Zimmerli Mobile Brings the Art Museum to the Community
Under the outreach initiative, staff members host workshops, art activities for children, book readings and other events throughout New Brunswick
For those in the community who might not be able to come to Rutgers University’s art museum, the museum is coming to them.
Since 2023, staff of the Zimmerli Art Museum provide a community outreach program called Zimmerli Mobile, which holds bilingual art workshops, storytelling for children and other events in New Brunswick, N.J., and nearby cities.
The goal? Expand the museum’s reach to people who may not be conventional visitors or are underserved members of the community.
“My aim was for the museum to bring art directly to the public so our communities could experience artmaking and its healing potential firsthand,” said Zimmerli Director Maura Reilly, who conceptualized Zimmerli Mobile in 2022. “Our incredible team has brought this vision to light and has expanded it exponentially.”
During fiscal year 2026 that ended in June, Zimmerli Mobile personnel traveled to 16 unique sites and events – including the New Brunswick Free Public Library, Puerto Rican Action Board early childhood centers, the New Brunswick Heart Festival, the New Brunswick Public Schools Rock the Block celebration and pop-up venues in partnership with Rutgers departments and organizations – and engaged with 1,992 people across 32 programs (art making, storytelling, presentations, etc.).
Reilly added, “Ultimately, and with additional financial support, our goal is to expand programming beyond New Brunswick to Middlesex County at large, with additional offerings at long-term care facilities, domestic violence shelters, veterans affairs, at-risk youth shelters and other locations interested in benefiting from the healing power of art.”
Jessie Garcia, a museum educator and recent Rutgers graduate, oversees Zimmerli Mobile.
“The big idea is that we bring the museum out into the community rather than expecting them to just come here,” said Garcia, who supports the museum’s development of public programming and community outreach efforts with a focus on young children, Latine and bilingual (English and Spanish) communities.
Garcia, who earned her master’s degree in social work from the Rutgers School of Social Work in May 2025, added, “It's really our way of bringing the museum out into New Brunswick and ideally beyond to make those connections with people who might not be familiar with the museum yet.”
Arts education for children is a critical element of Zimmerli Mobile – and Rutgers graduate student Hanna Cherres assists Garcia on that front.
Cherres, a graduate fellow for the museum’s education department, helps plan visits to local early childhood development centers, choosing what art supplies to bring and which books to read.
“One of us will do it in English and the other one will do it in Spanish,” said Cherres, who is pursuing a master’s degree from the School of Social Work. “We switch off because we both speak both languages.”
Working with children and being involved in community outreach drew Cherres to the role.
“It is one of the reasons why I even applied to be an intern at the Zimmerli,” she said. “For us to make the effort as an institution to go in and say, ‘We want you to be part of our community, you are part of our community,’ I think that is really important.”
Zimmerli staff made a presentation about Zimmerli Mobile during the American Alliance of Museums Annual Meeting held in Philadelphia in May. Garcia said colleagues from other institutions were “really surprised that a university art museum is doing this kind of outreach, particularly for young children” or that the Zimmerli provides a space in the museum dedicated to children.
“Most university art museums don't even have a space dedicated for children to come and enjoy an exhibit, but we have what we informally call a children's gallery,” Garcia said. “That in itself is really unique, but it also gives us that opportunity to use an exhibition as a means of connecting with that demographic.”
For us to make the effort as an institution to go in and say, ‘We want you to be part of our community, you are part of our community,’ I think that is really important.
Hanna Cherres
Graduate fellow for the Zimmerli’s education department
Community outreach efforts took root in the Zimmerli years before the COVID-19 pandemic, said Barbara Cepeda, the assistant curator of community engagement at the art museum who helped develop and launch Zimmerli Mobile. Partnerships with community groups and government organizations such as the Arts Institute of Middlesex County are critical.
“I think community is more needed now than ever – and I think it's really important for us to strengthen community relationships,” Cepeda said. “So, we’re building deeper long-term partnerships with campus departments, alumni groups, local organizations, cultural groups, community leaders, everyone.”
Cepeda, a Rutgers graduate, added, “I am so proud to be a part of this bilingual and culturally responsive programming because it’s not just entertainment, it’s also educational. You're leaving having learned something – with opportunities to connect with other people. I think it's just amazing to make these connections, have visitors feel seen, seen in places that are historically not meant for us or was not created for us, but also to feel welcomed, feel respected. It’s empowering.”
Over the summer, members of Zimmerli Mobile supported the Wash and Learn literacy program, whose organizers held an end-of-the-school-year celebration in June outside of the New Brunswick Public Schools office. Zimmerli staff operated a table featuring information about the museum and an art activity.
Later that month, museum personnel were on hand to host an art activity at War Memorial Park in New Brunswick during the unveiling of En Root: A Monument to Migration and Labor, a public work by artist Chat Travieso, the Tepper Family Endowed Chair in Visual Arts at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers-New Brunswick.
Zimmerli staff will be at the New Brunswick Heart Festival – a free, outdoor family-friendly event from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Aug. 8 at Monument Square at 2 Livingston Ave. – that celebrates the arts, culture and history of New Brunswick and Middlesex County.
My aim was for the museum to bring art directly to the public so our communities could experience artmaking and its healing potential firsthand.
Maura Reilly
Director of the Zimmerli Art Museum
Outreach efforts continue throughout the school year. In September, museum student staff hope to participate in the Scarlet Resource Fair, a campus event where students discover and connect with essential services, academic resources and student life organizations. Last year, staff operated a pop-up event on the museum’s patio “to get the community acquainted” with the Zimmerli as students returned to campus, Garcia said.
In October, museum staff expect to again participate in a “Day of the Dead” outreach program at the New Brunswick Free Public Library. (The holiday “is a huge tradition here in New Brunswick,” Garcia said.) In December, Zimmerli personnel hope to be again on hand for Winter Wishes, a holiday gift drive run by the Rutgers University Programming Association that provides presents, winter clothing and basic essentials to hundreds of preschool children in the New Brunswick area.
From January through the spring, “that's when we really pick up our early childhood workshops,” said Garcia, adding that Zimmerli staff will go to local preschools “given our capacity, read a story in English and Spanish and do art making based on that story.”
Support for the art museum's community outreach efforts and Zimmerli Mobile is provided by the Art Bridges Foundation's Access for All program and the PNC Grow Up Great initiative, with additional support from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
“Zimmerli Mobile is unique in that we're not expecting the community to come only because we have X artwork on view,” Garcia said. “We're forming these connections offsite first and then those connections are what we hope make them feel more inclined to come afterwards, whether that's through those community relationships that we're building with partners or directly with potential visitors, families and children.”
Out and About in New Brunswick
Zimmerli Mobile is an outreach program that brings the university's art museum to the local community.
