Daily Pulse

Newark Symphony Hall Restoration to Enter Phase 2

RESTORING A GEM: Talia Young, who has a background in finance, has deep connections to the Newark community. (Courtesy NSH) 

Education lab, new freight elevator on tap

As it nears its 100th anniversary, Newark Symphony Hall in New Jersey continues to remake itself as the country’s largest black-led arts and entertainment venue.

After renovating the Terrace Ballroom, attention now turns to phase 2 of the historic building’s restoration, which involves architectural firm Clarke Caton Hintz and will result in the activation of the venue’s Arts + Education Lab, “a 30,000-square-foot creative hub for community gathering, artistic expression and cultural enrichment.”

CENTENNIAL APPROACHING: Newark Symphony Hall to enter phase 2 of its restoriation. (Courtesy venue)

“The strongest component of this campaign is that the state, the governor, and the mayor want to see this institution thrive,” said NSH CEO Talia Young, a VenuesNow All-Star in 2023. “That’swhy you see, three years consecutively, a line item in the governor’s budget and an increase in funding from the municipality for the brick and mortar to be restored. We’re 200,000 square feet and dormant for many years, just because of a lack of financial investment and caretaking and last year, with the start of this investment, we already tripled our programming just by restoring 15,000 square feet out of the 20,000.”

Phase 2 of NSH’s four-part, $75 million capital improvement program commences in June, with completion expected in January 2025 to coincide with the hall’s centennial anniversary. The work will include a new freight elevator.

“What we have right now is the ability to restore it floor-by-floor and to reactivate it for what the future in the next 50 years is going to feel like for an artist,” Young said. “How we’re looking at it is, how can younger to maturing artists take every floor or different areas in a building to activate where they are as artists. So, are you are you learning? Are you producing? Are you performing? Are you presenting? Are you working on your craft? Are you ready to bring it back into the market to showcase your craft. And by going into this next phase, which is our eduation lab, we’re going to be able to nurture what that looks like. For them just to walk a couple of feet downstairs and perform in a concert hall, walk a couple more and perform it in a restored ballroom, that’s kind of the magic.”

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