If all goes as planned, sometime in the next few years East State Street in Trenton will welcome an outstanding museum celebrating graffiti and street art, one that the founding team says will explore all aspects of the art forms: history, music, fashion, pop culture and, of course, eye-popping visuals.
The American Graffiti Museum (TAG) is envisioned to be the first institution in the United States dedicated to the age-old creative form of public expression. TAG plans to present this important work in historic, economic and social justice terms, while offering opportunities to learn with and from those active in the field today.
The museum was one of 39 projects selected by the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) as part of its $15 million A.R.T. Phase II program awarding grants to organizations in more than a dozen cities around the state.
The nonprofit TAG was founded in 2021 by Trenton native and community leader Daniel R. Brenna Jr., of Ajax Management, inspired by his lifelong love for art, as well as his commitment to helping revitalize the capital city’s downtown.
The site was secured in 2022, and Brenna brought on longtime community advocate Julia Taylor as executive director in 2024.
“Dan’s doing this because he loves graffiti and street art, and he believes in the power of arts and culture to drive positive change,” Taylor says. “In 2016, I helped create Trenton’s first arts district plan, the downtown Creek to Canal, and Dan wanted to help bring that vision to life.”
“Graffiti and street art deserve appreciation and celebration in a full scale museum, so why not do it in between New York and Philadelphia where contemporary graffiti was born?” she says.
The founding team sees the museum showing how people throughout history have used public spaces for art, commentary and protest. This deep dive into the subject across time and cultures will broaden the conversation beyond contemporary graffiti.
Since June, TAG has launched a series of events held throughout downtown Trenton called “Downtown Gets Up,” where people have come to hear music, take art lessons, view films and watch some of the best graffiti and street artists create dazzling new works of art.
“Downtown Gets Up” kicked off in early June with nationally and internationally known artists including CRASH, Ron English, Queen Andrea, Wane One and Trenton native Leon Rainbow crafting huge works of public art.
“We wanted to transform the streetscape with new murals by top-level talents,” Taylor says. “We wanted to come out with a bang. And Trenton has paid attention.”
“We received funding from the N.J. Economic Development Authority’s Activation, Revitalization, and Transformation grant program, which has supported the series of events we’ve had this summer,” she says. “The response so far has been very positive, and we look forward to working with the community on planning the future of the museum.”
In September, the series continued with a talk by Eric “DEAL” Felisbret about the history of contemporary graffiti, including a screening of the trailer for his upcoming documentary, “Mecca: The New York City Graffiti Chronicle.” Also in September, TAG collaborated with Jonathan LeVine Projects and Áine Mickey to present an exhibition at Hanover Creative Gallery featuring the five artists who created murals in June, along with Cornbread, T-KID 170, EROTICA 67, Indie184 and RAS.
The final “Downtown Gets Up” event for 2026 is the Hip Hop Heritage Fest planned for Saturday, Oct. 3, from noon to 6 p.m. at Artworks in Trenton, a family-friendly affair with music by DJ Fatha Ramzee, the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen (TASK) food trucks, the Trenton Community A-Team Art Cart, live art making, art classes for kids and adults, breakdancing and even the finale of a beatbox battle.
Beatboxing, for those unfamiliar, is using your mouth, lips, throat and voice to create percussive sounds and rhythms. It goes back to the early days of hip-hop in the 1970s and early ’80s, when drum machines were too expensive for many artists. Performers used their voices to mimic the beats.
“Chesney Snow, an educator, performer, and beatboxer who founded the American Beatbox Championships will judge the participants, along with well-known beatboxers Bloomer and MATCH,” she adds. “We’ve launched the competition online, and these will be the finals, live and in person.”
The American Graffiti Museum will be a 100,000-square-foot arts and culture institution in a five-story historic building, with an adjacent 12,000-square-foot outdoor courtyard.
TAG will feature galleries, exhibits, interactive and immersive experiences and live painting events, as well as classrooms and educational opportunities for all ages and abilities. There will be 25,000 square feet of exterior wall space for rotating outdoor exhibits and events. Flexible event spaces and a roof deck are planned, as well as a café, bookstore and gift shop.
Once the museum is up and running, the founding team foresees the possibility of 200,000 or more visitors a year, generating more than $800 million in overall economic impact during its development and first decade of operations.
Located in the heart of the Creek to Canal Creative District, TAG will be a major cultural anchor institution, driving tourism and supporting sustainable redevelopment.
“A new cultural anchor institution will support other arts and cultural institutions and the community in general,” Taylor says. “Right now, there’s nothing attracting this many visitors to Trenton. We want to help create more community amenities, help activate downtown, and help change the narrative about our capital city.”
Taylor is especially enthusiastic about a welcoming community gathering space on the first floor, where visitors can spend time leisurely having a snack, sipping coffee or tea, reading a book or just people-watching.
“The museum will be a true ‘third space,’ not home, not work, but a place where people can hang out,” Taylor says. “The first floor will be open to the public for free – no ticket required. It’ll be a new amenity for the community.”
Taylor, a certified city planner, had been working for about 16 years to support the Trenton community in senior leadership roles at Isles and Trenton Health Team before joining the effort to launch The American Graffiti Museum.
She’s a longtime community advocate whose work includes neighborhood planning, affordable housing, public space activation and public health.
Taylor spearheaded Trenton’s NEA-funded Creek to Canal Creative District planning process and has led several large-scale community redevelopment projects.
TAG founder Brenna is an art lover and collector as well as a community leader, and believes that art and culture are critical to Trenton’s future. Over the past 25 years, he’s redeveloped more than 70 properties across the city with his real estate firm, Ajax Management Group.
Taylor notes that there are other related art institutions, notably in Miami and New York. TAG in Trenton will be the only one giving a full-scale museum approach to graffiti and street art, adding to this growing network of contemporary art institutions focused on urban art and hip-hop.
“TAG will tell the story of contemporary graffiti and street art, but there is so much more,” Taylor says. “Since there have been human beings, there has been art made in public spaces on whatever surfaces were available – hand prints in caves, graffiti in Pompeii. Prisoners scratched their stories on the walls of their cells in the 16th and 17th centuries and beyond. Hobos marked up trains beginning in the 1800s. People might not immediately think about these historical connections, but it’s a deep and rich history.”
“Most institutions and exhibits focus primarily on contemporary art work, they’re not drawing out those historical connections,” Taylor says. “I think it’ll be interesting for people to consider the throughlines among different types of art created for different purposes by different people but with the same fundamental purpose – to be seen and remembered.”
Downtown Gets Up Hip-Hop Festival, Saturday, Oct. 3, noon to 6 p.m., Artworks, 19 Everett Way, Trenton. 609-394-9436. artworkstrenton.org.
The American Graffiti Museum, theamericangraffitimuseum.org, is still under construction.
