thumbThe New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC ), located in the heart of an emerging downtown Newark, New Jersey, United States, is the sixth largest performing arts center in the United States. Home of the Grammy Award-winning New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, NJPAC has been widely cited as a catalyst in the revitalization of New Jersey's largest city, attracting over five million visitors (including more than 900,000 children) in its first ten years of operation. It is located near the Passaic River waterfront, east of the Rutgers-Newark and New Jersey Institute of Technology campuses and two blocks north of Seton Hall University School of Law. To reach out to the community, NJPAC offers several programs to primary schools students that let them interact with artist, explore music, and even create murals to be exhibited in the halls.

NEW JERSEY PERFORMING ARTS CENTER - PRUDENTIAL HALL TICKETS EVENT DATE AVAILABILITY Dexta Daps Tickets 6/12 Jun 12, 2026 Fri, 8:00 PM New Jersey Symphony: Ben Folds Tickets 6/13 Jun 13, 2026 Sat, 7:30 PM Josh Gates Tickets 6/14 Jun 14, 2026 Sun, 3:00 PM Janelle Monae Tickets 6/17 Jun 17, 2026 Wed, 7:30 PM Rene Vaca Tickets 6/18 Jun 18, 2026 Thu, 7:00 PM

Performance Halls and Other Facilities

• Prudential Hall , a 2,750-seat hall arranged in four horseshoe-shaped tiers, with boxes and the orchestra seating.
• Victoria Hall , a 514-seat smaller theater.
• The Chase Room is home to NJPAC's cabaret performance series.

History

The State of New Jersey decided to build a world class performing arts center in 1986, when then Governor of New Jersey Thomas Kean appointed a committee to decide the location and the needs of New Jersey's performing arts organization. They chose Newark over other cities because of the density of the surrounding areas, proximity to New York City, highway and rail access to the site, and a location inside a dying city in need of revitalization. The last reason was considered especially important, since government authorities had long forsaken the city, becoming a ghetto for minorities in notorious housing projects. A major goal of the NJPAC was to help in revitalization of the city, bringing people back into blighted areas and provide jobs for local businesses.

All development in Newark after the 1967 Newark riots had been closed commercial spaces that alienated the local community. The planning commission decided that the new center would directly integrated into the city, encouraged walking, and provided a plaza for the city. Previous redevelopment schemes in Newark had all involved skyways that connected all the main office buildings to Newark Penn Station above street level, further segregating the city. The master plan, executed by Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill consisted of plazas and pedestrian boulevards, joining major thoroughfares.

After a selection process, the board chose Barton Myers as the lead architect, based on his experience with theaters and his contextual buildings. They instructed him to build a complex that was the opposite of the Kennedy Center or Lincoln Center, and more like the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. Instead of a monument to the arts, Myers saw it as another part of the city tying it to residents and inviting them into it. He related the physical structure to the context by using brick, exposed steel, and glass as the materials, to reflect the industrial roots of Newark. Construction began in 1995.

During the bidding process, CEO Lawrence Goldman mandated that most of the construction jobs had to go to local minorities. The board of the company successfully implemented this program, suspending a contractor in 1995 for failing to do so.

Some, however questioned whether the $187-million-dollar project was really worth building, when there are so many social ills in the city, an aging infrastructure and a low median income.

It opened in 1997, to rave reviews by The New York Times architecture critic Herbert Muschamp.

Future

The NJPAC has plans to expand across McCarter Highway to the Passaic River, opening up more of the waterfront and connecting it to Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium. Eventually The company will build two residential buildings for performers and condominiums, completing a boat-shaped plaza at the center.

Newark Light Rail service opened as July 17, 2006, at the NJPAC/Center Street station, connecting the site with Broad Street Station and Penn Station Newark, connecting to rail lines from all over New Jersey.

See also

• Newark, New Jersey
• 1967 Newark riots
• Critical Regionalism, the style of architecture.
• List of major concert halls