The New Jersey Council for the Humanities is excited to announce our participation in By the People: Conversations Beyond 250, a series of community-driven programs created by humanities councils across the United States, its territories, and the District of Columbia in collaboration with local partners. Together, these programs explore 250 years of the nation’s cultural life and imagine its shared future. The initiative was developed by the Federation of State Humanities Councils and the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (the Center).
As part of the effort, NJCH is supporting four projects that will help visitors see beyond the turnpike and into the distinctive local culture of the Garden State. The intentionally diverse projects cover the state from Jersey City to the Jersey Shore, highlighting the history, honoring the culture bearers, and preserving the legacies of these special communities for current and future audiences.
- At the Tuckerton Seaport & Baymen’s Museum on the Jersey Shore, local students will conduct oral history interviews with cultural bearers to reveal how everyday objects tell the story of South Jersey’s “sense of place.”
- In Jersey City, Hudson County Community College’s oral history project captures how cricket, soccer, and local school rivalries bring immigrant and longtime communities together through sport.
- At the Whitesbog Preservation Trust’s historic Barrel Factory, storytellers, craftspeople, and musicians will gather to keep Pinelands traditions alive through shared, participatory oral history sessions.
- Orange’s Music City Festival, led by University of Orange, will celebrate a decade of “community musicology,” where residents, musicians, and scholars explore how music tells the story of the city.
More information about the programs can be found at https://njhumanities.org/programs/by-the-people/.
“From the earliest days of the American experiment to the vibrant, diverse communities that define our state today, New Jersey has always been a place where the nation’s story is lived and shaped. Our participation in By the People highlights how our history and our cultural richness continue to make New Jersey a center of American life and creativity.”
All humanities councils were invited to take part, and fifty-one councils—including those from the District of Columbia and four U.S. territories—will participate in local programs designed to foster intergenerational dialogue and highlight culture bearers. These include musicians, artists, performers, poets, craftspeople, workers, cooks, storytellers, and others who will explore the following themes: remembering together, harmonizing together, moving together, and building together.
“This partnership amplifies the voices from communities nationwide and the cultural practices that define them,” says Phoebe Stein, the Federation’s president. “It’s a celebration of the humanities as a living, breathing force in our country—one that has brought people together to listen, learn, and create since the nation’s earliest days.”
Each program will be locally produced by a humanities council with community partners and featured on a multimedia story map produced by the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Content related to or generated by this work will be released throughout 2026 on Smithsonian’s media platforms through a series of articles, short documentaries, and podcasts.
“As the nation approaches its 250th anniversary, By the People invites communities to celebrate their stories and imagine a shared future grounded in creativity and cultural understanding,” says Halle Butvin, director of special projects at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. “With voices from every corner of the country, the initiative serves our mission by illuminating what it means to belong to each other, to history, and to the possibilities ahead.”Learn more about By the People on the Center’s website (https://festival.si.edu/) or on the Federation’s website at www.statehumanities.org/bythepeople/
