Registration is open for the summer session of Arts Education programs at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC). Summer Camp programs for young artists, ages 9 – 18, run July 13 – 31, 2026. A special TD Jazz for Teens Summer Intensive will take place July 27 – August 1, 2026.
The summer programs are full-day immersions from 9AM – 4PM. The camp fee is $900 and the one-week intensive is $400. No student is turned away for financial reasons.
All of NJPAC's Arts Training programs are taught by professional teaching artists actively working in the fields they teach. In addition, a social worker is embedded into Arts Education programs to support the students and their families.
The curriculum is student-led and the focus on the whole child cultivates confident, independent and informed young people.
“In our summer programs, young artists learn essential performing arts skills,” says Jennifer Tsukayama, Vice President of NJPAC Arts Education. “But we also teach them to value their life experiences and to use the power of the arts to discover who they are and what's important to them.”
TD Jazz for Teens is NJPAC's signature Arts Education program. The summer intensive is open to any young artist who plays an instrument and is designed to complement TD Jazz for Teens' year-round instruction.
The program is led by Mark Gross, NJPAC's Director of Jazz Instruction and a multiple GRAMMY Award-winning alto saxophone player and composer.
Participants in the TD Jazz for Teens Summer Intensive will gain essential tools and an artistic vocabulary to elevate their artistry through ensemble playing and instruction in music theory, improvisation and arrangement.
The young artists will also attend the Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island from July 31 – August 1.
The 2026 NJPAC Summer Camp will be held at two locations: 31 Mulberry Street, the temporary home of the Center for Arts Education, and 1 Center Street, the main building of NJPAC.
The TD Jazz for Teens Summer Intensive will be held at Rutgers University's Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hall located at 15 Washington Street in Newark.
This year, the summer session is three weeks long due to space constraints while the Arts Center is redeveloping its 12-acre campus. A centerpiece of the redesigned campus will be the Cooperman Family Arts Education and Community Center.
When the Cooperman Center opens in 2027, it will serve as the new home for NJPAC's on-campus Social Impact programs in Arts Education, Community Engagement and Arts & Well-Being. The 58,000-square-foot building will include 12 multipurpose classrooms, a children's arts reading room and a 175-seat education lab for teaching performance and technical theater skills.
Class descriptions and further details are available at njpac.org/education.
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Almost Floyd Williams Center (7/11-7/11) |
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Me and My Girl Spring Lake Theatre (7/08-7/19) |
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Sense and Sensibility duCret Center of Art (7/10-7/12) |
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What the Constitution Means to Me Pioneer Productions Company/The Stanley Center (7/11-7/12) |
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Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances New Jersey Performing Arts Center (11/19-11/19) |
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Discover Rachmaninoff New Jersey Performing Arts Center (1/23-1/23) |
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A Lesbian, a Divorcee & a Married Woman Walk into a Bar~ The rest is a musical comedy Avenel Performing Arts (7/18-7/18) |
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Discover Tchaikovsky New Jersey Performing Arts Center (5/15-5/15) |
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Into the Woods JR Bell Theater at Bell Works (8/27-8/28) |
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ArcoStrum Morris Museum (7/11-7/11) |