Project for Empty Space is proud to launch Newark Grounds: Benefit for Public Art + Celebration of Groundbreakers—honoring the leaders who champion and invest in Newark’s public art and creative spaces.
Join us on Thursday, May 28 at 7pm, at PES at Ironside Newark (110 Edison Place, Newark, NJ) for a special evening of community and a gathering highlighting new artworks and neighborhood-centered initiatives debuting as part of Newark Grounds. A VIP portion of the event will start at 6pm for VIP ticket holders.
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This year, we’re honored to celebrate three leaders whose work is shaping the future of Newark’s public spaces:
Recognized for visionary leadership that advances arts, culture, and public space at a regional and statewide level.
Tai Cooper is a senior leader at the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA), where she oversees an $800 million portfolio across Community Development, Economic Security, Small Business Services, and Business Banking. She drives strategic investments that advance equitable economic development and community revitalization statewide.
A key architect of NJEDA’s Activation, Revitalization, and Transformation (ART) program, Tai has championed arts funding as a catalyst for economic growth and community vitality. Through the ART grant and related initiatives, she has expanded access to capital for artists and cultural organizations, fueling placemaking projects, public art installations, and creative enterprises that stimulate statewide artistic activity and local economies.
Tai also spearheaded New Jersey’s cannabis equity programs, overseeing the nation’s largest grants supporting social equity applicants. With more than 20 years of leadership experience, she is known for building cross-sector partnerships and advancing innovative solutions for underserved communities.
A Newark native, Tai holds urban planning degrees from Rutgers University and NYU and has received multiple statewide leadership honors.
Honored for sustained local leadership that protects, nurtures, and expands access to public spaces through care, collaboration, and advocacy.
Marcy DePina is a cultural producer, strategist, and arts executive whose work centers creative expression as a tool for social change. Since founding FORSA Media Group in 2013, she has led global event production, multimedia storytelling, and cultural curation projects spanning the United Nations, NJPAC, Central Park SummerStage and major festivals across Morocco, Jamaica, Cabo Verde, and Angola.
In 2021, DePina was appointed Executive Director of the Newark City Parks Foundation (NCPF), where she has become a driving force behind Newark’s cultural renaissance. She oversees the management and programming of the city’s five downtown parks, producing more than 200 free public events annually, including eight major festivals and multiple public art installations that attract over 100,000 visitors each year. Under her leadership, the parks have evolved into vibrant civic stages—platforms for local artists, community wellness, and crosscultural exchange—redefining public space as cultural infrastructure.
A former Executive Producer for iHeartRadio, current Board President for Newark Arts Council, and co-creator of Rest Fest and The House Blend, DePina continues to amplify African and African-diaspora voices through media, music, and community-centered storytelling.
Celebrated for collaborative, design-driven work that strengthens under-resourced arts organizations and builds cultural infrastructure for the public good.
Chantal Fischzang is a Communication Designer and tenured Associate Professor at Rutgers University-Newark, where she also coordinates the Graphic Design Program. Based in the NY/NJ area, her work positions design as a transformative, publicly engaged practice grounded in collaboration, civic impact, and collective problem-solving across disciplines and communities.
Central to her teaching and practice is her leadership at Express Newark, a center for art, design, digital storytelling, and music dedicated to co-creation and community partnership. She is Co- Director of the Design Consortium and Visual Means, two academic programs within the Graphic Design curriculum that function as student-faculty creative studios fostering cooperative learning and social engagement in Newark.
Her work spans brand identity, print, publication, exhibition, interactive, and environmental design and has been recognized through peerreviewed exhibitions, competitive grants, invited lectures, and national and international awards. Honors include recognition from AIGA, Communication Arts, the Webbys, W3, Graphis, Core77, Creativity, HOW, UCDA, Awwwards, the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Proceeds from the evening support Project for Empty Space’s public art efforts and Newark Grounds, a walkable cultural corridor bringing 75+ public artworks into daily city life,—helping activate shared spaces through art, community partnerships, and initiatives that make Newark more vibrant, welcoming, and accessible.