About the NAA
The Neighborhood Arts Alliance
The Neighborhood Arts Alliance (NAA) is a Registered New Jersey Non-profit Corporation dedicated to bringing the arts to the Pemberton area. It was started in 2010.
The NAA oversees three different areas, the Hanover Street Theater, Classes and the Neighborhood Arts Center, and The Gallery at the NAC. All of these activities are housed in the Neighborhood Arts Center, a renovated firehouse located in the middle of Pemberton, N.J.
We are not just a theater, we also offer classes in a variety of performance and visual arts, and we produce musical and other performance arts presentations. We also coordinate and provide display gallery space for visual artists.
The Neighborhood Arts Center
The Neighborhood Arts Center is a renovated firehouse, built in the 1920s, converted to studio space, arts instruction space, and a theater. For pictures of the renovation click on this link. The space contains a studio/ instructional space in the downstairs area, and two dance studios and a meeting space upstairs. Both upstairs studios have mirrored walls and a portable barre and the larger of the two has a marley floor for dance actitvities.
The theater is a fixed 75 seat flexible performance space and can be converted to a completely flat stage or include an orchestra pit.
What does the NAA do?
The purpose of the Neighborhood Arts Alliance, A New Jersey Nonprofit Corporation (NAA) is to make community arts possible by providing assistance to artists, without cultural distinction, to assist in producing artistic endeavors. Examples of this will include the production of performance arts such as plays and puppet theater, and musical performance such as jazz, folk and classical performances. Additionally, the organization will help visual artists by arranging for space to exhibit photographs, paintings and drawings. The NAA is focused on producing cultural events by assembling membership based on technical arts skills as opposed to performance or visual creation skills. This means that the artist no longer has to worry about the technical production or administrative skills necessary, instead they work with a group of production specialists. This provides a benefit for the artist in allowing them to become more educated in the process of production and benefits the community by keeping the arts accessible to members of an economically depressed community. It additionally provides a forum for aspiring technicians and producers to learn necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes to allow them to progress into the field.