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For Immediate Release
May, 23 2006
Media Contact
- Allison Tratner
- 609.292.4524
- allison@arts.sos.state.nj.us
New Jersey State Council on the Arts Makes Funding Recommendations
(TRENTON) The New Jersey State Council on the Arts held its May Council meeting today at the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick. Chair Carol Herbert introduced the Council’s newest ex-officio member, District 37 Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle a resident of Englewood. Herbert praised the Assemblywoman for her many years of public service, most notably as a Freeholder in Bergen County since 2000, and for spearheading the opening of the Bergen Performing Arts Center, hailed as the cultural icon of Bergen County. Assemblywoman Huttle, who has pledged to continue to work as an advocate for families by addressing the needs of seniors and children, stated that she looked forward to playing an integral role on the Council.
There were three major items on the agenda: awards for FY07 arts education co-sponsored projects contingent upon the availability of funds and the approval of a roster of artists to conduct in school residencies; a roster of recommended Cultural Trust Stabilization Grants; and the allocation of any remaining FY06 Council funds.
The Council approved the Arts Education Committee’s recommendation that contingent upon the availability of FY07 funds the following arts education co-sponsored project awards be made:
- $200,537 to the Arts Education Consortium for the Artists in Education Program, including long-
term residencies, artist training components, mini residencies and marketing, South Jersey travel
fund, ATI scholarships, Arts Education Collective activities and staffing
- $144,450 to Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey for the Young Writer’s Project of in school poetry,
prose and playwriting residencies
- $74,725 to Arts Horizons for the 2007 Artist Teacher Institute
- $45,500 to Perkins Center for the Arts for the Greater Camden Artists in the Schools Program
The Arts Education Committee also recommended that the roster of artists previously circulated be approved to conduct in-school residencies (see attached) and that of them Elizabeth Rollins and Carolyn Hunt be recognized as Distinguished Teaching Artist. Finally, the Council also approved the Committee’s recommendation that the balance of unallocated FY06 funds be awarded as a co-sponsored project grant to the Arts Education (AIE) Consortium for the FY07 Arts in Education Program.
The Committee also reported that the New Jersey Arts Education Census Project launched last month and the Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Program, an exciting pilot project co-sponsored with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. New Jersey’s Poetry Out Loud program, co-sponsored with Playwrights Theatre of NJ, provided residencies conducted by teaching artists from the New Jersey Writers Project in seven high schools in this pilot year. The seven school contest winners came to the state finals held on April 28th at NJN studios in Trenton where Teika Chapman of Trenton Central High School was named the state finalist and Ryan Shea of Piscataway High School the state runner-up. For more information about the event or to see the webcast visit www.njn.net and follow the links to Poetry Out Loud.
The Council also approved the Grants Committee’s recommendation that $80,000 in available FY06 funds be awarded as a co-sponsored project grant to the Nonprofit Finance Fund Inc. (NFF) for the Critical Financial Services (CFS) Program cosponsored by the NFF and the Council. This award will permit the continuation of the highly successful program that addresses emergency financial challenges of the Council’s general operating and general programming grantees. These funds along with funds already under contract with NFF will ensure that up to 12 organizations in financial need can receive intensive Business Analyses and that third year audit review and data base building for Council grantees can be accomplished. The Council further approved a recommendation from the Grants Committee that $1,000 in available FY06 funds be awarded to the Morris Museum for advance costs associated with its co-sponsorship of an FY07 NJSCA Crafts Annual exhibition.
The main item of business from the Executive Committee’s was the review of the applications for the New Jersey Cultural Trust Stabilization grants. The Arts Council along with the New Jersey Historical Commission and the New Jersey Historic Trust are three agencies charged under the Cultural Trust Act for the design and administration of specific grant programs that fulfill the three purposes to which the interest earnings of the Trust can be put: stabilization, endowment and capital projects. Because the Cultural Trust fund annual interest is still relatively modest, the Arts Council and the Historical Commission have focused on stabilization grants. The New Jersey Historic Trust operates a small capital grant program for qualified history and humanities groups.
This is the third annual cycle of these grants. Stabilization grants are capped at $30,000 and do not require a match. In this round the NJSCA received 52 applications requesting over $1.1 million. The Cultural Trust stated earlier this year its intention to make available $900,000 for grants, half of which by statute is to be provided for arts grants. Following a rigorous independent panel evaluation of all applications, the panel and the committee recommended full funding for the 21 strongest applications. This recommendation requiring $453,640 in funding by the New Jersey Cultural Trust was unanimously passed.
In other business, Elizabeth Christopherson, Executive Director and Nila Aronow, Associate Executive Director for Productions at NJN Studios made a presentation highlighting the many projects and programs that have come forth from the longstanding partnership between the Arts Council and NJN. Members of the State of the Arts program staff were on hand to receive accolades from the Council. The Council also recognized the passing of one of New Jersey’s most prominent artist, Issac Witkin, and asked the audience to pay homage to Witkin with a moment of silence.
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