State of the Arts has been taking you on location with the most creative people in New Jersey and beyond since 1981. The New York and Mid-Atlantic Emmy Award-winning series features documentary shorts about an extraordinary range of artists and visits New Jersey’s best performance spaces. State of the Arts is on the frontlines of the creative and cultural worlds of New Jersey.
State of the Arts is a cornerstone program of NJ PBS, with episodes co-produced by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and Stockton University, in cooperation with PCK Media. The series also airs on WNET and ALL ARTS.
On this week's episode... In the USSR, they rebelled against the regime through satire and parody. In New York, they were crowned Soviet Pop Artists. Now, decades after the collapse of both the USSR and their friendship, the dissident artists once known as the duo Komar and Melamid reflect on their unlikely life story, as Russian totalitarianism once again reaches a fever pitch and the Zimmerli Art Museum mounts a new exhibition: Komar and Melamid in America. The Trenton Circus Squad features jugglers, unicyclists, aerialists, and clowns—a mix of inner-city youth and kids from the surrounding suburbs and area private schools—all working together to put a smile on audience faces. Founder Tom von Oehsen, who once studied at the legendary Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Clown College, has been bringing his circus dreams to life for the past eight years under a big top in Trenton and beyond. Heather Palecek’s solargraphs are taken with simple pinhole box cameras. She returns to them months or even years later to see what her collaboration with nature has produced. Her images made in the Pine Barrens are in the current exhibition A Pinelands Portrait at the Stockton University Art Gallery.
We are pleased to bring you the next session of The Business of Being an Artist - Becoming Established: LLCs and Nonprofits. free and open to any artist, teaching artist, or folk artist who lives and/or works in the state of New Jersey.
Register here.
Photo Credit: Steph Nerbak
The Zimmerli Art Museum will host the Hank Willis Thomas Selects the NJ Arts Annual. All artists over the age of 18 who either work or live in the state of New Jersey are eligible to apply. All mediums are eligible. There is no entry fee.
Learn more and submit here.
Photo courtesy of Zimmerli Art Museum
The New Jersey State Council on the Arts is hosting quarterly Teaching Artist Community of Practice meetings. These virtual sessions serve as a platform for teaching artists to share their experiences, discuss new opportunities, and connect with each other and the State Arts Council.
Register for the next meeting.
The LAB at ArtYard, a social practice artist residency that is a partnership between Frenchtown-based ArtYard and New Brunswick-based coLAB Arts.
These monthly events, presented by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the New Jersey Theatre Alliance, are peer-to-peer learning opportunities covering a wide range of arts accessibility topics.
Photo courtesy of Monmouth Museum
The New Jersey State Council on the Arts held its first public meeting of 2026 today, where $2 million was awarded to 198 New Jersey artists through the Council’s Individual Artist Fellowship program.
The New Jersey State Council on the Arts, in partnership with Monument Lab, the New Jersey Historical Commission, and RevolutionNJ, has announced the selection of Nandi Jordan and Anika Grant as the artist team who will create a new performance series for Revolutionary Acts – a statewide public art project that will animate stories of the American Revolution in time for the 250th anniversary in 2026.
The 2025 New York Emmy Awards nominations were announced in July, and the acclaimed arts and culture series State of the Arts, which has covered the arts in New Jersey since 1981, received four.
Investment Strengthens Economic and Creative Vitality of Communities in Every County
Monument Lab, in partnership with the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, the New Jersey Historical Commission, and RevolutionNJ, has launched an Open Call for Artist Ideas for a new performance series – Revolutionary Acts – that will animate stories of the American Revolution in time for the 250th anniversary in 2026.
The New Jersey State Council on the Arts held its first public meeting of 2025 today, where $2 million was awarded to 216 New Jersey artists through the Council’s Individual Artist Fellowship program - the highest number of artists awarded in one year in the program's history.
State of the Arts, one of the longest-running arts programs in the nation, has won its 35th Emmy Award for the segment "Layqa", which follows Newark-based Indigenous Ecuadorian artist Layqa Nuna Yawar as he creates a colossal mural for Newark Liberty International Airport's newly redesigned Terminal A.
One of the most diverse states in the country, New Jersey is home to an amazing array of traditional artists, each a keeper of an age-old art form.
Investment Strengthens Economic and Creative Vitality of Communities in Every County
The New Jersey State Council on the Arts has been approved for a grant of $1,195,200 from the National Endowment for the Arts.
The New Jersey State Council on the Arts held its first public meeting of 2024 today, where just over $1.7 million was awarded to 161 New Jersey artists through the Council’s Individual Artist Fellowship program.
The New Jersey Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, in collaboration with the New Jersey Redevelopment Authority and Kean University, is pleased to announce the "Unlock the Potential: Faith in Action in Sustainable Development Symposium."
Four New Jersey community-based organizations (CBOs) recently received funding to work with regional artists to develop community-engaged art projects that communicate climate risks to the public.
Our monthly newsletter with opportunities for artists, arts workers, and organizations. Browse professional development workshops, grant announcements, calls for artists, and more.
Welcome Guide for Current Grantees
Visual Identity Manual
Required Logo and Ad Files
Find your County Arts Agency contact.
Find calls. Apply. Manage entries. Registration is free!
See the impact of the arts in your county, including job numbers, economic impact, and more.
DJA is a multifaceted program dedicated to increasing the awareness of and participation in the arts in NJ. Coordinated through the Jersey Arts Marketers network, this program provides resources for both arts organizations and patrons alike.
The New Jersey State Council on the Arts meets a minimum of five times annually in open public session at which it acts on matters of policy, funding, and program development. The Council's Annual Meeting, at which it elects officers, adopts a program plan and budget, and approves the majority of grant awards, is traditionally held in late July, in Trenton, New Jersey. Other meetings are conducted either virtually or at various locations around the state. All are conducted at fully accessible sites and the public is enthusiastically invited to attend. Persons who have sight, hearing or other disabilities are encouraged to notify the Council office two weeks in advance of any meeting so that appropriate accommodations may be arranged. In keeping with the Open Public Meetings Act, notice of each public meeting is shared with the required media outlets, posted in the Office of the Secretary of State, on the Council’s website, and shared via social media.
FY26 Council Public Meeting Dates: October 21, 2025 | October 2025 Agenda December 16, 2025 | December 2025 Agenda February 10, 2026 | February 2026 Agenda May 19, 2026 July 21, 2026 Information for each meeting will be shared via the Council’s website, newsletters, and social media at least four weeks prior to each meeting date. Please note: Dates and times listed here are subject to change.
Accessibility: The Council will provide CART (real time captioning) for the July meeting. Automated captioning will be made available in the Zoom virtual platform for all other meetings. If you require additional accessibility services, please contact Access Coordinator Lindsay Dandeo at least two weeks prior to the event date: lindsay.dandeo@sos.nj.gov | 609-984-7020 (NJ Relay 711).
In order to better familiarize prospective applicants with the Council’s various organizational and individual artist grant programs, Council staff annually conduct a battery of technical assistance workshops, webinars, and open office hours to accompany all grant opportunities. Information about the Council’s technical assistance workshops are shared widely in grant guidelines, on the Council website, and via social media. Please visit the Grants page for more information about grant application technical assistance, pending open funding opportunities.
Official Site of The State of New Jersey