Inside the Core

Inside the Core, we are very grateful for our teaching faculty, and this week we want to celebrate the achievement of one of our adjunct faculty members, Mary Grace Mangano. Professor Mangano, who began teaching for us in the Core in September of 2023, has also taught in the English Department and is now, in addition, working as an Advisor in the Center for Academic Success. Moreover, she is an accomplished non-fiction and creative writer. 

Recently, Mary Grace received the 2025 Individual Artist Finalist award from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts for her poetry. The State Council on the Arts website explains the importance of the award: “The Individual Artist Fellowships – carried out in partnership with Mid Atlantic Arts - are competitive awards to New Jersey artists in 13 rotating disciplines granted solely on independent peer panel assessment of work samples. The anonymous process is focused on artistic quality, and awards may be used to help artists produce new work and advance their careers. New Jersey artists applied for awards this year in the categories of Choreography, Crafts, Music Composition, Photography, Playwriting/Screenwriting, Poetry and Sculpture.” As one of a select and peer-reviewed group of artists, Mary Grace Mangano is clearly a writer whose work is on the rise, both important now and looking ahead to the future. 

Also on the website, Lieutenant Governor Tahesha Way, who oversees the Council in her capacity as Secretary of State, says, “Here in New Jersey, we are so fortunate to live in a state full of artists - a state where artists want to live and work,” said “And I'm so proud of the work we're doing to support New Jersey artists. All New Jerseyans benefit from their inspiring creativity, imaginative perspectives and their ability to bring our communities together and make them stronger."

Clearly New Jersey is not only “The Garden State” for flowers and vegetation, but for the flourishing of the arts. As Council Chair, Felicia Grant, is quoted on the website as saying, “New Jersey is an amazing place for the arts, and always has been. And we do the work we do at this agency so that it can continue to be. These awards mean more freedom and flexibility for New Jersey artists to explore and dream, and to share their talent, passion and vision with the world."

Mary Grace Mangano says of the award, “I am incredibly grateful to receive this grant and plan to use it to continue developing the manuscript for my first collection of poems.” And we, in the Core, are grateful to have an artist with talent affirmed in this way by our State Council on the Arts teaching our students. 

Categories: Arts and Culture