Excellence in Museum Education

Jefferson Arts Academy

Students from Jefferson Arts Academy visit for three consecutive weeks during each exhibition season and create art projects that apply ideas and themes from the Art Center’s exhibitions. This initiative supports the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards for Visual Arts as well as other standards.

CALTA21

Working closely with the founder of CALTA21, Patricia Lannes, this program creates a dynamic environment where museums provide authentic, meaningful, and engaging experiences to immigrant communities and where learning, enjoyment, and civic engagement support the development of the individual’s voice. The program supports systemic change that transforms museums into powerful learning spaces for immigrants and their families and is a vehicle to strengthen the immigrant’s voice by encouraging the development of their academic, social, cultural, and civic capital. We have trained over 60  educators to work with English language students in Elizabeth, NJ, and we continue to work with those teachers and students, opening up the museum to them as their classroom whenever possible.

This program has been proudly supported by grants from the PwC Charitable Foundation and the New Jersey Arts & Culture Renewal Fund of the Princeton Area Community Foundation

Arts Alive

Elizabeth Public Schools 8th grade groups visit the Art Center for a one-day field trip each winter and the programs serves 400 students. Students receive a tour of the exhibitions and then create projects that apply themes from the work they saw.

The Arts Alive program is generously funded in part by the J.C. Kellogg Foundation

SEEDS

This program serves high-achieving, low-income 5th and 6th graders in Newark’s Young Scholars program with lessons in studio art and a strong focus on art history. It begins each year in January and runs through May. Our teaching artists develop the syllabus for the program with topics tying into art history and contemporary artists.

PEP Program

The PEP Program is a college access program that offers academic, social-emotional, and financial support for select, motivated, Summit, NJ, public school students from grades 7–12. Programming occurs during after-school hours and during the summer. The Visual Arts Center of New Jersey provides a multi-session exhibition-based visual arts program to PEP students during the fall and spring semesters.

This program has been proudly supported by a grant from The Summit Foundation

Empowering Kids Organization

The mission of Empowering Kids Organization is to create strategies and programs to empower underprivileged kids to thrive throughout their educational journey, by connecting them and their families with opportunities and resources. Since 2019 VACNJ has partnered with EKO and worked with elementary, middle school, and high school students to pilot several programs aimed at art viewing and making exposure to the students. Those who are interested have access to scholarships to then continue exploring the arts.

This program has been proudly supported by a grant from The Summit Foundation