New Jersey Performing Arts Center Honored with Wallace Foundation Excellence Award

    NEWARK, N.J., May 18 /PRNewswire/ -- The New Jersey Performing Arts Center
 was named one of six nationwide recipients of The Wallace Foundation
 Excellence Awards, it was announced today at a ceremony held at the Arts
 Center.  The honor, which recognizes NJPAC's commitment and effectiveness in
 broadening participation in the arts, comes with a $2 million grant to the
 Arts Center for endowment and cash reserve.
     "The goal of The Wallace Foundation Excellence Awards is to encourage
 organizations to sustain and expand the impact of their work with local
 constituencies and to draw national attention to the importance of
 participation building to the health and growth of the arts field," said
 Christine DeVita, President of The Wallace Foundation.  "The Excellence Awards
 honor organizations that have made engaging people more deeply in the arts
 part of their organization's DNA.  The Awards are an important part of our
 efforts to develop and share effective ideas and practices for enhancing arts
 participation and bringing the transformational benefits of the arts to all."
     "There can be no greater commitment to making arts accessible to all
 audiences than that embodied by The Wallace Foundation," said NJPAC
 Co-Chairman Arthur F. Ryan.  "They have looked at the issue from both a
 scholarly and a practical point of view and have challenged long-held
 perceptions about how the arts and culture should strive to have resonance and
 relevance in America's diverse communities.  To receive recognition from this
 pioneering Foundation is a real badge of honor for NJPAC."
     According to The Wallace Foundation, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center
 was honored, in the inaugural year of the Excellence Awards, "for innovative
 multi-cultural outreach, including its 25 annual productions reflecting global
 perspectives outside classic European traditions and its collaborations with
 more than a dozen New Jersey universities, libraries, churches and
 community-based organizations to connect non-traditional audiences with
 featured artists through workshops, discussions and performances." NJPAC was
 also honored for its arts education programs, which offer a comprehensive menu
 of performances, residency programs, arts training, and scholarships for
 elementary, middle and high school children, as well as professional
 development opportunities for New Jersey's educators.
 
 

SOURCE  New Jersey Performing Arts Center