Trenton, NJ - Advancing its ongoing commitment to ensuring a stable and healthy cultural industry, the New Jersey Cultural Trust Board approved a total of $798,395 in grants supporting capital projects at 21 nonprofit cultural organizations during an open public meeting held virtually on December 15, 2023. With the FY 2024 grant awards, the Cultural Trust has now awarded over $10.4 million in funding for historic preservation and financial stabilization projects across New Jersey to date.

The Fiscal Year 2024 Capital Historic Preservation grants were recommended to the Cultural Trust Board by the New Jersey Historic Trust. The nearly $800,000 in awards represents the largest total dollar amount the Board has approved in grant awards in a single fiscal year since 2011.

“These grants are investments in the sustainability and longevity of sites significant to our state’s rich and diverse history,” said Lieutenant Governor Tahesha Way, who oversees the Cultural Trust in her capacity as Secretary of State. “New Jersey’s historic places are essential to our state’s identity and culture, and the Cultural Trust’s Capital Historic Preservation program helps safeguard them for future generations.”

The Capital Historic Preservation program supports historic preservation projects at sites listed on the New Jersey and/or National Register of Historic Places, including stabilization, repair, restoration, adaptive reuse, and accessibility improvements. All project proposals must be in conformance with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties.

The maximum award amount for Fiscal Year 2024 grants was $40,000 — a 60 percent increase over the maximum award amount in Fiscal Year 2018, when the Capital Historic Preservation grant program was most recently offered. At the Cultural Trust Board meeting authorizing the Fiscal Year 2024 grant round, Board members specifically approved this increase in response to inflation and the rising costs of materials and labor.

“The projects that come before the Cultural Trust are critical to the operations and missions of these historic sites and cultural organizations, and they’re only getting more expensive,” said Cultural Trust Board Chair Bette Daniele. “It’s important to the Board that the Capital Historic Preservation program takes into account the on-the-ground realities facing the nonprofit organizations stewarding New Jersey’s historic places.”

The Fiscal Year 2024 awardees include arts and history organizations from 12 counties, with projects ranging from accessibility improvements and HVAC system upgrades to the stabilization and restoration of historically significant features including plasterwork and stained glass windows.

Pursuant to the Cultural Trust Act, applications to the Cultural Trust’s annual grant programs undergo an independent third-party peer review process consisting of qualified individuals employing uniform evaluation criteria. Awards are recommended to the Cultural Trust Board in alternating years by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, New Jersey Historical Commission, and the New Jersey Historic Trust.

Unique among the other grant programs within the Department of State, Cultural Trust grants are made from interest income generated by the Cultural Trust’s permanent investment fund, rather than from a direct annual budgetary appropriation.

High interest rates, increased appropriations to the principal of the Trust’s permanent fund, and diligent stewardship of the fund resulted in historically high interest income for the most recent fiscal year, which directly increased the Trust’s capacity for awards in the FY 2024 Capital Historic Preservation Grant Program.

The FY 2024 Capital Historic Preservation grant awards, as recommended by the New Jersey Historic Trust, are as follows:

FY 2024 Capital Historic Preservation Awardees

Organization	Project Name	Town/City	County	Award Amount
Camden County Historical Society	Pomona Hall	Camden	Camden	$40,000
Home Port Alliance for the USS New Jersey Inc.	USS New Jersey (BB-62)	Camden	Camden	$40,000
Historic Cold Spring Village	Historic Cold Spring Village Historic District	Lower Township	Cape May	$40,000
Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts & Humanities (Cape May MAC)	Emlen Physick Estate	Cape May	Cape May	$40,000
Naval Air Station Wildwood Aviation Museum	Hangar No. 1	Rio Grande	Cape May	$40,000
Millville Army Airfield Museum	Base Headquarters, Millville Army Airfield Historic District	Millville	Cumberland	$30,000
Montclair Historical Society	Nathaniel Crane House and Clark House	Montclair	Essex	$40,000
Gloucester County Historical Society	Hunter-Lawrence-Jessup House	Woodbury	Gloucester	$39,997
Save Ellis Island, Inc.	Statue of Liberty National Monument, Ellis Island and Liberty Island	Jersey City	Hudson	$40,000
The 1759 Vought House, Inc.	Christoffel Vought Homestead	Clinton Township	Hunterdon	$33,000
Delaware River Mill Society	Prallsville Mills	Stockton Borough	Hunterdon	$40,000
Hunterdon Land Trust	Case-Dvoor Farmstead	Flemington	Hunterdon	$39,200
Historic Morven, Inc.	Morven	Princeton	Mercer	$40,000
Old Barracks Museum	Old Barracks	Trenton	Mercer	$40,000
Friends of Millstone Township Historic Registered Properties	Clarksburg Methodist Episcopal Church	Millstone Township	Monmouth	$40,000
InfoAge Science History Center	Camp Evans National Historic Landmark	Wall	Monmouth	$40,000
South Street Theatre/The Community Theatre (Mayo Performing Arts Center)	Community Theatre, Morristown Historic District	Morristown	Morris	$40,000
American Labor Museum/Botto House National Landmark	Botto House	Haledon	Passaic	$39,975
Liberty Hall Museum	Liberty Hall Museum	Union	Union	$40,000
Merchants and Drovers Tavern Museum Association	Merchants and Drovers Tavern	Rahway	Union	$40,000
Reeves-Reed Arboretum	Wisner House	Summit	Union	$16,223

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The New Jersey Cultural Trust, a division of the New Jersey Department of State, was created in July 2000 as a public/private partnership to help ensure a stable and healthy nonprofit cultural industry in New Jersey that is sustainable even in the toughest of economic times. The Trust provides grants to support capital projects, endowments and institutional and financial stabilization of arts, history and humanities organizations in New Jersey. Funding for the grants comes from interest earned on the Cultural Trust Fund, which is a permanent investment fund. To learn more about the Trust, please visit our website at nj.gov/state/culturaltrust.