(JERSEY CITY, NJ) -- Art House Productions is proud to announce the ten recipients of the Javiera Rodriguez Legacy Art Fund, a new microgrant program honoring the life and spirit of beloved artist and social worker Javiera “Javi” Rodriguez.
In its inaugural year, the Fund has awarded ten $1,000 microgrants to the following artists and teachers: Matthew Barteluce, Crystal Davis, Gabriel Hernandez, Jin Jung, Samantha Laddin, Vincent Minervini, Reynold "Chinaza Sol" Ray-Offor, Catriona Rubenis-Stevens, Adam Tharpe, and Athena Toledo.
Javi was a dedicated social worker, artist, and jewelry designer, as well as a cherished member of both the Art House and Jersey City communities. Her passing in April 2020 left an immeasurable void, and this fund was created to carry forward her spirit of creativity, generosity, and commitment to others.
The selection process for the Legacy Art Fund was highly competitive. The chosen proposals reflect a range of practices—education, visual art, community engagement, and free public programming—all demonstrating creativity, passion, and a deep commitment to Jersey City. Together, these artists and educators embody the best of our community and point toward a vibrant, inspiring future.
“We are honored to support these talented artists and educators who reflect both artistic excellence and a deep commitment to the Jersey City community,” said Meredith Burns, Executive Artistic Director of Art House Productions. “This inaugural group of grantees truly captures the spirit of the Legacy Art Fund, and we can’t wait to see the impact of their work.”
The Javiera Rodriguez Legacy Art Fund is made possible thanks to generous donations from individuals and community members, especially those who contributed during Hudson Gives 2025. Contributions of any amount can be made through the Art House website to ensure this program continues to uplift artists and teachers for years to come.
To donate to the Javiera Rodriguez Legacy Art Fund or learn more, visit: arthouseproductions.org
MEET THE GRANT RECIPIENTS
Matt Barteluce is a New Jersey native, artist, illustrator, and educator committed to cultivating the next generation of Jersey City artists. He earned his BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2003 and his MFA from the School of Visual Arts in 2010. He has worked as an art director for global agencies such as Young & Rubicam Group, co-founded Carrier Pigeon magazine, and served as the Director of Guttenberg Arts from 2014 to 2023, supporting hundreds of artists through residencies, exhibitions, and public programming.
Today, Barteluce is a Visual Arts Teacher at Empowerment Academy, a public charter school in Jersey City. He teaches 5th and 6th grade scholars, encouraging them to think critically, experiment boldly, and express themselves authentically through art. His work in the classroom is rooted in access, inclusion, and the belief that creative tools and mentorship can transform lives, values deeply aligned with the legacy of his late friend Javiera.
Crystal Davis is an Asian-American multidisciplinary and mixed-media performance artist, poet, painter, freelance writer, editor, and social media marketer. Born and raised in Jersey City, New Jersey, she is the author and creator of Crystal Letters, and the Co-Founder and Co-Producer of OpenRoad Poetry, an artistic partnership with RescuePoetix TM. Her art and writing projects, CL and ORP, have collaborated with arts non-profit organizations and artists across the Tri-State area, nationally, and internationally. Her work is inspired by nature, color, and the utilization of practical craft through art in the visual and written form. Crystal is the author of Elemental Emotions, and upcoming books, Softened by Dew and Dark Matter.
Crystal Letters LLC provides freelance editing, writing, poetry, abstract illustrations, mixed media painting, public relations, and social media marketing services. All services are available to artists, poets, collaborators, arts organizations, non-profits, and for-profit organizations from all artistic walks of life.
Gabriel Diego Hernández is an actor, rapper, playwright, educator, and poet who hails from Hoboken. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in Latin American Studies and a master’s degree in Education, both from Yale University, he taught social studies in the New Haven public school system before coming home to teach and make theater in the NY/NJ area. Recent acting credits include El Coquí Espectacular and the Bottle of Doom (Two River Theater), ¡Guaracha! (The Puerto Rican Traveling Theater), La Canción (Repertorio Español), CasablancaBox (HERE Arts), and Layer the Walls (Abrons Arts).
As a voiceover artist, he has recorded accessibility narration for the past 15 years, appearing on Daniel Tiger, Peter Rabbit, Cry, and many others. His solo hip hop musical Quarter Rican was published in 2023 and has since toured nationally, including stops in Chicago, Los Angeles, and an off-Broadway run that was nominated for a Talía Award and four HOLA Awards. Hernández took home the HOLA for Outstanding Performance in Musical Theater and followed that up with a Borimix Award for being a notable figure in the Puerto Rican diaspora and for his contributions to the Latino arts community. Gabriel currently serves as Mile Square Theatre’s very first artist-in-residence. He lives in Jersey City Heights with his wife and writing partner Rachel and their two young children.
Jin Jung is an interdisciplinary artist and art educator based in Jersey City, NJ. Her practice explores folk storytelling, video, and performance art, weaving public knowledge with personal narratives to foster intersectional conversations. Simply put, she works with time in public spaces. Her acclaimed projects include WERE HERE JC (2021-), Mixed Signals (2023), and the Rancocas Project (2025), which center the stories of the community and our shared humanity.
Sam Laddin is a Jersey City-based artist, craftsperson, and small business owner of the art studio Object Flux. She specializes in woodworking, stonecutting, jewelry design, painting, and drawing. Her recent work explores creating a visual language in the form of symbol making. She hopes to connect communities together in her hometown of Jersey City by creating a drawing and meditation workshop. The aim of the workshop is to tap into the creative subconscious using newly constructed symbols which celebrate the individual within the body of the collective.
Vincent Minervini is an artist and designer based in Jersey City who creates bold, playful, and thought-provoking work. His art often mixes plaster cast sculptures with painted surfaces, bringing together familiar shapes and surreal details in unexpected ways. Humor and vulnerability run through his pieces, but so does a raw sense of honesty—he doesn’t shy away from struggle, identity, or the messy parts of being human.
What makes his work stand out is the balance between opposites: serious and silly, sacred and irreverent, personal and universal. One moment his art makes you laugh, the next it makes you stop and think. By combining these contrasts, Vincent creates pieces that feel both accessible and layered inviting people to connect with them on different levels. His goal is always to spark curiosity, reaction, and maybe even a little joy in whoever stands before his work.
Chinaza Sol is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans film, movement, writing, and ritual performance, emerging from the alchemy of spirit, memory, and imagination. Rooted in indigenous wisdom, queer embodiment, and communion with nature, their work inhabits the threshold between the material and the immaterial, testimony and invocation, creating portals through which the unseen may be remembered. In collaboration with trees, water, and ancestral presence, Sol offers art as a vessel for transformation—an invitation into beauty, sovereignty, and the courage to rise again.
Catriona Rubenis-Stevens is a multi-award-winning film and theater director and producer and was part of the team that went to the 93rd Academy Awards with the Oscar nominated live action short Feeling Through.
She has directed several award-winning short films for the Easterseals’ Disability Film Challenge, including the highly decorated Andy & Kaliope and the very successful short documentary How Much Am I Worth? which is now being expanded into a feature film with help from a grant through the Adobe foundation. Notable producing credits include the BBC’s Houdini’s Diaries for the History Channel, the MSNBC docuseries Model America and A&E Network’s Greatest of all Time with Laila Ali. Feature films include Lost Cos, Indigo, Americano, which made its debut at TIFF, and Regarding Us which made its world premiere at the Chinese Theater in LA and has since been acquired by Gravitas Ventures.
Over the years, Catriona has managed to build a reputation for authentic storytelling, carefully blending her exploration of the human condition and her passion for social awareness. Her style leans toward magic realism and comedy, and her journey into motherhood has further influenced her empathetic nature, sarcastic dry humor and her approach to her work!
She is also an established theater director in New York and New Jersey, directing shows including The Wizard of Oz, Cats, Oklahoma!, Anything Goes, Hairspray, The Lion King, Oliver, Into The Woods, Gruesome Playground Injuries, Spring Awakening, and the world-premiere of Allerleirauh at Alvin Ailey.
Catriona is most notably known in Jersey City for co-founding the Zombie Opera, and since its inception in 2020, she has formed a nonprofit, Undead Arts, to keep the dying arts alive through fun and accessible platforms.
Adam Tharpe works in a variety of mediums and subject matters. He enjoys all the beauty and the wonderful things the world has to offer like fruit, wine & cheese, or colorful landscapes. Adam tries to depict the beauty of what he’s drawn to and interpret it in his artwork. Tharpe tries not to copy exactly what he sees; he turns to artistic license and incorporates his own personal poetry and rhythm. Adam’s aim is to lift the spirit of the viewer and try to offer an alternative in thought or at times provoke thought.
Athena Toledo is passionate about community engagement through the arts, believing that the creative process can inspire reflection, connection, and positive change. For her, art is not about the final product but the journey it fosters.
An alumna of SVA's graduate Art Therapy program with an ATR-provisional License in Art Therapy, Athena facilitates art sessions at St. Joseph’s School for the Blind in Jersey City Heights, blending art education with sensory and tactile elements to support students in reaching their goals.
As a visual artist, she draws inspiration from Betye Saar’s intuitive approach and Edith Kramer’s therapeutic methods. Toledo’s work combines figurative forms and dreamlike atmospheres, exploring internal narratives. She is currently working though a community based series of live painted watercolor portraits.
Athena’s long-term goal is to continue teaching art in community settings and to expand access to creative coping and healing through art.
Art House Productions is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the performing and visual arts in Jersey City, NJ. Through theater productions, visual art exhibitions, and community programs, Art House fosters creativity, inclusivity, and accessibility across all disciplines.
Support for Art House’s programs in 2025 is provided by an Anonymous American Foundation; the Arts in Education Program and the Hudson County History Partnership Program through Hudson County Cultural Affairs; the City of Jersey City; the Exchange Place Alliance; the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner organization of the NEA; Genova Burns; the Historic Downtown Special Improvement District (HDSID); the Jersey City Economic Development Corporation; Jersey City Health and Human Services; KRE; the New Jersey Economic Development Authority Small Business Improvement Grant; Panepinto Properties; public funds from the Jersey City Arts and Culture Trust Fund; RWJ Barnabas | Jersey City Medical Center; SILVERMAN; Super Buy Rite; the New Jersey Arts and Culture Renewal Fund; Tito’s Handmade Vodka; and many other generous volunteers, donors, and sponsors.
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