Letter to the City: Year One Reflection
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.
Dear Friends,
Over the past year, the greatest privilege of this role has been getting to know the people who make Jersey City's arts community extraordinary. I've visited galleries and studios, attended performances, shared meals and coffee, joined Zoom calls, and listened to artists and cultural leaders in every ward of our city. I have seen first hand the impact that you all are making within your communities and witnessed the contributions of our creative sector.
Those conversations have changed how I think about leadership and about the future of Jersey City Arts Council.
So before anything else, I simply want to say thank you.
Thank you for welcoming me into your spaces, inviting me into conversations, challenging my thinking, and trusting me with your stories.
These conversations have also taken place during a period of uncertainty for our city. Questions about public investment, municipal priorities, and the future of arts funding have reminded us that strong cultural ecosystems cannot be taken for granted. They must be intentionally built, protected, and sustained.
Earlier this summer we hosted the JCAC Annual Mixer. A new format, but also a new way to engage our community through convening, conversations, and celebration. It was an opportunity to welcome new board members, celebrate our local artist community, and recognize Amy de Jong for her dedicated service to our organization. But most importantly, we unveiled the newly refined mission statement of Jersey City Arts Council.
Over the past year, I have partnered with our Board of Directors, Advisory Committee members, local leaders, and artists to demystify what the central goal and purpose of the Arts Council truly is today. This journey has been met with courageous conversations, questions without easy, and longstanding challenges that needed to be confronted together. And I am grateful to those who continued to show up and do the work.
Simultaneously, we have launched new initiatives, streamlined our grantmaking processes, hosted new virtual roundtable discussions, garnered new financial support to grow our capacity, onboarded new board members, and created new partnerships.
The result of that work is more than new language. It is a clearer commitment to who we are, who we serve, and how we intend to lead. The newly refined mission statement of Jersey City Arts Council:
Jersey City Arts Council exists to advance and cultivate the city’s arts and cultural ecosystem.
Building an arts ecosystem is about far more than promoting what's happening this weekend.
It means ensuring artists have opportunities to grow. Helping organizations build capacity. Creating partnerships that did not exist before. Making culture central to the future of Jersey City.
I believe Jersey City can become a national model, not because of any one organization, but because of what becomes possible when artists, nonprofits, businesses, philanthropy, residents, and the government choose to invest in one another.
But it won't be built by the Arts Council alone.
It will be built by artists, patrons, businesses, foundations, government officials, and the residents of this unique city.
I began my tenure in this role with an invitation. And the invitation is still available.
This fall Jersey City Arts Council will celebrate its 10th Anniversary. A decade of impact, culture, creativity, and advocacy. This moment does not just call us to take action, but it also calls us to invest into it.
As we prepare to celebrate our 10th Anniversary this fall, I invite you to become part of our next decade. However you choose to participate, know that you are helping build an arts ecosystem that belongs to all of us.
In Community,
Deonté Griffin-Quick
Executive Director, Jersey City Arts Council