The New Jersey Arts and Culture Renewal Fund — established at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and a lifesaving initiative for many of the state’s nonprofit organizations in the arts, culture and historical sectors — has received a $1.5 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, it recently announced.
The New Jersey Arts and Culture Renewal Fund is an unprecedented collaboration between private and public donors. It has awarded grants to 185 organizations representing every county in the state during four rounds of funding, which began in January 2021.
The fund, which also received significant support from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, has prioritized support to small and midsize organizations, led by and/or serving Black, indigenous and people of color, who were found to be disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.
A round of New Jersey Arts and Culture Renewal grants totaling $2.2 million was announced Thursday, with grants going to 96 organizations. These grants ranged in size from $1,500 to $50,000, with an average grant size of $23,000.
This brings the total grants awarded by the fund to over $6.7 million since it was established in 2020.
Major supporters of the fund include the New Jersey Pandemic Relief Fund, the Grunin Foundation, Merck, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Prudential Foundation, the Wallace Foundation and Amazon.
