New Brunswick Arts Group Accepts Applications for $10,000 Residency Program

CoLAB Arts wants applications by Friday, Feb. 13. Eight artists will get spots for the Heartbeat of the City Arts Festival in New Brunswick this fall.

The residency lasts 10 months, starting in March and wrapping up in December. Each artist receives $10,000 to build a public art installation.

Artists get free studio space in New Brunswick. Private rooms stay open 24 hours a day. Chosen creators will make temporary public art pieces that go up at various spots during September and October 2026, positioned throughout the festival corridor.

CoLAB Arts seeks artists who've made public art before — murals, sculptures, monuments, or designed landscapes. Projects should address cultural history, placekeeping, memorialization, or commemoration. Artists can't use artificial intelligence to develop their work.

This New Brunswick nonprofit links artists, social advocates, and communities. CoLAB Arts partners with arts groups, universities, government agencies, nonprofits, and companies. Funding came from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority A.R.T. Phase 2 program, which made Heartbeat of the City possible.

The festival builds economic and cultural bridges. It connects the city's professional and financial downtown with the Esperanza Neighborhood, where most residents are Latine. Organizers think this event could become the biggest and most impactful public art festival around.

The one-day festival corridor runs down Route 27. It stretches almost three-quarters of a mile, packed with open air galleries, installations, creative programming, music performances, local food vendors, and businesses.

A mural gives the festival its name. Trenton-based artist Leon Rainbow painted "Latido del corazón de la ciudad" on Kim's Bike Shop, right where Downtown meets the Esperanza Neighborhood.

The downtown end includes the NJ Transit New Brunswick Train Station, RWJBarnabas University Hospital, and Johnson & Johnson World Headquarters. Nokia Bell Labs Corporate Headquarters will stand there soon.

Artists who receive residencies must spend at least three days per week in their studios. Monthly First Friday open studio and gallery events run from March 6 through Dec. 4, and participation is required.

Chosen artists need general liability insurance. They must provide a certificate naming the nonprofit as additionally insured. Applications require a biography, CV showing previous public art examples, three references, press links, website, and social media pages, plus images of past work.

Reviews happen on a rolling basis. Visit colab-arts.org/hotc for details and the application.