Clapping her hands to call the meeting to order, Amy Elise de Jong likened herself to a camp counselor. Her wayward charges: fifty leaders of the Jersey City arts community, including show-runners, directors, gallerists, and painters. These big personalities gathered at the Mary McLeod Bethune Life Center (140 MLK Dr.) to discuss the fate of the town’s longest-running annual cultural event. If De Jong, chair and leader of the Jersey City Arts Council, couldn’t seize the Studio Tour and guide it to its next destination herself, she was hoping that one, or many, of these colorful characters in the room could.
About one thing De Jong was clear. Ultimate oversight will not be coming from the JCAC. Despite rumors and a fair bit of wishcasting by local artists, the Council won’t be in charge of the next Tour. Neither will the city’s Office of Cultural Affairs, the entity that managed the Tour for many years.
The Arts Council and the municipal government pledged their support to the Tour and promised to help the next director of the event. But attendees left the Bethune Center on a rainy Saturday with no better idea of who that person, or persons, might be.
Artists had hoped for something more substantial. The Studio Tour, which returned for its thirty-fifth year in 2024, is a massive citywide undertaking. It requires time, money, organization, networking, and grasp of administrative detail; above all, it requires leadership. If JCAST is going to return in the fall for Tour number thirty-six, the time to plan it is now.
The last two Tours were organized and overseen by Art Fair 14C director Robinson Holloway — and not without controversy. This year, Holloway has her hands full with the May return of the Art Fair to the Powerhouse Arts District and the opening of Project 14C, a huge artist residency program. Even if she was asked to return, it’s hard to see how she could find time to rescue the Tour from its current predicament.
Nevertheless, Holloway was present, and cheerful, at the Bethune Center, and game to participate in De Jong’s brainstorming session. As a teacher might have, the JCAC chair broke the gang of attendees into five groups and assigned a JCAST-related question to each one. Each artist was encouraged to affix their answers to whiteboards via post-it notes, and each group was challenged to synthesize the replies into a quickie presentation.
What could have been a flashback to social studies class was, instead, an opportunity for artists to catch up and kibitz a little after the long holiday break. (It all felt very January-ish and back-to-school, and not in a bad way.)
Even if they aren’t always fans of consensus, artists are good at spotting trends. Themes emerged from the forest of post-its: greater inclusivity, community access, expanded commercial possibilities for artists, better transportation from Tour hub to Tour hub, opportunities for the amplification of Jersey City pride. Artists were virtually unanimous about the importance of JCAST and its centrality to the social calendar and our sense of cultural identity. Nobody wants to see it wither on the vine.
Yet our wishes aren’t going to amount to much without anybody to put them into action. Someone needs to take the wheel. It was merciful of Amy de Jong to take the Arts Council out of the running as definitively as she did; that way, we’re not waiting for JCAC or Cultural Affairs to act.
It’s possible that a version of the Tour could happen spontaneously, with galleries and studios opening across town on loosely coordinated schedules. That might satisfy the desires of those who remember the anarchic spirit of 111 First Street and the original Tours, and it could be great fun. But it’s hard to see artists reaching any of the lofty aspirations aired at the Bethune Center if we don’t have an ambitious, charismatic organizer (or two, or more). If you’re out there, step up. We’ve got a big party to throw. Wouldn’t want to do 2025 without it.