The New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) began in 1986 as just a grand plan, a belief voiced by then-Governor Thomas H. Kean that New Jersey deserved its own world-class performing arts center. Ultimately it was decided there was no better place for a Jersey arts center to take root than in Downtown Newark; a building that would not only host the world’s greatest performers, but also act as the catalyst for revitalizing the state’s largest city. Since its opening season in 1997, NJPAC has attracted nearly 9 million patrons, plus 1.6 million children and their families. The Arts Center's array of more than 500 unique events each season, held on and off campus, serves New Jersey’s rich diversity of nationalities and ethnicities. Performers who have appeared in the acoustically superb, 2,800-seat Prudential Hall include Joshua Bell, El Gran Combo, Aretha Franklin, Audra McDonald, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Bonnie Raitt, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Stephen Colbert, Jerry Seinfeld, and Earth, Wind & Fire, among many others. Each year, NJPAC's Arts Education Department, one of the largest in the country, engages almost 80,000 public school children via arts learning initiatives in schools, in NJPAC conservatory, and on its stages. The Arts Center has established itself as a home for broadcast by networks including BET, HBO, Comedy Central, PBS and NBC. NJPAC provides forums for convening New Jersey’s citizenry to discuss significant issues of the day and “symbolizes Newark’s cultural renaissance” (Forbes magazine).