Express Newark is turning ten, marking the milestone with Legacy, its 2026–2027 annual theme exploring what it means to build, teach, and gather in Newark across a decade of change. Express Newark, the hub for socially engaged arts at Rutgers University–Newark, announces Legacy as its 2026–2027 annual theme, marking the approach of its tenth anniversary in spring 2027. Through exhibitions, artist residencies, performances, educational programs, and community gatherings, the anniversary season considers legacy not simply as something inherited from the past, but as a living practice shaped through teaching, making, remembering, and caring for one another across generations. 

On Wednesday, October 7, 2026, Express Newark will launch the season with the opening of eleven exhibitions, artist-in-residence open studios, public conversations, and live music. The celebration also coincides with the 25th anniversary of the Newark Arts Festival and the opening of Newark Arts’ group exhibition, ON PURPOSE, bringing together two organizations whose histories reflect Newark’s longstanding role as a center for artistic production and cultural leadership. 

The evening features Stefon Harris & Blackout in performance, celebrating the release of Harris’s new album, Legacy Dances. Acclaimed artist and Newark Arts Festival 2026 guest Bisa Butler will join Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and scholar Salamishah Tillet for a special public conversation. 

The Legacy season also welcomes Kimmah Dennis as its Educational Initiatives Artist-in-Residence. A Rutgers University–Newark alumna and now a Lecturer in the Fine Art Program, Dennis was among the first cohort of students to experience Express Newark. Artist and Rutgers Lecturer Raúl Ayala joins SHINE Portrait Studio as Artist-in-Residence, activating his photographic backdrop installation FERVOR through performative movement, custom garments, and upcoming video work. In the Power Plant Studio, Manuel Acevedo will present work, The Wards of Newark, from his year-long residency with New Arts.

                                     



























 Kimmah Dennis, I will not be a loose talker, 2020, Oil, charcoal, chalk, newspaper, oil pastels joint compound on canvas, 84 x 60 in. 

Season launches October 7 with eleven exhibitions, artist-in-residence open studios, an album release and performances, and a public conversation 

Exhibitions Opening October 7
The eleven exhibitions opening October 7 span jazz history, migration, protest, portraiture, and more—together offering a picture of how Newark’s cultural legacies are carried forward today. 

• Laylah Amatullah Barrayn — From the First Note: Developing Icons
  Reexamines mid-century jazz through archival photography and contemporary image-making, considering how Black genius is seen, framed, preserved, and illuminated. 
• Laylah Amatullah Barrayn — A Grandassa Sunday
  Honors the African Jazz-Art Society & Studios and the Grandassa Models, whose Naturally shows helped define the 1960s “Black Is Beautiful” movement.
• Chantal Fischzang — ÉXITO
  A large-scale neon work transforming the familiar language of an EXIT sign into éxito—“success” in Spanish—and a declaration of possibility. 
• Ayana V. Jackson — The Good News is not Delivered from Mountaintops but in Clearings
  Presents new work developed during Jackson’s residency at Form Design Studio, where she expanded her practice through sculpture and experimental fabrication. 
• Shoshanna Weinberger — Between the Trees and the Thicket: A Grove of Knowledge
  An immersive mural installation inspired by Newark’s Branch Brook Park and the dynamic rhythms of Newark’s urban fabric. 
• Raúl Ayala — FERVOR
  A photographic backdrop installation drawing on seeds, flowers, and spices from the Ecuadorian Andes to explore belonging, migration, and diasporic self-determination. 
• Kevin Darmanie — Disco Calypso
  An installation combining video, painting, pattern, sound, and live DJ performances to explore the continuing exchange between Caribbean and American cultural expression. 
• Anthony Alvarez & Chantal Fischzang — FOCUS
  A collaboration with Rutgers students and FOCUS Hispanic Center for Community Development using portraiture and design to explore legacy, family, migration, cultural identity, and belonging. 
• Design Consortium & ACLU of New Jersey — I AM. YOU ARE. WE ARE. FREE TO SPEAK. PROTEST. DISSENT.
  Following a year-long collaboration, this exhibition explores how design can help people understand, exercise, and protect their constitutional rights. 
• Newark Arts — ON PURPOSE
  Curated by Adrienne Wheeler for the 25th anniversary of the Newark Arts Festival, celebrating the artists, ideas, and cultural leadership shaping Newark today. 
• Institute of Jazz Studies & Paul Robeson Galleries — Artifactual Echoes: “Jazz” in Their Own Words
  Revisits Records at Play, Express Newark’s inaugural exhibition, bringing jazz artifacts from Rutgers–Newark’s Institute of Jazz Studies back into the galleries for the anniversary year. 

“Legacy guides Express Newark’s tenth anniversary by asking us to consider not only what has been built over the past decade, but how that work continues through the people who teach, create, collaborate, and gather here,” said Stefon Harris and Nick Kline, Co-Directors of Express Newark. “Grounded in our commitment to Empowering Expression Through the Arts, this season celebrates the artists, educators, students, alumni, and community members who have shaped Express Newark while creating opportunities for the next generation.” 

Express Newark’s Legacy season builds on in its role as a third space bridging campus and community and the belief that the arts are essential to individual and collective wellbeing. Through art, design, photography, music, film, and more, the anniversary year celebrates a decade of collective achievement while looking toward what comes next.
 

Opening Celebration 

Wednesday, October 7, 2026 | 5–10 PM
Express Newark
54 Halsey Street, 2nd Floor, Newark, NJ 07102
Free and open to the public. RSVP
https://expressnewark.org/ 

About Express Newark
Express Newark is a hub for socially engaged practices in the Arts. Our educators, learners, artists, and community members come together to create, collaborate, and share stories that express our collective experience. Empowering Expression Through the Arts

About Rutgers University – Newark
Rutgers University–Newark is one of three regional campuses of Rutgers University, New Jersey’s State University. It is a remarkably diverse, urban, public research university that is not just in Newark but of Newark—an anchor institution of our home city. We think of anchor institutions as place-based organizations that persist in their communities over generations, even in the face of substantial capital flight, serving as social glue, economic engines, or both. 

MEDIA CONTACT
Inayah Bashir, Sr. Program Coordinator, Express Newark, Rutgers University–Newark, ib338@newark.rutgers.edu