Northern NJ Community Foundation Announces Call For Artists For Creative Hackensack's 'Demarest Place Walkway Mural'

The Northern New Jersey Community Foundation's (NNJCF) ArtsBergen initiative announces a call for artists for Creative Hackensack's "Demarest Place Walkway Mural" in Hackensack, New Jersey. ArtsBergen, an initiative of the Hackensack-based NNJCF, is working with the Hackensack Main Street Alliance's Creative Arts Team (CAT) to select an artist and/or artist team to design and paint a mural at 135 Main Street on the corner of Demarest Place in the city. Applications are due Friday, July 6, 2018.

Demarest Place is a unique pedestrian walkway, crossing Main Street, between the Atlantic Street bus stop and the Hackensack Performing Arts Center (HACPAC). This year, the CAT's focus is to activate the site through the arts via a large-scale mural. Alexander Anderson Real Estate Group granted permission to use the north side wall of its building at 135 Main Street located on the corner of Demarest Place.

The Hackensack CAT is a group of artists, merchants, organizational leaders and public officials collaborating to implement a creative placemaking plan for the City of Hackensack. Creative placemaking integrates arts and culture into a neighborhood, town, or region to build community and livability and boost the local economy. The "Demarest Place Walkway Mural" is among several projects the CAT has identified to implement the Creative Vision Statement developed with input from various members and sectors of the community.

Community Input

The project developed from outcomes of the Hackensack Strategy Lab, a joint initiative of the National Consortium for Creative Placemaking and the Northern New Jersey Community Foundation's ArtsBergen initiative, held at Demarest Place on October 17, 2017. Residents of Hackensack and the surrounding communities brainstormed ideas of art, physical elements and cultural programming to create an enlivened, beautified public walkway to serve as an attractive gateway to Main Street from the bus terminal and the HACPAC.

The mural project's goals are to:

• make Demarest Place more vibrant and attractive to both pedestrians walking from the bus station to Main Street and theater goers traveling from the HACPAC to Main Street;
• inform a future permanent design of the pedestrian walkway at Demarest Place;
• beautify and characterize the community of Hackensack by incorporating public art into ordinary elements of the city;?
• engage and delight passersby, residents, theater-goers, transit riders, and visitors; ?
• endorse arts and culture, as a powerful tool to transform, connect, and serve the City of Hackensack; and
• provide art-based work opportunities for local artists that showcase their work via public outlets. ?

NNJCF's ArtsBergen is recruiting the artists, managing the submission process and working with its partners to implement the project. Applicants must be at least 18 years of age to apply and either work or live in New Jersey. A committee will select the artists based on creativity of design and fresh interpretation of the theme, experience, artistic excellence, and presentation of the application.

"This project is a great opportunity for the selected artist to showcase his/her creative vision on the wall of a prominent building that can be seen from Main Street. The mural will be viewed by hundreds of passers-by from the Performing Arts Center and the bus station," said Danielle De Laurentis, Associate Director, Northern New Jersey Community Foundation.

Application

Complete details about the theme, scope of work, design criteria, compensation, timeline, application requirements, and an application are available at https://www.nnjcf.org/call-to-artists-demarest-place-walkway-mural-2018/. Selected artists will be notified if their design has been accepted. For further information, contact NNJCF's ArtsBergen at artsbergen@nnjcf.org or 201-568-5608.

Learn more about the Main Street Business Alliance on the organization's web site at uppermain.org. Follow Creative Hackensack and the Hackensack Creative Arts Team on Facebook for updates about events and activities at www.facebook.com/CreativeHackensack/.

About Northern New Jersey Community Foundation

Founded in 1998, the Northern New Jersey Community Foundation (NNJCF), a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization based in Hackensack, New Jersey, focuses primarily on civic engagement, education, public health, the environment, philanthropy, and the arts. NNJCF works with local governments, school districts, businesses, non-profit organizations, and citizen groups in Northern New Jersey to improve community life. The Foundation's partners identify and resolve regional problems and opportunities by talking and learning from each other and sharing ideas, best practices, services, and resources.

For more information about the Foundation, visit www.nnjcf.org, send an email to nnjcf@nnjcf.org, or call (201) 568-5608. Follow the NNJCF on Facebook at Northern NJ Community Foundation/ArtsBergen and Twitter @NNJCF.

About Northern NJ Community Foundation's ArtsBergen Initiative

ArtsBergen, an initiative of the Northern NJ Community Foundation, is an emerging arts alliance in Bergen County, New Jersey supports and encourages creative placemaking, the practice of integrating arts and culture into a neighborhood, town, or region to build community and livability and boost local economy. The initiative's mission is to energize and unify artists and arts organizations and connect the Bergen County community to the arts. For more information about the initiative, visit www.nnjcf.org/artsbergen/ .

About Hackensack Main Street Alliance

Established in 2004, the Hackensack Main Alliance is a public private partnership between the business community and the City of Hackensack. The organization's mission is to address the issues facing the business community with the goal of improving the local economy and the City's overall business climate. Since its inception, the Upper Main Alliance has provided Main Street with aesthetic improvements, clean and green programs, merchant grants, and marketing.

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