Category: Entertainment

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Culture Entertainment Uncategorized

NJ industries on the rise

Andres Ayrton Pexels

At the moment, New Jersey has one of the fastest-growing economies in the US. There are a lot of different businesses that are managing to grow quickly due to the unique commercial landscape that the state offers. We’ve taken a look at some of the biggest growth industries within the US right now, so if you’re considering a career change, then this is the place for you to check. 

Online gambling

This is a sector that covers a lot of different areas. With so many different aspects of the online casino business, online gambling has been able to grow quickly within NJ since it was legalized. One of the first areas where growth is taking place is with websites that cater to online casinos. This can be seen on a site such as time2play.com, which offers a lot of assistance for players who want to get into playing at online casinos. 

However, it’s not just this area that is growing quickly. Software development has also seen rapid expansion within the state. Because online casinos games are hugely popular, there has been an increase in demand for the games. In consequence, developers have had to take on more staff to cater to the demand, which has helped to lift the software development industry. With NJ being a hub for coders and graphic designers, it means that a lot of companies have popped up offering casino games to sites. 

Finally, the online casinos themselves have also multiplied quickly. Since they are mainly linked to brick and mortar venues, it follows that the casino industry, in general, has expanded. These sites have been able to increase their revenue without significantly increasing their expenditure. This is because an online casino doesn’t cost as much to operate as does extra space in a brick-and-mortar venue. So, more players can be catered for without having to lay out more on bills and staff wages. 

Online gambling is perhaps the fastest growing industry within NJ and could even be argued to be the fastest-growing industry in the US in general.

Financial businesses

This is an industry that has experienced a big rise over the last year or so. Part of this is due to an increase in female-owned businesses appearing within NJ, and these new businesses require financial help in order to operate efficiently. As such, the financial sector has seen a sudden boost. 

It’s not just in terms of investing, either – accountants have also seen more business coming their way. This has helped a lot of new business owners to get on their feet quickly. Accountancy is one of the lesser-considered industries within finance, but it’s an extremely vital function for a company that wants to be successful. 

The popularity of crypto investing has also had an impact on this area. Many people are looking to invest in cryptocurrency in order to get a handle on the next big thing. While the abrupt gains in the market don’t happen as often as they did at the start of the boom, there are still a lot of people who are looking to invest and trying to make money from the sector. Crypto has helped the financial industry continue growing over the last few years and is likely to keep the trend moving upwards as long as the market is still viable.

Transport

Transport is one of the largest industries within NJ. In fact, one of the biggest spending within the state recently has been on transport and the infrastructure that is required to improve logistics. The authorities understand that good transport links are critical in making the state successful. A significant portion of the funding that is needed to undertake expansion and reconciliation of the transport sector is due to online gambling which has helped to provide a healthy boost to the overall tax revenue in NJ. 

The endeavor has seen a lot of new transport innovations take place within NJ, especially linked to improving mobility for people. As such, it has driven employment in the state and helped people to get jobs. This in turn makes NJ an attractive state for workers to move to, as there are a lot of jobs available. It might not be sustainable forever, but as the state currently has a remit to improve transport in the state, it looks like it is a long-term plan that should help to push the economy of the state above that of the national average. 

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Culture Music NYC

Westfield WTC, Sing for Hope, bring piano for public playing, to the Oculus

Photo: Westfield World Trade Center

Westfield World Trade Center has partnered with Sing for Hope to display a piano in the Oculus, painted by local artist Lance Johnson. The uniquely colorful piano, titled “Evolve” will be available for anyone and everyone to play, listen, interact with, and enjoy, from March 17 to March 27. At the conclusion of the piano’s public residency, it will be moved to a permanent home in a New York City school or community-based organization, where it will inspire lives for years to come.

In addition to the piano being open for the public to play, there will also be free and professional musical performances over the two weekends of its residency. Piano Soloist, Amir Farid, winner of the 2006 Australian National Piano Award, performs on March 19 and 26 from noon to 2:00 pm. The Sing for Hope Quintet will present performances of piano, violin, viola, and cello on March 20 and 27 from noon to 2:00 pm.

Local artist Lance Johnson poses with piano he painted, Evolve, as part of a project with Sing for Hope. Photo: Sing for Hope


The Sing for Hope Pianos program began in New York City in 2010. Today, it is one of the world’s largest annually recurring public arts programs, with more than 570 one-of-a-kind piano artworks in public spaces spanning from The Bronx to Beirut, and from Aspen to Athens. In addition to Westfield World Trade Center, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW) will display pianos at Westfield UTC in San Diego, as well as Westfield Topanga and Westfield Century City in Los Angeles. 


“New York City is one of our world’s most inspiring, resilient cities, and we’re thrilled to work with URW to share hope and healing through these beautiful community instruments,” said Monica Yunus, Sing for Hope Co-Founder. Continued Sing for Hope Co-Founder Camille Zamora, “Music and art bring people together, and as the world continues to emerge from the pandemic, the Sing for Hope Pianos continue to spread vital moments of joy, connection, and arts for all.”
“We are so excited to host Sing for Hope at Westfield World Trade Center,” said Diana Grasso, Vice President, URW. “As we continue welcoming commuters, office workers, and local residents back to the Oculus, the power and joy of live music will further enhance our guests experience as they visit, shop, and dine with us.”

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Art Culture Featured NYC

Tix on Sale for Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure Exhibit

Poster/design: Christopher Makos

Tickets are on sale now for the much anticipated Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure exhibit, opening April 9, at RXR’s Starrett-Lehigh Building in West Chelsea.

The exhibit, which will span over 15,000 square feet, will feature over 200 never before and rarely seen paintings, drawings, ephemera and artifacts. All of the work comes from the family’s collection. Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure© will also feature recreations of his NYC artist studio on Great Jones St. and the Michael Todd VIP Room of NYC’s iconic Palladium nightclub for which Jean-Michel created two paintings.

Charles the First, 1982, The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Licensed by Artestar, New York


The family commissioned internationally acclaimed architect David Adjaye to be the exhibition’s designer. He is the founder of Adjaye Associates, which operates globally, and designed The National Museum of African American History & Culture in Washington, DC. The exhibition’s identity has been created by Abbott Miller of visionary design firm Pentagram. He has previously collaborated with cultural clients including the Guggenheim Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Metropolitan Museum. Rizzoli Electa will release the accompanying book, also titled Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure©, to coincide with the exhibition. The book was authored by Jean-Michel’s sisters Lisane Basquiat and Jeanine Heriveaux and his stepmother Nora Fitzpatrick.

The address of Starrett-Lehigh Building is 601 W. 26th Street. Tickets can be purchased at kingpleasure.basquiat.com Follow on the exhibit’s Instagram page for more.

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Art

Chinon Maria at the World Trade Center

Chinon Maria at World Trade Center

Artist Chinon Maria at the World Trade Center’s New Gallery

“CREATING PUBLIC ART in the World Trade Center has been one of the most humbling and emotional experiences of my life,” says Colombian-born street artist Chinon Maria at the World Trade Center

Chinon has four large-scale murals that call the World Trade Center home. Her latest, One World, Our Childrenwill be placed at the future site of 5 WTC and features faces of nine refugee girls from around the globe. Maria asked 1,500 children from 40 countries to mail drawings and descriptions of their dreams for the future, which she incorporated into the mural, with the help of 350 local student volunteers.

Drawing Inspiration Worldwide

“I like to think New York has a place for all these cultures, and all these ideas that I love from all over the world,” Chinon explains. “My artwork is vibrant, colorful, hopeful with an underlining message of unity, healing, and social activism.”

Chinon’s high-energy work has been comissioned for public spaces around the world, and always within her preferred medium—public domain.

“Public art is so important to me, that accessibility, you can’t put a price tag on it,” she says. “It has the ability to actually change space with positive reinforcement and the resurgance of hopeful attitudes.

Taking It Home to New York

“While new projects take her to Mexico and beyond, it’s in lower Manhattan where she feels most at home and spiritually connected.

“In Downtown, you can walk on any block and at any moment you can see people from all over the world and that’s, for me, really inspiring as an artist.”

Art’s transformative power is especially meaningful to Maria’s downtown work., as she aims to positive contribute to the area’s rebirth.

“Art has a power to bring together people from different cultures to identify with a piece of work, to enjoy a piece by just being able to see it on the street and getting the community involved,” Chinon says.

Murals at 4 World Trade Center

To do just this for 4 World Trade Center, Chinon wanted her mural to depict the rich history of New York City in an inviting way, and also sat down with children from the community to talk about the future of the city.

“It was not only 9/11, the tragedy that happened here,” she says. “There were so many other things that have made this city what it is today—good and bad—so I wanted to make sure we could honor that through a piece of artwork.”

“To end it on a hopeful note, I worked with community children to say the future of New York City is going to be bright, and beautiful, and filled with diversity and color.”

Visit the work of artist Chinon Maria at the World Trade Center at wtgallery.com/chinon-maria

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Business Culture Entertainment Music NYC

Making Waves

Blonde Records’ Founder Rebecca Autumn Sansom (first left) Seeks Inclusivity with Wavy Awards.

OCTOBER 23RD, 2021 MARKED THE FIRST EVER WAVY AWARDS SHOW, the name making  a play on digital audio WAV files. The show is  a celebration of “historically excluded talent,”  including musicians that are women, members  of the LGBTQ+ community, and persons with  disabilities. As each presenter took the stage at  Abrons Arts Center, they leaned into the mic and  described themselves — their hair color, outfit, or  personal aesthetic — for blind audience members  and nominees. The awards also featured two  American Sign Language interpreters who  took turns interpreting the speeches and  performances. For the brainchild of Blonde Records Founder Rebecca Autumn Sansom, The  Wavy Awards marked an ending, as well as a new  beginning, in her career.  

Sansom never intended to get into the music  industry. She considers herself a “filmmaker  trapped in an artist’s body.” She was at Stanford  doing performance and theater when she met  “M the Myth,” an artist, collaborator, and then undergrad. “I’m a filmmaker, so I’m drawn to  captivating subjects. So really, I would just film  these people. And then I realized after helping  M with their music video campaign for ‘Let’s Get  Drunk Anyway,’ that cheerleading artists, filming  them, and encouraging their careers is a job  called management.” She formed Blonde Artist  Management in New York City, named after  Marilyn Monroe, with whom she identifies and  felt might have lived with different support and  management.  

For five years, Sansom ran Blonde Artist Management. This past year she also founded  and ran Blonde Records and Blonde Music News, a weekly NYC music podcast. The Wavys were a big step for Blonde and its mission, but  also for Sansom, who is the first to recognize her  own privileges and those whose lack of privilege  often leaves them out of the spotlight.  

The Wavy Awards was always going to be a pivot point for Sansom. “The Wavys was going to be my last grand gesture,” says Sansom, “and then I was going to gather information and see what the next steps were for Blonde.” 

Wavy Awards 2021. Photo by Stephanie Aguello.

The ball started rolling in December 2020,  after a year of weekly Blonde Music News episodes. “I told (my team) about this idea and how we have enough people, enough artists to have a pretty robust pool to glean  from.”  There were eleven people at the first meeting. Then the team started expanding, with partnerships with organizations like Rampd  (Recording Artists and Music Professionals with Disabilities), local news website Scenes from the Underground, and Shira Gans from the NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment. By the time the event actually happened, Sansom and partners were staring down a full house. 

The response was overwhelming. The Wavys have gone from a one-off event, into an annual awards show. It helped Sansom find a new direction; she will continue to support her coterie of artists, but the Wavy Awards has become her flagship effort. Blonde Music News, for example, has rebranded as Wavy Music News. “New York is the creative capital of the world and draws a lot of diversity,” says Sansom, “I think creating accessible spaces is the most important thing we can do right now, with the momentum that we have.”

In addition to the Wavys, Sansom has a film, Reckoning with the Primal Wound, coming out in 2022. It has already been accepted into seven film festivals. DT

For more information on The Wavy Awards, visit thewavys.org.

Categories
Culture Living Music

Glow Up

SHINE ON The PAC's translucent marble walls will light up from the inside at night.

SHINE ON The PAC’s translucent marble walls will light up from the inside at night. Photography by Luxigon.

The Perelman Performing Arts Center will bring beauty and closure to downtown.

IN THE WAKE OF THE SEPTEMBER 11TH ATTACKS on the World Trade Center complex, great architectural minds gathered around the devastation to rebuild. Nearly 20 years later, their plan is coming to fruition. The Ronald O. Perelman Performing Arts Center, or PAC, will mark the final construction effort in the decades- long project.

The building, a massive cube wrapped in translucent marble and laminated with insulated glass, will let in sunlight during the day and emit a visible glow from internal lights at night. The inside will feature three modular theater spaces and a rehearsal room, all with movable walls and seating, capable of 11 unique configurations to accommodate audiences of 99 – 1200 people. With the last steel beam placed this summer, the PAC is looking to host its first performance in 2023.

“I think it’s extraordinary,” says PAC Creative Director Bill Rauch, “that there was an impulse to include arts and culture as part of the rebuilding, and we kept that impulse alive and nurtured it.”

The PAC was a cornerstone piece of the original 2003 recovery plan. The project was designed by the Brooklyn-based firm REX, replacing the earlier choice of Frank Ghery, in collaboration with theater designer Charcoalblue and executive architect Davis Brody Bond. Rockwell Group is handling the design of the restaurant and lobby space. The planners hoped that it would be the cultural lynchpin of the World Trade Center, helping to redefine Lower Manhattan as a cultural destination.

“In the planning for the recovery and rebuilding of the World Trade Center,” says PAC president Leslie Koch, “[former] Mayor Bloomberg articulated the importance of integrating the arts into a vision for Lower Manhattan as a dynamic 24/7 neighborhood with workers, residents, and visitors.

“Now,” Koch continues, “18 years after the World Trade Center plan was adopted, Lower Manhattan is thriving, with tens of thousands of residents, media, and technology firms joining the financial anchors of New York City and literally millions of visitors. As the city emerges from the pandemic, the Performing Arts Center, with Mike Bloomberg as our chair, will again be both an icon and a catalyst of New York’s resurgence.”

The PAC is also dedicated to reaching out to the community, both locally and citywide. They hired Jenna Chrisphonte as their Director of Civic Alliances, charged with cultivating relationships with community-based organizations and groups, marginalized populations, and community officials across all five boroughs. They also hope that the building can be a resource to the local community. The first level will be accessible to the public, open until midnight every night. It will feature a cafe and bar, lobby area, dance podium, and performance art space, the latter two of which will periodically have free performances.

Rauch hopes that PAC will be a symbol of its surroundings and of human resilience.“Whether the art is tragic or joyful, all the work that we do is in celebration of humanity,” he says. “There’s a reason why [the PAC] glows from within.” DT

For more information, visit theperelman.org.