Report To The Community 2021

A panel of executive
heavyweights — Debbie Dyson,
President of ADP National
Account Services; Charles
Lowrey, Chairman and CEO
of Prudential Financial; and
Tim Ryan, US Chair and Senior
Partner of PwC US — joined in
a conversation, led by CNBC’s
Sharon Epperson, on the role
of corporate initiatives in
advancing social justice.
“These Roundtables really
offered our Business Partners
unique access to some high
profile speakers, and a
resource for education and
employee engagement,”
says Valerie Blau, NJPAC’s
Corporate Giving Manager.
a new role
for the arts:
boosting wellbeing
In July, the Arts Center
announced a new facet of its
work, which will be incorporated
throughout its efforts in
2022: A new programming
vertical that leverages the
arts to increase individual
and community wellbeing.
The Horizon Foundation of
New Jersey, the charitable
arm of Newark-based Horizon
Blue Cross Blue Shield of
New Jersey — which has long
supported Arts Center programs
like the Horizon Foundation
Sounds of the City concert
series — made a $3 million
gift to support new wellness
programming both at NJPAC
itself and throughout Newark.
The new initiative is an
outgrowth of work NJPAC
began in recent years by
offering wraparound services
with some of its most popular
programs. The Arts Center
began integrating social workers
into its arts education efforts
a few years ago, as NJPAC’s
Maker-model classes prompted
children to talk about, and make
art out of, their lived experiences.
Co-locating these mental health
services with arts education
was incredibly successful, and
the team of social workers from
the Mental Health Association,
funded by the Healthcare
Foundation of New Jersey, is
now fully integrated into NJPAC’s
classes and summer camps.
Similarly, nutritionists from
RWJBarnabas Health have
become a vital part of the Arts
Center’s Wellness Wednesdays
community dance classes.
Pre-pandemic, they offered
smoothies and nurturing snacks
after in-person events; as the
classes became virtual, they
segued into offering nutrition
tips, and demonstrating
healthy recipes prior to
Zoom dance classes.
Throughout 2021, NJPAC worked
with a consultant, Alyson Maier
of the University of Florida
Center for Arts in Medicine,
who has integrated the arts
into medical settings at a range
of healthcare organizations,
to identify other ways to
expand arts programming
paired with wellness.
Among the possibilities: Arts and
aging programs, to capitalize
on research that shows the
arts can counteract mental
health challenges facing elders
arts programming in health
care settings, ranging from
jazz performances in hospitals
to professional development
workshops for healthcare
providers on how to integrate
the arts into their practices;
“social prescribing,” which
offers healthcare professionals
the opportunity to prescribe a
performance or an arts class
for clients’ health; and health
education theater, which offers
performances that convey
vital health information. The
Arts Center has already
experimented with this; NJPAC’s
production of SLUT: The Play,
staged in 2018, offered Newark
students insight on issues from
bullying to sexual abuse.
“Both this partnership with
the Horizon Foundation, and
our upcoming arts education
and community center, the
Cooperman Center, will create
new opportunities for our
community to access health
information and services that
reinforce the work of our fellow
anchor institutions in Newark,”
says John Schreiber. •
“NJPAC’s partnership with the Horizon
Foundation, and our upcoming arts
education and community center, the
Cooperman Center, will create new
opportunities for our community to
access health information and services
that reinforce the work of our fellow
anchor institutions in Newark.”
— John Schreiber
The Horizon Foundation of New Jersey
made a $3 million gift to support new
wellness programming both at NJPAC itself
and throughout Newark.
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