Founded in
1909, the Newark Museum is the largest art and education museum in the state of
New Jersey, serving more than 400,000 children, adults and families through exemplary
exhibitions and innovative school and public programs onsite, offsite and
online. The Museum’s collections have achieved national and
international renown in areas such as American painting and sculpture;
decorative arts; the arts of Africa, the Americas and the Pacific; Asian art,
including the most important collection of Tibetan art in the West; classical
art; the Victorian-era National Historic Landmark Ballantine House; and the
largest natural science collection in NJ, which is showcased in the Victoria
Hall of Science. Additional facilities and resources include the new Makerspace
at the Newark Museum, which features cutting edge, hands-on technology that
highlights the art/science nexus; the Alice and Leonard Dreyfuss Planetarium,
which utilizes the latest digital technology to engage young people in space
science; SKYLAB, a traveling digital planetarium; the Margaret Chubb Parsons
Learning Lab; the Newark Fire Museum; and the 1784 Old Stone Schoolhouse.
Unique in its historic
commitment to community access, the Museum devotes a substantial portion of its
facilities to youth and family programs and school-based education, including
guided tours, lecture series, weekend drop-in workshops, family festivals,
dance and music performances and special events. The Museum’s audience, which
represents the city of Newark, surrounding counties and the greater
metropolitan region, is economically and ethnically diverse and reflects the
character of the New Jersey/New York region. Each year, more than 80,000
children, families and adults participate in year-round public education
initiatives that include public programs for adults and children, and more than
60 different onsite and school outreach programs for students from Pre-K
through 12th grade.