$31K Grant Will Help New Brunswick's coLAB Arts to Flourish

A city-based nonprofit organization behind art projects that cover many of the walls and streets in New Brunswick plans to use grant money from the New Jersey Cultural Trust to spur continued growth.

The $31,200 grant will help coLAB Arts create a development manager position to assist in grant writing and fundraising efforts. It’s all part of a larger expansion plan for the organization, which has created a home inside First Reformed Church at 9 Bayard St.

“I think what’s interesting right now is you have older institutions in New Brunswick that have been around for 40, 50 years, but we’re the start-ups right now that are moving out of the start-up phase as an arts organization and trying to grow as a new institution,” said Dan Swern, producing director of coLAB Arts, who helms the organization with New Brunswick native John Keller.

“So, being able to put all the parts and pieces together that help maintain and help it flourish and let the art-makers in the organization focus on making art is really the goal right now," Swern said. "We figured out our identity and how we can be of value to the city. Now it’s about making sure that we truly have a place in the city and can really flourish.”

Ensuring the growth of coLAB Arts and similar groups is at the heart of the New Jersey Cultural Trust, which has announced $541,427 in the fiscal year 2023 Institutional and Financial Stabilization grant awards to 16 qualified arts organizations statewide.

“The work of the New Jersey Cultural Trust is critical to maintaining New Jersey’s celebrated cultural and creative industry,” New Jersey Secretary of State Tahesha Way said. “Financially and operationally stable cultural organizations are the ones that have the capacity to contribute the most to their communities. Especially in such unpredictable times, we are proud that the Cultural Trust is able to make these essential, focused investments in the sustainability of our state’s cultural assets."

Unique among the other grant programs within the Department of State, Cultural Trust grant funding is not the result of a direct budget appropriation, but rather derives from the interest earnings accrued annually by the Trust Fund, which was created by the Cultural Trust Act of 2000. The purpose of the legislation was to provide an additional, permanent funding source for arts, history, and cultural institutions, with a concentration on initiatives that build long-term resilience.

Pursuant to the Cultural Trust Act, annual Cultural Trust grants are awarded following a third-party, independent peer review process by qualified persons employing uniform evaluation criteria. Awards are based on recommendations from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, New Jersey Historical Commission, and the New Jersey Historic Trust.

It’s shaping up to be a busy year for coLAB Arts, which often generates projects that delve into local oral histories in an attempt to foster public conversations.

Swern said coLAB is working with New Brunswick Tomorrow to develop a mural for Joyce Kilmer Park, connecting its namesake, who’s known for “Trees” and other poems, with the experience of the contemporary Latino immigrant community. Artist Amrisa Niranjan, who created the “Home is Where We Make It” mural in Highland Park last year, will be tapped for the project.

Also, coLAB arts is working on a memory project with Rutgers’ American Studies Department looking at the racial tension in New Brunswick during the late 1960s and 1970s. In particular, the project will look at the ripples created when surrounding municipalities such as North Brunswick decided to form their own school districts, build their own schools and stop sending their students to New Brunswick.

Story by: Chuck O'Donnell
Photo provided by: coLAB Arts