Four more sessions to learn about Jersey City Arts and Culture Trust Fund grant applications

There are four more training sessions for the Jersey City Arts and Culture Trust Fund Grant Application. The fund supplies three grants -- general operating, program and arts education or individual artist fellowship – the general idea is to support Jersey City residents who put on artistic programming that benefits city residents.

This deadline to apply is 5 p.m. on Feb. 18.

Art is subjective; it can be part of big ideals, but it’s easier to create when you either come from the kind of place that’s the complete opposite of redlined, which defines “old” Jersey City, or the easier, safer, healthier new Jersey City, so tethered to its business districts and more fortunate city residents who pay ridiculous prices to be there.

Only the safest milquetoast art doesn’t challenge some of that (not as some checkmark, either); and when “general” art at the very least is close in proximity to art that does, how milquetoast can it be?

It’s much harder for people who aren’t on secure ground to genuinely challenge anything. But if it’s for the public good, on top of just ignoring whatever sense of impostor syndrome stops people from thinking they need to be artists with a capital A, you can try to put some words together for your application that go outside the box of what typically benefits city residents.

In an interview, Sheena She, then of the Chainsaw and Jelly radio show, said:

“In the end, when a community doesn’t stand up, or – for lack of better words – want to take care of their neighborhood, gentrification happens. Someone else comes in to clean up the mess. We all play a part somehow. The non-gentrification parts of Newark and Jersey City are the same, definitely. Neighborhoods are forgotten but the gems are the people that try their hardest to keep it as best as they can.”

In Jersey City this is complicated by how even a neighborhood with civic infrastructure can be gentrified by financial titans. But the point stands, if you took care of it, if you still take care of it while lost behind redlines, this city was built on you. If it hasn’t taken care of you, demand more of it in all quarters. Arts and otherwise.

The four sessions on Jersey City Art Fund grants are Feb. 8, in Ward E at City Hall, 280 Grove St.; Feb. 10, Five Corners Library at 678 Newark Ave., 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.; Feb. 13, at the Statuary, 53 Congress St., 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.; and on Feb. 14th the power hour budget session, 12 p.m.

For more information or to apply for a grant visit https://bit.ly/3PUAoUy.

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.