New Jersey Performing Arts Center

The story

More than one million children have walked through its doors — a number that sets this Newark landmark apart from almost any comparable venue in the country. NJPAC opened in October 1997 on the site of the former Military Park Hotel, giving New Jersey Symphony Orchestra a permanent home and anchoring a cultural district that also holds the Newark Museum, the New Jersey Historical Society, and the Newark Public Library. With one of the largest arts education programs of any performing arts center in the nation, it has been a deliberate engine of the city's revitalization ever since.