PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The arts community in New Jersey has taken a major hit because of the pandemic. Now an effort is underway to shore up support for struggling nonprofit and for profit venues.
It's called "Keep Jersey Arts Alive," a partnership between the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the ArtPride New Jersey Foundation. Through their website, they encourage donations, connect organizations to legislators, and provide grants to those in the struggling arts community, for profit and nonprofit alike.
The pandemic has cost the arts institutions in New Jersey over $30 million in lost revenue, according to Ann Marie Miller, director of advocacy and public policy for ArtPride. As she explained, a wide range of people are affected by the shutdown of galleries, theaters, museums and dance studios.
"22,000-30,000 jobs, depending upon who you're counting, for profit and non-profit, and over a million children being educated through arts education each year," she said. "Arts organizations are working with minimal staff. They are rethinking how much staff they really need to keep active in a limited manner."
The long term effect, Miller said, is grim.
"For New Jersey, 53% of the organizations don't expect to survive this," she warned.
The shutdown has shed $30 million in revenue for the arts, and another $662 million that it contributes to the state's economy, according to Miller. But she said technology is helping to generate some money across the arts community.
"Many arts organizations are very active online, so with the minimal stuff that they have, they are still doing programming and many organizations are running virtual fundraisers."
