From November 6th to 8th, 2026, a brand new performing arts festival, Stage 14C, will bring more than 75 performers and groups into the 22 spaces on the fourth floor of ARTS 14C in Jersey City’s Powerhouse Arts District, testing the possibilities of a shared arts campus and the boundaries of performance itself. Through an open call, the non-profit organization led by Robinson Holloway has invited artists moving across disciplines theater, dance, comedy, poetry, film, and storytelling to display their work in close proximity, akin to the format of an open studio.

Many participating artists adopt an interactive approach, reconsidering the relationship between performer, setting, and spectator. In Price in Purgatory, Drew Pisarra sends horror icon Vincent Price on a comic journey through the afterlife in a recorded radio play. Audiences wear eye masks, allowing listening to take over from looking. Undead Arts’ The Ninth Circle draws on Dante to bring classical music and opera into an intimate, immersive salon. The nonprofit is known to host Jersey City’s annual Zombie Opera, a free community concert that reached its seventh edition this October in Hamilton Park. Its participation brings an established local experiment in making opera accessible into the festival’s shared setting.

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Ramaje: From the Roots, led by Sofía Carrasco and Víctor Sotomayor, places contemporary jazz in dialogue with Andean and Afro-Peruvian traditions. Carrasco’s drawings and paintings are made part of the environment in which the music is heard. Invitation to Flamenco by Natallia Basava brings live guitar, singing, and dance together in a traditional tablao. Elliot Lobell’s Edward, a seven-minute stop-motion film made over seven years, uses handcrafted puppets, sets, and lighting. Other offerings foreground the physical skill and patient construction behind a performance.

About the festival, participating artist Sherly Fan said: “It’s very ambitious. I don’t know what to expect, but I’m sure it’s going to be chaotic and memorable.” Fan will present an interactive piece titled In Their Heads, in which visitors wear sculptural heads containing whispered voices and personal narratives. Exploring identity, perception, and empathy, the piece makes the distinction between sculpture, installation, and performance less certain.

For ARTS 14C, the festival makes visible the range of practices already supported by its residency program and beyond. Established performers, emerging artists, and developing projects will share the building, creating opportunities for artists who rarely occupy the same venue to encounter one another’s work. Ahead of the inaugural weekend, IMPULSE spoke with Robinson Holloway, founder and CEO of ARTS 14C, about what qualifies as performance and why the organization is launching the festival now.

Jenny Wang: What do you think are the criteria that define what counts as a performance in this festival?

Robinson Holloway: I've always believed that once a work of art is experienced, it leaves the control of the artist and belongs to the audience. The artist may have created it with a particular intention, but they don't get to decide what it means to the person experiencing it. In that sense, even a painting can be a performance. Something happens between the artwork and the viewer that neither one could create alone. And every person who encounters it brings something different to that experience.

So when you ask where the boundaries of performance are, I'm not sure there should be any. A performance doesn't necessarily require a stage, a script, or even a performer in the traditional sense. What it requires is an encounter. And what excites me about Stage 14C is the opportunity to explore just how many different forms that encounter can take.

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JW: What motivated you to start this festival, and do you think this will be an annual event or a one-time pop-up?

RH: Art Fair 14C has become an important platform for visual artists, and with our seventh edition coming up in May, we started thinking about how we could create something equally exciting for performing artists.

ARTS 14C is home to an extraordinary range of creative talent. People may know us for our visual arts programs, but our residencies also support dancers, musicians, actors, playwrights, and artists working across disciplines. We wanted to celebrate that diversity, give these artists a bigger platform, and invite performers from the wider community to be part of it.

But it's also about the audience. I've always believed that art really comes alive when someone experiences it. Stage 14C is an opportunity to bring people into direct contact with an incredible variety of artistic expression, including things they might never have thought to seek out.

And yes, we absolutely hope it becomes an annual event. Art Fair 14C has shown us what can happen when you create a space for artists and audiences to discover each other. We'd love Stage 14C to become another fixture on the cultural calendar, not simply a performing arts version of the fair, but a festival with its own personality, energy, and sense of possibility.

The weekend begins with a VIP opening on Friday, followed by Saturday’s main festival and an all-ages Sunday program that includes work created for younger audiences. Throughout, visitors will navigate their own routes through simultaneous performances. Missing something is built into the format; so is encountering a work they would never have thought to seek out.

Stage 14C takes place November 6–8, 2026, at ARTS 14C, 157B 1st Street, fourth floor, Jersey City. Friday’s VIP opening runs from 6–10 pm; Saturday from 4–10 pm; and Sunday from 1–6 pm. Early-bird tickets are available through October 31: Saturday or Sunday admission is $12.50, student admission is $5, and a three-day VIP pass is $62.50. Children under 12 enter free. For tickets and program information, visit arts14c.org/stage-14c.