The Ocean County Teen Arts Festival is proudly hosted by the Jay and Linda Grunin Center for the Arts at Ocean County College. County Teen Arts Festivals are held throughout the state as a celebration of the arts dedicated to inspiring New Jersey teen artists, educators, professional artists, and arts advocates from across the state to unite as an all-inclusive community.
The Ocean County Teen Arts Festival occurs over two consecutive days in mid-March where high school students in Ocean County are invited to showcase their artistic talents to their peers and receive professional feedback from our adjudicators to help grow their talents as an artist while participating in free cross-disciplinary workshops on our campus. Students are welcome to “sit-in” on the adjudication of other emerging artists in their disciplines, increasing their educational experience.
Categories for showcase include the visual arts, creative and poetic writing, dance, music, vocal performance, and theatre. Our adjudicators for these fields are professional artists and educators from around New Jersey, and top students from each category will be nominated to participate at the New Jersey State Teen Arts Festival, held in June.
About the Festival
2023-2024 Festival Dates
- Schools must register to participate in the festival by Friday, January 12, 2024 at 5pm
- Entry forms for artwork and performances are due by Tuesday, February 27, 2024 at 5pm
- Student 2D and 3D visual artwork can be set up the week of March 4 – 8, 2024
- The Ocean County Teen Arts Festival will take place on March 19 and 20, 2024
- The State Teen Arts Festival will take place at Middlesex County College on June 4 – 6, 2024
For questions about the Ocean County Teen Arts Festival, please contact oceanteenarts@ocean.edu, or 732-255-0400 x2386
How to Participate
Step 1 - School Registration
The School Registration Form is the first step to ensure your students can participate in the Ocean County Teen Arts Festival. The form should be filled out by your school’s Teen Arts Coordinator and submitted once. Please speak with teachers from all disciplines before submitting and indicate, to the best of your ability, what areas your students will participate in. If there are any updates to your plans, feel free to let us know as we use this preliminary registration to plan workshops and adjudicators. This form does not lock in your choices.
It can be accessed here.
Due Date: January 12, 2024 by 5:00 PM
Who fills out this form: Teen Arts School Coordinators
Number of Submissions: 1 per school
Cost per school:
-$225 for schools not participating in large group adjudications
-$275 for schools participating in large group adjudications
Step 2 - Adjudication Entry Forms
The Adjudication Entry Form is used to submit your individual students and groups’ performances, artwork, and writing submissions for adjudication. Each submission for the festival should have its own entry form. The form should be filled out by the discipline teachers for each student or group submission. Some disciplines may have limits as to how many pieces may be submitted. Please refer to most current festival guidelines here.
Last Date for Submission: February 27, 2024 by 5:00 PM
Who fills out this form: Teachers/Directors for their discipline
Number of Submissions: As many as needed as per 2023 Festival Guidelines. Guidelines may change from year-to-year, so please refer to them frequently.
Step 3 - Workshop Registrations
In addition to adjudications, Workshops will be available for students to attend during the week of the Festival. We highly recommend registering for workshops in advance is as many have limited spaces available and fill up quickly. This should be done by the individual student based on their personal festival schedule.
The workshop listings and online sign-ups will be available here in late February or early March 2024.
Due Date: Prior to Workshop date and time, either in-person or online.
Who fills out this form: Students or Teachers
Number of Submissions: 1 per workshop
Step 4 - Festival Attendance
A full schedule of programming, including workshops and performances, will be available in the week leading up to the festival.
Cosponsored by the Ocean County Board of Commission through the Ocean County Cultural & Heritage Commission