Trenton Downtown Association

Patriots’ Week celebrates Trenton’s unique and pivotal role in the American Revolution. The Trenton Times praised the TDA-organized festival as a "major step" toward turning Trenton’s history to its economic advantage. Held annually during the week between Christmas and New Year’s, Patriots’ Week attracts thousands of visitors to enjoy art music, literature, battlefield re-enactments, and living history events. In addition to embracing historical themes, the festival offers a rare opportunity to look at patriotism in a broader, multicultural context. Patriots’ Week is the most comprehensive effort ever undertaken to promote cultural tourism in Trenton and is the cornerstone of TDA's heritage tourism iniative. For more information go to http://www.patriotsweek.com.

Studios@219, an 8,000-sf artist studio workspace, won a City of Trenton Landmark Award for best re-use of a vacant space in 2005. Two years prior, TDA redeveloped the formerly commercial building, and the space has since maintained 90-100% occupancy of its 18 studio spaces with theatre companies, visual artists, musicians, and arts-related businesses benefiting from low rents and flexible leases. Studios@219 brings creative energy and after-hours activity into a downtown that struggles to sustain business activity on evenings and weekends. The success of Studios@219 is particularly noteworthy given its location on a block plagued by drug activity and run-down building stock. In conjunction with a high-profile residential and commercial revitalization effort, TDA plans to pursue more artist studio space projects, and possibly a retail gallery space, in the vicinity of Studios@219.

Gallery 125, a non-profit exhibition space opened by TDA, has drawn over 15,000 patrons since its inception in 2004. The gallery invites the participation of established artists, as well as early-career artists, while maintaining a firm commitment to artistic excellence. Artists from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York and Delaware have submitted their works for consideration. In addition to design competitions, juried and professionally curated exhibits, and notable performance artists, Gallery 125 hosts an Art Talks lecture series. A vacant storefront for a dozen years before its renovation, Gallery 125 received a Citation of Excellence from the State Council on the Arts in 2005.

Trenton2Nite attracts new audiences to Trenton by presenting jazz and blues concerts on the second Friday evening of each month. Downtown businesses and galleries stay open late, and Gallery 125 serves as an anchor for the festival. In fair weather, the event becomes a street fair, with live music featuring established and on-the-verge musicians from around the region, and local artists selling their wares.

The Gift Gallery and Classics are two cooperatively-run retail outlets managed by TDA. By filling two prominent, long-vacant spaces with these outlets in 2005, TDA introduced the concept of cooperative retailing to a key commercial corridor--a concept that has brought Trenton its most significant retail momentum in over a decade. The Gift Gallery is a high-end co-op featuring a private art gallery, an upscale chocolatier, and a local museum shop. Classics is a three-way partnership between a bookstore, an antique shop, and a hand-made crafts shop.

Wednesdays on Warren (WOW) features lunchtime outdoor concerts, sidewalk art shows, and jazz-serenaded restaurant seatings. WOW, originally designed as a vehicle to build awareness of downtown Trenton’s arts and retail offering among the city’s 30,000-person state workforce, has become a cultural destination in its own right. The event takes place along South Warren Street, which is reminiscent of Soho with its eclectic blend of retail and recreational offerings.

Capital City Market, founded by TDA in 1993, is a summer-long weekly farmer’s market and crafts fair located at the center of downtown Trenton. Each Market features an outdoor jazz concert, food, and a festival atmosphere. In the summer of 2005, over 26,000 people patronized the market.

Trenton: The Right Place, The Right Time

It’s a great time in the history of the City of Trenton. Between 2005 and 2006, over $400 million in public and private redevelopment funds commenced in the city for residential, retail, commercial and mixed-use projects. The Trenton Downtown Association is pleased to play an integral part in the transformation of what Mercer Business Magazine calls “one of the hottest urban redevelopment sites in the state of New Jersey.”