The Red Bank store will be located onsite at the Basie, just next door to the theatre’s Carlton Lounge. The Pop-Up stores will travel to venues and events around the state throughout 2014.
NJ350 Pop-Up stores will specialize in merchandise with a unique New Jersey focus. Featured products are what curators have dubbed “Jerseyana.” Included are the “Jerseyopoly” board game and “Goodnight Jersey” children’s book, as well as NJ350 and state-branded merchandise; educational items; items specific to the history of Red Bank and the Count Basie Theatre; Governor Chris Christie’s popular state-silhouette lapel pin and more. The Red Bank location will remain open through January 6, 2014.
“We are proud that the Count Basie Theatre and our annual New Year’s Eve celebration is the official kick off for NJ350,” said Adam Philipson, Count Basie Theatre CEO. “We’re delighted to work with the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the New Jersey Historical Commission, and we couldn’t think of a more appropriate artist than Jersey’s own Southside Johnny to help us kick off the New Year together.”
Scheduled to be in attendance at the 12 pm ceremony will be State Senator Joe Kyrillos, joined by Grace Hanlon (Executive Director, NJ Department of State, Division of Travel and Tourism), Sara Cureton (Director, New Jersey Historical Commission and New Jersey Cultural Trust), Nick Paleologos (Executive Director, New Jersey State Council on the Arts), Jef Buehler (Office of Main Street New Jersey and Improvement District Programs), and Count Basie Theatre executives Adam Philipson, Michael Parent and Shannon Eadon. The Chorus of the Atlantic’s barbershop quartet “The Jersey Coasters” (featuring tenor Kirk Thomson of Fair Haven) will provide the harmonies, and the New Jersey Hall of Fame Mobile Museum will be on site for the occasion.
NJ350 will open additional pop-up stores throughout 2014 in locations such as Atlantic City, Westfield, Montclair, Boonton, Bridgeton, Newton, Hammonton and Highland Park. The final pop-up store will open in the state capitol of Trenton in December 2014.
