Jersey City Arts Awards
The Jersey City Arts Awards recognize some of the creative artists and organizations at the forefront of our arts community. Each year, the JCAC selects local artists from a wide range of categories that have done exceptional work through their medium and had an outsized impact on the community. And we use this as a chance to throw a big ol’ party!
This year we asked awardees to submit an Acceptance Statement on behalf of their award. Check out each Acceptance Statements below.
Thanks to the Sponsors of the 2022 Jersey City Arts Awards!
2022 Jersey City Arts Awards Winners
Arts Education Award: Jersey City Art School
Jersey City Art School has been a staple of the Jersey City downtown community for the last 13 years. In that time the school has had thousands of students, currently averaging 50+ artists in and out the door per week and 10 studio tenants. The school was started by Thomas John Carlson and set up in a storefront to teach classes out of 326 Fifth Street. The following year the school also started renting 313 Third Street; this space was subdivided into artist studios. There was a demand for artist space in 2010 and this model was pitched to several developers over the years following.
JCAS directly set up art studios at 135 Erie Street (which is now Elevator), and managed it until the end of 2021. JCAS took the spaces on the 4th floor of the building in 2011, transforming empty dorm rooms that once belonged to Saint Francis, which closed in the early 2000s. JCAS expanded to the 5th floor in 2019 and the 3rd floor in 2021. The school moved to Hamilton park in 2010 on the corner of 9th and McWilliams. Classes moved to 313 Third Street in 2021. Additionally JCAS has also setup studios above the Jersey City Theater Company's space above the Monaco Lock Company.
Acceptance statement: “Thanks for recognizing the cultural impact that JCAS has created.”
Arts Organization Award: Art Fair 14C
Art Fair 14C is a visual arts nonprofit that began as an initiative of the Jersey City Arts Council. 14C’s four-fold mission is to increase opportunities for artists, expand public access to fine art, strengthen careers in the visual arts, and activate under-recognized arts communities – and it all comes together each year in the annual art fair.
This year’s 4th Edition was the largest and most ambitious yet, held at the enormous Jersey City Armory with nearly 150 exhibition spaces. In 2023 Art Fair 14C will expand beyond Jersey City with satellite fairs in Monmouth County and Brooklyn as well as the 5th Edition fair in Jersey City in November.
Although fair programming is the centerpiece of Art Fair 14C, support for the entire visual arts ecosystem continues throughout the year.
Acceptance statement: “The arts are not an amenity, they deserve proper remuneration.”
Film & TV Award: Look, Don’t Touch
Look, Don’t Touch is an emerging art variety series that bridges the gap between artist and audience - aiming to make contemporary art and creative practices accessible for a broad audience. Their mission is to heighten audiences' curiosity and taste as they explore topics related to how we consume and formulate perspectives around visual art. Although the art industry is popularized through our ever growing consumption of entertainment and media, the industry still struggles with gatekeeping and inaccessibility. This show fills a gap necessitated by a demand for an accessible entry into the contemporary art world. As the industry constantly grows and changes, the show sheds light on trends, education, insider insights, quirky relatable segments, artist highlights, competitions, games, and more.
Look, Don't Touch is produced by TRG Studios and distributed by Private Arcade which is located at Mana Contemporary in Jersey City. They started in the heat of the pandemic in 2021 as a collective group of artists that leverage their strengths in their respective fields to pioneer a show in a way that would appeal to artists and the masses. Their platform has since evolved into a means of amplifying artists' voices and specialties while carving out spaces for them to grow and be seen. They strive to make a continuous impact and to influence their viewership as they create a vast art community. Through programming, events, and special partnerships, they're able to touch both our local and greater digital communities at scale.
Acceptance statement: “Be a platform to amplify people's voices & passions.”
Leadership Award: Bryant Small
Bryant Small is an award winning artist and curator who lives in Jersey City and balances an Advertising Technology and Media career in New York City. Bryant serves as an adjunct professor in St. Elizabeth’s University’s (Morristown, NJ) Art Department Faculty. Bryant is also Co-President of Pro Arts Jersey City, an organization that represents the professional artist community, locally and abroad. In addition, Bryant serves as a mentor and "art family" to many artists throughout the country.
Bryant has been an Independent Curator for numerous galleries and Art event spaces throughout the New York, New Jersey and Washington, D.C. areas. For several seasons, Bryant served as guest curator for Bridge Art Gallery’s premier annual exhibition “Expressive Creative Soul,” exclusively featuring BIPOC artists from around the country.
As an artist, Bryant has a love of culture, color and all things sparkling. In his art, he loves to toe the line of free abstraction with vibrant color blending and pushing beyond pretty. His Alcohol Ink pieces are free flowing, unpredictable, and levitate from the page.
Recognized as a Conception Arts Global Art Collective 2020 and 2017 Award For Excellence Winner, and selected as one of International Art Market Magazine’s Gold List of Top Emerging Contemporary Artists, Bryant has shown his work in several collective and individual shows throughout the U.S. and has pieces that are part of Private Collections around the Globe. He lives by the words: “Broken Crayons Still Color... and a little glitter and sparkle NEVER hurt anybody!” Bryant is constantly creating and being inspired and sharing his work daily on Instagram.
Acceptance statement: “Be Intentional. Be Bold. Be Fiercely Kind. And Love Hard.”
Legacy Award: John Ruddy
John Ruddy’s art is eye-catching. Bright colors, strong lines, and striking figures. The boldness of his work draws you in initially, sets its hooks in you, until the complexity and details layered within each composition are revealed.
John was a traveler, and his curiosity about diverse stories, aesthetics, mythologies, and spiritual practices is woven through his art. He was generous with his creativity and a champion for the local arts community. He cofounded 660 Studios, worked with the Jersey City Art & Studio Tours, created multiple murals, and showed at numerous galleries, including 58 Gallery, Grassroots, The Raven, Art House Productions, and more.
John’s commitment to the community was also seen in his career. He was a Battalion Chief, serving in the Jersey City Fire Department for 28 years. He was kind, open, and quick to laugh. And he was deeply dedicated to his family, especially his beloved daughter and wife.
Tragically, John passed away last year, at far too young an age, but his impact and legacy are still felt strongly in Jersey City.
Literary Arts Award: Anisa Rahim
Anisa Rahim is a writer, photographer and public interest lawyer. Her hybrid memoir, American Meo: A Tale of Remembering and Forgetting, is forthcoming from Sputyen Duyvil Press in 2023. This work combines poetry, prose and photography to tell a story of migration and family history and was long listed for in the Nonfiction category for the 2019 [PANK] Book Contest. Her poems have been published in the anthology New Moons: Contemporary Writing by North American Muslims, edited by Kazim Ali (Red Hen Press), Kissing Dynamite’s anthology PUNK and elsewhere.
Since 2014, she has been a resident of Jersey City when she started her MFA in Creative Writing at Rutgers-Newark while working as an attorney at Legal Services of New Jersey which provides free legal representation to indigent New Jerseyans. Since that time, she has benefitted from the rich cultural life of Jersey City through the vibrant community of Jersey City Writers and particularly the Jersey City Poetry Plums workshop.
Her forthcoming memoir was built on an exhibition spanning 20 years of photographs at the Casa Colombo Art Gallery in 2017 called “Gurgaon Utopia.” In 2020, she was an Artist in Residence at SMUSH Gallery where she produced and exhibited the series “One Night” inspired by the annual Navtratri dance festival in Journal Square and which was featured in NJ.com.
Acceptance statement: “Thank you, shukriyah, Jersey City art lovers and beautiful artists.”
Performing Arts Award: Winard Harper
Winard Harper is internationally distinguished in his generation of musicians by his commitment to the delicate balance between the respectability of tradition, spirit of innovation, and emphasis on the passion, energy, and spirituality of the music that has historically defined Jazz at its finest. As both a performer and natural teacher, his ability to succinctly quantify and communicate that which matters is a trademark. As an internationally respected recording artist and performer, Winard is acclaimed for his eloquence and energy. He has been exploring the African rhythms of his forebears, and listeners will find many musical allusions to that influence in his work. The drummer is also noted for his mastery of the balaphone, and his abilities on the cymbals, which under his sensitive hand become an outstanding solo instrument all their own. Winard is the founder of The Harper Brothers, bandleader of a sextet and his current and long standing The Jeli Posse. He’s a featured educator in multiple Jazz clinics and workshops, is Senior Adjunct Faculty at NJCU, and is widely regarded for his ability to enlighten and inspire those within his scope of influence by his example and experience. Sought after as a collaborator for musical sensibilities and professional conduct, he has appeared regularly with some of the greatest names in Jazz of our time.
Acceptance statement: “Jazz is a democracy.”
Public Art Award: WERE HERE JC
WERE HERE JC is a collaborative endeavor by artists Duquann Sweeney and Jin Jung. Their goal is to spotlight the people's history of Jersey City, and to do that they’ve put up handmade plaques around the city to commemorate important yet unacknowledged people and places. They believe that shared knowledge of our own history can make a positive change in our community.
Duquann Sweeney is a self-taught photographer born and raised in Jersey City. Sweeney is also the founder of The Royal Men Foundation, a non-profit organization that was founded in 2012. As a photographer, Duquann is a part of a long list of Black photographers that carry a tradition of photographing Black communities showing the dignity and beauty within them. In 2021, Duquann had his first solo exhibition at Hoboken Historical Museum/Upper Gallery.
Jin Jung (b. 1981, Seoul) is a visual artist living and working in Jersey City. Trained as an architect at the Rhode Island School of Design, Jung worked as a designer in NYC before attending MIT for her Master's degree. Since then, she has worked as an artist assistant to world-renowned artist Lawrence Weiner until his recent passing and continues to work with pioneering performance, video, and installation artist Joan Jonas. After many years of focusing on her work in exhibition design installing shows at institutions like Dia Beacon, MoMA, Haus der Kunst, and the Tate, Jung returned to her artmaking in 2019. She makes sculptural objects, videos, performances, environments, and art in public spaces that often involve playful social intervention. Jin Jung received a 2022 Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and a 2022 Individual Artist Fellowship from the Jersey City Arts Council.
Acceptance statement: “We, the people of Jersey City, are worthy of love.”
Visual Arts Award: Danielle Scott
Danielle Scott is a mixed-media assemblage artist who grew up in Jersey City. Her work expresses politically and socially charged messaging. She recently received the 2021 Artist of the Year from ESKFF, the Eileen S. Kaminsky Family Foundation Artist Residency Program at Mana Contemporary. Danielle was featured in Essence Magazine as one of the top LGBTQ artists to look out for. Her works were recently acquired by The Newark Museum of Art 2021, NYTimes best-selling author Roxanne Gay, and The Wiessman Family Collection.
A soft-spoken artist, Danielle has begun to use her art as a conduit to explore bold, fearless, thought-provoking work - work which draws its inspiration largely from her own journey and life experience. Her latest pieces are brazen offerings conveying the intense beauty and wretched pain the artist absorbs from the world around her. She creates using photo montage, found objects, paint, raw materials, old books and collage. From vivid paintings to piercing photography to striking sculptures, all of Danielle’s artistic offerings aim to arrest the viewer and transport them away from the pretentious and into a realm rooted in truth.
Danielle’s current body of work, "Berth-her," is a new series giving life, voice, and stories to the silenced voices of women and girls of color: “An artist's duty is to tell the times. I made a decision that no one can keep me from telling my story or theirs. We must speak as women and artists so we do not remain unheard, unknown, and unseen. The series pays homage to all women of color, African American, Asian, Indian, and Hispanic. As an Afro-Cuban /Filipino artist I make sure to celebrate and honor all that I am in my work. The women and girls in the series have been crowned with found necklaces, placed on 24 Karat gold, and adorned with vintage fabrics. No one ever tells us how to survive as black women. Black women are a threat at every point on the map. Black women are love in its purest form, all unapologetic, all unconditional. Black women are always compassionate, too forgiving, and never afraid to show up. Black women are gorgeous even through the suffering. Black women are everything they told us we couldn't and wouldn't be. Black women hold the world together and are the strongest form of a human.”
Acceptance statement: “Last time on this stage I was Itsy Bitsy Spider.”
Young Artist Award: Sunjay Bahadur
Poet, painter, photographer, manager - Sunjay Bahadur has played every role and helped every person he’s come across. All his work and all his art is an expression of that and who he has become in this world.
Acceptance statement: “Life is always better with great people by your side.”
