(NEWARK, NJ) -- Audible Inc. and Newark Arts hosted a Community Art Day in Washington Park on June 3rd. Audible employees joined professional artists from Newark to add their own artistic touch to the new Washington Park Sensory Lab. The Sensory Lab, a multi-sensory outdoor installation unveiled in late-May, includes new seating areas, planters, tables and solar lighting. During Community Art Day, employees and artists worked together, adding color and beauty to the circular cement bases of the solar light poles.
“Watching everyone come together for community art day was another great moment in the journey to celebrate Newark’s renaissance and its long-term success,” said Colin Newman, Audible’s VP of Public Policy & Community Affairs. “We’re continuing to breathe new life into Washington Park and we’re very grateful to the Audible volunteers and the talented Newark artists whose work adds so much to the Sensory Lab Installation.”
“We’re proud to collaborate with Audible to beautify Washington Park. This project involves some amazing artists who are connecting with workers and neighbors to create something distinctly unique for our city,” said Newark Arts Executive Director Jeremy Johnson.
Kween Moore, Project Manager and Curator of Community Art Day, worked with Newark Arts to convene local artists, including Malik Whitaker, Suliman Onque, Yvonne Onque, Carol Cleveland, Andrece Brady, Jay Golding, Kayla Muldrow, Amrisa Niranjan and Yvette Shelton. The artists, along with students from the Center of Hope-Pennington Court and Audible employees, painted circular cement bases of solar light poles in the Washington Park Sensory Lab. The new bases now feature a sampling of the local artists’ creative styles which uses the park’s earthy color palette.
The Washington Park Sensory Lab curates an experience that invites both local residents and passersby to slow down, spend time in the park and interact with the new landscape. The Sensory Lab will continue to feature programming throughout the summer, including music and dance performances, fitness classes, food truck festivals and other community events. Visit Washingtonparknewark.com to view event programming.
Audible, Inc., an Amazon.com, Inc. subsidiary (NASDAQ:AMZN), is the leading provider of premium digital spoken audio content, offering customers a new way to enhance and enrich their lives every day. Audible was created to unleash the emotive music in language and the habituating power and utility of verbal expression. Audible content includes more than 460,000 audio programs from leading audiobook publishers, broadcasters, entertainers, magazine and newspaper publishers, and business information providers.
Since moving its headquarters to Newark in 2007, Audible has become the city’s fastest-growing private employer. The company has made it its mission to catalyze Newark’s turnaround, offering jobs and training programs to Newark residents–including some who were formerly homeless–as well as providing housing subsidies to employees who choose to live local. Audible also provides paid internships and college scholarships to Newark students.
