The 2021 theme is Jazz and New Jersey. New Jersey has a rich jazz history: Gia Maione, the last partner of singer/songwriter/trumpeter Louis Prima, grew up in Toms River. Other New Jersey jazz luminaries include bandleader/pianist Count Basie (Red Bank), pianist Bill Evans (Plainfield), trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie (Englewood Cliffs), guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli (Paterson/Saddle River), vocalist Frank Sinatra (Hoboken), trumpeter Lew Soloff (Lakewood), and vocalist Sarah Vaughan (Newark). We'll explore this history through workshops with jazz historian/author Sanford Josephson, and a premiere of Carolyn Dorfman Dance's original piece Pure Prima at the Festival, celebrating the 5-decade career and range of the inimitable Louis Prima. We hope that this jazz theme will inspire your students’ art, but it is not necessary for submitted pieces to fit this theme.