Letter to The City: The Necessity of Shared Learning
Letters to the City is a blog series from Jersey City Arts Council Executive Director, Deonté Griffin-Quick. Each letter explores themes, ideas, and observations that shape the continued success of our arts community. Rooted in curiosity, these letters invite us to collaborate, engage, and take action.
Written by Deonté Griffin-Quick
What does a community truly know—and who gets to know it?
This question has been sitting with me as I continue to listen, convene, and observe the rhythms of Jersey City’s arts and cultural ecosystem. In moments of growth and in moments of strain, what often determines whether a community can move forward together is not solely reliant on talent, funding, or vision—but access to shared knowledge. Information, when held in isolation, limits possibility. When shared intentionally, it becomes infrastructure.
Across our city, artists, administrators, educators, funders, and policymakers are all navigating increasingly complex realities: Resources are constrained. Systems are shifting. Expectations are rising.
And yet, too often, we are asked to solve collective challenges with fragmented information—operating in silos, duplicating efforts, or making decisions without a full picture of who else is in the room — or not in the room.
If trust is the foundation of a healthy arts ecosystem, then shared knowledge is its connective tissue.
Shared learning allows us to see ourselves not as isolated actors, but as part of an interdependent network. It clarifies what already exists, where gaps remain, and how resources might flow more equitably and effectively. It helps us move from reaction to strategy. Without it, even the most well-intentioned efforts risk becoming misaligned or extractive.
Shared knowledge does not emerge on its own. It must be cultivated, stewarded, and protected.
It requires spaces where people can gather not only to present polished outcomes, but to ask honest questions. It requires a commitment to documentation, transparency, and translation—so that information is accessible across disciplines, roles, and lived experiences. And it requires a belief that learning is not a one-time transaction, but an ongoing, collective practice. When we convene with intention, we create opportunities for alignment: between artists and institutions, between policy and practice, between vision and capacity. Convenings allow us to surface patterns, challenge assumptions, and co-create frameworks that no single organization could develop alone.
As the city’s arts service organization, Jersey City Arts Council’s role is not to dictate solutions, but to strengthen the conditions under which solutions can emerge. That means investing in the systems that help our community learn together: shared data, research, professional development, peer exchange, and open channels of communication. It means making the invisible visible—so that artists and organizations alike can navigate opportunities with clarity rather than guesswork.
In the months ahead, JCAC will continue to expand how we cultivate shared knowledge across Jersey City’s arts ecosystem. This includes convenings designed for dialogue and reflection, not just dissemination; tools and resources that aggregate and demystify information; and learning opportunities that connect practice to policy, and creativity to sustainability.