THE BUSINESS INCUBATOR FOR ARTISTS, PERFORMING ARTISTS AND ARTS ORGANIZATIONS.
Study, create, present, and develop the business of art at NJAI.
INCUBATE – To maintain in favorable conditions for growth.
9. Innovative and Singularly Identifying Programs and Services
11. Three Phase Implementation of ‘The Five Centers at NJAI
The New Jersey Arts Incubator is an organization dedicated to the economic and creative growth of performing and visual artists, musicians and writers in New Jersey. NJAI provides education, programming and revenue raising opportunities and is both a producing and presenting organization.
NJAI is undergoing a capital campaign to secure a home in West Orange, New Jersey which is a cosmopolitan suburb outside of New York City and the renaissance city of Newark. This location is right in the heart of the most diverse communities in the world and close to major transportation hubs and majors universities.
NJAI will address the pressing need for affordable rehearsal and presentation space for use by New Jersey artists and performing artists; will provide artists and non-profit art organizations, education and support services to reduce reliance on public and unearned income funding sources.
NJAI will work with artists to promote and participate in New Jersey’s redevelopment and revitalization projects and to place their work on stages and in galleries across the State of New Jersey from northern NJ venues such as NJPAC, to the southern casinos of Atlantic City and the playhouses of Cape May.
NJAI will provide arts education opportunities, employment, a cultural center for low & moderate income children and adults of the region, and an economic driver to the local community.
The New Jersey Arts Incubator is a not-for-profit organization incorporated in the state of New Jersey on November, 17, 2006. NJAI is a tax exempt 501C3 and a New Jersey Charitable Trust.
The New Jersey Arts Incubator will serve five specific goals. NJAI will refocus the artist’s growth, development and service to the New Jersey communities by providing artists and non-profit arts organizations education and support services to reduce their reliance on public and other unearned income funding sources.
NJAI will stimulate the local economy of the redevelopment and revitalization area in the Township of West Orange, New Jersey and its neighboring communities. NJAI will provide a successful case study for the benefits garnered to a community’s economy, educational and recreational resources, health and well-being when the arts is introduced into the area, especially in low & moderate socio-economic communities.
NJAI will address the pressing need for affordable rehearsal and performance space for use by New Jersey performing artists.
Finally, NJAI will nurture, incubate and prepare New Jersey’s artists and art organizations to take up residence in redevelopment and revitalization projects across the State of New Jersey, and by doing so, successfully contribute to the revitalization success of those projects while providing arts educational opportunities, employment and a cultural center for low & moderate income children and adults of the region and an economic driver in the local community.
The New Jersey Arts Incubator will achieve these goals through the ‘Five Centers at NJAI’: the NJAI Arts Center, the NJAI Business Center, the NJAI Media Center, the NJAI Theater, and the NJAI Gateway Gallery. Click here to learn more about the Five Centers at NJAI.
The New Jersey Arts Incubator defines itself in the marketplace through a series of innovative offerings, unavailable at other venues in New Jersey, and the interrelated combination of offerings through the ‘Five Centers at NJAI’ that support its presentations, productions and educational programming, Click here to learn more about NJAI programming.
The New Jersey Arts Incubator will provide classes and workshops in a myriad of Art disciplines (for students of all ages and physical abilities), Arts related business education and support, new technology including broadband access and media production. NJAI will provide rehearsal, performance, gallery, and office space, marketing support and employment opportunities for arts professionals and advanced students.
The New Jersey Arts Incubator will present and/or produce a variety of theater, dance, music, speaker series, gallery shows, reading series, poetry festivals and cultural events utilizing a strategic group of resident artists and companies and New Jersey artists and arts organizations from across the State.
The New Jersey Arts Incubator will act as a diverse and intimate cultural resource center for West Orange and Orange and surrounding Northern New Jersey communities.
The New Jersey Arts Incubator will serve as a launching pad for New Jersey artists, to stages, venues and revitalization projects across the state thereby increasing New Jersey’s artist retention rate, acting as a catalyst for economic revitalization and enhancing the economic growth of the artistic community.
The New Jersey Arts Incubator will serve residents and the arts community of the State of New Jersey through on-site and virtual courses and workshops, and a series of on location and traveling programs. The greatest proportion of activities (on site) will serve residents and artists in the Northern and Central regions of the state.
The New Jersey Arts Incubator’s mission is to create an environment where artists, developing artists and aspiring artists of all socio-economic and cultural origins from New Jersey may explore, create and communicate their craft, and the business development of their art, in a supportive and nurturing environment.
The New Jersey Arts Incubator’s goal is to present works of artistic expression by local, regional, State, and visiting artists in an effort to foster the communication of ideas and perspectives within our multi-cultural and diverse socio-economic communities while stimulating the economic viability of these artists.
The mission of the NJAI is to bring sustainable economic development to redevelopment and revitalization areas through the arts, and to create educational opportunities and jobs for low and moderate income residents, as well as for performing artists from across the state, while providing creative resources and a destination location in the Township of West Orange.
The New Jersey Arts Incubator’s passion is the partnership between art, education and communication. Professionals in the performing arts and arts development will share their knowledge with students of all ages with a special emphasis on artistic programming for children of diverse cultures in low socio-economic demographic.
The Board of Directors are responsible for: The protection and advancement of the organization’s mission, creating policies and a strategic plan to accomplish the mission, monitoring the Executive Director, overseeing the financial stability of the organization, raising money to sustain the organization, and recruiting new Board Members. – Click here to learn more about the NJAI Board of Directors.
The NJAI Artistic Board of Advisors are a diverse group of artists, performing artists, musicians, writers, educators, designers, media specialists, producers, directors and business professionals who are committed to the New Jersey Arts Incubator mission. The ABA provides counsel, insight, hands on support and strategic partnerships to the NJAI Board of Directors and staff. Click here for a list of the Artistic Board of Advisors.
6. Staff
Executive Director, Amy B. Simon
Artistic Director, Joseph Gardner
Click here to learn more about the NJAI staff.
General Members of New Jersey Arts Incubator are non-voting participants who for a yearly membership fee are provided NJAI promotional materials, opportunities for website listing, special incentives and access to products and services.
Patron Membership includes the benefits of General Membership and in addition a special menu of incentives as listed in the Donor Menu. Click here for Donor Menu.
Artistic Members of New Jersey Arts Incubator are non-voting member artists and arts organizations who, for a yearly membership fee, may receive special incentives for programming and rentals, information about programs and services, access to development opportunities and access to in-house grants for qualified applicants and website listing.
Low to moderate income Artistic Members and participants and non-profit organizations who are Artistic Members are eligible for discounts and/or financial aid for performances, classes, workshops and rental fees. Eligibility is factored through an application process which includes submission of the most recent tax returns, proof of NJ residency, information on other grants or support an applicant has received as well as other informational criteria. Click here for financial aid application.
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9. Innovative and Singularly Identifying Programs and Services
The New Jersey Arts Incubator identifies with the current common use of the term Incubator as used in the area of small business development. In this model, a group of start-up companies work together in a common space, share equipment and materials, and access to mentors and tactical support. It promotes the development of small business to a point of stability where they can move their business to facilities of their own, prepared to meet the challenges of the business market.
The New Jersey Arts Incubator provides similar areas of support, specific to the arts, artists and arts organizations.
NJAI Innovative and Unique
In the State of New Jersey, the term ‘incubator’ has been adopted by few other arts organizations to describe their functions but none provide the breadth of services of NJAI, within the traditional business incubator model. This fact provides a singular and dynamic identifying brand for the New Jersey Arts Incubator in the State and in the region. Only two arts incubator programs in New Jersey were found from an in-depth web search. They are:
a. Powerhouse building for use as an “arts incubator,” Jersey City, NJ, under development.
b. Brook Arts Center, Bound Brook, NJ – status unknown.
The financial aid program for all services provided by the New Jersey Arts Incubator provides leadership positioning in the field in relation to cost of services, and defines NJAI from other similar organizations.
The availability of a multi- media center for use by students, organizations, faculty and NJAI staff to coordinate marketing, train hands-on in the media arts and produce NJAI broadband access media is a feature unique to the New Jersey Arts Incubator and not found in any other performing or arts education facility in New Jersey. It is unknown at this time whether this confluence of art, business and technology exists anywhere else in the United States.
NJAI is an incubator where ‘home grown – Jersey fresh’ arts product will be created and marketed to the stages and performing arts centers throughout the state. This effort is unique in the State and will complement the mission of the New Jersey Arts Incubator Business Center. The Business Center supports the business development of artists and arts organizations to affect a body of economically stable non-profit arts organization and artists who will then locate in and become the economic catalysts in communities across the State.
11. Three Phase Implementation of ‘The Five Centers at NJAI’
The New Jersey Arts Incubator is currently, actively pursuing a home. During the 2008-2009 season, NJAI will be providing Arts business programming, media programming and theater production in locations in and around West Orange, New Jersey.
The New Jersey Arts Incubator will be made up of five distinct operating elements that together and individually serve the overall mission of the organization. These centers of learning and artistic exploration are: the NJAI Arts Center, the NJAI Business Center, the NJAI Media Center, the NJAI Gateway Gallery and the NJAI Theater.
Once NJAI is located in a facility of its own the following three phases will be implemented.
Phase 1
The New Jersey Arts Incubator Arts Center, Gateway Gallery and NJAI Theater
The mission of the NJAI Arts Center is to create a cohesive, professional working and learning environment where artists and arts organizations from all disciplines may study, rehearse, and develop their work with the goal of achieving presentation status for their product. The NJAI Arts Center places a special emphasis on supporting the low to moderate income student/artist and the non-profit arts organization. The NJAI Arts Center encompasses the NJAI education program with an emphasis on programming for the local and regional communities, school districts and youth.
The NJAI Arts Center will be open to students and artists for classes, rehearsal space and workshops twelve months per year. The NJAI education program will run from September through June in three semester units. In July and August, NJAI will present summer programming for youth and special workshops for artists.
The NJAI Arts Center will provide rehearsal and presentation opportunities to its students and artists. Grants and scholarships will be provided to qualified applicants, as available, to low & moderate income students, artists and arts organization for classes, rehearsal space rentals and theater rental.
The three rehearsal studios of the Arts Center will include sprung floors, workshop and unique lighting, ballet bars, gallery panels, dance mirrors, audio systems and sound resistance retractable walls in the interior to create one large, two medium or three smaller work areas.
The NJAI Gateway Gallery will present visual art displays throughout the building, in the lobby, along the hallways, in the conference areas and at the exterior of the building. At any given time one of the versatile rehearsal studios will house gallery shows by NJAI artistic and/or Business Center members.
Technology is an integral component of the NJAI Arts Center. Each area of the Arts Center will be wired to both receive and transmit visual, audio and web data, the signals of which will originate and return to the control booth of the NJAI Media Center.
Phase 2
The NJAI Business Center
The New Jersey Arts Incubator Business Center will consist of a conference room, the ‘Dorm’ – an open floor plan office area with nine cubicles of semi-private work spaces, a common business center area with office equipment, two bathrooms and hospitality station and administration offices.
The Business Center will be wired for new technology and handicapped accessible. Business Center members will be provided with mailboxes and phone lines and may participate in an office supply co-op program or purchase materials directly from NJAI for use. NJAI staff will also be available to accept packages for resident members, book conference, meeting and rehearsal space and coordinate performance or presentation opportunities.
At full occupancy, the NJAI Business Center in-residence program will house nine arts related businesses. The Business Center program has a multiple year course structure after which resident business members should be prepared to locate either within the Valley Arts District or as a part of another redevelopment initiative elsewhere in the State.
Phase 3
The New Jersey Arts Incubator Media Center
The New Jersey Arts Incubator Media Center is planned to serve four distinct purposes within the NJAI organization. The Media Center is a media and technology training center providing classes in digital visual and audio media, radio production and web media product production as well as performance for the visual and audio arts.
The NJAI Media Center provides NJAI Business Center members with the tools to use technology to market their arts business. NJAI provides access to equipment and to professional mentors who will guide artists through the steps of creating web sites, digital imagery, and visual and audio clips to engage in viral marketing strategies.
The NJAI Media Center produces marketing and promotional product for web casting, broadband use, and radio and television broadcasting that promotes the NJAI mission.
The NJAI Media Center acts as a rental and production facility on a fee basis, acting as an additional revenue stream for the NJAI facility supporting the programs, productions and scholarships provided to NJAI participants.
The New Jersey Arts Incubator is an organization with a mission to contribute to the State of New Jersey by supporting the Arts, artists and Arts organizations with the tools they need to develop product, and promote and sustain their arts businesses in New Jersey.
The Arts is a catalyst to economic revitalization for communities, and arts education is responsible for a higher level of academic achievement in schools, increasing graduation rates of our children. The Arts provide community and is a language for expressing man’s humanity and the celebration of NJ’s cultural mosaic. Artistic expression and the experience of Art create an environment of health and well being for young and old.
Implementing a business model based on revenue equal to expenses will enable the New Jersey Arts Incubator to sustain operations, while an aggressive unearned income campaign will provide financial aid to students, artists and arts organizations and create an endowment that will secure NJAI’s future.
With the tools of education, the opportunity to create, the support to grow and the tools to communicate, the New Jersey Arts Incubator will ensure the State will benefit economically and culturally from future generations of New Jersey artists.