The Senate Budget & Appropriations Committee heard testimony on Tuesday June 24 regarding S2670, which is the Senate version of A3710, the hotel motel occupancy tax. Jeff Woodward provided testimony on behalf of ArtPRIDE and the Advocates for NJ History. He also testified last Thursday in support of A3710. Several ArtPRIDE members were in attendance at both hearings including Mary Sue Price of the Newark Museum, Larry Goldman and Jeff Norman of NJ Performing Arts Center, Mark Packer of Appel Farm Arts & Music Center, John McEwen of the NJ Theatre Alliance and Alan Willoughby of Perkins Center for the Arts. David Cowell represented the Advocates for NJ History.

The Senate Committee’s vote fell along party lines 6-6, so the bill was held. (A3710 passed in the Assembly Budget Committee similarly along party lines). We were informed that the vote was taken to record opposition to any proposed revenue enhancement.

ArtPRIDE had the opportunity in testimony to thank all the legislators who were co sponsors of the bill and to personally thank Assemblyman Roberts for his leadership role. The budget remains unresolved and while opposition to revenue enhancements remains, arts and history funding is in dire jeopardy. The deadline for the legislature to present a budget for signing by the Governor is July 1.

It is crucial that you register your support for a budget that includes both restored funding for the grant programs of the NJ State Council on the Arts, NJ Historical Commission and NJ Cultural Trust, and appropriations that will provide operational support for these agencies as well as the revenue sources that support that budget. A budget that proposes significant cuts across the board places arts and history funding in dire jeopardy. Call your legislators today—contact info is at www.artpridenj.comalong with talking points on A3710 and S2670.

The Road to Monmouth Heritage Campaign will celebrate New Jersey's role during the crucial summer of 1778 when the British Army retreated across the State on its way to New York City.

For two weeks, the great armies of the Revolution battled from the Delaware to the Atlantic, culminating at the Battle of Monmouth on June 28, 1778. During the 225th Anniversary of the Monmouth Campaign, the two armies will once again traverse New Jersey, from Camden and Lambertville on the Delaware, across the State, and to the Raritan River and Sandy Hook.

Living historians, portraying the British Army, will fight their way each day from Haddonfield to Allentown and then on to Monmouth Battlefield. George Washington's route through central New Jersey will be commemorated with the General, plus his Life Guard and dragoons, entering each village as he did two hundred and twenty-five years ago. One week later, the American Army celebrates independence while the British evacuate Sandy Hook.

On June 12, thirteen students from 12 different NJ counties presented Secretary of State Regena L. Thomas with over 20,000 postcards, petitions and letters from residents of New Jersey who are concerned about proposed cultural funding cutbacks.

In addition to the postcards, letters and petitions, artwork by students throughout the state was presented to Secretary Thomas. ArtPRIDE also generated over 10,000 virtual postcards/emails to the Governor and state legislature in support of the NJ State Council on the Arts, NJ Historical Commission and the NJ Cultural Trust.

“If the intent was to stop art in New Jersey, the proposed cuts have had the opposite effect,” continued Woodward. “Thousands of children wrote poems, painted pictures and expressed themselves in myriad creative ways when they heard the arts in New Jersey were being threatened. They delivered these very personal works of art directly to the Secretary of State.”

Students who participated in the event were:

On June 25, the NJ Symphony held its 8th Annual Community Partners Concert sponsored by First Union National Bank at Prudential Hall of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. This year’s concert featuring Roberta Flack raised over $80,000 for over 50 area non-profit organizations including Big Brothers, Big Sisters Metro Region, Communities in Schools of Newark, Inc., El Club de Barrio, Inc., Goodwill Rescue Mission, Inc., Habitat for Humanity Newark, United Way Community Services Council, Positive Health Care, Inc., Prevent Child Abuse NJ, YWCA of Essex & West Hudson, and Coalition of 100 Black Women, NJ among others.

Congratulations to the NJ Symphony Orchestra and its Community Partners—yet another great example of how the arts work with and serve social service groups around the state.