2026 Newark Artist Accelerator Grant Recipients: Angela Pilgrim, CAZORLA + SALEME, Damien Davis, Fallon Ayaan, GERALUZ x ANGEL BELLARAN, KARENA, Lillian Ribeiro, Petia Morozov, and Tiny Gallery x Christen Clifford.
Grants are awarded in the amounts of $2,500, $5,000, and $7,500. Projects are artist-led, and could include collaborative ventures, pop-up exhibitions, events, and interventions of an ephemeral nature that are radically accessible to public audiences.
Dear You II: Mothers in Print
Angela Pilgrim
Dear You II: Mothers in Print is a summer printmaking program uniting NJ/NY mothers to create cyanotype, hand-bound artist books rooted in personal storytelling. Through guided workshops in cyanotype printing, bookbinding, and reflective writing, participants transform memories and lived experiences into handmade books that honor motherhood, creativity, and personal journeys.
Streets of Newark: The Book
CAZORLA + SALEME
Street of Newark: The Book traces Downtown Newark’s transformation over the past decade through walking, observation, and belonging. Combining archival and contemporary images, community conversations, and contributions from local artists and poets, it weaves past and present into a visual testimony celebrating the city’s evolving identity, life, and resilience.
Cutting Futures: Laser Fabrication for Emerging Newark Artists
Damien Davis
Cutting Futures is a six-week workshop for Newark-based high school and college students focused on laser cutting and digital design. The program provides hands-on training in vector software and fabrication, culminating in original projects. Participants receive stipends, reducing access barriers and affirming the value of their labor.
Radical Healing Fashion: From Waste to Wearable Stories
Fallon Ayaan
Radical Healing Fashion: From Waste to Wearable Stories is a youth-centered, artisan-led project transforming everyday waste into wearable art. Through upcycling, natural dyeing, and textile reclamation, Newark youth gain design skills while reconnecting with Black and Indigenous traditions. The project culminates in a World Environment Day showcase celebrating fashion as healing, storytelling, and liberation.
RITUAL JOURNEY, WHERE THE RIVER REMEMBERS
GERALUZ x ANGEL BELLARAN
This project transforms a riverside walkway into a journey, from playful hopscotch to radiant self-recognition. Yellow pathways with reflective Indigenous patterns invite movement, joy, and storytelling, linking heritage with sacred geometry. The path culminates in HOME: a sense of belonging that reframes viewers as divine, offering empowerment and collective memory.
Windows to Nature
KARENA
Windows to Nature is a community mural on Newark’s Merchant Street, transforming a blank façade into a biophilic “window” of color and calm. Inspired by local flora and wildlife and created with residents, it offers visual relief, mindfulness, and shared pride, inviting passersby to pause, breathe, and reconnect with nature.
Building Resilience
Lillian Ribeiro
Building Resilience harnesses expressive arts, connection, and trauma-informed care to support adults experiencing homelessness. While adults participate in meaningful group sessions, children engage in parallel creative experiences, creating space for expression, healing, and resilience for the entire family.
Newark Department of Care and Belonging
Petia Morozov
The Newark Department of Care and Belonging revives the town crier through public walks and mobile zine-making, starting in the Ironbound. Using a converted equipment case, it engages residents, land, and river as co-authors of urban narratives. The resulting zine library documents stories and informs inclusive, community-centered city planning.
Be Astonished. Tell About It.
Tiny Gallery X Christen Clifford for the Newark Arts Festival
Where others go big, Tiny Gallery and Christen Clifford go small. For the 2026 Newark Arts Festival, Treat Place becomes an open-air corridor of miniature installations by Clifford and five Newark artists. Be Astonished. Tell About It. sparks wonder, storytelling, and connection, reminding us that art belongs everywhere and to everyone.
