Jersey City is Positioned to Become a Global Arts Hub

Pompidou. Credit: City of Jersey City.

By KENDALL KRANTZ October 6, 2024

September’s Jersey City Council meeting on the Pompidou Jersey City project was less about art and more about a clash of visions for the city's future. For six hours straight, community members made a range of cases before the council, on a 30-year tax abatement granted to the KRE Group in exchange for 100,000 square feet of space in a rapidly developing area called Journal Square. That space will likely be filled by a satellite museum, Centre Pompidou x Jersey City.

At the City Council podium, the residents of Jersey City called for amenities such as parks, homeless shelters, affordable housing, and investment into the school system, among other line items which, in their opinion, could be paid for with the money lost to the tax abatement. The tragedy of displacement due to gentrification was heavy in the air for much of the night.

However, there was no mention of a little-discussed “visioning” plan called Journal Square 2060, which has been underway for a decade and a half already. Journal Square 2060’s lofty goals are outlined by the Jersey City Master Plan:

“Develop and implement smart growth strategies that locate new residential development within walking distance of bus stops and passenger rail stations, with the highest density zones located within walking distance of passenger rail stations; that mixes residential land use with commercial land use; Create meaningful public spaces that facilitate integration of the built environment with arterials and major transit routes.” (Read the full document here.)

Establishing the Centre Pompidou x Jersey City would be a kickstart to the re-establishment of a long-lost arts district in Journal Square. There’s a thriving arts culture in other areas, but a few key institutions comprise Journal Square’s history. David Goodwin’s Left Bank of the Hudson offers a brief snapshot of what once was a thriving creative community: “In the late 1980s, a handful of artists priced out of Manhattan and desperately needing affordable studio space discovered 111 First Street, a former P. Lorillard Tobacco Company warehouse. Over the next two decades, an eclectic collection of painters, sculptors, musicians, photographers, filmmakers, and writers dreamt and toiled within the building’s labyrinthine halls. The local arts scene flourished, igniting hope that Jersey City would emerge as the next grassroots center of the art world.”

After the residents were priced out, 111 First Street was demolished in 2007.

Jersey City also had a local museum from 1901-2010. The museum was lost to financial troubles, and the collections were donated to the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University.

Anti-Pompidou Poster. Credit: Author.

It’s easy to be skeptical about a Centre Pompidou x Jersey City given the city’s tumultuous with arts organizations. However, the institutional support surrounding this development plan from both private and public sectors provides a solid foundation alongside the Centre Pompidou’s institutional knowledge, and the 30-year abatement has locked in the crown jewel of an area likely to become a thriving commercial arts district within my lifetime.

“There’s an arts district happening organically,” explained local artist Alvin Pettit in a brief conversation preceding the City Council meeting, “but our grassroots organizations have plateaued. They’ve already engaged everyone in a five-mile radius. Having an international organization will attract people from further, which will bring them to our other venues.”

At the meeting, Pettit sat next to another artist, Melissa Ulto, who was staunchly against the project. Ulto regularly brings her LED truck to protests against the Pompidou and critiqued the timeline of the abatement approval as rushed, providing insufficient financial details to ensure the burden is on institutions instead of taxpayers. She said, “The developer should not be controlling the schedule – the city should be.”

Petit believes that power is in the hands of the citizens to work with the institution: “It would be up to Jersey City residents to hold them accountable and make sure the arts renaissance touches all communities with access to mixed-use spaces. Every day, we see how creative expression changes lives and keeps kids out of trouble.”

Now that the tax abatement has been approved, the next step is to lock in the Centre Pompidou x Jersey City as the on-site amenity at the building in question, 808 Pavonia Ave. Combined with the Loew’s Jersey Theater and other conjectured projects such as an outdoor amphitheater, the area will rival the Miami Arts District should the execution live up to its ambitious plan.

However, resident concerns remain over Centre Pompidou as a partner, who question the ability of external institutions to retain a focus on local culture. Associate Curator at the Modern Art Department of the Musée national d’art moderne/Centre Pompidou Anna Hiddleston-Galloni took the stand herself to assuage these concerns.

Pompidou. Credit: City of Jersey City.

Here is a transcription of her 3-minute speech, met with mixed reception:

“Hello, I’m a curator from the Centre Pompidou. I’ve been working on this project for the past three years with my colleague, Charles Aubin, and the Pompidou team in Paris. I just want to express Pompidou's commitment to and belief in this project. I’d like to begin by talking a bit about the Pompidou in Paris. It was founded in 1977. The Centre Pompidou transformed the museum experience by creating a cultural center connected to contemporary society, to community, and to the young. It was the first museum to offer art workshops for children, and it is renowned for its multidisciplinary collection, from paintings to architecture to design to photography and more. Education and community engagement are at the heart of what we do, and this spirit will guide us in Jersey City.

Our goal is not to simply replicate the Paris experience, but to create something unique for Jersey City, shaped by its history, its community, and its concerns. Over the past three years, we have met nearly two hundred people from local cultural associations, from schools and universities as well as local artists. We have already partnered with the Jersey City Public Library and the Hudson Community College. We plan to continue offering internships, fellowships, and collaborative programming. We also plan to recruit the museum team locally.

The Centre Pompidou in Jersey City will be a place for all…We’ll have spaces for children’s art workshops, a teen lounge equipped for creative media projects, a dance studio for performance and dance classes, and an auditorium for panel discussions, poetry readings, concerts, and more. We’re also committed to supporting local artists through exhibitions, production support, commissions, and mentorship. The Centre Pompidou holds one of the biggest collections of modern and contemporary art in the world. While we’ll bring major artists like Chagal, Matisse, Picasso, and Modigliani, our programming will make a point of highlighting living artists and local voices. We aim to make a place for community, where people feel they belong. The Centre Pompidou in Jersey City will be a vibrant, inclusive space where art and life come together.”

The Journal Square 2060 plan is already underway, so the direction of development will be up to decisions made in the coming years. Some residents will welcome the change. Some residents will be forced out of their lifelong home by rising costs. Some residents will simply continue to advocate for the preservation of Jersey City’s culture.

A representative of the third group, local artist Richard La Rovere, whose career centers architectural drawings of Jersey City, passed around a petition for a Jersey City Contemporary Art Museum through the benches of the meeting. He told me, “I suppose my position is that whether or not we have the Pompidou, we should get our own museum of contemporary art.”

As the dust settles from this contentious City Council meeting, the future of the Centre Pompidou x Jersey City remains as polarizing as ever. The council's approval signals a green light for a bold artistic and urban redevelopment initiative, but it comes with significant social costs.

The Centre Pompidou's vision for Jersey City may offer a dynamic platform for creative expression, but its ultimate success will depend on the city’s ability to balance the needs of local artists, residents, and institutions. This is where the project’s true potential lies: not just in the art that will hang on the walls but in the community’s capacity to ensure that the arts district remains inclusive and reflective of Jersey City's diverse character. WM