140 New Jersey artists have been awarded nearly $2 million in grants through the New Jersey State Council on the Arts' Individual Artist Fellowship program. The program offers competitive awards to New Jersey artists in 12 different disciplines, based solely on independent peer panel assessments of work samples, with a focus on artistic quality. The program offers a pathway for artists to produce new work and advance their careers.
This year's cohort of Fellows is the largest one the Council has added to its distinguished list of Fellows in over 30 years, thanks to the Council's unprecedented investment of $2 million in the Individual Artist Fellowship program, which was authorized at the Council’s Annual Meeting last July. The categories for which New Jersey artists applied for awards this year include choreography, crafts, music composition, photography, playwriting/screenwriting, poetry, and sculpture.
“I am proud to work closely with the State Arts Council to support New Jersey’s arts sector,” said Secretary of State Tahesha Way. “And I am especially proud of the Council’s longstanding commitment to provide direct funding to the many talented, innovative artists who call New Jersey home. We know that kind of support is not available to artists in every state, and the fact that the Council has supported the Artist Fellowship program for over 50 years truly exemplifies the importance and value of our state’s artist community.”
To support the increased number of artists applying to the program, the Council has also developed a new level of awards, the Finalist Awards. These are given to those applicants who scored highly, but just below the cutoff to receive a Fellowship.
The meeting of the Council also included the announcement of $10,000 in funding to ArtPride New Jersey Foundation to support a new Compensation Data Survey. This study aims to provide greater insight into the salaries of arts workers in all artistic disciplines throughout the state and will be specifically designed for New Jersey’s arts sector. The detailed data gathered will be made available to all arts workers and employers in the field at no cost.
The New Jersey State Council on the Arts' Individual Artist Fellowship program is carried out in partnership with Mid Atlantic Arts. The Fellowship program is an anonymous process solely focused on artistic quality, and the awards can be used to support artists to produce new work and advance their careers. The awards are granted in rotating disciplines and are assessed by independent peer panels. The program has been supporting New Jersey artists for over 30 years, and this year's Fellowship cohort is the largest ever.
See the complete list of the 2023 Fellowship and Finalist Award recipients.
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