State arts council grants $11M to art organizations in Princeton area

The New Jersey State Council on the Arts awarded approximately $11 million total in grants to arts organizations in the Princeton community on July 21.

The McCarter Theatre Center, the University Art Museum and the Arts Council of Princeton were among local organizations to receive the NJSCA grant.

The NJSCA is financed in part by the National Endowment for Arts. The Council approved over $15.7 million in grant funding statewide this year.

NJSCA Executive Director Nicholas Paleologos and Director of Communications Allison Tratner did not respond to requests for comment.

Executive Director of the Arts Council of Princeton Jeff Nathanson explained that the NJSCA has a number of different grant programs. Among those, the annual general operating support grants run in three-year cycles. After submitting a letter of intent around December, a local arts organization has to wait for the NJSCA’s confirmation of eligibility. They then have to submit a grant proposal in February, and the organizations to receive grants are announced at the annual NJSCA board meeting in July, Nathanson explained.

For accountability, arts organizations receiving any NJSCA grant are required to annually submit a midyear and final report, Nathanson said.

"Many arts organizations receive three-year operating state grants," Andrea Honore, Director of Institutional Giving at the McCarter Theatre, said. "And because this is operating, it means [the money] is not specific to activities or projects."

Honore noted that this is in contrast to grants from other foundations, which often designate where the funding will be allocated towards — education, for example.

According to Honore, a grant amount of approximately $626,000 will be allocated across all ongoing projects at the McCarter Theatre, which will be using the funding to provide for the salaries of staff across all projects and productions. She noted that the annual budget of the theatre is $12 million.

Honore also noted that the McCarter Theatre has received a Citation of Excellence in addition to being named a Major Arts Organization every year since the awards were first granted. The NJSCA announces both honors every year in addition to its regular grants.

Courtney Lacy, Manager of Foundation and Government Relations at the University Art Museum, said the NJSCA grant for general program support that the museum received is earmarked to support marketing, so that the widest possible audience can be reached. Director of the University Arts Museum James Steward noted that this is the first time the museum has been awarded a state grant, perhaps because the state agency was skeptical about the degree to which the museum was committed to community engagement.

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“It’s true that if you go back not many years, the museum was much more focused on academic engagement rather than on acting as a bridge between academia and the wider public,” Steward explained. “For us, the grant was not only pragmatically helpful in enabling us to do more outreach work to the community and educate them on projects we were otherwise always presenting, but also symbolically it was a kind of recognition that this museum has grown and evolved to being a gateway to the Princeton campus for a lot of visitors.”

Lacy explained that the Museum applied for a grant in 2012, and the NJSCA extended the $30,000 per year funding for another year at this time.

She noted that as a museum with free admission, the Museum needs support to continue its program of exhibitions, collections and special programs targeting students and families. Steward also explained that although attendance at the Museum has grown by around fifty percent in recent years, there is still significant room for growth in engagement given how populous the greater New York/Philadelphia area is.

The general operating support grant that the Arts Council of Princeton received again this year will be used for a wide range of activities, Nathanson said. The smaller grant of $6,125 for projects serving artists, however, will specifically support the artist collective known as the Sage Coalition. Based in Trenton, N.J., the coalition is working on a public art project in the city.

Whereas the University Art Museum is in its first year getting state support, the Arts Council of Princeton has been funded by the NJSCA for the 10th consecutive year this year, Nathanson noted. The organization’s overall budget is close to $1.8 million per year.

“The 57,000 or so from the NJSCA is a small percentage of our overall budget,” Nathanson said. “Half of our funding comes from various grants and contributions. Corporations, foundations, individuals, fundraising and memberships. The other half is earned revenue. That is tuition for classes, tickets for concerts and other ticketed events.”

Nathanson noted that the Arts Council of Princeton had received the Citation of Excellence every year that they have received funding.

“We're really proud that our success is being recognized,” Nathanson said.