NEWARK, NJ — If you're an immigrant artist living in Newark and you want to make your city a better place, there are mentors who share your vision and who can help you on your journey. And you can get a chance to meet some of them when the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) expands its "Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program" to Essex County, New Jersey.

The NYFA recently received a two-year grant from Ford Foundation to support the expansion of its program to Newark, Detroit, Oakland and San Antonio. The program will connect 144 immigrant artists with mentors and strengthen immigrant artist communities in those four cities, according to the organization. In collaboration with Newark-based partners, the program will have two weekend boot camps, one-on-one mentoring and an informal gathering between weekends, with individual consultations as a follow-up component to the program.

The competitive program is open to artists from all disciplines (performing, literary, visual, multi-disciplinary, folk and traditional arts) based in Newark. It's provided free to accepted participants. The program will run from December 2017 to April 2018. The New Jersey Performing Arts Center will be the lead partner organization, providing guidance on the nuances of the Newark arts landscape and arts expertise, along with access to mentors, mentees, physical space and artist opportunities.

Paul Robeson Galleries, Express Newark, Aljira (a Center for Contemporary Art) and City Without Walls will be secondary partners, with Newark Arts Education Roundtable confirmed as a contributor, the NYFA stated. The Newark program is accepting applications from now until Nov. 6, with a start date of Dec. 9, 2017. Learn more and apply to the Newark program here.

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