of the<br />
jazz master’s 50th birthday.<br />
Stand-up king George Wallace,<br />
“Roastmaster General” Jeff Ross,<br />
Amanda Seales, one of the<br />
stars of HBO’s hit show, Insecure,<br />
Comedy Central star Yamaneika<br />
Saunders and Alonzo Bodden,<br />
one of the champions of NBC’s<br />
Last Comic Standing, were<br />
“Roastmaster General” Jeff Ross<br />
teases Christian McBride at<br />
a birthday celebration which<br />
raised funds for jazz education at<br />
NJPAC and JAZZ HOUSE KiDS.<br />
among the professional funny<br />
people who gave McBride the<br />
business at the event held on<br />
the Betty Wold Johnson Stage<br />
in Prudential Hall. So did many<br />
of McBride’s friends and family<br />
members. Pals Amy Schumer,<br />
Bootsy Collins and Sting sent in<br />
zingers via video messages.<br />
In addition to being one of the<br />
best 50th birthday celebrations<br />
ever, the event also served as a<br />
fundraiser, taking in $200,000 for<br />
jazz education programs at both<br />
the Arts Center and JAZZ HOUSE<br />
KiDS. McBride, in addition<br />
to his roles at NJPAC, serves<br />
as Artistic Director for JAZZ<br />
HOUSE, which was founded<br />
by his wife, Melissa Walker.<br />
new art at nico<br />
Newark ArtSource curated<br />
an exhibition at NICO<br />
Kitchen + Bar in partnership<br />
with Akwaaba Gallery located<br />
in Newark’s West Ward. This<br />
first Akwaaba@NICO exhibit,<br />
titled Defiantly Happy, featured<br />
a solo exhibition by visual<br />
artist Mashell Black. This was<br />
the first art installation by<br />
Akwaaba Gallery at NICO; three<br />
exhibitions are planned. <strong>The</strong><br />
opening of the NICO exhibition<br />
coincided with the annual<br />
Newark Arts Festival which<br />
took place over four days in<br />
October. <strong>The</strong> <strong>2022</strong> festival was<br />
themed “Artful Healing” and<br />
included free events at galleries,<br />
studios, museums and spaces<br />
across Newark. NJPAC is a<br />
community partner of Newark<br />
Arts and hosted a VIP opening<br />
reception in the Parsonnet Room<br />
and a closing reception of the<br />
four-day festival at NICO.<br />
dodge poetry<br />
festival returns<br />
“It’s so nice to be in the country<br />
of poetry,” said Sandra Cisneros<br />
during the opening celebration of<br />
the <strong>2022</strong> Dodge Poetry Festival<br />
held in October. This biennial<br />
festival began in 1986 and has<br />
been hosted by NJPAC since<br />
2010. This year was especially<br />
celebratory as <strong>2022</strong> marked<br />
the in-person return of North<br />
America’s largest poetry event.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>2022</strong> festival opened with<br />
a trio from TD Jazz for Teens<br />
performing on the Prudential<br />
stage and more than 20 poets<br />
reading their work. Over the<br />
four-day festival, more than<br />
120 events took place, many<br />
simultaneously, in several NJPAC<br />
venues and in nearby spaces.<br />
Festival highlights included<br />
two performances of the New<br />
Jersey Symphony, several<br />
live recordings of the podcast<br />
Poetry Unbound and the East<br />
Coast premiere of Endangered,<br />
a multimedia performance<br />
of music, poetry and film.<br />
nj symphony’s<br />
centennial season<br />
<strong>The</strong> New Jersey Symphony<br />
celebrated its centennial season<br />
with a gala and sold-out concert<br />
at NJPAC in November. <strong>The</strong><br />
Symphony is the Art Center’s<br />
resident orchestra. In the first<br />
of his two appearances at<br />
NJPAC this season, celebrity<br />
cellist Yo-Yo Ma performed<br />
Dvořák’s cello concerto. <strong>The</strong><br />
gala’s program also included a<br />
performance of Herald, Holler<br />
and Hallelujah: Fanfare for Brass<br />
and Percussion by composer<br />
and trumpet virtuoso Wynton<br />
Marsalis, featuring jazz melodies<br />
inspired by New Orleans funeral<br />
processions. This work was<br />
70<br />
njpac.org
Music Director Xian Zhang and<br />
superstar cellist Yo-Yo Ma at the<br />
New Jersey Symphony’s sold-out<br />
centennial season gala.<br />
NJPAC collaborated with Audible<br />
to produce <strong>The</strong> Book of Baraka,<br />
an audio memoir by author and<br />
Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka<br />
A scene from Erin Mallon’s play,<br />
Soft Animals, presented by Vivid<br />
Stage as part of Stage Exchange,<br />
a collaboration by NJPAC and NJ<br />
<strong>The</strong>ater Alliance.<br />
<strong>The</strong> long-running Business Partners<br />
Roundtable series hosted an<br />
enlightening <strong>2022</strong> conversation<br />
about the impact of cryptocurrencies.<br />
a co-commission by several<br />
symphony orchestras including<br />
the New Jersey Symphony,<br />
plus the Grand Teton Music<br />
Festival. Dancers from New<br />
Jersey Ballet were part of the<br />
performance and the evening<br />
came to a thrilling end with<br />
streamers shot from cannons<br />
during Stand By Me & Hip-Hop<br />
Studies & Etude in C-sharp Minor<br />
by Resident Artistic Catalyst<br />
Daniel Bernard Roumain.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Symphony’s centennial<br />
season will conclude in June<br />
2023 with performances at<br />
NJPAC, when conductor and<br />
music director Xian Zhang will<br />
lead the orchestra and violinist<br />
Joshua Bell in Bruch’s Violin<br />
Concerto No. 1, Stravinsky’s Rite<br />
of Spring and a commissioned<br />
world premiere by Roumain.<br />
the mayor speaks<br />
How does an artist become an<br />
activist — and then, a political<br />
leader? Newark Mayor Ras J.<br />
Baraka answered that question<br />
in Book of Baraka, an Audible<br />
Original released in February.<br />
<strong>The</strong> recording, replete with<br />
snippets of spoken poetry and<br />
archival news footage, was<br />
narrated by the Mayor with<br />
an assist from his old college<br />
friend, New Yorker writer and<br />
filmmaker Jelani Cobb, and<br />
covers Baraka’s life from his<br />
childhood through his election<br />
as Mayor in 2014, when he was<br />
inaugurated at the Arts Center.<br />
NJPAC served as an executive<br />
producer on the project, and<br />
Stefon Harris, NJPAC’s Artistic<br />
Director of Jazz Education,<br />
composed the music that<br />
plays as accompaniment<br />
to the Mayor’s stories and<br />
recollections. <strong>The</strong> recording<br />
was made available for free<br />
on the Audible website.<br />
In addition to producing the<br />
audiobook, the Arts Center<br />
hosted an event in the Victoria<br />
<strong>The</strong>ater to celebrate its release,<br />
which featured Baraka and<br />
Cobb in conversation with<br />
Audible founder and chairman<br />
Don Katz. <strong>The</strong>y spoke about<br />
Cobb and Baraka’s college<br />
days at Howard (“I remember<br />
you would never let anyone<br />
say a wrong word about<br />
the city of Newark,” Cobb<br />
recalled) to poet Amiri Baraka’s<br />
admonition to his son to never<br />
let his other ambitions get<br />
in the way of his writing, to<br />
Newark’s potential as a hub<br />
of technology and the arts.<br />
NJPAC’s next project with<br />
Audible is an audio memoir by<br />
the Newark-raised Godfather<br />
of Funk, George Clinton.<br />
jersey voices<br />
amplified<br />
“Our season was all about<br />
human connection, what we’ve<br />
been so sorely lacking over the<br />
past few years — and this play<br />
is centered on those moments<br />
when human beings realize they<br />
need each other,” said Laura<br />
Ekstrand, Artistic Director at<br />
Vivid <strong>The</strong>ater in Summit, of<br />
the play, Soft Animals by Erin<br />
Mallon, that her company<br />
workshopped at NJPAC in June.<br />
That reading was part of Stage<br />
Exchange, the Arts Center’s<br />
long-running collaboration with<br />
the NJ <strong>The</strong>ater Alliance. Each<br />
year, New Jersey professional<br />
theaters are selected to take<br />
part in the program, at which<br />
they offer a reading of a<br />
new work by a New Jersey<br />
playwright at NJPAC, and<br />
discuss the work with the<br />
audience. <strong>The</strong>n the revised<br />
play gets a full production at<br />
the participating theater.<br />
This year was a return to<br />
form for the program; the<br />
playwrights and theaters<br />
had been selected to take<br />
part in 2020, but the staged<br />
readings and productions were<br />
postponed by the pandemic.<br />
Soft Animals, a drama about<br />
“medical misfits” with rare<br />
conditions who seek treatment<br />
for their unusual difficulties,<br />
was produced by Vivid in<br />
September following the June<br />
reading. Pushcart Players,<br />
which brings performances<br />
for young people to schools,<br />
workshopped LIFT EVERY<br />
VOICE: A Letter to the Editor,<br />
by TyLie Shider, which<br />
follows a 12-year-old boy’s<br />
reaction to the events of the<br />
Civil Rights Movement.<br />
Ekstrand lauded the program<br />
as a deeply meaningful support<br />
for both writers and theaters.<br />
“If you’re doing plays that<br />
have no name recognition —<br />
where the name of the play<br />
doesn’t mean something to<br />
people, or the name of the<br />
playwright — then you’re selling<br />
your brand as a producer<br />
of new works. And anything<br />
that supports that is rare<br />
and wonderful,” she said.<br />
getting down<br />
to business<br />
NJPAC’s Business Partners<br />
Roundtable series returned as<br />
in-person events this season,<br />
with visits from a cohort of<br />
New Jersey’s top executives.<br />
In June, Megan Myungwon<br />
Lee, Chairwoman and CEO of<br />
Panasonic Corporation of North<br />
America (headquartered in<br />
Newark), spoke about her rise<br />
to the company’s top position.<br />
In September, Ben Melnicki,<br />
Head of Emerging Technology<br />
Compliance at Cross River,<br />
joined Gavin Michael, Chief<br />
Executive Officer of Bakkt, and<br />
Foster Wright, President of<br />
CoinDesk, a cryptocurrency news<br />
organization, in a wide-ranging<br />
conversation about the impact<br />
of cryptocurrencies, moderated<br />
by Roy Choudhury, a Managing<br />
Director and Partner with<br />
Boston Consulting Group.<br />
And in October, NJPAC welcomed<br />
back the Arts Center’s great<br />
friend and a master of finance,<br />
Leon Cooperman, for one of his<br />
Conversations with Cooperman<br />
events, this one featuring<br />
businessman, investor and<br />
philanthropist Henry Kravis, the<br />
Co-Founder and Co-Executive<br />
Chairman of Kohlberg Kravis<br />
Roberts and Company.<br />
volunteers back<br />
in action<br />
For Larousse Pierre, <strong>2022</strong> was<br />
a busy year for volunteering<br />
at NJPAC. <strong>The</strong> Arts Center<br />
was hopping and Pierre says<br />
it felt like “we started back<br />
where we left in 2020.”<br />
In addition to his full-time job as<br />
a contractor in electronic quality<br />
control for the U.S. military, for<br />
eight years he’s clocked dozens<br />
of volunteer hours annually —<br />
working the photo booth during<br />
concerts, escorting Arts<br />
Education students backstage<br />
for their performances and<br />
greeting guests at his favorite<br />
event, Horizon Foundation<br />
Sounds of the City summer<br />
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njpac.org 73
A handful of the 80+ volunteers<br />
who represent NJPAC at a variety<br />
of events including the Horizon<br />
Foundation Sounds of the City<br />
summer concert series.<br />
“Our volunteers are a diverse group<br />
of people, reflective of our audiences,<br />
who create a warm and welcoming<br />
environment. <strong>The</strong>y’re integral to all<br />
NJPAC operations.”<br />
— Ginny Bowers Coleman<br />
concert series. “My goal is<br />
always to help the patrons have<br />
a deep appreciation for music,<br />
welcoming them when they<br />
come, putting a smile on their<br />
face and directing them where<br />
they need to go,” says Pierre.<br />
Volunteers are critical to the<br />
success of NJPAC programming.<br />
“I think that when an<br />
organization has a volunteer<br />
presence it says to other<br />
people ‘This is a worthwhile<br />
organization,’” says Dena<br />
Lowenbach who was NJPAC’s<br />
first volunteer, even before the<br />
Arts Center opened in 1997.<br />
NJPAC maintains a roster of<br />
80 volunteers from North and<br />
Central New Jersey. Sporting<br />
orange NJPAC T-shirts, they<br />
represent the Arts Center on-site<br />
and in neighborhood events<br />
such as Summer Fun in the<br />
Park, Jazz Jams and Books on<br />
the Move. Some 50 volunteers<br />
staffed the Dodge Poetry<br />
Festival in October and more<br />
than 30 were boots-on-theground<br />
for the annual Kwanzaa<br />
Family Festival in December.<br />
“Our volunteers are a diverse<br />
group of people, reflective of our<br />
audiences, who create a warm<br />
and welcoming environment<br />
that they themselves enjoy<br />
participating in,” says Ginny<br />
Bowers Coleman, Director,<br />
Volunteer Services. “<strong>The</strong>y’re<br />
integral to all NJPAC operations.”<br />
see ya’ pal<br />
This summer, NJPAC bid a fond<br />
farewell to one of its most senior<br />
leaders: Warren Tranquada,<br />
At the Texas-themed farewell<br />
to Warren Tranquada,<br />
NJPAC’s longtime Executive<br />
Vice President & COO,<br />
recently selected to lead AT&T<br />
Performing Arts Center in Dallas.<br />
the Arts Center’s longtime<br />
Executive Vice President and<br />
Chief Operating Officer, was<br />
selected to serve as the CEO<br />
of the AT&T Performing Arts<br />
Center in Dallas. Tranquada<br />
took on his new role in July.<br />
Before he left, however, the<br />
Arts Center’s staff celebrated<br />
Tranquada with a Texas-themed<br />
goodbye party, replete with<br />
cowboy hats, cowboy boots<br />
and life-size Photoshopped<br />
images of Tranquada riding<br />
bucking broncos and roping<br />
steer. (In reality, Tranquada —<br />
who grew up in Canada — is<br />
much more likely to be found<br />
watching, playing or coaching<br />
hockey in his leisure time.)<br />
Tranquada, who first began<br />
working at the Arts Center<br />
in 2006 as a consultant<br />
during the planning stages<br />
of NJPAC’s first real estate<br />
redevelopment project, the<br />
residential high-rise One <strong>The</strong>ater<br />
Square, became Chief Financial<br />
Officer of NJPAC in 2009 and<br />
took on the role of Executive<br />
Vice President and Chief<br />
Operating Officer in 2015. •<br />
a special experience<br />
Jacqueline Janai Harper, 9,<br />
on left in red, and her family<br />
were guests of NJPAC and<br />
RWJBarnabas Health at a<br />
December performance of<br />
<strong>The</strong> Hip Hop Nutcracker.<br />
Jacqueline is a patient at<br />
Children’s Hospital of New<br />
Jersey at Newark Beth Israel<br />
Medical Center and the<br />
Special Patient Experience<br />
treated her and her family to<br />
premium seating, a <strong>The</strong> Hip<br />
Hop Nutcracker tour bag and<br />
an exclusive experience — in<br />
this case, a meet and greet<br />
with hip hop legend and the<br />
show’s emcee Kurtis Blow.<br />
NJPAC and RWJBarnabas<br />
Health also hosted a<br />
Special Patient Experience<br />
during a December<br />
performance of PAW Patrol.<br />
a warm welcome<br />
It’s axiomatic in the<br />
performance business:<br />
“<strong>The</strong> show must go on!”<br />
At NJPAC this year, that meant<br />
engaging staff members —<br />
even leadership — in new roles.<br />
Staffing shortages that were<br />
endemic across the country<br />
affected the Arts Center as<br />
well, resulting in an occasional<br />
lack of ushers, especially for<br />
weekday matinees — which<br />
happen to be prime time for<br />
shows geared toward the<br />
youngest audiences. When<br />
ushers were unavailable, Robin<br />
Jones, Senior Director of House<br />
Management, called on senior<br />
NJPAC staff to assist. One of<br />
the unassuming stand-in ushers<br />
was John Schreiber, CEO<br />
and President. “<strong>To</strong> know that<br />
executive leadership took time<br />
out of their busy days meant<br />
the world to us,” says Jones. “It<br />
shows that NJPAC is invested in<br />
the customer service experience,<br />
no matter what it takes.”<br />
74 njpac.org<br />
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a message from<br />
charles f. lowrey<br />
and carmen s. villar<br />
NJPAC Board of Directors Co-Chairs<br />
As NJPAC’s new Board Co-Chairs, we are excited to take the reins of the Arts<br />
Center’s volunteer leadership at this pivotal time, after several years of service on the<br />
NJPAC Board. This season marks the 25th anniversary of our Arts Center, Newark<br />
and New Jersey’s anchor cultural institution — a milestone to celebrate!<br />
This season also demonstrates how NJPAC is redefining what an urban<br />
Arts Center can be, and how much it can accomplish.<br />
Charles F. Lowrey<br />
Chairman & CEO<br />
Prudential Financial,<br />
Inc.<br />
We’ve proudly watched NJPAC lean into its multifaceted mission as presenter<br />
of world-class arts and entertainment, as the largest arts educator in the region,<br />
and as a convener of enlightening civic engagement events.<br />
What we’d like to spotlight is NJPAC’s role as an institution in the service of its<br />
community, and how thoughtfully the Arts Center executes new projects.<br />
Whether it’s showcasing entertainment from diverse cultural groups, or<br />
partnering with a Newark high school to teach students theater production skills,<br />
this organization asks: What needs are unmet, and how can we help fill them?<br />
<strong>The</strong> Arts Center’s new Arts and Well-Being programming is a case in point.<br />
This groundbreaking initiative was inspired by exciting research, from the University<br />
of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine and other organizations, which demonstrates<br />
that engaging with the arts can have a significant positive impact on physical<br />
and mental well-being.<br />
Carmen S. Villar<br />
Vice President<br />
Merck & Company,<br />
Inc.<br />
Now, through a whole series of programs — from musical performances in<br />
healthcare settings, to an initiative that allows healthcare workers to “prescribe” the<br />
arts to patients through free tickets — NJPAC is working to ensure greater access to the<br />
arts, and to the health benefits the arts provide. We’ve even established a first-of-itskind<br />
Arts in Health Research Lab with the Rutgers School of Public Health and Mason<br />
Gross School of the Arts, to advance more research in this rowing field. This work<br />
establishes NJPAC as a national leader in the field of arts and well-being.<br />
Another need the Arts Center identified is for local arts programming in each of<br />
Newark’s neighborhoods. NJPAC’s ArtsXChange concept — free classes, workshops<br />
and performances inspired by residents’ interests, offered locally so transport is not a<br />
barrier to participation — is being piloted in the South Ward’s Clinton Hill district<br />
this year. And we expect more partnerships will launch across the city in the future.<br />
We’re excited to witness this thoughtful, intentional growth — and we recognize<br />
that such success does not happen in a vacuum. We appreciate the dedicated work<br />
of those who came before us, notably our most recent Board Co-Chair predecessors,<br />
Steven Goldman and Barry Ostrowsky.<br />
As we proudly look back on what the Arts Center has accomplished, we are<br />
eager to advance NJPAC’s bright future. So much good work lies ahead!<br />
Sincerely,<br />
Horizon Foundation<br />
Sounds of the City<br />
Charles F. Lowrey<br />
Carmen S. Villar<br />
njpac.org 77
the budget picture<br />
as of June 30, <strong>2022</strong><br />
operating income - $53.4 million<br />
new jersey performing<br />
arts center corporation<br />
consolidated balance sheets june 30, <strong>2022</strong> & 2021<br />
32%<br />
performance related revenue<br />
Assets <strong>2022</strong> 2021<br />
Cash & cash equivalents $ 17,613,360 12,607,006<br />
Accounts receivable, net 5,356,573 2,284,941<br />
Contributions & grants receivable, net 25,138,797 30,324,867<br />
Prepaid expenses & other assets 2,279,174 2,593,531<br />
contributed revenue 44%<br />
9%<br />
endowment income<br />
and reserve transfers<br />
Investments 104,988,394 117,199,631<br />
Property & equipment, net 99,760,039 102,331,609<br />
<strong>To</strong>tal assets $ 255,136,337 267,341,585<br />
operating expenses - $43.2 million<br />
15% other earned income<br />
Liabilities & Net Assets<br />
Liabilities:<br />
Accounts payable & accrued expenses $ 3,641,022 3,461,831<br />
Advance ticket sales & other 2,880,636 2,234,903<br />
Loans payable 2,947,393 10,762,661<br />
Other liabilities 9,240,125 8,538,729<br />
<strong>To</strong>tal liabilities $ 18,709,176 24,998,124<br />
marketing & communications<br />
7%<br />
development 6%<br />
arts education 9%<br />
general & administrative 13%<br />
41%<br />
24%<br />
performance &<br />
performance related<br />
theater operations<br />
Commitments & contingencies<br />
Net assets:<br />
Unrestricted<br />
Designated for special purposes, including net<br />
investment in property & equipment $ 107,491,188 93,151,049<br />
Designated for operations 0 0<br />
<strong>To</strong>tal unrestricted 107,491,188 93,151,049<br />
Temporarily restricted 29,497,333 49,675,533<br />
Permanently restricted – endowment 99,438,640 99,516,879<br />
<strong>To</strong>tal net assets 236,427,161 242,343,461<br />
<strong>To</strong>tal liabilities & net assets $ 255,136,337 267,341,585<br />
78 njpac.org<br />
njpac.org 79
njpa leadership<br />
board of directors as of January 1, 2023<br />
<strong>The</strong> Honorable<br />
Clifford M. Sobel<br />
Gary St. Hilaire David S. Stone, Esq. Michael A. Tanenbaum,<br />
Esq.<br />
Peter J. <strong>To</strong>rcicollo<br />
Rishi Varma<br />
Ricardo A. Watson Nina M. Wells, Esq. Josh S. Westo Karen C. Young<br />
Co-Chair<br />
Charles F. Lowrey<br />
Co-Chair<br />
Carmen S. Villar<br />
Treasurer<br />
Marc E. Berson<br />
Assistant Treasurer<br />
David Jones<br />
Secretary<br />
Michael E. Griffinger<br />
Assistant Secretary<br />
Yan Gu<br />
Founding Chair<br />
Raymond G. Chambers<br />
ex officio<br />
Chair Emeritus<br />
William J. Marino<br />
Chair Emeritus<br />
Arthur F. Ryan<br />
Lara Abrash Lawrence E.<br />
Bathgate II, Esq.<br />
James L. Bildner, Esq.<br />
Daniel M. Bloomfield,<br />
M.D.<br />
Modia “Mo” Butler<br />
<strong>The</strong> Honorable<br />
Ras J. Baraka<br />
<strong>The</strong> Honorable<br />
Joseph N. DiVincenzo<br />
<strong>The</strong> Honorable Elizabeth A. Mattson<br />
Elizabeth Maher Muoio<br />
<strong>The</strong> Honorable<br />
LaMonica McIver<br />
Jacob S. Buurma, Esq. Nancy Cantor, Ph.D. Regina Carter Mindy A. Cohen Matthew Connor Edwan Davis Enrico Della Corna<br />
<strong>The</strong> Honorable<br />
Philip D. Murphy<br />
President & CEO<br />
John Schreiber<br />
Faith Taylor<br />
<strong>The</strong> Honorable<br />
Tahesha Way<br />
Pat A. Di Filippo Robert H. Doherty Debbie Dyson Anne Evans Estabrook Christine C. Gilfillan Savion Glover Steven M. Goldman,<br />
Esq.<br />
in memoriam<br />
<strong>The</strong> Arts Center mourns the loss of several friends this season — creative<br />
and devoted individuals who impacted our community through their<br />
leadership, their artistry and their dedication to NJPAC.<br />
Ryan P. Haygood, Esq. William V. Hickey Jeffrey T. Hoffman Ralph Izzo, PhD <strong>The</strong> Honorable<br />
Thomas H. Kean<br />
Scott A. Kobler<br />
Christian McBride<br />
Stephen<br />
“tWitch” Boss, 40<br />
<strong>The</strong> dancer,<br />
actor and television<br />
personality who played<br />
Dad in <strong>The</strong> Hip Hop<br />
Nutcracker on Disney+<br />
passed away in December.<br />
Edward<br />
Fleming, 72<br />
A head usher at<br />
NJPAC for 25 years,<br />
retired postal carrier<br />
and a member of the<br />
Actors’ Equity Association,<br />
passed away in July.<br />
Carlos Medina D. Nicholas Miceli Barry H. Ostrowsky,<br />
Esq.<br />
Deepak Raj Stephen O. Richard Richard W. Roper fayemi shakur<br />
Wayne<br />
Shorter, 89<br />
<strong>The</strong> legendary jazz saxophonist,<br />
composer and Newark native who<br />
redefined the art form and last<br />
played NJPAC in 2017 during the<br />
celebratory Wayne Shorter Weekend,<br />
passed away in March 2023.<br />
Morris<br />
Tanenbaum, 94<br />
A world-changing scientist and<br />
inventor, as well as a Founding<br />
Director of NJPAC, and the<br />
Vice Chairman and CFO of AT&T,<br />
passed away in March 2023.<br />
Rona<br />
Brummer, 89<br />
A member of<br />
Women@NJPAC and<br />
Council of Trustees, as well<br />
as a teacher, a classically<br />
trained pianist and the<br />
owner, with her family,<br />
of Hobby’s Delicatessen in<br />
Newark, passed away in July.<br />
Belva<br />
Moody, 59<br />
A box office staffer and<br />
former guest services<br />
representative at NJPAC,<br />
passed away in November.<br />
80 njpac.org<br />
njpac.org 81
oard of directors as of January 1, 2023<br />
women@njpac board of trustees<br />
as of January 1, 2023<br />
Co-Chair<br />
Charles F. Lowrey<br />
Chairman & CEO<br />
Prudential Financial, Inc.<br />
Co-Chair<br />
Carmen Villar<br />
Vice President<br />
Merck & Company, Inc.<br />
Treasurer<br />
Marc E. Berson<br />
Chairman<br />
<strong>The</strong> Fidelco Group<br />
Assistant Treasurer<br />
David Jones<br />
Co-Founder, President & CEO<br />
CastleOak Securities, LLC<br />
Secretary<br />
Michael R. Griffinger, Esq.<br />
Director<br />
Gibbons P.C.<br />
Assistant Secretary<br />
Yan Gu<br />
Vice President, Commercial<br />
Mars Wrigley, North America<br />
Founding Chair<br />
Raymond G. Chambers<br />
<strong>The</strong> MCJ Amelior Foundation<br />
Chairs Emeriti<br />
William J. Marino<br />
Retired Chairman, President &<br />
CEO Horizon BCBS of New Jersey<br />
Arthur F. Ryan<br />
Retired Chairman & CEO<br />
Prudential Financial<br />
Lara Abrash<br />
Chairman & CEO<br />
Deloitte, LLP<br />
Lawrence E. Bathgate II, Esq.<br />
Partner<br />
Bathgate, Wegener & Wolf P.C.<br />
James L. Bildner<br />
CEO<br />
Draper Richards Kaplan<br />
Foundation<br />
Daniel M. Bloomfield, M.D.<br />
Chief Medical Officer<br />
Anthos <strong>The</strong>rapeutics<br />
Modia “Mo” Butler<br />
Partner<br />
Mercury Public Affairs<br />
Jacob S. Buurma, Esq.<br />
Vice President<br />
BELVIN Development<br />
Nancy Cantor, Ph.D.<br />
Chancellor<br />
Rutgers University – Newark<br />
Regina Carter<br />
Jazz Master & Artistic Director<br />
NJPAC Geri Allen Jazz Camp<br />
Mindy A. Cohen<br />
<strong>Community</strong> Leader &<br />
Philanthropist<br />
Matthew Connor<br />
Chief Financial Officer<br />
Broadridge Financial Solutions<br />
Edwan Davis<br />
Vice President &<br />
Chief Audit Executive<br />
Johnson & Johnson<br />
Enrico Della Corna<br />
New Jersey Regional President<br />
PNC Bank<br />
Pat A. Di Filippo<br />
Executive Vice President<br />
Turner Construction Corporation<br />
Robert H. Doherty<br />
New Jersey Market President<br />
Bank of America<br />
Debbie Dyson<br />
Chief Executive Officer<br />
OneTen<br />
Anne Evans Estabrook<br />
CEO<br />
Elberon Development Group<br />
Christine C. Gilfillan<br />
President<br />
<strong>The</strong> MCJ Amelior Foundation<br />
Savion Glover<br />
Actor, Tap Dancer,<br />
Choreographer<br />
NJPAC Artistic Advisor<br />
Steven M. Goldman, Esq.<br />
Managing Partner<br />
PBM Capital Group<br />
Ryan P. Haygood, Esq.<br />
President & CEO<br />
New Jersey Institute for<br />
Social Justice<br />
William V. Hickey<br />
Retired Chairman & CEO<br />
Sealed Air Corporation<br />
Jeffrey T. Hoffman<br />
Senior Vice President<br />
N.A. Field Operations Data<br />
Analytics & Sales Effectiveness<br />
Chubb<br />
Ralph Izzo<br />
Former Chairman, President &<br />
CEO, PSE&G<br />
<strong>The</strong> Hon. Thomas H. Kean<br />
President<br />
THK Consulting, LLC<br />
Scott A. Kobler, Esq.<br />
Partner<br />
McCarter & English, LLP<br />
Christian McBride<br />
Jazz Master &<br />
NJPAC Artistic Advisor<br />
Carlos Medina<br />
President<br />
Robinson Aerial Surveys<br />
D. Nicholas Miceli<br />
Regional President,<br />
Florida Metro<br />
TD Bank<br />
Barry Ostrowsky, Esq.<br />
President & CEO<br />
RWJBarnabas Health<br />
Deepak Raj<br />
Founder<br />
Raj Associates<br />
Stephen O. Richard<br />
Chief Risk Officer<br />
& Chief Audit Executive<br />
BD<br />
Richard W. Roper<br />
Public Policy Consultant<br />
fayemi shakur<br />
Director, Arts & Cultural Affairs<br />
City of Newark<br />
<strong>The</strong> Hon. Clifford M. Sobel<br />
Former U.S. Ambassador<br />
to Brazil<br />
U.S. Department of State<br />
Gary St. Hilaire<br />
President & CEO<br />
Horizon BCBS of New Jersey<br />
David S. Stone, Esq.<br />
Senior Managing Partner<br />
Stone & Magnanini<br />
Michael A. Tanenbaum, Esq.<br />
Chairman<br />
Tanenbaum Keale, LLP<br />
Peter J. <strong>To</strong>rcicollo<br />
Managing Director<br />
Gibbons P.C.<br />
Rishi Varma<br />
Partner & Managing Director<br />
Boston Consulting Group<br />
Ricardo Watson<br />
Chief Risk Officer of Dealer<br />
Commercial Services<br />
Chase Auto<br />
JPMorgan Chase<br />
Nina M. Wells, Esq.<br />
Former Secretary of State<br />
State of New Jersey<br />
Josh S. Weston<br />
Honorary Chairman<br />
ADP<br />
Karen Young<br />
US Pharmaceutical & Life<br />
Sciences Leader<br />
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP<br />
Ex Officio<br />
<strong>The</strong> Hon. Ras J. Baraka<br />
Mayor<br />
City of Newark<br />
<strong>The</strong> Hon. Joseph DiVincenzo, Jr.<br />
Essex County Executive<br />
<strong>The</strong> County of Essex, New Jersey<br />
<strong>The</strong> Hon. Elizabeth<br />
Maher Muoio<br />
State Treasurer<br />
State of New Jersey<br />
<strong>The</strong> Hon. LaMonica McIver<br />
President Municipal Council<br />
City of Newark<br />
Elizabeth A. Mattson<br />
Chairperson<br />
NJ State Council on the Arts<br />
<strong>The</strong> Hon. Philip D. Murphy<br />
Governor<br />
State of New Jersey<br />
John Schreiber<br />
President & CEO<br />
New Jersey Performing<br />
Arts Center<br />
Faith Taylor<br />
President<br />
Women@NJPAC<br />
<strong>The</strong> Hon. Tahesha Way<br />
Secretary of State<br />
State of New Jersey<br />
Directors Emeriti<br />
Dennis Bone<br />
Barbara Bell Coleman<br />
Albert R. Gamper<br />
Veronica M. Goldberg<br />
Judith Jamison<br />
A. Michael Lipper, CFA<br />
Victor Parsonnet, M.D<br />
Donald A. Robinson, Esq.<br />
John R. Strangfeld, Jr.<br />
Diana T. Vagelos<br />
Robert C. Waggoner<br />
President<br />
Faith Taylor<br />
Assistant Treasurer<br />
Suzanne M. Spero<br />
Sherri-Ann P.<br />
Butterfield, Ph.D.<br />
Antoinette<br />
Ellis-Williams<br />
Co-Executive<br />
Vice President<br />
Margarethe Laurenzi<br />
Secrectary<br />
Tammye T. Jones<br />
Co-Executive<br />
Vice President<br />
Sonia Luaces<br />
Vice President<br />
Deborah Q. Belfatto<br />
Vice President<br />
Mindy A. Cohen<br />
Farah N. Ansari Linda J. Baraka Rana Peterson<br />
Barclay<br />
Patricia L. Capawana Alejandra Ceja Patricia A.<br />
Chambers* **<br />
Sally Chubb* **<br />
Catherine J. Flynn Christine C. Gilfillan Aisha Glover Veronica M.<br />
Goldberg* **<br />
Vice President<br />
Lori Spoon<br />
Audrey Bartner<br />
Barbara Bell<br />
Coleman**<br />
Zenola Harper, Esq.<br />
Treasurer<br />
Lisa Osofsky<br />
Marcia Wilson<br />
Brown, Esq.**<br />
Michellene Davis, Esq.<br />
Shané Harris<br />
Kim Hobbs Vani Krishnamurthy Brooke Lawson Kerri B. Levine Ruth C. Lipper** Dena F. Lowenbach** Marlie Massena<br />
Shennell McCloud DeAnna L.<br />
Minus-Vincent<br />
Mary Kay<br />
Strangfeld**<br />
Gabriella E. Morris,<br />
Esq.*<br />
Ferlanda Fox Nixon,<br />
Esq.<br />
Mikki Taylor Diana T. Vagelos* ** Nina Mitchell Wells<br />
Esq.<br />
Christine Pearson Sara Peña Rhonda McFarlane<br />
Richard, Esq.<br />
Nicole D. Wescoe<br />
* Founding Member<br />
**Trustee Emerita<br />
82 njpac.org<br />
njpac.org 83
women@njpac board of trustees as of January 1, 2023<br />
President<br />
Faith Taylor<br />
Global Sustainability Leader,<br />
Kyndryl<br />
Co-Executive Vice President<br />
Margarethe Laurenzi<br />
Executive Director<br />
Maher Charitable Foundation<br />
Co-Executive Vice President<br />
Sonia Luaces<br />
Partner, PwC LLP<br />
Vice Presidents<br />
Deborah Q. Belfatto<br />
<strong>Community</strong> Leader &<br />
Philanthropist<br />
Mindy A. Cohen<br />
<strong>Community</strong> Leader &<br />
Philanthropist<br />
Lori Spoon<br />
Senior Vice President<br />
Global Head of Customer &<br />
Broker Engagment<br />
Bershire Hathaway<br />
Specialty Insurance<br />
Treasurer<br />
Lisa Osofsky<br />
Partner, Private Client Services<br />
Practice Leader<br />
Mazars USA, LLP<br />
Assistant Treasurer<br />
Suzanne M. Spero<br />
Executive Director<br />
<strong>The</strong> MCJ Amelior Foundation<br />
Secretary<br />
Tammye T. Jones<br />
<strong>Community</strong> Leader &<br />
Philanthropist<br />
Farah N. Ansari<br />
Partner<br />
Schenck, Price, Smith & King, LLP<br />
Linda J. Baraka<br />
Chief of Staff<br />
State of NJ Legislative District 28<br />
Rana Peterson Barclay<br />
<strong>Community</strong> Leader &<br />
Philanthropist<br />
Audrey Bartner<br />
<strong>Community</strong> Leader &<br />
Philanthropist<br />
Marcia Wilson Brown, Esq.**<br />
Retired Vice Chancellor<br />
for External &<br />
GovernmentalRelations<br />
Rutgers University – Newark<br />
Sherri-Ann P. Butterfield, Ph.D<br />
Executive Vice Chancellor<br />
Rutgers University – Newark<br />
Patricia L. Capawana<br />
Founder<br />
Patricia L. Capawana<br />
Executive Events, LLC<br />
Alejandra Ceja<br />
Executive Director<br />
Panasonic Foundation<br />
Panasonic Corporation<br />
of North America<br />
Patricia A. Chambers* **<br />
<strong>Community</strong> Leader &<br />
Philanthropist; Chair<br />
Lambert Bridge Winery<br />
Sally Chubb* **<br />
<strong>Community</strong> Leader &<br />
Philanthropist<br />
Barbara Bell Coleman**<br />
President<br />
BBC Associates, LLC<br />
Michellene Davis, Esq.<br />
President & CEO<br />
National Medical<br />
Fellowships, Inc.<br />
Antoinette Ellis-Williams<br />
Chairperson & Professor<br />
Department of Women’s &<br />
Gender Studies<br />
NJCU<br />
Catherine J. Flynn<br />
Partner<br />
Flynn Watts Law<br />
Christine C. Gilfillan<br />
President<br />
<strong>The</strong> MCJ Amelior Foundation<br />
Aisha Glover<br />
Vice President<br />
Center for Urban Innovation<br />
Audible<br />
Veronica M. Goldberg* **<br />
<strong>Community</strong> Leader &<br />
Philanthropist<br />
Zenola Harper, Esq.<br />
Vice President<br />
Litigation, Labor & Employment<br />
Horizon BCBS of New Jersey<br />
Kim Hobbs<br />
<strong>Community</strong> Leader &<br />
Philanthropist<br />
Vani Krishnamurthy<br />
Founder & CEO<br />
CoCo Gallery<br />
Brooke Lawson<br />
Regional Vice President<br />
North Region<br />
Neiman Marcus<br />
Kerri B. Levine<br />
Vice President<br />
Fidelco Realty Group<br />
Ruth C. Lipper**<br />
<strong>Community</strong> Leader &<br />
Philanthropist<br />
Dena F. Lowenbach**<br />
<strong>Community</strong> Leader &<br />
Philanthropist<br />
Marlie Massena<br />
Senior Brand Planner<br />
Jellyfish<br />
Shennell McCloud<br />
Executive Director<br />
Project Ready & Be Ready<br />
DeAnna L. Minus-Vincent<br />
Executive Vice President &<br />
Chief Social Justice &<br />
Accountability Officer<br />
RWJBarnabas Health<br />
Gabriella E. Morris, Esq.*<br />
Chief Philanthropy Officer<br />
World Food Program USA<br />
Ferlanda Fox Nixon, Esq.<br />
Chief of Policy &<br />
Government Affairs<br />
African American Chamber of<br />
Commerce of New Jersey<br />
Editor, TAPinto Denville<br />
Christine Pearson<br />
<strong>Community</strong> Leader &<br />
Philanthropist<br />
Sara Peña<br />
Director of External Affiars<br />
PSEG<br />
Rhonda McFarlane Richard<br />
<strong>Community</strong> Leader &<br />
Philanthropist<br />
Mary Kay Strangfeld**<br />
<strong>Community</strong> Leader &<br />
Philanthropist<br />
Mikki Taylor<br />
President, Satin Doll<br />
Productions, Inc.<br />
Editor-at-Large, ESSENCE<br />
Magazine<br />
Diana T. Vagelos* **<br />
<strong>Community</strong> Leader &<br />
Philanthropist<br />
Nina Mitchell Wells, Esq.<br />
Former Secretary of State,<br />
State of New Jersey<br />
Nicole D. Wescoe<br />
Regional President<br />
Northeast Region<br />
Whole Foods Market<br />
*Founding Member<br />
**Trustee Emerita<br />
family of donors<br />
NJPAC thanks each and every one of its supporters for making a commitment<br />
that helps ensure the future well-being and success of your Arts Center.<br />
<strong>The</strong> acknowledgments presented here are based on contributions made between July 1, 2021,<br />
to December 31, <strong>2022</strong>. NJPAC is enormously grateful for the many contributions the Arts Center<br />
received after January 1, 2023, which will be recognized in next year's <strong>Report</strong> to the <strong>Community</strong>.<br />
njpac shining stars as of December 31, <strong>2022</strong><br />
New Jersey Performing Arts Center reserves special accolades for its Shining Stars —<br />
the generous visionaries, luminaries and great dreamers who make everything possible.<br />
This list includes contributors whose cumulative giving to NJPAC totals $1 million and above.<br />
dreamers<br />
$10,000,000 & above<br />
Anonymous (2)<br />
<strong>The</strong> Chambers Family &<br />
<strong>The</strong> MCJ Amelior Foundation<br />
City of Newark<br />
Judy & Stewart Colton<br />
<strong>To</strong>by & Leon Cooperman<br />
Essex County<br />
Betty Wold Johnson+<br />
New Jersey State<br />
Council on the Arts<br />
Prudential/<strong>The</strong> Prudential<br />
Foundation<br />
Estate of Eric F. Ross<br />
State of New Jersey<br />
Victoria Foundation<br />
<strong>The</strong> Josh Weston Family<br />
Women@NJPAC<br />
luminaries<br />
$5,000,000 & above<br />
Bank of America<br />
Randi & Marc E. Berson<br />
<strong>The</strong> Joan & Allen Bildner<br />
Family Fund<br />
CIT<br />
Horizon Blue Cross Blue<br />
Shield of New Jersey<br />
Merck Foundation<br />
Katharine+ &<br />
Albert W.+ Merck<br />
NJ Advance Media<br />
PSEG/PSEG Foundation<br />
RWJBarnabas Health<br />
Lizzie & Jonathan Tisch<br />
Diana & P. Roy Vagelos<br />
Wells Fargo Foundation<br />
visionaries<br />
$1,000,000 & above<br />
ADP<br />
Alcatel-Lucent<br />
American Express<br />
Anonymous<br />
AT&T<br />
BD<br />
Casino Reinvestment<br />
Development Authority<br />
Chubb<br />
Joanne D. Corzine Foundation<br />
Jon S. Corzine Foundation<br />
Geraldine R. Dodge<br />
Foundation<br />
Doris Duke Charitable<br />
Foundation<br />
Edison Properties<br />
Newark Foundation/<br />
<strong>The</strong> Gottesman Family<br />
Anne Evans Estabrook DBA<br />
Elberon Development Co.<br />
Ford Foundation<br />
Gibbons P.C.<br />
Veronica M. Goldberg<br />
<strong>The</strong> Griffinger Family<br />
Harrah’s Foundation<br />
Hess Foundation, Inc.<br />
William & Joan Hickey<br />
<strong>The</strong> Izzo Family<br />
Jaqua Foundation<br />
Johnson & Johnson<br />
Family of Companies<br />
JPMorgan Chase<br />
Kresge Foundation<br />
<strong>The</strong> Blanche & Irving<br />
Laurie Foundation<br />
Arlene Lieberman/<strong>The</strong> Leonard<br />
Lieberman Family Foundation<br />
A. Michael & Ruth C.<br />
Lipper/Lipper Family<br />
Charitable Foundation<br />
William J. & Paula Marino<br />
McCrane Foundation, Inc.,<br />
care of Margrit McCrane<br />
<strong>The</strong> Andrew W. Mellon<br />
Foundation<br />
New Jersey Cultural Trust<br />
Panasonic Foundation<br />
Dr. Victor Parsonnet &<br />
Jane Parsonnet+<br />
Pfizer Inc.<br />
Michael F. Price<br />
PwC<br />
Robert Wood Johnson,<br />
Jr. Charitable Trust<br />
<strong>The</strong> Ryan Family<br />
<strong>The</strong> Sagner Family Foundation<br />
Schering-Plough Corporation<br />
<strong>The</strong> Walter V. & Judith L.<br />
Shipley Family Foundation<br />
Sills Cummis & Gross, PC<br />
<strong>The</strong> Smart Family Foundation/<br />
David S. Stone, Esq.,<br />
Stone & Magnanini<br />
John Strangfeld &<br />
Mary Kay Strangfeld<br />
Foundation<br />
Michael & Jill Tanenbaum<br />
Morris+ & Charlotte Tanenbaum<br />
TD Bank/TD Charitable<br />
Foundation<br />
Turner Construction<br />
Company/Pat A. Di Filippo<br />
Turrell Fund<br />
United Airlines<br />
Verizon<br />
Robert & Mary Ellen Waggoner<br />
Wallace Foundation<br />
+deceased<br />
njpac council of trustees as of December 31, <strong>2022</strong><br />
Val Azzoli<br />
Michael F. Bartow<br />
Rona Brummer<br />
John M. Castrucci, CPA<br />
Elizabeth G. Christopherson<br />
Susan Cole, Ph.D.<br />
Robert S. Constable<br />
Irene Cooper-Basch<br />
Anthony R. Coscia, Esq.<br />
Andrea Cummis<br />
Samuel A. Delgado<br />
Steven J. Diner, Ph.D.<br />
Andrew Dumas<br />
Dawood Farahi, Ph.D.<br />
Curtland E. Fields<br />
Albert R. Gamper<br />
Bruce I. Goldstein, Esq.<br />
Paula Gottesman<br />
Sandra Greenberg<br />
Kent C. Hiteshew<br />
Patrick E. Hobbs<br />
John A. Hoffman, Esq.<br />
Lawrence S. Horn, Esq.<br />
Reverend M. William<br />
Howard, Jr.<br />
Reverend Reginald Jackson<br />
Howard Jacobs<br />
Robert L. Johnson, M.D.<br />
Marilyn “Penny” Joseph<br />
Donald M. Karp, Esq.<br />
Gene R. Korf<br />
Rabbi Clifford M. Kulwin<br />
Ellen W. Lambert, Esq.<br />
Paul Lichtman<br />
Kevin Luing<br />
Joseph Manfredi<br />
Antonio S. Matinho<br />
Bari J. Mattes<br />
John E. McCormac, CPA<br />
Catherine M. McFarland<br />
Joyce R. Michaelson<br />
Edwin S. Olsen<br />
Richard S. Pechter<br />
Daria M. Placitella<br />
Jay R. Post, Jr., CFP<br />
Steven J. Pozycki<br />
Marian Rocker<br />
David J. Satz, Esq.<br />
Barbara J. Scott<br />
Marla S. Smith<br />
Suzanne M. Spero<br />
Joseph P. Starkey<br />
Sylvia Steiner<br />
Arthur R. Stern<br />
Andrew Vagelos<br />
Richard J. Vezza<br />
Kim Wachtel<br />
Constance K. Weaver<br />
Elnardo J. Webster, II<br />
E. Belvin Williams, Ph.D.<br />
Gary M. Wingens, Esq.<br />
NJPAC Arts Education staff unveil<br />
a piano gifted by M&M Mars<br />
Wrigley to Newark Pride.<br />
84<br />
njpac.org
the muse society as of December 31, <strong>2022</strong><br />
NJPAC’s Muse Society recognizes those visionary friends who include the Arts Center in their financial planning through bequests,<br />
charitable gift annuities, insurance and other deferred gifts. We are deeply grateful to the following friends who have included the<br />
Arts Center in their estate plans and made known their future gift. For more information or to notify NJPAC of your intent to include<br />
it in your estate planning, contact Amy Fitzpatrick, Vice President of Development, at 973.297.5822.<br />
Audrey Bartner<br />
Lawrence E. Bathgate, II<br />
Judith Bernhaut<br />
Andrew T. Berry, Esq.+<br />
Randi & Marc E. Berson<br />
<strong>The</strong> Joan+ & Allen Bildner+<br />
Family Fund<br />
Candice R. Bolte<br />
Edmond H.+ &<br />
Joan K. Borneman+<br />
Ann & Stan Borowiec<br />
Raymond G. Chambers<br />
<strong>To</strong>by & Leon Cooperman<br />
Fred Corrado<br />
Ann Cummis<br />
Mr. & Mrs. James Curtis<br />
Harold R. Denton<br />
Charles H. Gillen+<br />
Bertha Goldman+<br />
Steven M. Goldman, Esq.<br />
Renee & David Golush<br />
<strong>The</strong> Griffinger Family<br />
Phyllis & Steven E. Gross<br />
Mr. & Mrs. Warren Grover<br />
Opera Link/Jerome Hines+<br />
William & Joan Hickey<br />
Jackie & Larry Horn<br />
Betty Wold Johnson+<br />
<strong>The</strong> Meg & Howard Jacobs<br />
Family Foundation<br />
Rose Jacobs+<br />
Estate of Susan B. Joseph<br />
Gertrude Brooks Josephson+ &<br />
William Josephson in Memory<br />
of Rebecca & Samuel Brooks<br />
Kaminsky Family Foundation<br />
premier donors & sponsors as of December 31, <strong>2022</strong><br />
Adrian & Erica Karp<br />
Gail & Max Kleinman<br />
Joseph Laraja, Sr.+<br />
Leonard Lieberman+<br />
Ruth C. Lipper<br />
Amy C. Liss+<br />
Dena F. & Ralph Lowenbach<br />
Joyce R. Michaelson<br />
Joseph & Bernice O’Reilly+<br />
Mr. & Mrs. Paul Ostergaard<br />
Maria Parise+<br />
Dr. Victor Parsonnet &<br />
Jane Parsonnet+<br />
Donald A. Robinson, Esq.<br />
Marian & David Rocker<br />
Estate of Donald Ronk+<br />
Estate of Eric F. Ross+<br />
Bernice Rotberg+<br />
NJPAC salutes the enormously generous institutions and individuals whose aggregate contributions<br />
(gifts, grants, sponsorships and events) for the year total $50,000 or more.<br />
$1,000,000 & above<br />
Judy & Stewart Colton<br />
<strong>To</strong>by & Leon Cooperman<br />
New Jersey State<br />
Council on the Arts<br />
Prudential/<strong>The</strong> Prudential<br />
Foundation<br />
RWJBarnabas Health<br />
State of New Jersey<br />
Diana & P. Roy Vagelos<br />
Women@NJPAC<br />
$250,000 & above<br />
ADP<br />
Bank of America<br />
<strong>The</strong> Chambers Family and<br />
<strong>The</strong> MCJ Amelior Foundation<br />
Horizon Blue Cross Blue<br />
Shield of New Jersey<br />
<strong>The</strong> Andrew W. Mellon<br />
Foundation<br />
Merck Foundation<br />
PSEG Foundation/PSEG<br />
TD Bank /TD Charitable<br />
Foundation<br />
Lizzie & Jonathan Tisch<br />
Victoria Foundation<br />
$100,000 & above<br />
American Express<br />
Audible, Inc.<br />
BD<br />
David G. Berger &<br />
Holly Maxson<br />
Judith Bernhaut<br />
Randi & Marc E. Berson/<br />
<strong>The</strong> Fidelco Group<br />
<strong>The</strong> Joan & Allen Bildner<br />
Family Fund<br />
<strong>The</strong> Blanche & Irving<br />
Laurie Foundation<br />
Mindy A. Cohen &<br />
David J. Bershad<br />
F.M. Kirby Foundation<br />
<strong>The</strong> Blanche & Irving<br />
Laurie Foundation<br />
<strong>The</strong> Hon. Jon S. &<br />
Sharon Corzine<br />
Edison Properties<br />
Newark Foundation<br />
<strong>The</strong> Gottesman Family<br />
William & Joan Hickey<br />
Mars Wrigley<br />
Matrix Development Group<br />
New Jersey Cultural Trust<br />
PwC<br />
Robert Wood Johnson<br />
Foundation<br />
<strong>The</strong> Ryan Family<br />
<strong>The</strong> Smart Family Foundation/<br />
David S. Stone, Esq.,<br />
Stone & Magnanini<br />
Rosemary & Robert Steinbaum<br />
John Strangfeld & Mary Kay<br />
Strangfeld Foundation<br />
Michael & Jill Tanenbaum<br />
Morris+ & Charlotte Tanenbaum<br />
<strong>The</strong> Josh Weston Family<br />
$50,000 & above<br />
Atlantic, <strong>To</strong>morrow’s Office<br />
Broadridge Financial<br />
Solutions, Inc.<br />
Jennifer A. Chalsty<br />
Chubb<br />
Deloitte, LLP<br />
Anne Evans Estabrook DBA<br />
Elberon Development Co.<br />
Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation<br />
Gibbons P.C.<br />
Steven M. Goldman, Esq.<br />
Greenberg Traurig, LLP<br />
<strong>The</strong> Healthcare Foundation<br />
of New Jersey<br />
Investors Bank/Investors<br />
Foundation, Inc.<br />
JPMorgan Chase<br />
M&T Bank<br />
William J. & Paula Marino<br />
NJ Advance Media<br />
<strong>The</strong> Steven & Beverly<br />
Rubenstein Charitable<br />
Foundation<br />
<strong>The</strong> Ryan Family<br />
Ethel Smith+<br />
Leonard R. Stern+<br />
Paul Stillman Trust<br />
John Strangfeld & Mary Kay<br />
Strangfeld Foundation<br />
Morris+ & Charlotte Tanenbaum<br />
Carolyn M. VanDusen<br />
Diana & P. Roy Vagelos<br />
Artemis Vardakis+<br />
Nina & Ted Wells<br />
Judy+ & Josh Weston<br />
+deceased<br />
NJM Insurance Group<br />
Panasonic Foundation<br />
PNC<br />
Rutgers, <strong>The</strong> State University<br />
of New Jersey<br />
Santander Bank, N.A.<br />
Steinway & Sons<br />
Turrell Fund<br />
United Airlines<br />
Nina & Ted Wells<br />
+deceased<br />
business partners as of December 31, <strong>2022</strong><br />
NJPAC is deeply grateful to the following corporations, foundations and government agencies for their generous annual support<br />
of artistic and arts education programs, the endowment fund and maintenance of the Arts Center. For more information,<br />
please contact Valerie Blau, Director, Corporate Partnerships, at 973.297.5135.<br />
benefactor<br />
New Jersey State<br />
Council on the Arts<br />
Prudential/<strong>The</strong> Prudential<br />
Foundation<br />
RWJBarnabas Health<br />
Women@NJPAC<br />
leadership circle<br />
ADP<br />
<strong>The</strong> Andrew W. Mellon<br />
Foundation<br />
Anonymous<br />
Bank of America<br />
Horizon Blue Cross Blue<br />
Shield of New Jersey<br />
Merck Foundation<br />
PSEG Foundation/PSEG<br />
TD Bank/TD Charitable<br />
Foundation<br />
Victoria Foundation<br />
co-chair circle<br />
American Express<br />
BD<br />
<strong>The</strong> Blanche & Irving<br />
Laurie Foundation<br />
Mars Wrigley<br />
Matrix Development<br />
New Jersey Cultural Trust<br />
Robert Wood Johnson<br />
Foundation<br />
director’s circle<br />
Anonymous<br />
Atlantic, <strong>To</strong>morrow’s Office<br />
Broadridge Financial<br />
Solutions, Inc.<br />
Deloitte LLP<br />
Edison Properties<br />
Newark Foundation /<br />
<strong>The</strong> Gottesman Family<br />
Anne Evans Estabrook DBA<br />
Elberon Development Co.<br />
F.M. Kirby Foundation<br />
Geraldine R. Dodge<br />
Foundation<br />
<strong>The</strong> Healthcare Foundation<br />
of New Jersey<br />
Investors Bank/Investors<br />
Foundation, Inc.<br />
JPMorgan Chase<br />
M&T Bank<br />
NJ Advance Media<br />
NJM Insurance Group<br />
Panasonic Foundation<br />
PNC<br />
PwC<br />
Richmond County<br />
Savings Foundation<br />
Rutgers, <strong>The</strong> State University<br />
of New Jersey<br />
Santander Bank, N.A.<br />
Steinway & Sons<br />
Turrell Fund<br />
president’s circle<br />
Bloomberg Philanthropies<br />
CastleOak Securities, LP<br />
Chubb<br />
Gibbons P.C.<br />
Greenberg Traurig, LLP<br />
Harris Blitzer Sports<br />
& Entertainment<br />
Johnson & Johnson<br />
Family of Companies<br />
L+M Development Partners Inc.<br />
Lowenstein Sandler LLP<br />
M.A.C. Cosmetics<br />
McCarter & English, LLP<br />
<strong>The</strong> Nathan Cummings<br />
Foundation<br />
National Endowment<br />
for the Arts<br />
<strong>The</strong> Nicholas Martini<br />
Foundation<br />
Rita Allen Foundation<br />
Turner Construction Company/<br />
Pat A. Di Filippo<br />
United Airlines<br />
Valley Bank<br />
Windels Marx<br />
composer’s circle<br />
Anonymous in honor<br />
of Stefon Harris<br />
Boston Consulting Group<br />
Brookdale / Newark ShopRite<br />
Chiesa Shahinan &<br />
Giantomasi, PC<br />
DoorDash<br />
EpsteinBeckerGreen<br />
Gateway Security, Inc.<br />
Genova Burns LLC<br />
HLW Architecture LLC<br />
<strong>The</strong> Hyde & Watson<br />
Foundation<br />
Jacobs Levy Equity<br />
Management<br />
Landmark Fire Protection<br />
<strong>The</strong> Harold I. &<br />
Faye B. Liss Foundation, Inc.<br />
Novartis Pharmaceuticals<br />
Corporation<br />
Schumann Fund for<br />
New Jersey<br />
SILVERMAN<br />
SP+<br />
Stephen & Mary Birch<br />
Foundation, Inc.<br />
Two Center Street Urban<br />
Renewal, LLC<br />
U.S. Title Solutions<br />
Verizon<br />
Whole Foods Market<br />
encore circle<br />
Arnold & Porter<br />
Berkshire Hathaway<br />
Specialty Insurance<br />
Brach Eichler LLC<br />
J. Fletcher Creamer & Son, Inc.<br />
Davis & Gilbert LLP<br />
E.J. Grassman Trust<br />
EisnerAmper LLP<br />
Fresh Coast<br />
Gallagher Benefit Services, Inc.<br />
Gilbane Building Company<br />
Hansome Energy Systems<br />
Inserra Supermarkets<br />
Jewish Federation of<br />
Greater MetroWest NJ<br />
KPMG<br />
Langan<br />
Mazars USA, LLP<br />
Mercury Public Affairs<br />
Michael Rachlin &<br />
Company, LLC<br />
New Jersey Resources<br />
Peapack-Gladstone Bank<br />
Pennoni<br />
Prime Buchholz<br />
PS&S<br />
Risk Strategies Company<br />
Schenck, Price, Smith<br />
& King, LLP<br />
Sherman Atlas Sylvester<br />
& Stamelman LLP<br />
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill<br />
Structure <strong>To</strong>ne<br />
Thornton <strong>To</strong>masetti, Inc.<br />
Walker Dunlop<br />
+deceased<br />
NJPAC’s annual Tribute to the Elders (a part<br />
of the Kwanzaa Family Festival in December)<br />
welcomes new members to the Arts Center’s<br />
honored Council of Elders.<br />
86<br />
njpac.org
the vanguard society as of December 31, <strong>2022</strong><br />
New Jersey Performing Arts Center is deeply grateful to the following individuals and families for their generous annual support,<br />
which makes it possible for NJPAC to maintain its world-class venue, fill it with star-studded, diverse performances and carry out<br />
its arts education programs that transform New Jersey’s children. For more information, please contact<br />
Josh Adler, Director of Major Gifts, at 973.297.5821.<br />
leadership circle<br />
Randi & Marc E. Berson<br />
<strong>The</strong> Chambers Family &<br />
<strong>The</strong> MCJ Amelior Foundation<br />
Judy & Stewart Colton<br />
<strong>To</strong>by & Leon Cooperman<br />
Steven M. Goldman, Esq.<br />
William & Joan Hickey<br />
<strong>The</strong> Izzo Family<br />
William J. & Paula Marino<br />
<strong>The</strong> Ryan Family<br />
<strong>The</strong> Sagner Family Foundation<br />
John Strangfeld & Mary<br />
Kay Strangfeld<br />
Michael & Jill Tanenbaum<br />
Lizzie & Jonathan Tisch<br />
P. Roy & Diana T. Vagelos<br />
<strong>The</strong> Josh Weston Family<br />
co-chair circle<br />
Anonymous<br />
David G. Berger &<br />
Holly Maxson<br />
Judith Bernhaut<br />
<strong>The</strong> Hon. Jon S. &<br />
Sharon Corzine<br />
<strong>The</strong> Gottesman Family<br />
Rosemary & Robert Steinbaum<br />
<strong>The</strong> Smart Family Foundation/<br />
David S. Stone, Esq.,<br />
Stone & Magnanini<br />
director’s circle<br />
Anonymous<br />
Jennifer A. Chalsty<br />
Mindy A. Cohen &<br />
David J. Bershad<br />
Morris+ & Charlotte Tanenbaum<br />
president’s circle<br />
Hope Aldrich<br />
Sally Chubb<br />
presenting sponsor<br />
RWJBarnabas Health<br />
underwriters<br />
Horizon Blue Cross Blue<br />
Shield of New Jersey<br />
<strong>The</strong> MCJ Amelior Foundation<br />
Prudential Financial<br />
Lawrence E. Bathgate, II<br />
& Michele Bengue<br />
<strong>The</strong> Griffinger Family<br />
Kaminsky Family Foundation<br />
Don Katz & Leslie Larson<br />
Dana & Peter Langerman<br />
Judith Lieberman<br />
Charles F. Lowrey Jr. and<br />
Susan T. Rodriguez<br />
McCrane Foundation, Inc.,<br />
care of Margrit McCrane<br />
Bobbi & Barry H. Ostrowsky<br />
Richard & Kayla Pechter<br />
Mr. & Mrs. Leslie C. Quick III<br />
Rob & Nora Radest<br />
Marian & David Rocker<br />
<strong>The</strong> Steven & Beverly Rubenstein<br />
Charitable Foundation<br />
Tracy & <strong>The</strong>odore Spencer<br />
David S. Steiner &<br />
Sylvia Steiner<br />
Charitable Trust<br />
Walsh Family Fund of the<br />
<strong>Community</strong> Foundation<br />
of New Jersey<br />
Nina & Ted Wells<br />
composer’s circle<br />
Bruce & Jean Acken<br />
Anonymous<br />
Audrey Bartner<br />
<strong>The</strong> Joan & Allen Bildner<br />
Family Fund<br />
Stephen & Mary Birch<br />
Foundation, Inc.<br />
Dennis & Denise Bone<br />
Ann & Stan Borowiec<br />
Rose Cali<br />
Michael Choy<br />
Edwan & Alexis Davis<br />
Linda V. Della Corna &<br />
Enrico A. Della Corna<br />
Patrick C. Dunican, Jr., Esq.<br />
Debbie Dyson<br />
Donna & Kenneth Eberle<br />
Nancye & Robert Falzon<br />
Veronica M. Goldberg<br />
Alice Gerson Goldfarb<br />
Gary St. Hilaire<br />
Jeffrey & Judy Hoffman<br />
Meg & Howard Jacobs<br />
<strong>The</strong> Honorable<br />
Thomas H. Kean<br />
Scott & Susan Kobler<br />
A. Michael & Ruth C. Lipper/<br />
Lipper Family Charitable<br />
Foundation<br />
Amy & William Lipsey<br />
Mitchell A. Livingston<br />
<strong>The</strong> Lester & Grace Maslow<br />
Foundation, Inc.<br />
Mr. & Mrs. D. Nicholas Miceli<br />
Joyce R. Michaelson<br />
Harold & Donna Morrison<br />
Laurence B. Orloff &<br />
<strong>The</strong> Hon. Deanne Wilson<br />
James & Nancy Pierson<br />
Karen & Gary D. Rose<br />
Paul & Denise Silverman<br />
Cliff & Barbara Sobel<br />
Faith & Gary Taylor<br />
Robert & Sharon Taylor<br />
Alexine &<br />
Warren Tranquada<br />
Carmen Villar<br />
Walsh Family Fund of the<br />
<strong>Community</strong> Foundation<br />
Joyce & George Wein<br />
Foundation<br />
Linda A. Willett, Esq.<br />
Karen & Bill Young<br />
Barbara+ &<br />
Edward D. Zinbarg<br />
encore circle<br />
Anonymous<br />
Daniel Bloomfield & Betsy True<br />
Candice R. Bolte<br />
Linda M. Bowden<br />
<strong>The</strong> Hon. Jon M. Bramnick<br />
Modia Butler<br />
Austin G. Cleary<br />
Sylvia J. Cohn<br />
<strong>The</strong> Colbert Family Fund<br />
of Coastal <strong>Community</strong><br />
Foundation of SC<br />
Matt & Susan Connor<br />
Robert Doherty<br />
Cary Marc Feliciano<br />
Gregg N. Gerken<br />
Jill & James G. Gibson<br />
Lawrence P. Goldman<br />
& Laurie B. Chock<br />
David & Renee Golush<br />
<strong>The</strong> Huisking Foundation<br />
MartyAnn & Ralph LaRossa<br />
Barry & Leslie Mandelbaum<br />
Ellen Marshall & Jim Flanagan<br />
Edward Martoglio<br />
Duncan & Alison Niederauer<br />
Jean & Kent Papsun<br />
Judith & Kenneth Peskin<br />
Roberta & Richard E. Polton<br />
Lennon Register &<br />
Barbara White<br />
David Rodriguez<br />
Virginia McEnerney &<br />
John Schreiber<br />
James & Sharon Schwarz<br />
Stephen & Mary Jo Sichak<br />
Robert & Marjorie Sommer<br />
Bruce A. Tucker<br />
Rishi Varma & Pooja Khanna<br />
Robin & Leigh Walters<br />
Ricardo Watson<br />
Helene & Gary Wingens<br />
Thomas Wisniewski<br />
+deceased<br />
annual spring luncheon & auction <strong>2022</strong> sponsorships as of December 31, <strong>2022</strong><br />
gold sponsors<br />
Deborah Q. Belfatto<br />
Patricia L. Capawana<br />
Chiesa, Shahinian &<br />
Giantomasi PC<br />
Mindy A. Cohen<br />
Susan Dunn<br />
Veronica M. Goldberg<br />
Lipper Family Charitable<br />
Foundation<br />
Mazars USA, LLP<br />
Panasonic Corporation<br />
of North America<br />
Christine S. Pearson<br />
PSEG<br />
PwC<br />
Women @ Simon Quick<br />
Mary Kay Strangfeld<br />
Faith Taylor<br />
Nina Mitchell Wells, Esq.<br />
silver sponsors<br />
Altice USA<br />
Audrey Bartner<br />
Boston Consulting Group<br />
Patricia A. Chambers<br />
CHANEL<br />
Alma DeMetropolis<br />
Flynn Watts Law<br />
Neiman Marcus - Short Hills<br />
PNC<br />
Restaurant Serenade<br />
Rutgers-Newark BOLD<br />
Women’s Leadership Network<br />
Rutgers-University – Newark<br />
Elisabeth Ryan-Burke<br />
Kate S. <strong>To</strong>mlinson<br />
Karen C. Young<br />
friend sponsors<br />
$1,000<br />
Alexandra Brady<br />
<strong>The</strong> Fidelco Group<br />
Gabriella Morris<br />
NJM Insurance Group<br />
Jennifer Brown Stone<br />
Nanar & Anthony Yoseloff<br />
spotlight gala <strong>2022</strong> sponsorships as of December 31, <strong>2022</strong><br />
NJPAC & Women@NJPAC are profoundly thankful for these supporters of the <strong>2022</strong> Spotlight Gala:<br />
lead sponsor<br />
underwriter<br />
<strong>The</strong> MCJ Amelior Foundation<br />
spotlight sponsor<br />
Mindy A. Cohen &<br />
David J. Bershad<br />
vice chairs<br />
<strong>To</strong>by & Leon G. Cooperman<br />
Horizon Blue Cross<br />
Blue Shield of New Jersey<br />
Merck & Co., Inc.<br />
PSEG<br />
PwC<br />
Tanenbaum Keale, LLP<br />
Arthur F. Ryan<br />
Nina & Ted Wells<br />
Windels Marx<br />
platinum sponsor<br />
Gibbons P.C.<br />
gold sponsor<br />
ADP<br />
American Express<br />
Audible, Inc.<br />
Bank of America<br />
Mr. & Mrs. Lawrence<br />
E. Bathgate, II<br />
BD<br />
CastleOak Securities, L.P.<br />
Elberon Development Group<br />
<strong>The</strong> Fidelco Group,<br />
Randi & Marc E. Berson<br />
<strong>The</strong> Griffinger Family<br />
Steven M. Goldman<br />
Joan & William Hickey<br />
donors<br />
$500<br />
Audible, Inc.<br />
Rana Barclay<br />
Marcia Wilson Brown, Esq.<br />
Regina Carter-Barnett<br />
Evelyn Colbert<br />
Tammye Jones<br />
Marlie Massena<br />
Rosen Kelly Conway<br />
Architecture & Design<br />
Lori Spoon<br />
in-kind donations<br />
Poolside<br />
Whole Foods Market<br />
<strong>The</strong> Honorable<br />
Thomas H. Kean<br />
William & Paula Marino<br />
NJM Insurance Group<br />
Rutgers University – Newark<br />
RWJBarnabas Health<br />
<strong>The</strong> Smart Family Foundation/<br />
David S. Stone, Esq.,<br />
Stone & Magnanini<br />
Lizzie & Jonathan Tisch<br />
Turner Construction Company<br />
<strong>The</strong> Walsh Family<br />
silver sponsors<br />
Bloomberg Philanthropies<br />
BNY Mellon<br />
Boston Consulting Group<br />
Chubb<br />
Edison Properties<br />
Newark Foundation<br />
Greenberg Traurig LLP<br />
Jones Lang Lasalle, Inc.<br />
Mazars, USA<br />
McCarter & English, LLP<br />
PNC<br />
Alan & Nancy Schwartz<br />
Seyfarth Shaw<br />
Simon Quick Advisors<br />
SP+<br />
Support New Jersey Fund<br />
Tata Consultancy<br />
Ticketmaster<br />
United Airlines<br />
Finn & Kim Wentworth<br />
Josh Weston<br />
luminary ticket(s)<br />
Atlantic, <strong>To</strong>morrow’s Office<br />
Alma DeMetropolis<br />
Deyo Family Charitable Fund<br />
Goldman Sachs<br />
S. Dillard & Adrienne Kirby<br />
Official Airline of the<br />
Spring Luncheon <strong>2022</strong><br />
hero tickets(s)<br />
Charles C. Anderson<br />
Jacob & Jennifer Buurma<br />
Healey Family Foundation<br />
Meg & Howard Jacobs<br />
Vani Krishnamurthy<br />
& Alok Sanghvi<br />
L+M Development<br />
Partners Inc.<br />
Panasonic Foundation<br />
Christine S. Pearson<br />
John Schreiber &<br />
Virginia McEnerney<br />
Rosemary & Robert Steinbaum<br />
Faith & Gary Taylor<br />
performer ticket(s)<br />
Deborah & Joseph Belfatto<br />
Patricia L. Capawana<br />
Margarethe & Mark Laurenzi<br />
Harry S. Pozycki<br />
Tracy & <strong>The</strong>odore Spencer<br />
friend ticket(s)<br />
William Bershad<br />
Clifford Blanchard<br />
Monica Casiello<br />
Evelyn & Stephen Colbert<br />
Michellene Davis<br />
Franklin Hall<br />
KPMG<br />
Linda Layne<br />
Judith Lieberman<br />
Gabriella E. Morris &<br />
Dennis Brownlee<br />
Women@NJPAC Trustees at the Annual<br />
Spring Luncheon & Auction in May <strong>2022</strong>.<br />
Neiman Marcus Short Hills<br />
Frederick & Jennifer Moss<br />
Ferlanda Fox Nixon &<br />
Milford Nixon<br />
Tiasia O’Brien<br />
Michael Rachlin<br />
Richard Roper<br />
Schenck Price Smith & King, LLP<br />
Lori Spoon<br />
TD Bank<br />
Victoria Foundation<br />
full-page ad sponsors<br />
Atlantic, <strong>To</strong>morrow’s Office<br />
Chubb<br />
half-page ad sponsors<br />
Brach Eichler LLC<br />
Chiesa Shahinian &<br />
Giantomasi PC<br />
Genova Burns LLC<br />
Gilbane Building Company<br />
Veronica M. Goldberg<br />
K. Russo Consulting<br />
<strong>The</strong> Phoenix Group<br />
Structure <strong>To</strong>ne<br />
in-kind donations<br />
Advanced Parking Concepts<br />
Allied Beverage Group LLC<br />
88 njpac.org<br />
njpac.org 89
members as of December 31, <strong>2022</strong><br />
njpac staff & administration as of December 31, <strong>2022</strong><br />
New Jersey Performing Arts Center gives special thanks to the following Members who help meet the Arts Center’s annual<br />
financial needs with gifts of $650 to $4,999. For information on becoming a Member, please call 973.297.5809.<br />
sustainer<br />
Sinead & Christopher Bennett<br />
Patricia L. Capawana<br />
Eleonore Kessler Cohen<br />
& Max Insel Cohen+<br />
Margaret J. Cunningham<br />
Herbert+ & Karin Fastert<br />
Lauren & Steven Friedman<br />
Geremia Helou<br />
Albert King<br />
Mr. & Mrs. Robert G. Kuchner<br />
Ellen & Donald Legow<br />
Susan Lippa<br />
Tim Lizura<br />
Thomas C. Wallace<br />
<strong>The</strong> Honorable Alvin Weiss<br />
patron<br />
Anonymous (2)<br />
Florence Barrau-Adams<br />
& Bryan Adams<br />
Ronald K. Andrews<br />
Brian Archer<br />
Marsha I. Atkind<br />
Joseph & Jacqueline Basralian<br />
George & Jane Bean<br />
Barbara+ & Ed Becker<br />
Jeri Burt & Michael Merlie<br />
Patricia & Anthony R. Calandra<br />
Regina Carter<br />
Mr. & Mrs. Charles M.<br />
Chapin, III<br />
Nancy Clarke<br />
Andrea Cummis &<br />
Richard Fiscus<br />
D’Maris & Joseph Dempsey<br />
Linda H. Dunham<br />
Drs. Brenda & Robert Fischbein<br />
Thomas P. Giblin<br />
Mr. & Mrs. Michael Gilfillan<br />
Carolyn Gould<br />
Thomas L. Green<br />
Susan & Mark Halliday<br />
Kitty & Dave Hartman<br />
Mr. & Mrs. Robert J. Henry<br />
Jasmine Hodari<br />
Joan Hollander<br />
Alan & Carrie Holtz<br />
Paulette & Robert Jones<br />
Adrian & Erica Karp<br />
Irvin & Marjorie Kricheff<br />
Dr. Marlene E. Lengner<br />
Mark & Gayle Lerch<br />
Yongwhan Lim<br />
Dena & Ralph Lowenbach<br />
Kevin & Trisha Luing<br />
Lana Masor<br />
Massey Insurance Agency<br />
Edward Moran<br />
Carlos Medina<br />
Gabriella E. Morris<br />
Jack & Ellen Moskowitz<br />
Bruce Murphy & MJ Lauzon<br />
Judith Musicant &<br />
Hugh A. Clark<br />
Helene & Martin Myers<br />
Joseph & Sheila Nadler<br />
Jeffrey S. Norman<br />
Dr. Christy Oliver<br />
Wayne C. Paglieri &<br />
Jessalyn Chang<br />
Dr. Kalmon D. Post &<br />
Linda Farber Post<br />
Dr. Samantha Pozner &<br />
Andrew Hickman<br />
Caroline & Harry Pozycki<br />
Chali Prasper<br />
Cecile & Trevor Prince<br />
Jonathan & Bethany<br />
Rabinowitz<br />
Lawrence A. Raia<br />
Brent N. Rudnick<br />
Jeremy & <strong>To</strong>ny Saccente<br />
Barbara Sager<br />
Mr. & Mrs. Newton B. Schott<br />
Rita & Leonard Selesner<br />
Mr. & Mrs. Floyd Shapiro<br />
Diana & Laurence Smith<br />
Elaine Staley<br />
Kate S. <strong>To</strong>mlinson &<br />
Roger Labrie<br />
Mr. & Mrs. R. Charles<br />
Tschampion<br />
Mr. & Mrs. David S. Untracht<br />
Kathryn Vermilye<br />
Drs. Radha & Rao V. Vinnakota<br />
Lisa Webber<br />
Dr. Joy Weinsteun &<br />
Dr. Bruce Forman<br />
Lloyd Williams<br />
Mr. & Mrs. Pat Wood<br />
Gary & Wendy Young<br />
Richard Zaborowski<br />
supporter<br />
Lara Abrash & Gary Guth<br />
Cheryl Adams<br />
Anonymous<br />
Lisa & Scott Braunstein<br />
Nadine Brechner<br />
James & Sharon Briggs<br />
Eloyd O. Britt<br />
Dr. Kimberly Brown &<br />
Parkway Eye Care Center<br />
Marcia Wilson Brown<br />
Calvin Carver<br />
Mary Beth Charters<br />
Arthur Connolly<br />
Martha Cybyk<br />
Maryanne & David R. Dacey<br />
Aliah Davis-McHenry<br />
& Brian McHenry<br />
Elizabeth Del Tufo<br />
Suzanne Deluca-Warner<br />
Walter Douglas<br />
Eleanor & John Dunn<br />
Carylmead Eggleston<br />
Sybil Eng & Tad Roselund<br />
Michael Etkin<br />
Edward W. Fagan<br />
Sanford & Zella Falzenberg<br />
Laura Fuhro<br />
Dr. Ronald Gandelman &<br />
Dr. Elizabeth Mitchell<br />
Claudia & Kenneth<br />
Louis Gentner<br />
Maureen & Subhendu Ghosh<br />
David H. Gibbons , Jr.<br />
Clifford & Karen Goldman<br />
Mr. & Mrs. Charles C.<br />
Goodfellow<br />
Donna Grant<br />
Wayne & Catherine Greenfeder<br />
Lonnie & Bette Hanauer<br />
Ryan P. Haygood, Esq.<br />
Joseph Hunte<br />
Richard & Cindy Johnson<br />
Mary & David Jones<br />
Leah & Rich Kabrt<br />
Dr. & Mrs. John W. Kennedy<br />
Andrea & Jason Kimmel<br />
Courtney Koch &<br />
Patrick DeWald<br />
Joan M. Kram<br />
Vani Krishnamurthy<br />
Nancy Laird<br />
Mark & Sheryl Larner<br />
Deborah Lashley &<br />
Harrison Snell<br />
Dorothy Litwin-Brief<br />
Janet Lonney<br />
Edward Mafoud<br />
Santa & Michael R. Mallon<br />
Melissa Walker &<br />
Christian McBride<br />
Howard & Peggy Menaker<br />
Ray Merchant<br />
Hector Mislavsky &<br />
Judy Martinez<br />
Drs. Douglas & Susan Morrison<br />
William & Patricia O’Connor<br />
Mark Pentelovitch<br />
Doren Pettiford<br />
Charles M. Piscitelli<br />
Jay R. Post, Jr. CFP<br />
Douglas & Susan Present<br />
Amy & Reginald Pretto<br />
Gusta A. Pritchett<br />
Oliver B. Quinn<br />
Charity Quinn & Mark Yecies<br />
Bidisa Rai<br />
Frank Rand<br />
Nogah Revesz<br />
Diane Ridley-White<br />
William A. Robinson<br />
Ina & Mark Roffman<br />
Richard W. Roper<br />
Joel Rosen<br />
Jeffrey & Regina Roth<br />
John & Alice Rubinstein<br />
Suzanne & Richard Scheller<br />
<strong>The</strong> Schiffenhaus Foundation<br />
Drs. Rosanne S. Scriffignano<br />
& Anthony Scriffignano<br />
Karen & Roger Shults<br />
Latoya Singleton<br />
Richard Sodon<br />
Marilyn & Leon Sokol<br />
Linda & Brian Sterling<br />
Beverly & Ed Stern<br />
Stanley & Sharon Streicher<br />
Linda Tancs<br />
Jill Tarnow<br />
Lola Tate-McGhee<br />
Marilyn Termyna<br />
Marva Tidwell<br />
Louise & David J. Travis<br />
Jon Ulanet<br />
Paul & Sharlene Vichness<br />
Dr. Deborah & Peter Vietze<br />
Susan D. Wasserman<br />
Jacqueline Williams<br />
Ryan & Diana Woodring<br />
Diane C. Youg, M.D., P.A.<br />
+deceased<br />
OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT<br />
John Schreiber**<br />
President & CEO<br />
Natalie Farrell<br />
Executive Assistant to<br />
the President & CEO<br />
David Rodriguez**<br />
Executive Vice President &<br />
Executive Producer<br />
Timothy Lizura<br />
Senior Vice President,<br />
Real Estate & Capital Projects<br />
Valerie Fullilove*<br />
Executive Assistant<br />
Chelsea Keys*<br />
Senior Director, Strategic Initiatives<br />
& Institutional Governance<br />
Alyson Maier Lokuta<br />
Senior Director, Arts & Well-Being<br />
ARTS EDUCATION<br />
Jennifer Tsukayama*<br />
Vice President, Arts Education<br />
Shannon Pulusan<br />
Special Assistant to<br />
Arts Education VP<br />
Rosa Hyde*<br />
Senior Director, Performances &<br />
Special Events Operations<br />
Victoria Revesz*<br />
Senior Director,<br />
Arts Education Operations<br />
Natalie Dreyer<br />
Director, Arts Integration<br />
Mark Gross*<br />
Director, Jazz Instruction<br />
Jennie Wasserman<br />
Director, City Verses<br />
Ashley Mandaglio*<br />
Associate Director, Professional<br />
Learning & Programs<br />
Roe Bell*<br />
Senior Manager, School &<br />
<strong>Community</strong> Programs<br />
Kristine Marrone<br />
Senior Manager, CRM & Business<br />
Operation<br />
Alonzo Blalock<br />
Manager, In-School Programs<br />
Justin DePaul<br />
Manager, Arts Education<br />
Office & Facilities<br />
Daniel Silverstein*<br />
Manager, Onsite Programs<br />
Rene Velez-<strong>To</strong>rres<br />
Manager, Youth & Emerging<br />
Artist Development<br />
Kimberly Washington<br />
Manager, Marketing,<br />
Sales & Recruitment<br />
Randal Croudy<br />
Coordinator, Arts Education<br />
Performances<br />
Demetria Hart<br />
Coordinator, City Verses<br />
Steven Hayet<br />
Coordinator, Business Operations<br />
Angela Peletier<br />
Coordinator, Professional<br />
Learning & Training<br />
Antonella Sanchez<br />
Coordinator, Program Operations<br />
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT<br />
Eyesha Marable*<br />
Assistant Vice President,<br />
<strong>Community</strong> Engagement<br />
Daniela Fonseca<br />
Associate Producer<br />
Marcus Beckett<br />
Associate Producer<br />
Alessandra Izaguirre<br />
Coordinator<br />
DEVELOPMENT<br />
Amy Fitzpatrick<br />
Vice President, Development<br />
Sarah Rosen*<br />
Managing Director,<br />
Women@NJPAC<br />
Mariah Gibson<br />
Associate Managing Director,<br />
Women@NJPAC<br />
Joshua Adler<br />
Director, Major Gifts<br />
Deborah Purdon<br />
Director, Research &<br />
Prospect Management<br />
Valerie Blau<br />
Associate Director,<br />
Corporate Giving<br />
Rolston Cyril Watts*<br />
Associate Director,<br />
Philanthropic Operations<br />
Harris Cabrera<br />
Senior Manager,<br />
Foundation Relations<br />
Gabrielle DeGaetano*<br />
Manager, Membership<br />
Stacey Joseph<br />
Manager, Development<br />
Kemar Brown<br />
Coordinator, Gift Processing<br />
& Database<br />
Salina Lostan<br />
Coordinator, Corporate Relations<br />
Angela Woodack<br />
Coordinator, Major Gifts<br />
FINANCE<br />
Lennon Register<br />
Vice President, Chief<br />
Financial Officer<br />
Yolanda Doganay<br />
Assistant Vice President,<br />
Controller<br />
Mary Jaffa****<br />
Assistant Vice President, Finance<br />
Monique Cook*<br />
Senior Financial Analyst<br />
Manuela Silva****<br />
Senior Accountant, Payroll<br />
Inger Parsons<br />
Staff Accountant,<br />
Accounts Payable<br />
Shannon Sorhaindo<br />
Staff Accountant,<br />
Accounts Receivable<br />
PEOPLE & ORGANIZATION<br />
Beth Silver<br />
Vice President, Chief People Officer<br />
Ginny Bowers Coleman****<br />
Director, Volunteer Services<br />
Taheerah Smiley*<br />
Senior Manager,<br />
People & Organization<br />
Donna Walker-Kuhne*<br />
Senior Advisor, Diversity,<br />
Equity & Inclusion<br />
Sarina Nieves<br />
Assistant/Receptionist,<br />
People & Organization<br />
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES<br />
Andre Mutovic<br />
Vice President,<br />
Chief Technology Officer<br />
Ernie DiRocco***<br />
Assistant Vice President,<br />
Infrastructure & Operations<br />
Carl Sims****<br />
Director, Cyber Security<br />
Heather Olsen<br />
Senior Director,<br />
Platform Applications<br />
Cayla Belnavis<br />
Associate Director,<br />
CRM & Business Operations<br />
Rodney Johnson***<br />
Analyst, IT & Telecom Support<br />
Jad Mustafa<br />
Lead, Data & Business Intelligence<br />
Laxmi Rondla<br />
Junior Salesforce Developer<br />
MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS<br />
Katie Sword**<br />
Vice President,<br />
Marketing & Communications<br />
Danielle Vauters*<br />
Senior Manager, Institutional<br />
Marketing & Operations<br />
Yesenia Jimenez****<br />
Senior Director,<br />
Ticket Sales & Service<br />
Tina Boyer*<br />
Director, Creative Services<br />
Jenifer Braun*<br />
Director, Editorial Content<br />
Nicole Craig****<br />
Director, Ticket Sales & Service<br />
Charlene A. Roberts*<br />
Director, Performance Marketing<br />
Patricia Ryan<br />
Creative Art Director<br />
Katie Stein<br />
Director,<br />
Digital Marketing & Content<br />
Erik Wiehardt***<br />
Director, Ticketing CRM & Data<br />
Fallon Currie*<br />
Senior Manager, CRM<br />
& Business Operations<br />
Latoya Dawson*<br />
Senior Manager,<br />
Performance Marketing<br />
Doris Ann Pezzolla****<br />
Senior Graphic Designer<br />
Frances Lassor<br />
Graphic Designer<br />
Shira Vickar-Fox<br />
Creative Storyteller/Writer<br />
April Jeffries*<br />
Senior Ticket Sales &<br />
Service Specialist<br />
Daryle Charles**<br />
Specialist, Ticket Sales & Service<br />
Veronica Dunn-Sloan***<br />
Specialist, Ticket Sales & Service<br />
Robin Polakoff*<br />
Specialist, Ticket Sales & Service<br />
Darren DeBose<br />
Manager, Box Office<br />
Shakiru Bola Okoya<br />
Manager, Multimedia Production<br />
Anthony <strong>To</strong>to<br />
Manager, Email Marketing<br />
Alexis Green<br />
Coordinator, Digital Marketing<br />
Ashlee Nolan<br />
Coordinator, Creative Services<br />
Nicola Alexander<br />
Assistant, Creative Services<br />
Sarah Petrik<br />
Junior Graphic Designer<br />
Jana Thompson*<br />
Box Office Representative<br />
Angela Thomas<br />
Consultant, Performance<br />
Public Relations<br />
OPERATIONS<br />
Chad Spies***<br />
Vice President,<br />
Operations & Real Estate<br />
Anthony Rosta*<br />
Director, Facilities<br />
David Dias<br />
Director, Security, Safety,<br />
Traffic & Parking<br />
Francisco Soto**<br />
Manager, Operations Support<br />
& Services<br />
Meredith Hull*<br />
Manager, Operations & Events<br />
Hernan Soto****<br />
Senior Supervisor, Operations<br />
Support Staff<br />
Tyrone Boyd*<br />
Operations Support Staff<br />
Jose Rivera<br />
Operations Support Staff<br />
Ernest Thompson<br />
Coordinator, Mailroom &<br />
Operations Support Staff<br />
George Gardner****<br />
Painter<br />
<strong>To</strong>dd Tantillo****<br />
Chief Engineer<br />
J. Dante Esposito****<br />
Assistant Chief Engineer<br />
Brian Cady***<br />
Maintenance Engineer<br />
Sherman Gamble***<br />
Maintenance Engineer<br />
Mariusz Koniuszewski**<br />
Maintenance Engineer<br />
Thomas Amory<br />
Maintenance Engineer<br />
Thomas Dixon****<br />
Manager, Safety & Security<br />
Robin Jones***<br />
Senior Director,<br />
House Management<br />
LaMont Akins****<br />
House Manager<br />
Sabrina Ceballo<br />
House Manager<br />
Cynthia Hamlett-Robinson****<br />
Assistant House Manager<br />
Jerry Battle**<br />
Head Usher<br />
Tracey Robinson*<br />
Head Usher<br />
PRODUCTION<br />
Chris Moses***<br />
Assistant Vice President,<br />
Performance Operations<br />
Christopher Staton**<br />
Senior Production Manager<br />
Crystal Cowling*<br />
Production Manager<br />
Megan Barry<br />
Assistant Production Manager<br />
Rachel Macleod*<br />
Production Coordinator<br />
William Worman****<br />
Head Carpenter<br />
Mario Corrales****<br />
Assistant Head Carpenter<br />
Bryan Danieli***<br />
Assistant Head Carpenter<br />
Naheem Wright**<br />
Specialist Carpenter<br />
Jan Clark<br />
Head Electrician<br />
Brian Lenahan<br />
Assistant Head Electrician<br />
Gumersindo Fajardo<br />
Specialist Electrician<br />
Eric Johnson<br />
Head of Audio<br />
John DiCapua*<br />
Assistant Head Audio<br />
John Finney***<br />
Assistant Head Audio<br />
Amere Jenkins**<br />
Specialist Audio<br />
Daniel Pagan*<br />
Video Crew Chief<br />
Allison Wyss****<br />
Senior Artist Assistant<br />
Suzanne Santry<br />
Artist Assistant<br />
Sarah Lopez<br />
Artist Assistant<br />
Patrick Schultz<br />
Artist Assistant<br />
Bria Wheeler<br />
Artist Assistant<br />
Victoria Holmes<br />
Artist Assistant<br />
Kailyn Bailey<br />
Artist Assistant<br />
Lowell Craig***<br />
Artist Assistant<br />
Loni Fiscus*<br />
Artist Assistant<br />
PROGRAMMING<br />
Evan White****<br />
Vice President, Programming<br />
Simma Levine<br />
Producer, Special Projects<br />
Craig Pearce**<br />
Producer, Festivals & Performances<br />
Kitab Rollins***<br />
Senior Director,<br />
Performance & Broadcast Rentals<br />
Kira M. Ruth****<br />
Senior Manager,<br />
Programming Operations<br />
SPECIAL EVENTS<br />
Austin Cleary***<br />
Assistant Vice President,<br />
Sales & Planning, NJPAC Events<br />
Service Recognition<br />
* * * * 20+ years<br />
* * * 15+ years<br />
* * 10+ years<br />
* 5+ years<br />
90 njpac.org<br />
njpac.org 91
season funders as of December 31, <strong>2022</strong><br />
NJPAC is grateful to the following partners for their commitment and investment in our mission.<br />
Reggae sensation and NJPAC<br />
all-star Beres Hammond on<br />
stage in Prudential Hall.<br />
Official Sponsors:<br />
Official Sponsor of the<br />
Spotlight Gala<br />
Official Airline of NJPAC Official Imaging Supplier of NJPAC Media Sponsor<br />
major support also provided by:<br />
<strong>The</strong> Chambers Family & <strong>The</strong> MCJ Amelior Foundation<br />
Judy & Stewart Colton<br />
<strong>To</strong>by & Leon Cooperman<br />
Betty Wold Johnson+<br />
<strong>The</strong> Blanche & Irving Laurie Foundation<br />
<strong>The</strong> Smart Family Foundation/David S.<br />
Stone, Esq., Stone & Magnanini<br />
John Strangfeld & Mary Kay Strangfeld Foundation<br />
<strong>The</strong> Josh Weston Family<br />
additional support provided by:<br />
Audible, Inc.<br />
Joan+ & Allen Bildner+ Family Fund<br />
Edison Properties Newark Foundation/<strong>The</strong> Gottesman Family<br />
Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation<br />
<strong>The</strong> Griffinger Family<br />
William J. & Paula Marino<br />
McCrane Foundation, Inc., care of Margrit McCrane<br />
PNC<br />
<strong>The</strong> Ryan Family<br />
Steinway & Sons<br />
Michael & Jill Tanenbaum<br />
New Jersey Cultural Trust<br />
Turrell Fund<br />
John & Suzanne Willian/Goldman Sachs Gives<br />
+deceased<br />
“Our work is rooted<br />
in our belief in the<br />
extraordinary power<br />
of the arts — and our<br />
belief that we’re all in<br />
this together.”<br />
— Jennifer Tsukayama, VP, Arts Education<br />
92 njpac.org<br />
njpac.org 93
new jersey performing arts center<br />
94<br />
njpac.org