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[ Music ] >> From NJ PBS Studios, this is "NJ Spotlight News" with Brianna Vannozzi.

>> Hello and welcome to a special edition of "NJ Spotlight News."

I'm Jolanna Gagas.

We continue our journey through public art across the state with our digital documentary series, Painting Community.

This episode explores a newer community art program called the Golden Life, which celebrates women who live and work in the city, spotlighting their joy, pride, and resilience.

Let's take a look.

(upbeat music) - You have to stop thinking that Newark is the boogeyman of New Jersey.

Stop.

Come here.

See what's going on.

You have good and bad.

There's good and bad in the suburbs, too.

Welcome to public arts.

[laughs] [music] Newark has such a long history as a creative city, and to be able to make that visible and put it as big as we can on a wall is a really special thing.

We're all one community all working together.

And that's important is day and time.

There's a lot of stigma associated with Newark.

People kind of go into like certain situations or areas or communities with this preconceived notion.

>> What you need to do is appreciate the people who are there and acknowledge them.

The more I did that, the more I felt connected, which is kind of odd coming from somebody who's like from Brooklyn.

But I felt like I was home because I was seen as an artist.

>> In some ways it feels like the biggest small town, particularly within the art scene.

>> It's a really special place to be.

>> I'm a photographer and Armisi is a painter.

We were friends first.

We worked together.

And I feel like she's somebody that saw strength in me.

>> My work is straight about women.

Perry and sap.

Women of color portrayed in positions of divinity.

I entered this muralism public art space, originally documenting graffiti and street art.

The first mural that I was brought into as a lead artist was with Armisi on the Golden Life.

So it's a really special thing.

Everything changed all at once.

And I took on a new role.

Now, in addition to an educator and a photographer, I'm also a public artist.

- A lot of murals are very prescribed.

These are the themes that you have to address in a mural.

When this opportunity came along, I was like, can I do whatever I want?

And they were like, yes.

And I was like, really?

I said, so I can do a mural that's strictly about women of color and girls and use this color scheme and put nimbuses behind them.

They're like, yes.

I was like, Rachel.

It was almost like a dream come true.

She's seen my work, I've seen her work, I was like, this is a no-brainer here.

We are aligned on our vision and the underlying meaning behind things.

Mm-hmm.

You make me-- I know!

Get me off the cliff.

I can't look at you.

Such a sweetheart.

Because it is a high-traffic area, the mural site was identified by the city of Newark as in need of beautification and safety and cleanup.

The Golden Life mural is really important because it spans generations of women.

To talk about the power of women of color, that is really important, especially for black and brown women and girls in an age that isn't necessarily kind to them.

And we combined both high resolution prints and painted elements to create this multi-facade installation.

It features 14 women and girls of all ages, from toddler through elder, and all of the women that you see here and girls are connected to the mural site, so they either live or work in the community.

The golden life just means internal agency and light and how you share that with others.

I feel golden when I'm teaching students with developmental disability and a smile comes across their face when they feel that they get something.

Because this is an area that is so well used and has been neglected for so long, we wanted to highlight real lives of real women and really center their contributions and make people aware of how special ordinary people are.

The people in our mural are wearing regular clothes.

They're not posed specifically.

They were prompted with a couple of questions about what makes your life golden, when do you feel the best.

And then my job as the photographer was to try to capture that feeling, that emotion in the portrait.

We wanted to highlight the beauty in the everyday and the radiance of the everyday.

And that's intentional.

We could have honored historical people, famous people, and we didn't want that.

We wanted real people who would get to see themselves.

And I think it's our way of countering the hate and division that we seem inundated by these days.

So we're going to put it up on the wall, 12 feet tall, as tall as we can do.

Ladder, scissor lifts.

Yep.

How can we say it's OK to be who you are?

Embrace your golden side.

Embrace the warmth and the power of that in yourselves.

[MUSIC PLAYING] The limbus is one of those kind of universal symbols that highlight saints or people who are of higher stature.

If you look at religious paintings, they usually denote saints or gods.

And I wanted to include this in the mural because it's connected to my personal work and how I talk about the power and the divinity of black and brown women.

This is how I perceive my blackness and the trials and tribulations and the joys of being a black woman.

We're very passionate about what we do and how we serve the community.

So accessibility is really important to both of us.

We both work with students who are disabled.

We thought it was important to try to get everybody that we could in the mural.

My philosophy on access is that when you make something inclusive for one population, it becomes more inclusive for all populations.

The photos were taken during our workshop, which was at Newark Public Library, and it was open to anybody who wanted to come and participate.

A local young girl, Zora Stover, she's blind.

I talked to her about the prompt, which was, "What makes you feel golden?"

And she had this look on her face, and she just looked to the light, and she said, "I can feel the light on my face."

And this is the moment that we captured here.

This one will live in my memory as the peak moment of creating the Golden Life.

My absolute favorite detail is the text written on Zora's cane.

As I was prepping the photos to be enlarged, I noticed that there were words here, and it says, "Live the life you want."

It was an element that was unplanned, but really captured the spirit of the mural.

(upbeat music) - That is a real activation of a corner that has been neglected and was unsafe for many years.

And now is such a place of beauty for the people that work and live in the neighborhood.

- Working in this way, really brings everything together in terms of the golden life and how Rachel and I see the women and children in this new work as people who need to be seen and elevated.

Commuters walking past, they have to look.

There's a lot of selfies floating around too, which is really nice.

And especially when it's like, I know that person, and they take a selfie with it.

Like, that's really nice.

People that I don't know, the first time I meet them, talking about the impact that that mural has had.

And even if you're not an artist or like artistically inclined, you're still able to like connect with that.

Public art tells an amalgam of stories that are not only important, but necessary.

It's a way for the artists to connect with people on an everyday basis.

Making art in public is a sign of a healthy creative community.

Any interaction, miniscule to huge, is important.

I'm just so proud to be a part of it.

It is a beautiful legacy to leave.

We are visual people, but we're also communicators.

And how we communicate the importance of black and brown women and girls is important.

It's critical and crucial.

We cannot forsake the community.

Our community cannot do it.

And it's an important marker that I can show my nieces, "Your auntie did this."

And like my mother, she was still here.

She'd be like, "My daughter did that."

Yeah.

I wish she was there.

I wish she was there to see it.

The mural is about the women, but it's also about the mothers that can be here.

And that are rooting for their daughters.

To make some impact somewhere.

I hope we can work together and make these places where people feel honored and recognized.

As we just saw, Newark's tapestry of people and culture creates public art that sparks conversation across generations.

For more on this mural and the importance of art in Newark, we have with us Rebecca Pauline Jampel, co-director of Project for Empty Space, a non-profit arts organization in Newark, and Faye Ami Shakur, director of the Division of Arts and Cultural Affairs for Newark.

Welcome to both of you.

Great to have you.

Great to be in your space, truly.

Rebecca, can you tell us about Project for Empty Space?

What is it?

Just let's start there.

Sure.

We are now a 16 year old arts nonprofit and our work really centers around artists that have a social practice.

So they work with publics and communities to develop art that's meaningful to the spaces that they're in.

And we do so through a couple different pillars, exhibitions, residencies, and affordable workspace and public art.

Can you tell us about the Golden Life mural and how that came to be?

Sure.

I think it goes back kind of far because these projects, this project in particular is a Bloomberg Asphalt Grant awardee, and to do that, you have to actually partner with the municipality.

And so I want to actually hand it off to my partner in crime over here to talk a little bit about how we started this project.

And I think I could touch on how we arrived at the development of it.

Yeah, go ahead, family.

Tell us.

The city has been receiving pro bono consulting from Bloomberg Associates for a few years now.

And so they often share opportunities with us.

And there was a grant called Apsot Art Grant.

And it really is about using art to create safety for pedestrians and traveling areas.

So we wanted to apply, but it's a national grant.

So we were fortunate enough to be one of the cities that were selected.

And the location was really important because it's at the intersection of a major transportation area.

Well, take us back for a minute.

How does art create safety, especially for pedestrians?

I was just getting to that.

It creates safety because in some studies it shows how it can slow down traffic.

People are less inclined to speed and it also makes the area safer to walk.

People feel safer when there's public art around.

It just enhances the area.

How much of that is perception?

There's been some studies surveying traffic and safety around these areas.

And that's one of the reasons why Bloomberg created the grant.

So talk about the selection process.

Who was chosen and how were they chosen?

Yeah, so we project for empty space in collaboration with the city of Newark.

And we developed a request for proposals.

And we put it out with a emphasis on the location and thinking about the history of that location and who lives nearby it and who travels through it every day.

It is a really unique location in the sense that it brings together pedestrians, you know, folks driving cars going on and off the interstate, the 280 interstate, and then those that are actually traveling by train.

And so we had to think about how we could serve all of these audiences and those that are impacted by it every day.

And so we placed out a request for proposals simultaneously.

We also actually put out a survey that asked people to respond to how they felt when they walked through that space.

It was not in good shape.

It was underlit.

There was quite a bit of vandalism and the walls hadn't been washed down quite some time.

And so we collected sentiment from the community on what it's like to travel through that space.

And that also kind of informed the data and some of the materials that we gave the selected artists.

So we got in quite a few submissions and pulled together a jury of local arts practitioners and folks from the city and residents that live nearby.

And we selected a artist duo, Armeese Smith and Rachel Fawn Albin.

Armeese is a painter and mixed media artist and Rachel Fawn Albin is a photographer.

Both of them have been living and working in the Newark community for some time.

And they proposed this beautiful concept that they would illuminate women and girls from the nearby community, whether they worked nearby, live nearby, or traveled through that space every day.

And to scale them up to be larger than life, to be the monuments of our community.

Fahimi, in your mind and as someone who works with the city to beautify spaces and to bring public art forward, why do you believe that representation of women from the city, of all walks of life, all ages, all races, all backgrounds, why is that important?

I think people really appreciate seeing representations of themselves in public art.

It connects them to their city.

It creates dialogue.

It also becomes a landmark and creates shared experiences.

And to celebrate women is important.

The women of our city play an important role in so many areas.

And it's just a joy to elevate women and girls in that way.

- Do you see Newark as a vibrant arts community?

- Oh, absolutely.

We were actually, according to SMU DataArts, the seventh most vibrant arts city in the country.

But public art is like my favorite thing to do.

- Why?

- I love the idea of providing access to art.

Art shouldn't be considered a luxury.

I love the idea that if someone's having a rough day, maybe one day they walk by a mural and find inspiration or joy or beauty.

- Do you see Newark as still misunderstood or misrepresented culturally in New Jersey and outside of New Jersey?

I think it's improving.

I think Newark is definitely seen as a city of the arts in a real way.

People come here for arts, culture, and entertainment.

Talk about your collaboration together and how it's important to have the city's support and also people who are on the ground like Rebecca is encouraging more art, encouraging artists to come forward.

I love that it gives us the opportunity to support artists, local and local economies.

We generate so much in terms of economic impact in the city through the arts, but it also helps shape our identity, tell our history, and celebrate our local heroes.

What do you have to add there, Rebecca?

Fiammi and I have had the great honor of working together on dozens and dozens of projects over the last decade and I think the reason why we go so hard for public art is because we have seen how that is reshaping the narrative of the city and the pride, the local pride in the arts here.

There is a street just a few blocks away from here, Treat Place, where in 2018 it was a back alleyway to one of our main corridors and nobody would even walk down that street.

It was a grounds for illegal dumping, for vandalism, for crime, and together with a cohort of partners, that space became a destination for the arts, a place for community pride.

People travel to see that street.

They take photos.

music videos, family portraits, promote their businesses, throw block parties.

We've seen real results in how public art can advance and better a space for everybody.

We're sitting among some beautiful art right here.

Can you tell us what the plan is for this?

This isn't just artwork on a wall, right?

This is a mock-up.

What can we expect?

So this is a mural that was commissioned by FIAMI's department, the Division of Arts and Cultural Affairs at the city of Newark.

And it is a mural that is created in collaboration with a local developer who has a beautiful retainer wall facing McCarter Highway.

Similar to the Golden Life, we created an RFP that we put out to the public, and an artist, Irene Lernodaki, she submitted this beautiful proposal to create the Newark skyline with cultural fabrics, very present in the Newark community here.

So what you see here is a collage of all of us through the lens of fabric.

She has been hand painting it in this space the same space where the golden life was created.

It'll be melted and Will be a new public artwork that is added to Newark.

Femi, tell me about when you first started working for the city.

I started working for the city in 2020 right before the pandemic.

January 2020, I had just a couple of months of excitement and then a crisis.

But we responded really promptly and immediately with the creation of a municipal arts grant to help support the arts sector.

I imagine that was probably a critical time for artists, right, who otherwise wouldn't have had work for the city to step in and support them.

- How do you think that changed the lives of those artists?

- It was a significant impact.

We saw an immediate response and testimonials from artists.

They were able to pay rent, pay bills.

It was a flexible grant.

We didn't have any requirements on how they could spend the funds, as many of them were out of work.

The city funded that grant?

Yes.

Do you have artists who you know benefited from that?

Yeah, almost every single artist in this building.

So above us, there's 65 artist studios, and each one of them, because they're either a resident or they have a studio here in Newark, qualify to apply to the Creative Catalyst.

And so all of them at some point have benefited from this grant, which is still active.

So started during that time, but continued, which is an amazing thing because a lot of support at that time dwindled at some point.

And for FIAMI and the administration to say, we need to continue to support this core community was really amazing.

But one other thing I want to mention is Project for Empty Space has annually been an awardee of the Creative Catalyst.

But as a organizer and a member of the arts community, I think the thing that I really felt during that moment is that we were not alone.

I can't help but think about the artists, right?

Those who might be struggling to get their artwork out, or I can't imagine it's easy to make a living, even as a public artist.

How do you support them?

How do you encourage their growth, their expansion of their careers?

I thought we're about to take that.

Sure.

Here at Project for Empty Space, our work is about the artists.

Artists are perhaps, you know, unrecognized.

People see a piece of art, they love it, but there's somebody behind that work, somebody that is a true stakeholder in the city and who is contributing to the space that we want to live in.

Artists are some of the greatest economic factors of this city in addition to them bringing beauty into our spaces and encouraging visitation and to stay and to eat in our local restaurants or to stay in our hotels.

They also are, you know, homeowners and rent studio space in downtown Newark.

And it's our job here at Project for Empty Space in collaboration with our partners to recognize that, to talk about the artists before we talk about the art, and to ensure that they're resourced.

Another project that was quite significant is the Harriet Tubman monument.

It really gave us ways to reimagine public art, but also tell Harriet Tubman's story, as it also relates to Newark and the Underground Railroad network, and slavery in the state of New Jersey.

It was very educational for our community and a celebratory moment when we were able to open that up to the public.

In one word, what does art mean to you?

Joy.

Oh, what is so good?

Belonging.

All really, really important discussions to be having here in the city of Newark and beyond.

Rebecca Pauline Jampel, Faye-Amy Shakur, I can't thank you both enough.

Doing great work here.

Thank you.

That's going to do it for us.

You can check out the full painting community documentary series at PBS.org.

I'm Joanna Gaggis.

For everyone here at NJ Spotlight News, thanks for being with us.

We'll see you next time.

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