The Museum's permanent collection features American art and material culture from the region that dates from the colonial period through the present. Works in nearly all media are found in the collection including painting, sculpture, decorative arts, photography, works on paper, furniture, metals, textiles, maps, industrial objects and ephemera.
In addition to paintings and a small selection of sculpture, the Museum houses a body of objects that relate to local history, including a collection of glass and ceramic works by the American Pottery Company and the Jersey Glass Company. Our industrial collection features advertisements and other ephemera produced by industries that were based here during the nineteenth century. Two of the collection's most prominent and interesting historic local artists include landscape painter August Will and pictorial photographer William Armbruster. Both men made detailed studies of the local landscape, carefully documenting local life and the environment of Jersey City in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Coinciding with the Museum's mandate to interpret and display the work of under-represented artists from various American communities, the Museum's collection of contemporary art reflects a commitment to collecting work by African American, Asian and Latino artists. Artists who were active in the New York art scene of the 1980s and 1990s are reflected in the collection, as are their less familiar colleagues who made their homes in New Jersey. Works by both emerging and established artists add to the collection's strength as it upholds the institution's role as the most notable contemporary art museum in New Jersey. As a whole, the collection reflects the Museum's attempt to build a display cabinet that acknowledges the significance of Jersey City's industrial history, its ever-changing social and economic landscape, and the infusion of immigrants that make its community unique.