Camden Night Gardens is a series of nightime public arts festivals  and inititiatives fostering community vibrancy through the arts in Camden, New Jersey.  

In recent years, Camden, New Jersey (population 77,000) has earned the dubious distinction of being among the most poverty-stricken and unsafe cities in the county.  With violence, poverty, and unemployment on a steady rise, a sense of despair has been growing among our citizens.  The arts works as a driver to combat this phenomenom; to instill pride among Camden's residents through arts and culture.  

Camden Night Gardens is being piloted in the North Camden and Cooper Grant neighborhoods as a compoenent of the Connect the Lots Initiative.  These two waterfront neighborhoods are physically divided from one another by the construction of the Ben Franklin Bridge and that both differ wildly from the demographics and economy of center city Philadelphia, which is a 10-minute drive away.

Cooper’s Ferry Partnership, in partnership with the City of Camden, has implemented the Camden Night Gardens, an community-led initiative to transform vacant and underutilized open spaces with temporary light, sound, and projections in an effort to visually connect these two neighborhoods, and also would draw visitors from Philadelphia across the bridge. Residents of both Camden and Philadelphia are often even less likely to explore these neighborhoods at night, so works of art that can only be experienced at night would serve as an incentive for inter- and intra-city exploration.