NJPAC is the anchor cultural institution for the city of Newark, just a short NJ Transit Train ride away from Manhattan. A nonprofit arts organization, NJPAC delights audiences with world-class performances, nurtures students through their comprehensive arts education programs, and engage their community with free cultural events across the city.

The Arts Center had been a dream that New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean proposed in 1986. Kean spent a full decade convincing politicians, businessmen and Jerseyans of all stripes that the state needed a magnificent concert hall, a Garden State answer to New York City's Lincoln Center. Remarkably, thanks to the devotion of an enormous number of supporters, today NJPAC has lived up to its ambitious mission, and even expanded on Kean's vision. The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater make a home on their stages, which are also visited by performers ranging from Yo-Yo Ma to Stephen Colbert and Gilberto Santa Rosa.