American glassmaking begins in Salem County. Caspar Wistar lit the furnaces of the Wistarburgh Glass Works at Alloway in 1739, the first commercially successful glass factory in the country, and the craft never left: Salem Community College now teaches it from a purpose-built glass facility at Carneys Point, and traces its own lineage back to 1961, when a young Paul J.

The Jersey Cape is a summer place, but its art lasts all year. Cape May, the nation's oldest seaside resort, holds Victorian house museums and two professional Equity theatres; Ocean City has its own arts centre and Pops orchestra; and the barrier-island galleries and a small-town heritage museum round out a scene shaped by sea light and salt air.

Atlantic County is best known for its boardwalk and its casinos, but its art runs deeper and wider than the shore lights suggest. Stockton University has built a genuine arts district in Atlantic City, the glass-and-brick towns of the mainland hold historic theatres and galleries, and free museum spaces turn up from the beach to the edge of the Pinelands.

Camden County packs an unusual amount of art into a small, dense corner of South Jersey. A university arts centre anchors the Camden waterfront, the walkable boroughs of Collingswood and Haddonfield brim with theatres, galleries and outdoor sculpture, and historic movie houses have been reborn as stages.

Gloucester County is South Jersey's third-largest by number of municipalities, a patchwork of twenty-four townships, boroughs and the city of Woodbury spread across old glassmaking towns and college streets. Its art lives close to home, in Rowan University's galleries at Glassboro, in Pitman's lovingly restored 1920s theatre, and in the working studios tucked among the antique shops of Mullica Hill.

Cumberland County is the beating heart of South Jersey's art, and glass is the reason why. Millville's Glasstown Arts District draws visitors from around the world to WheatonArts and a cluster of galleries, studios and a restored theatre along High Street; Vineland and Bridgeton add historic theatres and downtown galleries; and out on the Bayshore, a tall ship keeps a maritime story alive.