Newark Museum

49 Washington Place

Newark, NJ  07102-3176

https://www.newarkmuseumart.org/

https://www.facebook.com/Newark.Museum/

Telephone: (973) 596-6550/Fax: (973) 642-0459

Volunteer Office: (973) 596-6337/Member Travel Office: (973) 596-6643/Group Tours: (973) 596-6613

Open: Wednesday-Sunday 12:00pm-5:00pm

Closed: Mondays (except for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day and President’s Day), Tuesdays, January 1st, July 4th, Thanksgiving Day and December 25th.

Admission: Adult $15.00/Seniors-Children 5 and UP/Veterans/Children 5 and under Free

Amenities: Museum Shop, Junior Shop, Museum Cafe and onsite parking.

TripAdvisor Review:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g46671-d217958-Reviews-Newark_Museum-Newark_New_Jersey.html?m=19905

The Newark Museum at 49 Washington Place in Newark, NJ.

I have been a member of the Newark Museum for 29 years and have enjoyed the experience. There is a lot of things to do at all times of the year.

During the Summer months, I enjoy “Jazz in the Garden” where local and international jazz musicians perform in the beauty of the back garden of the museum under the trees. These almost hour and a half performance can be enjoyed on sunny, clear days in the gardens and in the auditorium on a rainy afternoon. It is something I look forward to every summer.

Jazz in the Garden at the Newark Museum. The gardens are amazing in the summer months.

The Newark Garden in the back of the museum.

Jazz in the Garden was a big event before the pandemic. It is on hiatus for now. It had resumed after COVID with a fee and did not happen in the Summer of 2023. Still, I had enjoyed these concerts for years.

I heard Vanessa Rubin perform at the last ‘Jazz in the Garden’. She is amazing.

The New entrance opened where the original once was:

The new entrance to the Newark Museum

The video celebration of the new entrance reopening

Entering the foyer of the museum

During December of 2019 I attended a holiday afternoon tea at the Ballantine House, the historic home attached to the museum. The Ballantine’s were one of the oldest families in Newark, NJ and were once major brewers in the city. They were considered High Society in Newark and the home, and its renovation reflect that.

The outside of the Ballantine House in 2019.

A new tradition was started this year with a Holiday Afternoon Tea and tour of the mansion. The caterer did a nice job with the food and their was plenty of it. We had finger sandwiches, various scones and pastries and different varieties of teas.

After the tea, we had a tour of the house and a talk about how the Ballantine’s and their crowd celebrated the holidays. They would be an open house for the neighbors during the holidays and then on Christmas day were church services in the morning and then a lunch afterwards with the family.

Ballantine House set for the neighborhood open house

Entering the newly renovated Ballantine House.

Another nice event is the Members Mornings of specialty tours of the galleries on a Sunday morning and a light breakfast afterwards. These are really nice, and you get a more in-depth view of the galleries with the docents. This is where I highly recommend membership.

The Ballantine House model

The Ballantine House reopened after a two year renovation of the property and I toured it in January of 2024 to see the redesign of the home. The home had been cleaned and new signage and carpeting had been added to the site. They were new signs with interpretations of the house with some major design changes.

The Ballantine children in portrait.

The house had gotten some much needed renovation work and cleaning and the house looked sparkling and looked like someone had just moved in. In 2024, the house continued its tradition of being decorated for the Christmas holidays but with a twist to it

The Foyer of the Ballantine House

The fireplace in the Foyer of the home at the holidays

The front door ablaze with colors

The Reception/Receiving Room for guests.

The Receiving Room at the Ballantine House.

The Reception Room decorated for the holidays

We started the tour clock wise through all the rooms on the first floor starting with the Reception Room where guests would be received for a visit and would wait until the Ballantine’s were ready to greet you. We then moved onto the Library where the whole family would gather in the evenings to read and converse with one another in a more casual setting.

The Library

The Library at the Ballantine House

Mr. Ballantine’s chair and desk in the Library of the Ballantine House.

The Library decorated for the Christmas holidays:

The Library decorated for the Christmas holidays:

The Library decorated for the Christmas holidays:

The Dining Room

The Dining Room set for dinner.

The Dining Room sideboard.

The Dining Room decorated for the Christmas holidays:

The Dining Room decorated for the Christmas holidays:

The Billiard Room across the hall from the Dining Room.

The Billiard Room at the Ballantine House.

The Parlor at the Ballantine House.

The Parlor for receiving guests for afternoon tea

The other side of the parlor.

The Parlor set for tea.

The Parlor set up for the Christmas Eve Tea:

The Parlor set for the Christmas Eve Tea service of the neighbors:

The Parlor would have been set for a light reception on Christmas Eve for the neighbors in the immediate neighborhood to stop in and join the family for a casual conversation and have a light snack. No one would stay more than an hour and it was in bad manners to stay longer than that.

The reception foods would be replenished as they ran out and this would take place for about two to three hours on Christmas Eve night as people would be leaving for church services or on their way to other celebrations.

The tour took us next upstairs to see the renovated bedrooms on the second floor and the galleries where some of the jewelry and art objects were on display.

The Staircase decorated for the Christmas holidays

The beautiful stained glass window on the landing to the second floor.

Mr. & Mrs. Ballantine’s Bedroom

The Boudoir where Mrs. Ballantine did her work.

The Boudoir where Mrs. Ballantine worked.

Alice’s bedroom on the second floor that was adjoined to her parents room by the way of the Boudoir.

Alice’s bedroom on the second floor looking over Washington Park.

The staircase to the Third Floor to Alice’s family apartment.

This was the main room of the apartment that was used by the family for entertaining friends and family. Alice, her husband and their four children lived in this apartment until 1919 at the time of Mrs. Ballantine’s death. Then her daughter moved to another part of Newark and then onto Morris County.

The Third floor apartment for Alice and her family that Mrs. Ballantine build for Alice and her family.

The beautiful skylight in Alice’s apartment on the Third floor of the Ballantine house.

The decorative fireplace that worked in Alice’s family apartment on the third floor of the house

On my most recent trip to the museum, I attended the opening of the new ‘Norman Bluhm Metamorphosis’ exhibition on February 11th, 2020.

Artist Norman Bluhm

Norman Bluhm: Metamorphosis celebrates six decades of painting by post-war American artist Norman Bluhm (1920-1999), who combined action painting with a lavish sense of color and formal experimentation on a grand scale.

Paintings and works on paper dating from 1947 to 1998 are on view in the Museum’s Special Exhibition Gallery and the Traphagen promenade galleries surrounding the Charles W. Engelhard Court (Newark Museum publication press release).

These large works showcase the artist’s work over a fifty year period.

Norman Bluhm’s work is quite dramatic

In 2022, I went on the first Members Morning that we had in almost two years. We toured the “Carlos Villa: Worlds in Collusion” exhibition featuring the works by American San Franciso born artist of Philippine decent Carlos Villa.

Artist Carlos Villa in the exhibition “Worlds in Collison”

Video on the Exhibition “Carlos Villa: Worlds in Collison”

What made this exhibition interesting was the feather work that he used in his art. He was trying to capture the ethnic history of identity not just of the Asian but the Pan-Pacific cultures of Hawaii. He used robes and other costumes to show the dynamic of the background of these cultures. Not just that but what describes Americans who are not of white decadency and where their role plays in society. The impression I got from his work and from the tour was feeling like an outsider in the country he was born in.

One of the feathered cloches that are in the exhibition

I also visited the interactive exhibition “Endangered”, showing video screenings of nature on the walls of the Natural Science Galleries. The exhibition highlights how human behavior is affection the natural environment and what we can do to stop it.

In the Summer of 2022, we had a member’s tour of one of the ongoing exhibitions at the museum and the docent described the works of local Brooklyn based artist Saya Woolfalk.

http://www.sayawoolfalk.com/

The “Endangered” exhibition:

I joined the membership one morning to tour the exhibition on artist Saya Woolfalk who is based out of Brooklyn. Her current exhibition “Tumbling into Landscape” is being featured on a long-term exhibition. The works are a communication with nature and our relationship with nature and with one another. When you walk through it you are so relaxed between the music and the lighting. The artist ‘uses science fiction and fantasy to reimagine the world in multiple dimensions’ (Newark Museum).

The videos in the Saya Woolfalk exhibition

Her look at nature is very interesting. She looks at our relationship with the natural world and to each other and where we belong. Here works have a calming effect on the visitor and our interaction with the art.

‘The Four Virtues’ (Justice, Prudence, Temperance and Fortitude)

She even did a study of the Hudson River School and how her art worked into that perspective of nature. She included between six paintings from the School of Art with a self-portrait of herself.

It was interesting how she used her own self to compare to the stylized view of nature taken on by these past artists.

Recently, I joined other members for a special “Members Morning” that happen every third Thursday entitled “The Art of Collecting Abstracts”. It was a look at the contemporary works that have been collected by the Newark Museum over the years. We got a look at works from the early part of the last century to today. Each of the pieces chose were a way for us to think about the artist and what they were trying to convey. Some used bold strokes and colors to tell their story. I thought they were quite colorful.

Work by artist Max Webber “Voices”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Weber_(artist)

The Max Webber sign for ‘Voices’.

Helen Frankenthaler “Untitled”

https://www.frankenthalerfoundation.org/artworks/paintings

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Frankenthaler

The sign for Helen Frankenthaler’s “Untitled”

The group of us on the tour walked through various galleries, admiring and learning about the contemporary collections of abstract work from artists from various periods. Each docent took their take on pieces they admired in the collection.

Abstract by Ilya Bolotwosky “Study for Mural for Hall of Medicine, Public Health Building, New York World’s Fair.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilya_Bolotowsky

Sign for Ilya Bolotwosky’s work

Mashell Black’s “Legally Right”

https://www.mashellblack.com/

Mashell Black sign for ‘Legally Right’

Artist Reg Sylvester’s work “Apocalyptic Blues’

https://maximillianwilliam.com/artist/reginald-sylvester-ii/

The sign for Reginald Sylvester’s “Apocalyptic Blues”

The tour was an interesting view of the some of the newest works as well. These members mornings are a great way to learn abou the collection.

I recently in April 2024 I went to the Members Open House to see the exhibition of artist Bony Ramirez :

The description sign for the exhibition.

Artist Bony Ramirez

https://bonyramirez.com

Artist Bony Ramirez is a Dominican artist born in the Dominican Republic and works in New Jersey. He is known for his island influences in his works and reflects life in the Caribbean nation. He uses all sorts of materials to achieve his works of art (Artist’s bio).

The gallery opening of the artist’s work on the second floor of the museum.

The write up on his work.

Cow sculpture

Painting and sculpture

One of the artist’s paintings on Colonialization.

One of the artist’s recent sculptures.

The exhibition was small and it was one of the first shows that the artist mounted at a major museum. I thought the work was okay but nothing dramatic. Still it was a nice opening and a reception. The artist seemed thrilled by it all.

Newark Museum History and Highlights tour:

Welcome to the Newark Museum. Our unique approach to exhibiting our extraordinary art and science collections provides unforgettable experiences for people of all ages. It is a place where people of different generations, cultures and communications encounter a robust science collection and world-class act including the arts of Africa, Ancient arts, Arts of Asia, Decorative arts and American art.

The American Wing galleries at the Newark Museum. The Max Webber piece is to the right.

Take an inspirational journey through our many galleries. Marvel at shooting stars in our popular planetarium. Travel to another era in the Victorian Ballantine House, a National Historic Landmark. Pause at a Tibetan Buddhist altar consecrated by His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama. Stroll through our beautiful sculpture garden, visit our Museum Shops and enjoy delicious light fare or snacks at our Cafe (will be reopening soon).

For the Lunar New Year in 2025, the Newark Museum had a wonderful family celebration for Chinese New Year. The museum had all sorts of games and crafts for the kids and tours for the families.

A Chinese musical group started the festivities for Chinese New Year at the Newark Museum. This was the folk band from JTL Band. They sang traditional songs in Chinese.

The group entertained the crowd with a wide applause

After the performance, we were treated to a Ribbon Dance. Dancer Lina Liu

The traditional Ribbon Dance by the Lina Liu Artist Group

The beauty of the dance

The end of the performance

The museum did a wonderful job with all the entertainment. The Planetarium also had a interesting show in the Moon and the phases that show in the evening sky. It was a very interesting show. Even though it was geared towards children, they made it so easy to understand in fun and engaging way.

The museum did a nice job for the Lunar holidays. In 2026, they had another interesting festival of Korean music and dance.

Entertainment from the Korean Cultural Society

The best was the resfreshments at the end of the program. They had the most delicious Korean Chicken and Dumplings along with other dishes.

The Korean dishes I enjoyed that afternoon. I had to go back for seconds of the chicken and dumplings.

Coming back for seconds

I then walked around the main hall to enjoy the works of local Korean-American artists. I have to admit it was a quick afternoon

The works of local artists

Come visit us. You’ll wonder why you waited:

(from the website and from the museum pamphlet)

The Newark Museum exhibits world-class art and science in a unique way. Visitors feel enriched by what they had planned to see and excited about the unexpected discoveries that they made along the way.

The new entrance of the museum

American Art:

With more than 12,000 paintings, sculptures, works on paper and multimedia art, the American art collection at the Newark Museum, many on view in the Picturing America galleries, is one of the finest in the country. Surveying four centuries, the Museum’s American holdings range from the Colonial to the Contemporary and are particularly strong in works from the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Ancient Art:

The Museum’s art of the ancient Mediterranean cultures, Egypt, the Near East, Greece and Rome, includes a remarkable array of classical antiques, as well as an Egyptian collection featuring the coffin lid of Henet-Mer. The Eugene Schaefer Collection of ancient glass offers a visual history of the evolution of glass technology in Egypt, Greece, Rome and the Islamic worlds and dates from 1500 B.C. to 1400 A.D.

Arts of Africa:

With works ranging from Moroccan textiles in South African beadwork to contemporary fine art, the Museum’s African art collection is as diverse as the continent itself. The collection is among the most comprehensive in the United States with more than 4,000 art works dating from the 17th century to the present day. Its holdings are also distinguished for their breadth of artistic representation, including masks and figural statuary, dress and adornment, photography and paintings.

Arts of Native North America:

The Native North American art collection spans the continental United States, as well as Alaska and Canada. Most of the works date from the 19th to the late 20th centuries. The collection represents the diversity and richness of indigenous arts with a range of object types including tools, household items, personal effects, clothing, ritual and ceremonial objects, paintings and drawings.

Arts of Asia:

The most extraordinary historical collection of Tibetan art in the Western Hemisphere is on permanent view. Additional galleries dedicated to the arts of Japan, Korea, China as well as South and Southeast Asia feature superior examples of sculptures, paintings, ceramics and decorative arts from the past 2,000 years.

Decorative Arts:

Furniture, silver, ceramics, glass, jewelry, costumes and textiles comprise the vast Decorative Arts holdings, which range from the 16th century to the present. A wide variety of American and European household furnishings create an international context for New Jersey-made and owned objects displayed in rotating gallery installations.

Ballantine House:

Built in 1885 for Jeanette and John Holme Ballantine of the celebrated Newark beer-brewing family, this brick and limestone mansion was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1985. Wander through history in House & Home, a suite of eight Victorian period rooms and accompanying thematic galleries depicting how people have decorated their homes in America, from the 1650’s to the present day.

The Ballantine House

Science:

You will also find New Jersey’s first planetarium here and an 83,000-specimen natural Science Collection, which is the basis of the exhibit Dynamic Earth: Revealing Nature’s Secrets, located in the Victoria Hall of Science. This engaging exhibit features interactive and multimedia displays that make the natural sciences come alive and help adults and children better understand the natural world.

Newark Fire Museum:

Housed in the circa 1860 Ward Carriage House in the Alice Ransom Dreyfuss Memorial Garden, the newly refurbished Newark Fire Museum tells the story of the challenges faced by firefighters in the 19th century and includes historic fire apparatus and equipment. An exciting new exhibit adds a potentially life-saving element to our mission with a high-tech interactive Fire Safety Center designed to teach fire safety and prevention to children and families.

The Newark Fire Museum in the gardens.

1784 Old Stone School House:

The oldest standing school building in Newark, this one-room school hosted generations of students between 1784 and the early 20th century. Recently restored, its detailed bring the past to life: the foundation built with sandstone from a local Newark quarry, the floorboards sawed by hand from trees cut from a local forest and the old cast iron stove used to heat the school with wood provided by the students.

The Old Stone Schoolhouse in the gardens.

The historic plaque at the Old Stone Schoolhouse

Planetarium:

The Alice and Leonard Dreyfuss Planetarium provides an immersive, out-of-this-world experience through which adults and children can learn about astronomy, planetary science and space travel. Featured is a state-of-the-art, full dome digital video system, a 5.1 surround-sound system and a Zeiss ZKP3B star projector.

Disclaimer: This information was taken directly from the Newark Museum pamphlet. The museum is the pride and joy of the State of New Jersey. It has great programming and wonderful events. Please call or email the museum for more details.