Arts New Brunswick kickoff event a success

By Jane Wolterding and Deborah Schulze

More than 150 people attended the official kickoff for Arts New Brunswick on July 11, 2012, at the Crossroads Theatre in downtown New Brunswick. The event attracted a wide variety of people from artists and creative professionals to municipal staff, elected officials, students, nonprofit professionals, educators and engaged residents. Open to the public, this community meeting served as a venue for discussing the role artists and the arts should play in economic, cultural and community development of New Brunswick.

After a half hour of networking and mingling among participants, the meeting began with a series of introductions from key figures involved in arts development in New Brunswick. 


Norma Kaplan, Executive Director of New Brunswick Cultural Center, and Jeffrey Vega, Executive Director of New Brunswick Tomorrow, made opening remarks and introductions, followed by an address from Mayor James Cahill of the City of New Brunswick.  The mayor emphasized the city’s support for the arts. 

Keynote speaker, Ben Cameron, Program Director for the Arts at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, gave an inspiring speech about the importance of the arts in social change and economic development. He set the tone for the rest of the event by emphasizing the power of arts to affect the social fabric of communities, as well as their economies, and the importance of partnerships and ‘elevated conversations’ to achieving long-standing impacts. His speech was greeted with a standing ovation from the audience. 

Then Leonardo Vazquez, Director of Arts Build Communities, took the stage to introduce the Arts New Brunswick planning initiative and lead a discussion on:

*How New Brunswick could become a better place for artists and the arts, and

*How the arts can help make New Brunswick a better place.

These questions elicited a  valuable feedback from audience members. Throughout the course of the meeting, several issues were raised including: the need for affordable housing and venues for artists; a centralized and well-maintained database of artists and events; free arts and cultural programming, performances, and events; and consistent and cohesive promotion and marketing to increase awareness among city residents, as well as to reach a wider audience of visitors. A common thread emerged tying all of these issues together: the desire of the community to establish the foundations and framework necessary for meaningful and inclusive collaboration between the creative sector and local residents, businesses, neighborhoods and government.

In response to how the arts can help New Brunswick, the answers were overwhelmingly positive. The arts were described as being a vital tool in building understanding across diverse groups of people; providing an ”experience” in today’s increasingly digitally-based world; providing a way for people of all ages to express themselves; and working directly in the community to come up with exciting solutions to social and economic problems.

Photos of guests by Zeledon Photography; photographs of speakers by Deborah Schulze