Arts & Culture Connectors

The South Jersey Cultural Alliance (SJCA) supports eight counties' worth of artists, organizations, cultural groups, and other cultural assets. With such a wide region to serve, it can be difficult for SJCA's small, nonprofit staff to deeply understand the strengths, challenges, and interests of each individual county. Additionally, South Jersey's cultural organizations and communities are hungry for local leadership to specifically represent them.

The SJCA Arts & Culture Connectors Program was created to appoint a set of individuals to serve as conduits between SJCA and the counties it serves. In so doing, the Program helps empower and develop local leadership in these communities. Guided by the feedback and locals-only insight of the Connectors, SJCA is able to convene more relevant cultural communities of practice and more effectively advance the interests of arts & culture organizations, artists, and cultural assets throughout South Jersey.

The Program awards each local artist/cultural professional serving as a Connector with a paid, 1-year field appointment for the South Jersey county where they reside and/or primarily practice/work. They also receive professional development to build leadership and community-building skills, and receive seed funding for a community-based arts and culture initiative in their local county.

Being a Connector for SJCA means being a researcher, technical resource, and cultural community leader. This includes activities like:

• Engaging with known cultural assets and seeking out new & diverse additions
• Facilitating local convenings, in order to develop a two-way communication network with the field
• Reporting relevant findings from the field to SJCA
• Providing technical assistance for grants and programs to other local artists and cultural professionals
• Ensuring wide and equitable distribution of information throughout their respective county (or counties)