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

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.

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

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

The Newark Museum: Always New

TripAdvisor Review:

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

Services:

General Information: (973) 596-6550

Membership Office: (973) 596-6699

Volunteer Office: (973) 596-6337

Member Travel Office: (973) 596-6643

Group Tours: (973) 596-6613

TTY 711

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 performances 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

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

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.

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.

The Ballantine House set for Christmas lunch

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

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.

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.

Newark Museum History and Highlights:

Your journey starts here:

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.

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).

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

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.

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.

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.