In the past few years alone, Newark, New Jersey, has been a scenic backdrop to some of the biggest films and television projects, and with Lionsgate Newark Studio coming to the South Ward, local artists, their financial livelihood, and the hyperlocal arts economy is in limbo.
Culture is the unique culmination of a community’s experiences, values, and collective identity. In Newark, New Jersey, the culture has been tethered to the arts and humanities since its inception. Despite being geographically forced (and over time professionally placed) into the shadow of the neighboring metropolitan city, New York, residents of the area have consistently proven that if a rose can grow in the concrete jungle, then blossoming in Brick City shouldn’t be a problem either.
From innovation in music to the visual arts and every discipline in-between, the city has birthed some of the most impactful artists of our times. However, as gentrification efforts continue to ramp up, many of the purveyors of this cultural richness are being pushed out while media conglomerates, including major film studio Lionsgate, begin to cash in on this social capital (that took generations to foster) for just pennies on the dollar.
In partnership with Great Point and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, construction of the Lionsgate Newark Studio is well underway. By late 2024, the former Newark Housing Authority property, Seth Boyden Terrace in the city’s South Ward, will be transformed into a 300,000-square-foot, full-service, modern entertainment complex. At this point, the poisonous roots of gentrification are buried too far into Newark’s future city planning to be yanked out without inflecting immediate financial harm on the city. Still, without legislative action from local officials or iron-clad clauses, the culture that initially sparked these corporations’ interest in the first place will swiftly be eradicated. Leaving the curators to start over somewhere else. This invasive co-opting under the guise of regional expansion will not only hurt the local nonprofit organizations serving these artists, but it will also destabilize the hyperlocal art economy that many smaller businesses rely upon to keep up with rising operation costs and eradicate the secondary tourism market that feels the holes in live event programming left by larger venues in the city.
After the announcement of the landmark deal, Governor Phil Murphy shared in a statement retrieved by JerseyDigs, “One of my administration’s priorities has been to enhance New Jersey’s film industry and create new revenue streams for our State,” adding, “With the addition of the Lionsgate Newark Studio, New Jersey will cement its position as a hub for television and film production with its proximity to all forms of transportation and access to more than 14,000 qualified union members in the region.”
However, glossing over the creatives in Newark who are equally as qualified to fill these positions immediately began to raise a red flag. Over the past several years, Newark has hosted several large-scale live events. The MTV Video Music Awards, Black Girls Rock! ceremony, America’s Got Talent auditions, and served as a backdrop in several notable films (Netflix’s The Trial of the Chicago 7, Warner Brother’s Joker, and The Many Saints of Newark). Unfortunately, these one-off opportunities have no lasting financial impact on the community, hiring few (if any) Newark artist residents to come aboard the project.
Similarly, Governor Murphy’s fixation on, as he stated, “union members in the region” excludes several hundreds of freelance Newark artists without local union backing. These same artists play a vital part in annual events around the city, like the Dodge Poetry Festival, Lincoln Park Music Festival, Newark International Film Festival, and the Newark Arts Festival, which boost the local economy. Also, what does a 300,000-square-foot coming to town mean to the city’s existing film and television offices and staff?
Having been approved for the New Jersey Film & Digital Media Tax Credit, the expressed selling point of Lionsgate Newark Studio is that it can provide competitive salaries for directors, producers, writers, and performers totaling anywhere between $15 and $60 million, according to NorthJersey.com. But just how much of that will be allocated to the existing arts ecosystem? To be fair, this question was proposed after news that an arena, now known as the Prudential Center, was being built in 2007. Fast forward to just last year, Prudential grossed $85.2 million in revenue, as revealed by Pollstar data. Unfortunately, only a fraction of this was shared with local arts organizations to be rationed to local artists. This same issue was brought up when Audible, a child company of Amazon, announced they were moving their headquarters to Newark. Audible quickly became one of the city’s fastest-growing private employers, but some local artists feel that the company’s promise to carve opportunities for them has yet to be fulfilled. Just over a handful of their 1,600 employees reside within the city’s borders. Freelance art director Germany Lancaster described her experience applying for the company’s job opening: “I had an engineering degree in music, so I thought Audible would be perfect for me. I have the studio background. I have a back-of-house background. I know how to work the boards. I know all my signal flow education stuff. I would at least be good for a junior entry position, but no matter what I did, I couldn’t get in.”
Devonne De Nose, the principal of Arts High School, the only public arts high school, ensures that their graduating artist scholars shouldn’t be looked over for employment opportunities as they receive rigorous in-studio training inside and beyond their classroom walls.
Artists are beginning to echo the age-old idiom, fool me once, shame on you, fool me two, shame on me, demanding that an artists-centered job security program be a condition of the studio’s arrival. Job security programs around these arts institutions have been introduced in the past. For example, former Mayor-now-Senator Cory Booker held a job fair for Prudential Center part-time entry-level jobs (ushers, janitors, bartenders, and cooks) in 2007. As Lionsgate Newark Studio plans to employ 600 people, Newark artists are calling on current Mayor Ras J. Baraka to orchestrate a similar program for the creative community, given that he has thrown his support behind the complex.
“Bringing a project of this magnitude into Newark is a monumental victory for our city. It will bring hundreds of new jobs, create new educational opportunities for our students, and invigorate the revitalization of the South Ward,” said Mayor Baraka.
Although the studio did not respond to a request for comment from NJ.com regarding what its presence means to local artists, a source close to the matter shared that the Mayor acknowledges these concerns and is in the beginning stages of a solution to please both Lionsgate and local artists. Artist Leef Parks, who often works as a film director and portrait photographer, emphasized how Newark’s creative community molded him during his career’s developmental years.
“It is a unique and genuine vibe you that can’t get back. And the people that were in those rooms are in such wonderful spaces in the art world now. It was kind of a starting ground for a lot of us. We had a beautiful camaraderie, and it was the first time I ever gained community as far as the art world goes,” said Parks.
Whereas singer, songwriter, and Newark native Tahj Writez, outlined how artists like herself and others have rallied together to host open mic nights, artists showcases, and other programming to raise funds for local businesses to ensure their doors wouldn’t close. A community care that larger entities have no emotional investment in. In turn, local nonprofit organizations such as Newark Arts offer financial funding opportunities through grant allotments such as the Creative Catalyst Fund to Newark artists to continue this work. However, one of the main stipulations in order to be eligible for these assistance programs includes being an actual Newark resident. As rent within the city’s five wards continues to soar because of gentrification, without a job security program, Newark artists will be forced to find housing outside of the city. As a result, in many cases making them ineligible to receive funding from these grassroots organizations to provide a stable secondary stream of income in order to sustain themselves and their art.
Unfortunately, only time will tell if an artists job security program is successfully worked out between the city’s current administration and Lionsgates or any other media company looking to call the city home. But, if an agreement isn’t reached, creatives like Zunyda Watson, the event producer of Vibes After Dark, will, in her words, “pour into the community” for as long as it is here.
Newark, New Jersey’s gentrification arts boom is proving lucrative for everyone but the local artists’ community. Under the guise of regional expansion, media conglomerates that plant roots into the city without affirming the existing hyperlocal arts economy will not only hurt the local nonprofit organizations serving these artists, but it will also destabilize the small businesses that rely upon them to keep up with rising operation costs and eradicate the secondary tourism market that feels the holes in live event programming left by larger venues in the city.