By Judy O’Gorman Alvarez
Felicia Grant, a member of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, combines her passions for the arts and the environment.
Felicia Grant believes art belongs to everyone. As a member of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, she embodies her motto, “Live Artfully.” “The arts has been part of my life,” she said. “It’s in my design, in organizing, it’s in my gardening, it’s in my everyday life.” Grant owns the Rumson-based ecofriendly interior design company FG Design Solutions, where she helps clients create a home that is beautiful while keeping “green” in mind. She emphasizes “simplicity, thrift and practical design” and tells clients that “most of what you need you probably already have.”
The New Jersey State Council on the Arts, created in 1966, has been an engine for promoting the arts at many levels, including fine and lively arts as well as music, theater and festivals. Over the years regional theaters in Red Bank and elsewhere have flourished through the support of the council. Artistic centers have emerged in different towns and regions which have depended on the creative energies of the gifted citizens of New Jersey, the nation’s most diverse state. “We encourage public and private resources, devoted to the arts,” Grant said. “Freedom of expression in the arts is very important.”
She has been a member of the council since February. Meetings are starting to resume in person after COVID-19 safety restrictions forced them to meet virtually. “I’m looking forward to being part of the committee working on the Capital Arts Grant Program,” she said. Grant is a member of Monmouth Arts, the Guild of Creative Art in Shrewsbury, and has been a contributing artist to various art venues. Her educational background includes advanced course work in her field at Monmouth University and Brookdale Community College. “Art is everywhere – and it is in everyone, too,” she said. “I was always blown away by how many people are so artistic and gifted and whatever age they are,” said Grant, who has taught art for years. “I’ve been in classes with women and men in their 80s and they’re beautiful artists.” Just as important is exposing children to art at an early age. Grant, whose father was an artist, said her four children – now adults – are all artistic in one form or another. “Children should be part of art and have it introduced to their life and (have) a chance to be creative.”
Grant and the council share another goal: “In every building in New Jersey, we encourage the inclusion of art in public buildings,” she said. “No building should be left out.”
“And art is so unifying to the community,” she said. “Whether it’s sculpture in the garden or public buildings that display individual artwork or donated artwork, it’s just part of our everyday life.” She cites an event she attended where she found beautiful artwork in the trailers sporting portable bathrooms. “This was not a port-a-potty. These were upscale trailers filled with artwork,” she said. “What a clever, creative idea. In her design business, Grant works with clients to form a vision of what they want for their home. She encourages finding beauty in what clients already have. ronment,” she said. “You know the waste that’s involved there, the expense that’s involved. Why not reuse, restore, repurpose what we already have. It still tells your story.”
Protecting the environment is another passion of Grant’s. She sits on the board of NY/NJ Baykeeper, a nonprofit that serves as the citizen advocate for the harbors, bays, streams and shores of the NY-NJ Harbor Estuary. The group works to preserve and restore the habitat, working with federal and state regulators and citizen groups. She said it provides her with an opportunity to play a more meaningful role in the shared responsibility for the world in which we live. “An identity of community pride is fostered by a thriving arts culture,” Grant said. “Not everyone is an artist but everyone can appreciate the arts as long as we make those opportunities accessible.” “Our state borders two of the great art capitals of the world, New York City and Philadelphia,” she said. “There is no reason why New Jersey should not be an incubator for creative arts exploration and foundations.”
