Voices From the Field

Photo above: Designer Nina Cooke John and assistant Adebunmi Gbadebo stand with the Harriet Tubman Monument (Photo by Rachel Fawn Alban) The city of Newark, New Jersey unveiled its long-awaited Harriet Tubman monument March 9 with great excitement. Four days of community celebrations and events followed. With visual, audio and tactile components, “Shadow of a Face” is not a statue to view from a...

It was Wednesday, November 23, 2016, a windy and sunny day before Thanksgiving. As my father’s oldest daughter of three, I thought it was my responsibility to be the strong one as he passed away from pancreatic cancer. For 6 months after the initial diagnosis, I was at every doctor appointment, chemotherapy session, hospital visit, and reluctantly his last week at home in hospice. I thought I was...

This month is jam packed with cultural events for all to enjoy during Discover Jersey Arts Month. Be sure to check the Fall Guide to help you select the performances and exhibits that will help you celebrate during October and beyond. Governor Murphy again issued the annual proclamation designating October as Discover Jersey Arts Month, a uniquely New Jersey way to celebrate National Arts and...

Photo Description: Colored pencil drawing of an artist's table filled with paint, brushes and paper. In the center are two illustrated cards. One reads, "Fall seven times, stand up eight" — a Japanese proverb. The other reads, "A journey of a thousand miles starts from beneath one's feet" — Lao Tzu. The 2022 National Arts & Humanities Month poster design competition was open to artists for a...

No matter how old I get, September always triggers a knot in my stomach. Actually, it’s more like wildly fluttering butterflies. I’ve come to embrace “the feeling” over the years because of something my husband said to our twin daughters whenever they described their version of the feeling: “It just means that something that matters to you is about to happen.” This September, the fluttering is on...

The Thrive Arts Conference, presented by ArtPride New Jersey and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, is a biennial professional development convening for arts administrators throughout New Jersey. At Thrive, experts share ways to best serve and promote the amazing work of arts organizations and how to adapt to daily challenges including the pandemic. The event took place at the Princeton...

Perth Amboy Artworks recently produced five Catch Basin Murals for Earth Day. I sent out an email promoting our project and got a response from Sen. James Kennedy saying “very cool.” That is a real compliment, coming from a former mayor and leader of the NJ Creative Placemaking movement, who used arts to drive the successful revitalization of Rahway. Catch basin mural projects have been used...

If you have enjoyed a cultural experience in New Jersey, chances are volunteers helped to make it happen. Across the country, however, volunteerism is down. According to a December 2021 Gallup Poll of 811 adults, the percentage who reported time spent volunteering fell to 56 percent, continuing a downward trend from 65 percent in 2013 to 64 percent in 2017. From ushers to docents to studio...

"Son, take a good look around. This is your hometown…" (My Hometown, Bruce Springsteen, 1984) Who knew that almost 40 years after The Boss released this iconic song, arts, history, tourism, economic development, and community revitalization would come together under those words to give the borough of Freehold dynamic new meaning? On March 8, I attended the news conference at the Freehold Fire...

More than 13 years ago, I started as the part-time director for this small-but-mighty program at Third Westminster Presbyterian Church at 780 Salem Avenue in Elizabeth called the Institute of Music for Children. As the arts were being cut in schools, the Institute was started by the church in 1995 to help provide arts education to their neighborhood youth, where children could learn and grow...