2 Red Bank Arts Groups Get Grants To Help Recover From Pandemic

RED BANK, NJ — Two borough-based arts organizations have received grant funding to help them recover from the pandemic.

The New Jersey Arts and Culture Recovery Fund (NJACRF) Tuesday announced the award of $1.3 million in grants to more than 60 nonprofits across the state, including Jazz Arts Projects and Phoenix Productions, both of Red Bank.

Jazz Arts Projects "presents, performs, educates and preserves the important legacy, influence and role of jazz music in all its forms," according to its website. It does so through local, regional and statewide performances, educational workshops and youth programs.

Phoenix Productions is a nonprofit community theater organization founded in 1988.

The funds are part of the second round of grants awarded by NJACRF, which is hosted by the Princeton Area Community Foundation. Earlier this year, the fund provided $2.6 million in grants to more than 100 other arts, culture and historical nonprofits statewide.

NJACRF was established last year in response to the devestating the COVID-19 pandemic had on the arts community. The state’s nonprofit arts industry reported pandemic-related losses of more than $100 million as of December, according to NJACRF.

The fund began with a gift from the Toms River-based Grunin Foundation, and has raised a total of over $4.5 million for the state's arts community.

The Fund is chaired by Jeremy Grunin, President of the Grunin Foundation, and Sharnita C. Johnson, Program Director – Arts, of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, and members include Prudential Foundation, Stone Foundation of NJ, E. J. Grassmann Trust, NJ State Council on the Arts, and the NJ Historical Commission.