Arts Council Honors Twenty New Jersey Artists

The New Jersey State Council on the Arts held its first regular meeting of 2015 yesterday at the Mayo Performing Arts Center which provided a fitting backdrop for the Council's 18th Annual Artists Roundtable. The event featured New Jersey artists of all disciplines who convened and exchanged information on a host of important issues of particular interest to individual artists in the state.

To emphasize the importance of artists in the life of every New Jersey community, the Arts Council used the occasion to announce the winners of the 2015 Artist Fellowship Awards in the following categories: Crafts, Photography, and Playwriting.

"We are extremely proud of these talented artists." said Council Chair Elizabeth Mattson. "They represent the best of the best of our state's diverse and dynamic artistic community."

These highly competitive Artist Fellowship Awards are granted solely on the basis of independent peer panel assessment of the artistic quality taken from work samples submitted by individual New Jersey artists. The Fellowship Awards program is carried out in partnership with the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation. More information on the program can be found on the State Arts Council's website.

According to Executive Director Nick Paleologos, "New Jersey has one of the longest and most distinguished records of support for individual artists anywhere in the country."

In other business, the Council also released some highlights of a forthcoming report on the impact of the creative economy in New Jersey. The ten year study was the first major product of the National Consortium for Creative Placemaking-a co-sponsored initiative of the Arts Council and PlanSmart NJ-and examines key trends in the creative sectors of both the New Jersey and the US economy between 2002 and 2012.