NJPAC Will Host New Jersey’s First Creating Healthy Communities Convening
The event runs October 14-16.
By: Stephi Wild Jul. 23, 2025
New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) and the University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine (UFCAM) will present the third Creating Healthy Communities (CHC) convening Tuesday Oct. 14, Wednesday, October 15 and Thursday, October 16, 2025, at NJPAC in Newark, New Jersey. To register for the 3 day event, visit www.njpac.org.
The convening, held every three years, accelerates connections, strategic thinking and cross-sector collaboration on building healthy communities through arts and culture. The event attracts hundreds of artists, arts organizations, public health and healthcare professionals, civic leaders and community organizers.
This fall marks the first CHC convening in New Jersey. It will be hosted by NJPAC, the performing arts center that is a national leader in harnessing the power of the arts to transform lives.
Through its Social Impact programming, the Arts Center produces meaningful programs that reach a wide spectrum of ages and socioeconomic backgrounds. Among NJPAC’s achievements is the launch of New Jersey’s first arts-on-prescription program in 2023.
“We’re an Arts Center leading by example with innovative programs that spark creativity to improve the well-being of people and neighborhoods across the state,” says Dr. Sherri-Ann Butterfield, Senior Vice President of Social Impact at NJPAC. “We’re proud to host New Jersey’s first Creating Healthy Communities convening and to welcome hundreds of changemakers to our campus for effective collaborations on leveraging the arts to build community wellness.”
CHC keynote speakers are Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson (Tues. Oct 15) and Marc Bamuthi Joseph (Weds. Oct 16). Rosario Jackson is an urban planning and cultural policy expert and a former Chair of the National Endowment for the Arts.
Bamuthi Joseph is an award-winning spoken word artist, writer, librettist and cultural strategist. He was Vice President of Social Impact at The Kennedy Center and is the co-creator of the paradigm-shifting allyship training HEALING FORWARD™.
“Creating Healthy Communities is more than a convening — it’s a catalytic space where artists, public health professionals, community leaders, policymakers and others come together to imagine and activate new possibilities for health and well-being through the arts,” says Dr. Jill Sonke, Director of Research Initiatives at the Center for Arts in Medicine at the University of Florida.
The 2025 CHC convening also features:
- Presentations on the economic impact of arts in health
- Learning about arts participation as a health behavior
- Positioning arts and culture as a social determinant of health
- Best practices for arts prescribing
- Breakout sessions and networking opportunities
- Engagement in creative activities in Greater Newark
- Special performance of a Well-being Concert produced by Carnegie Hall
Sign up now and save. The deadline for an advance registration discount has been extended to July 31, 2025. Use code EARLYBIRD to save $70 off the registration price. Group rates of $400 per registrant and student rates of $250 per registrant are available by emailing mfinkelstein@njpac.org.
More than 200 reduced and no-fee registrations are available thanks to the generous support of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the Pabst Steinmetz Foundation. The application is due by Aug. 15, 2025.
Sponsors of the CHC include: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Pabst Steinmetz Foundation, New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Music Man Foundation, and S. Dillard & Adrienne Kirby Family Philanthropic Fund.
For more information, including accommodations and registration, visit njpac.org.
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Best Musical - Top 3
1.
THE LITTLE MERMAID (HOWELL PAL THEATRE COMPANY)
3.1% of votes
2.
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3% of votes
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GREASE (Plays-in-the-Park)
2.9% of votes
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