New Jersey

Culture and Heritage

New Jersey is a sheer reflection of contemporary society. This ethnically-mixed state is appositely considered as the New York City in miniature due to its varied social composition. The state has experienced a large influx of immigrants of diverse nationalities due to its cosmopolitan nature, the older Jersey families being the Scots, Dutch, and German, English, Irish or Swedish roots. The earliest inhabitants of this place were the Delaware people who landed here when the white farmers forcefully intruded on their land. Giovanni Caboto, the Italian navigator first sighted this place in the year 1497. Many people who work in New York prefer to stay in New Jersey and they don't find any hassle in commuting to New York on a daily basis.
New Jersey is also a prime tourist attraction place due to its serene environment. The State is flooded with sightseers during the weekend, especially in the North-West part of the Skylands. To enjoy every bit of the cultural significance of this place, many vacationers rent seaside summer cottages which are along the Southern shore. Keeping the culture and heritage intact, New Jersey has some chief venues for performing arts which include the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) which is in the Gateway Region and also a home to the 6th largest arts centre in USA. Some of the other main venues include the Trenton War Memorial Auditorium, Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, the McCarter Theater Center in Princeton, the John Harms Center of the Arts in Englewood and the State Theatre in New Brunswick.
The Newark Museum has some prominent collection of African and Tibetan art in the visual arts. The art museum being the prime educational and exhibition centre. In some of the museums you could see the beautiful collections of contemporary as well as American Indian artifact in its fine art, ethnology/ archaeology, natural history and cultural history sections. The Noyes Museum has some fine collections of US folk art.
The affluent heritage of New Jersey also include several festivals which include the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival; art festivals in Waterloo; the Jazz Festival of Cape May and Camden's Cooper River; and many other festivals and fairs. In fact, every corner of New Jersey has a tint of its earliest cultural heritage.