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Friend,

As summertime winds down, New Jerseyans are still heading outdoors and with good reason! All across the state and throughout the spring and summer seasons, New Jersey's arts organizations have been bringing communities together at arts festivals and outdoor events of all sorts. With the Council's support, arts groups are using New Jersey's diverse landscape to build arts awareness and participation, not to mention have a lot of fun!

Major events of this sort provide great public value by helping us define community identity and character, attract visitors and tourists, support local business and build our reputations as desirable places to live and work. And the warm weather especially provides us with the perfect opportunity to stretch our boundaries and create environments that invite more people to participate, recreate and reinvigorate through the arts.

As we look at the programs and events made possible through State Arts Council funding, we find a constantly growing number of these kinds of popular gatherings throughout the entire year. We have also learned through research that these events provide different values to different people and communities. Some celebrate cultures and traditions in ways that foster compassion and understanding. They bring neighborhoods together. Others break down both physical and psychological barriers that introduce new audiences to new delights. We know the substantial financial benefit a festival can have, especially from tourist dollars, but think too of the national notoriety it can bring and the attraction it can build for new residents and future businesses.

In this issue we'll highlight just a few of the many spring, summer and autumn festivals that Arts Council funding helps make possible and that are making Jersey the place to be.

Warmly,
Carol Ann Herbert
Chair, NJ State Council on the Arts

Arts Festivals Create New Community Partnerships

The 19th annual free Red Bank Jazz and Blues Festival, organized by the Jersey Shore Jazz and Blues Foundation, offers three full days and nights of jazz, blues, food, crafts and plenty of family fun. Nearly 150,000 people attend this summer music festival held in Marine Park by the Navesink River. This Festival provides additional local revenue from parking, public transportation, food and lodging. The Festival's website directs patronizing to local businesses. In addition to providing the direct public value, the festival builds and strengthens partnerships between the organization and the local sponsors. Through rigorous radio, television and newspaper marketing the organization proudly promotes not only the Festival but its many local partners.

The Appel Farm Arts and Music Festival is a one day, open-air festival held in early June at the 176 acre Appel Farm Arts and Music Center in rural Elmer, NJ. It features internationally renowned performing songwriters, acoustic rock, folk, jazz and blues musicians; a Crafts Fair which showcases the works of 60 artists; and a "Children's Village," with performances and arts activities. Now in its 16th year it continues to contribute largely to South Jersey's cultural tourism. Almost 60% of ticket holders travel from out of state to attend. The incredible draw of the Festival was recognized in 2004 when Appel Farm received the New Jersey Governor's Tourism Award and its partner Comcast the Partnership Award, honoring a joint tourism effort between business and an arts organization. 

Arts Festivals Help Cities to Flourish in the Summertime

NJPAC's Sounds of the City "...has helped put Newark back on the map. People love coming to the free concerts in Theater Square," says Leon B Denmark, VP of Programming for NJPAC. Every Thursday evening in Newark's Theater Square there are musical performances featuring r&b, hip hop, gospel, blues, reggae, jazz, funk, salsa, pop and rock. Now seven years old, the musical offerings are as diverse as the audiences they attract. Three to four musical groups entertain the after-work crowd as well as the local residents who made NJPAC "the place to be" on Thursdays. And as Denmark points out,  "Theater Square has become an enjoyable, safe destination for close to 3,000 people. The crowd is electric- a colorful mix of hip, young adults..."

Arts Festivals Bring Art to the People

This summer marks the 43rd Annual Ocean City Boardwalk Art Show, one of the largest outdoor art exhibits on the East Coast. It attracts thousands of visitors yearly and features the juried work of 150 fine artists from all over the region and the country and all work is for sale. Made possible through an NJSCA grant and the good work of the Cape May Cultural & Heritage Commission, many shore visitors plan their vacations around this event. Still others are attracted via the Ocean City Arts Center publicity, word of mouth or simply by strolling along the boardwalk.

Similarly, the Open Air Theatre at Washington Crossing State Park in Titusville, NJ is the oldest and largest running summer arts event of its kind in the area and is funded by an NJSCA grant administered by the Mercer County Cultural & Heritage Commission. This season marked its 42nd Annual Summer Arts Festival of Music and Drama and included such performances as Annie Get Your Gun, The Wizard of Oz and Much Ado About Nothing. The Theatre, which is part of the Washington Crossing Association, is dedicated to bringing quality Broadway revivals to the families of New Jersey at an affordable ticket price.

Another County Arts Agency, the Essex County Division of Cultural & Heritage Affairs uses Council funds to present Essex County's free Summer Concert Series held every Tuesday and Friday evenings at different locations throughout the Essex County Parks System. Free performances of such high profile groups like the NJ Symphony Orchestra and the NY Metropolitan Opera make this a highly anticipated and well-attended event. With almost 20 years under its belt, this concert series attracts over 300,000 people to Essex County's parks throughout the summer season, giving people of all ages and backgrounds access to some of New Jersey's finest cultural resources.

Arts Festivals Celebrate Differences and Bring People Together

At the Tuckerton Seaport, where the Council is helping to build the Baymen's Museum devoted to the unique folk arts and crafts of the southern bay communities, the parent institution held its 3rd annual Red Wine and Blues Festival to record breaking attendance. Over 1500 attendees heard performances by local blues bands while enjoying the fruits of local wineries and taking in the view of the beautiful Tuckerton Seaport. This collaboration of New Jersey arts, maritime and agriculture communities has proven to be a successful partnership for enthusiasts of all types who harmoniously celebrate their passions and learn about one another.

The Festivities Are Growing and Becoming Year Round

Coming up on the weekend of September 23rd is the annual Peter's Valley Crafts Fair, one of the largest gatherings of fine craftsmen in the country, this year being held at the Sussex County Fairgrounds in Augusta.

The fullest flower of spring "down the shore" is the annual Cape May Music Festival of the Mid Atlantic Center for the Arts, 16 concerts spread out over May and June. And the Cape May Jazz Festival presenting in spring and fall grows in quality and reputation each year. The 2005 fall event is coming this November 11th through the 13th. Together these festivals help fill bed and breakfasts and extend the tourism season by building "shoulders" onto summer.

The Powhatan Renape Nation American Indian Arts Festival is held on the 350 acre Rankokus Indian Reservation from October 8th through the 10th. In addition to the traditional and contemporary crafts on exhibit and for sale, attendees will be invited to participate in a friendship dance, discover traditional American Indian culinary treats and be a part of a community celebration.

And in the not too distant future are the many First Night celebrations and winter carnivals that increasingly build on art and culture to make our communities fun in any season.