(BURLINGTON, NJ) -- Arts Ed NJ is proud to honor Ann Marie Miller with the New Jersey Governor's Award in Arts Education for Outstanding Lifetime Contribution to Arts Education. The award recognizes individuals who have made a significant and sustained impact on advancing arts education across New Jersey.
The Outstanding Lifetime Contribution to Arts Education Award, bestowed by the New Jersey Governor's Awards in Arts Education through Arts Ed NJ, celebrates individuals whose tireless dedication has profoundly enriched arts education throughout their career. Recipients of this esteemed award have done work that will inspire generations of learners and shaped the cultural fabric of the state. Their enduring legacy underscores the transformative power of the arts in education and their vital role in nurturing creativity, expression, and lifelong learning.
Ann Marie Miller began her career as a public-school art teacher who became a nonprofit leader, working at McCarter Theatre and the NJ State Council on the Arts, leaving an indelible mark on arts education in New Jersey. Ann Marie recently retired after 28 years of leadership and advocacy at ArtPride NJ. In 2007, she housed the emerging Arts Ed NJ coalition under ArtPride NJ, and later played a crucial role in establishing Arts Ed NJ as an independent nonprofit in 2015. Currently serving as the Arts Ed NJ Board President, Ann Marie is guiding the organization through a transformative period. She is steering it forward under new leadership and providing foundational support for the implementation of a visionary five-year strategic plan set to impact the entire arts education sector.
Arts Ed NJ will present Ann Marie Miller with her Governor’s Award at ArtPride NJ’s June 13th Thrive Conference surrounded by arts and arts education practitioners, advocates, and others who have benefited from her 40 years of dedicated work. You can register for the conference at https://artpridenj.org/thrive.
The Governor’s Awards in Arts Education program was established in 1980 to celebrate artistic excellence and create visibility, awareness, and appreciation for the impact that the arts have on our lives and culture by highlighting the achievements of students and leaders in arts education in New Jersey. Recipients are chosen by sponsoring organizations based on established criteria outlined in the annual handbook, now in its 44th edition, which details participating programs and competition guidelines. The program aims to elevate the visibility of arts and culture as public assets, engaging high-ranking officials in advocacy while providing recipients with the highest honor bestowed by the state in the arts education.
The 2024 Governor’s Awards in Arts Education recognized its over 100 awardees at Award Partners’ competitions and celebrations held regionally across the state from January to June. Arts Ed NJ looks forward to continuing to explore new ways of celebrating the outstanding student and adult awardees with their partners across the state and increasing awareness and engagement in the program.
The Governor’s Awards in Arts Education program is co-chaired by Arts Ed NJ and the NJ Department of Education. Additional awards are provided by the New Jersey Governor's Awards in Arts Education Planning Council which includes: Art Pride New Jersey Foundation, the Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics Program (ACTSO); Art Educators of New Jersey; Art Administrators of New Jersey; Dance New Jersey; New Jersey Council of Teachers of English; New Jersey Speech and Debate League; New Jersey Music Educators Association; New Jersey Thespians; Speech and Theatre Association of New Jersey (STANJ); Appel Farm Music & Arts Campus; New Jersey Performing Arts Center; and Young Audiences New Jersey & Eastern Pennsylvania.
Arts Ed NJ organizes an active coalition of statewide partners that works to ensure that all New Jersey PreK-12 students participate in a high quality, sequential, equitable arts education that celebrates diverse lived experiences and artistic expression and prepares the creative leaders of tomorrow. A major component of Arts Ed NJ’s work is the Arts Ed Now campaign which offers customizable grassroots tools to increase participation in arts education at a local level and garner public support to ensure every NJ child receives the quality arts education mandated by the state.
Arts Ed NJ’s Arts Education and Social Emotional Learning Center supports the advancement of practices that are healing centered, culturally responsive, and grounded in the best practices offered by our social emotional learning framework.
