Report To The Community 2022

eunions
revelations
and
the leading ladies of
women@njpac
“Women have a multiplier
effect,” said Faith Taylor,
President of Women@NJPAC,
at the group’s Leading Ladies
gathering in December.
“Everything we do, everything
we engage in, we multiply
its effect through our
friends, our families, our
children, our networks.”
Celebrating the ways that
women amplify any enterprise
was a theme running through
a year’s worth of events the
group produced, including
that December panel, where
half a dozen members shared
glimpses of their communityimpacting
work. Two-time
cancer survivor Deb Belfatto
discussed hosting Let’s Talk,
a women’s health conference
at NJPAC. Restaurateur and
developer Adenah Bayoh
discussed her mission to
create affordable housing.
“I grew up in affordable housing,
and I knew the impact that had
on my family,” she said. “If not for
affordable housing, we wouldn’t
have had a roof over our heads.”
That event also featured
leading ladies of NJPAC’s own
staff — Jennifer Tsukayama,
Vice President, Arts Education;
Chelsea Keys, Senior Director,
Strategic Initiatives; Rosa Hyde,
Senior Director, Arts Education
Performances and Special
Events; Aly Maier Lokuta, Senior
Director, Arts and Well-Being;
Eyesha Marable, Assistant
Vice President, Community
Engagement; and Vicky Revesz,
Senior Director of Operations
for Arts Education — discussing
their roles at the Arts Center.
“Our work is rooted in our
belief in the extraordinary
power of the arts — and our
belief that we’re all in this
together,” said Tsukayama.
Other Women@NJPAC events
ranged from educational
to simply celebratory:
At December’s Jazz and
Gingerbread, families decorated
gingerbread houses donated
by Community FoodBank of
NJ while listening to holiday
favorites courtesy of TD
Jazz for Teens students.
At Showrunners: Women
Who Power the Arts, a
panel discussion with
women executives leading
arts organizations in new
directions — including Brooklyn
Academy of Music president
emerita Karen Brooks Hopkins,
National Black Theatre CEO
Sade Lythcott and Linda
Harrison, Director and CEO of
the Newark Museum of Art — the
conversation turned to ways
that women in leadership roles
can promote social justice.
“We’re not only in the business
of supporting artists of color,
we’re in the business of human
transformation,” said Lythcott.
Women@NJPAC also
co-presented a PSEG True
Diversity Film Series event, built
around the film Not Done:
Women Remaking America, and
supported a Business Partners
Roundtable featuring Megan
Myungwon Lee, Chairwoman
and CEO of Panasonic
Corporation of North America.
In May, the Women@NJPAC
Spring Luncheon & Auction
returned as an in-person
event, welcoming more than
500 guests to hear from iconic
beauty expert and cosmetics
entrepreneur Bobbi Brown
and Jessica Cruel, Editor in
Chief of Allure. Brown, who
at 64 launched her second
cosmetics company, Jones Road
Beauty, talked about starting a
business at an age when some
are contemplating retirement.
“I just don’t feel my age,” she said.
The sold-out extravaganza
was a smashing success
as a fundraiser, taking in
a record $350,000 for Arts
Education and Community
Engagement programs. •
“Women have a multiplier
effect. Everything we do,
everything we engage in,
we multiply its effect through
our friends, our families, our
children, our networks.”
– Faith Taylor
Clockwise from top: Bobbi Brown and
Jessica Cruel at the Spring Luncheon &
Auction; Business Partners Roundtable
speaker Megan Myungwon Lee;
Showrunners, a panel discussion with women
executives leading arts organizations in new
directions; Jazz and Gingerbread, a familyfriendly
event hosted by Women@NJPAC;
featured panelists at the 2022 Leading
Ladies gathering; PSEG True Diversity Film
Series panelists at an event built around the
film Not Done: Women Remaking America.
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