Trenton November 8, 2007: The New Jersey State Museum is paving the way for its grand re-opening, after a major renovation during which it was closed to the public. And as part of its revitalization, the Museum is also building important relationships.
A new partnership with The Friends of The New Jersey State Museum and Young Audiences New Jersey will bring leading artists from the tri-state area to the Museum for a year’s worth of world culture through the arts, including two full-day Family Arts Festivals and an array of exciting, free, performances and workshops for children and families. Ranging from the elegant precision and wonderful costumes of Dance China New York to the verbal athletics of the masters of slam, The Mayhem Poets, the arts programming at the museum this year is bound to be phenomenal.
“With our merger with the Institute for Arts and Humanities Education, our expanded staff and program capabilities uniquely qualify us to be the arts programming resource for the Museum.” says Laurence Capo, Executive Director of Young Audiences New Jersey. “The Institute has provided very successful Family Arts Festivals for years, and we’re recognized across the state as the premiere arts education provider. It was a perfect fit, and we’re thrilled to be able to bring our professional artists and expertise to children and families in and around our capital city.”
Planning for this exciting new direction began between Young Audiences New Jersey and The New Jersey State Museum at the end of the summer. The inaugural event will take place on Sunday, December 2, with a free Family Festival of Arts which will include music, theater and dance performances and hands-on visual arts workshops for children and their families.
Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells has been active in the re-launch plans for the Museum as well, emphasizing the importance of dynamic and consistent programming. “The New Jersey State Museum is a wonderful community resource, and I’m greatly looking forward to it reopening. It’s been a dream of mine to see the State Museum as a hub of activity,” she says, “The Family Festival of Arts in December marks the rollout of this new period in the museum’s history.”
All public programming at the Museum will be free and will take place on Saturdays and Sundays. Additional weekday programming will be available to schools seeking an educational and inspiring field trip destination.
The first Family Arts Festival will take place on December 2 between 1:00 and 5:00 pm. Open to the general public, the free event will feature music, theater and dance from around the world, including the powerful Brazilian dance masters, Ginga Brasileira, and the wild and zany Freestyle Repertory Theatre, an improvisational comedy troupe described by the New York Times as “constantly entertaining kooks on the loose.” In addition to performances throughout the day, children of all ages and their families will be able to take part in a variety of hands-on art workshops.
Founded in 1973, Young Audiences New Jersey (YANJ) is the premier arts-in-education resource in the state, providing high-quality performances and artist-in-residence programs to 420,000 children pre-kindergarten through 12th grade annually. Each year, thousands of teachers and hundreds of artists enliven their performances and enrich their curriculums through YANJ's professional development. YANJ’s extensive professional artist roster represents all art forms—from dance and theater to music, language and visual arts. Its programs are accessible to all socio-economic, ethnic, cultural, and geographic communities, and are designed to strengthen the arts in schools, meet local and state curriculum standards, involve families in arts activities, and enrich cultural life in New Jersey's communities. YANJ is the first arts education organization designated as a major service organization by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and, as part of the national network of Young Audiences, Inc. was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Clinton. Projects like this and the 4,000 programs provided annually by YANJ are made possible in part through a grant from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State and funds from the National Endowment for the Arts. For more information, visit www.yanj.org.
The Friends of the New Jersey State Museum was founded in 1968 as a non-profit 501(c)(3) to support the Museum’s collections, exhibitions and programs through fundraising, volunteerism and advocacy. Friends Members are involved in a variety of activities and comprise the core docent group for the Museum. The Friends also operate a gift shop with merchandise related to the Museum’s exhibitions and New Jersey history and culture. Proceeds from the gift shop support the publications of the New Jersey State Museum. For forty years the Friends and the Museum have shared a wonderfully successful partnership. The Friends are honored to be a collaborator with the Museum and Young Audiences New Jersey and we look forward to another forty years of service to the Museum.
Young Audience’s Family Programs at the NJ State Museum CALENDAR:
