Conference Overview

On April 7th and 8th the Governor’s Conference on the Arts: “Great Things Begin with Vision,” sponsored by the The New Jersey State Council on the Arts, in partnership with the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the New Jersey Network Foundation, the New Jersey Theatre Alliance, and the ArtPRIDE New Jersey Foundation, was attended by about 250 participants in Trenton at the NJN Studios and other local arts organizations.

In preparation for the conference, over the past year, leaders from an wide array of fields and professions came together to work on different theme areas. Click here to see a list of “Theme Team” members. The Theme Teams reviewed the original Arts Plan and worked diligently to outline goals, objectives, strategies, partnerships, performance measures and value statements in each of five established theme areas: arts education, artists services, arts access and participation, community and economic development through the arts, and technology and the arts. Each of these “theme teams” crafted a consensus report which provided the substance and architecture of the conference. Click here to see theme team reports and an overview of them.

In addition, a sixth team was formed to help us understand what New Jersey’s arts community must look like to meet future challenges and be more valued by our diverse population. This Team created six Proposition Statements that framed the conference. Click here for the Proposition Statements.

The Governor's conference brought all these diverse teams together to meet with the arts community. Almost 250 conference participants came from the arts, history and humanities communities and leaders from all the many fields to which the arts have something important to offer in improving New Jersey’s quality of life attended. These include education, tourism, economic and community development, health care, libraries, faith-based groups, social services, business and industry, state and local government and more.

The aim of the conference was to build consensus about ways to strengthen the arts, build partnerships with other fields and together incorporate them into all aspects of New Jersey’s civic life. The consensus reports, along with input garnered from constituent meetings and other roundtables over the last year, will lead to a draft of the reshaped Arts Plan NJ in late September 2005. In the fall of 2005, the draft will be publicaly vetted at Town Meetings around the state, arts community convenings, as well as focus groups of diverse constituencies. From it will come a reshaped Arts Plan, a resource for all who would harness the power of the arts to transform New Jersey. The new Plan will be adopted by the Governor in the winter of 2006.

Click here to see the Conference Agenda including workshop leaders.

Click here to see Conference Highlights from Jersey Arts E-News.

Click here to see the Consensus Reports for the Conference.

Click here to see the Overview and the six Proposition Statements.

Click here to see the Theme Teams that created the Consensus Reports.