Visual Arts Center of NJ Awarded NEA Grant

The Visual Arts Center of New Jersey is proud to announce the receipt of a prestigious "Imagine Your Parks" grant award from the National Endowment for the Arts. The grant of $25,000.00 will support the residency and exhibition of artist Matthew Jensen who will bring 4 New Jersey landscapes to life in a museum setting. The Art Center is the only museum in New Jersey to be awarded an "Imagine Your Parks" grant, and only one of fifty-one "Parks" grants nationwide. "Imagine Your Parks" is a grant initiative from the National Endowment for the Arts created in partnership with the National Park Service to support projects that use the arts to engage people with memorable places and landscapes of the National Park System. Jensen, a 2016 Guggenheim Fellow, has exhibited at the Delaware Center for Contemporary Art, the Brandywine River Museum and the Brooklyn Museum of Art. His work is in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, the New York Public Library and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Jensen will spend 120-days exploring four northern New Jersey landscapes including the Passaic River waterway; Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge; Watchung Reservation and Gateway National Park, Sandy Hook Unit. His explorations begin as walks, and his resulting artwork integrates photography, sculpture, found materials and local history. By bringing visual traces of surrounding landscapes into a museum setting, his work fosters connections between our natural and cultural resources. The resulting exhibition, tentatively called Park Wonder, will be on view at the Art Center from April 17, 2017 through July 16, 2017. The exhibition will be accompanied by a full-color catalog. A number of programs, including artist-led walks and an Earth Day Celebration will take place in conjunction with the exhibition. Visitors will also be able to pick up detailed artist's guides that Jensen will create for each landscape. Jensen says, "The idea that you can pull contemporary art and really magical things out of well-known public spaces is what I love to showcase."

"We are thrilled to be able to bring the work of an artist of Matthew Jensen's caliber to the Art Center. The grant award from the National Endowment for the Arts has enabled us to undertake the Art Center's first long-term artist residency. The resulting exhibition will appeal not only to contemporary art lovers, but to anyone who is passionate about the environment around them," stated Melanie Cohn, Executive Director.

About the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey

For more than 80 years, the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey has been exclusively dedicated to viewing, making and learning about contemporary art. Recognized as a leading non-profit arts organization, the Art Center's renowned studio school, acclaimed exhibitions, and educational outreach initiatives serve thousands of youth, families, seniors and people with special needs every year.

The Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, 68 Elm Street, Summit, NJ. The Art Center was one of 51 organizations nationwide to receive an "Imagine Your Parks" grant award from the National Endowment for the Arts for its 2017 exhibition of the work of artist Matthew Jensen.

Artist Matthew Jensen explores arborglyphs (tree carvings) at the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge. Jensen's upcoming art exhibition at the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey featuring 4 NJ landscapes received an "Imagine Your Parks" grant award from the National Endowment for the Arts.