Established | 1901 |
---|---|
Dissolved | 2010 |
Location | Jersey City, New Jersey, United States |
Type | Art |
The Jersey City Museum was a municipal art museum in Jersey City, New Jersey, United States, which opened in 1901 in the main branch of the Jersey City Free Public Library. It relocated to a new building in 2001, but due to financial difficulties and discord with the city closed to the public in 2010. In 2018, the museum collection was donated to the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University.
In 2018, the Jersey City municipal government began the process of establishing a new museum in a historic building at Journal Square. It was expected to open as Centre Pompidou x Jersey City, a satellite museum of the Centre Pompidou, and exhibit works of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries from the Pompidou collection, but funding for the project was withdrawn by the state.
The Jersey City Museum dates back to 1901, when its collection was housed on the fourth floor of the Jersey City Free Public Library on Jersey Avenue, in the Van Vorst Park section of downtown. It closed in 1953 for lack of funding and re-opened in 1975. [1] Jersey City historian J. Owen Grundy served five times as the museum president. [2]
The collection remained under the aegis of the library until 1987, when the museum association initiated efforts for the founding of a separate nonprofit institution. [3] In 1993, the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency (JCRA) donated a building on Montgomery Street for display of the museum collection. [4]
The museum relocated to a new location (also in the Van Vorst Park section) in 2001. [5] The cream-colored brick building at 350 Montgomery Street, a former post office warehouse circa 1929, was renovated at the cost of $6.5 million, to become the museum's next location. [3] Designed by architect Charles Alling Gifford, the interior offered a modern space enhanced by a skylight lobby. The re-fitted building included several galleries, a 152-seat theater, museum offices, a classroom, and a gift shop. [6]
The stated mission of the museum was to serve the community by "maintaining, preserving, and interpreting the region's cultural heritage".[ citation needed ] In order to stimulate community participation in the visual arts and to reflect the cultural diversity of New Jersey, the museum gave special attention to the exhibition of contemporary art, and it recognized the visual artists residing in New Jersey and its metropolitan area.[ citation needed ] For example, the museum hosted the debut of a solo exhibition of the works of Priscila De Carvalho.[ citation needed ]
Due to financial difficulties and in danger of losing the building, the museum closed to the general public in December 2010, [7] amid speculation that it might not reopen. [8] [9] However, the building was purchased by the Jersey City Medical Center in February 2012 for partial use as offices, with the remaining space and theater dedicated to display of the museum collection that reopened in June, [10] [11] [12] but closed permanently soon thereafter. [13] A 2015 court ruling decided that the city government was not obligated to financially support the museum and that the collection belonged to the museum association. [14]
The museum's collection comprises American art and material culture from the colonial period through the present, including painting, sculpture, decorative arts, photography, works on paper, furniture, metals, textiles, maps, industrial objects, and ephemera. [15] It included works by contemporary artists David Wojnarowicz, Chakaia Booker, and Emma Amos, pieces by Colin Campbell Cooper, and a large body of work by nineteenth-century painter August Will. [16] [15]
In 2018, the museum collection (estimated between 5,000 to 10,000 works) was donated to the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University. [16]
In April 2016, the city government announced that it was considering purchasing the building at 25 Journal Square. The structure had been built in 1912 as part of the Public Service transportation hub for its streetcar lines. That corporation became known as Public Service Electric and Gas Company, whose transportation business became the nucleus of the NJ Transit bus network and the Newark City Subway. The building had been purchased in 1996 by Hudson County Community College, which renamed it to "Pathside". [17] The college used the building until 2017. [18] The city purchased the edifice through its redevelopment agency, JCRA, in 2018 [19] and, after an RFP, awarded Office of Metropolitan Architecture the commission to conceive and design a new space for a new Jersey City Museum. [20] [21]
In June 2021, the city announced that the Pathside building would be renovated for use as a satellite of the Centre Pompidou in Paris and called Centre Pompidou x Jersey City. [22] [23] [24] Under a five-year extendable contract, the renovated Pathside would house an exhibition of artworks from Centre Pompidou, following closure of the Paris museum for its three-year renovation. Renovations costs are estimated to be $30 million on top of the $9 million purchase price and would be largely funded by the state. [25] An opening in early 2024 was scheduled, with works of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries drawn from Pompidou's 120,000-piece collection. [26] [27] The opening date was later postponed to 2026. [25] New Jersey Republican Senator Michael Testa has accused the project of excess, waste, and potential pay-to-play, and requested an audit by the state. [28] [29] [30] [31] As of November 2023, expected operating costs have not been made public. [32] The New Jersey Economic Development Authority, which has earmarked $34 million for the project, has said it would not release the funds until yearly operating expenses were clarified. [33] In June 2024, the state withdrew financial support for the project, calling it no longer viable. [34]
The Centre Pompidou, more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou, also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of the 4th arrondissement of Paris, near Les Halles, rue Montorgueil, and the Marais. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of Richard Rogers, Su Rogers, Renzo Piano, along with Gianfranco Franchini.
Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark. It is the county seat of Hudson County, and is the county's most populous city and its largest. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's population was 292,449, an increase of 44,852 (+18.1%) from the 2010 census count of 247,597, in turn an increase of 7,542 (+3.1%) from the 240,055 enumerated at the 2000 census. The Population Estimates Program calculated a population of 291,657 for 2023, making it the 72nd-most populous municipality in the nation.
Union City is a city in the northern part of Hudson County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the city was the state's 18th-most-populous municipality, with a population of 68,589, an increase of 2,134 (+3.2%) from the 2010 census count of 66,455, which in turn had reflected a decline of 633 (−0.9%) from the 67,088 counted in the 2000 census. As of the 2010 Census, among cities with a population of more than 50,000, it was the most densely populated city in the United States, with a density of 54,138 per square mile of land. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 65,366 in 2022, ranking the city the 590th-most-populous in the country.
New Jersey City University (NJCU) is a public university in Jersey City, New Jersey. Originally chartered in 1927, NJCU consists of the School of Business, College of Arts and Sciences, College of Education, and College of Professional Studies and is part of New Jersey's public system of higher education. In 2022, it announced that it was severely reducing its academic offerings due to a budgetary crisis.
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Liberty State Park (LSP) is a park in the U.S. state of New Jersey, located on Upper New York Bay in Jersey City opposite Liberty Island and Ellis Island. The park opened in 1976 to coincide with bicentennial celebrations and is operated and maintained by the New Jersey Division of Parks and Forestry. Liberty State Park covers 1,212 acres (490 ha).
The Hudson–Bergen Light Rail (HBLR) is a light rail system in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. Owned by New Jersey Transit (NJT) and operated by the 21st Century Rail Corporation, it connects the communities of Bayonne, Jersey City, Hoboken, Weehawken, Union City, at the city line with West New York, and North Bergen.
Hudson County Community College (HCCC) is a public community college in Hudson County, New Jersey.
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Greenville is the southernmost section of Jersey City in Hudson County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.
Journal Square is a business district, residential area, and transportation hub in Jersey City, New Jersey, which takes its name from the newspaper Jersey Journal whose headquarters were located there from 1911 to 2013. The "square" itself is at the intersection of Kennedy Boulevard and Bergen Avenue. The broader area extends to and includes Bergen Square, McGinley Square, India Square, the Five Corners and parts of the Marion Section. Many local, state, and federal agencies serving Hudson County maintain offices in the district.
The Newark Public Library (NPL) is a public library system in Newark, New Jersey. The library system offers numerous programs and events to its diverse population. With eight different locations, the Newark Public Library serves as a Statewide Reference Center. The Newark Public Library is the public library system for the city of Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, United States. The library system boasts a collection of art and literature, art and history exhibits, a variety of programs for all ages. The library is home to author Philip Roth's collections.
Bayfront is an urban redevelopment project in Jersey City, New Jersey.
The Beacon is a mixed-use development located on a 14-acre (57,000 m2) site on Bergen Hill, a crest of the Hudson Palisades and one of the highest geographical points in Jersey City, Hudson County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The Beacon, which occupies the Jersey City Medical Center's rehabilitated original complex, creates the northeastern corner of the Bergen-Lafayette section and is just east of McGinley Square. The Beacon includes 2,000,000 square feet (190,000 m2) of residential and retail space, approximately 1,200 luxury residences and 80,000 square feet (7,400 m2) of retail space.
Martin Luther King Drive station is a station of the Hudson–Bergen Light Rail in the Jackson Hill neighborhood of Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey. Located on the east side of Martin Luther King Drive near the intersection with Virginia Avenue, the station is a two side platform, two track structure on the West Side Avenue branch of the Hudson–Bergen Light Rail. Train service through Martin Luther King Drive station goes from West Side Avenue in Jersey City to the Tonnelle Avenue station in North Bergen. The station is accessible for those with disabilities as part of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 with ramps to the train-level platform. Martin Luther King Drive station opened on April 15, 2000 along with the rest of the West Side Avenue branch as part of the original operating segment.
The Jersey City Armory is an armory for the U.S. Army National Guard at 678 Montgomery Street in the McGinley Square neighborhood in Jersey City, New Jersey. Completed in 1937, the armory was designed by chief architect General Hugh A. Kelly of the Jersey City firm of Kelly and Gruzen in the Beaux-Arts style. In addition to being a military training and mustering facility of the New Jersey National Guard, the WPA era armory has long been used as a sports arena, particularly for boxing, basketball, and track and field events, and more recently mixed martial arts.
The Bergen Section of Jersey City, New Jersey is the neighborhood on either side of Kennedy Boulevard between Saint Peter's College/ McGinley Square and Communipaw Avenue in the Bergen-Lafayette section of the city. The name Bergen, used throughout Hudson County, is taken from the original Bergen, New Netherland settlement at Bergen Square.
The Jersey City Free Public Library (JCFPL) is the municipal library system of Jersey City, New Jersey, serving the residents of Hudson County. The library was established in 1889, opened in 1891, and had its first dedicated building, the main library, by 1901. Numerous branches have since opened and as of 2023 there are nine throughout the city as well as a bookmobile. It has over a million physical and digital items its collection, making it the largest library system in the state.
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