Sixth largest performing arts center in the country, fourth largest arts education program
The New Jersey Performing Arts Center has garnered national attention in its first eleven seasons, serving as a model for programming, audience diversity, education initiatives, and the catalytic role it has played in returning nightlife and economic activity to NJ's largest urban community. On its Opening Night in 1997, NJPAC became the sixth largest performing arts center in the U.S. (based on annual operating budget).
A major component of NJPAC's mission is to develop into a world-class cultural complex, showcasing the best artists of national and international acclaim. Since the grand opening, NJPAC has welcomed renowned artists, cultural icons, and some of the world's most cherished orchestral, dance, theater, and instrumental works, as well as the best performers from New Jersey's outstanding array of artists and companies.
Included among the artists appearing on NJPAC stages in its first eleven seasons are the Boston Symphony Orchestra; Yo-Yo Ma; Bob Dylan; Ballet Nacional de Cuba; Lauryn Hill; Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater; Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Twyla Tharp Dance; Dance Theatre of Harlem; Israel Philharmonic; the Berlin State Opera Orchestra; the Royal Danish Ballet; Hilary Hahn; Bill T. Jones; Itzhak Perlman; the Vienna Boys Choir; Midori; Sarah Brightman; Sting; Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo; Elvis Costello; National Song and Dance Company of Mozambique; Don Henley; the Afro-Cuban All-Stars; Audra McDonald; Buena Vista Social Club; Melissa Etheridge; the Czech Philharmonic; Bette Midler; The Chieftains; Herbie Hancock; Sweet Honey in the Rock; and Diana Krall. NJPAC is also the home of the Grammy-winning New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. Each year, this world-class ensemble performs in Prudential Hall as well as in six other venues throughout the state.
NJPAC's Arts Education program is the nation's fourth largest for a performing arts institution. Its programs include:
* NJPAC's Wachovia Jazz for Teens
* NJPAC/NJYT Summer Musical Program
* The Jeffrey Carollo Scholarship Fund
* The Star-Ledger Scholarship for the Performing Arts
* The Summer Youth Performance Workshop
* The Young Artist Institute
* Verizon Passport to Culture SchoolTime & FamilyTime Series
NJPAC also offers residencies in dance, theater, music and the literary arts through the NJPAC Arts Academy. The Center for Arts Education at NJPAC, directly adjacent to the Arts Center, was inaugurated in early 2001.
NJPAC's free outdoor summer music series, Sounds of the City, has become an eagerly awaited annual event, attracting between 2,000 and 3,000 people to NJPAC's three-acre Theatre Square on Thursday nights during the summer months. The New York Times wrote: "Perhaps the most powerful statement of the arts center's -- and Newark's -- success can be glimpsed on warm summer nights, when thousands of people throng its outdoor plaza for a weekly series that has become Newark's town social."
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