Arts & Culture Connectors
Meet the Connectors
Building arts and culture communities across South Jersey
Danielle Cartier
Cumberland County
Danielle Cartier is SJCA's Arts & Culture Connector for Cumberland County. She is an artist known for her mural projects and large-scale, mixed-media paintings. She has painted and installed 25+ grant-funded, public art murals across South Jersey. Her mural projects have featured prominently in local media, such as the Courier-Post, NJ Indy, and 6abc Action News. Likewise, her large-scale, mixed-media paintings have been viewed in solo and group exhibitions across the country.
Danielle has extensive experience teaching studio art courses at colleges and universities and has also taught visual art at non-profits and community art centers throughout the region. She recently opened her art gallery, DC Gallery & Studio, within the Glasstown Arts District of Millville. It is an artist-owned, contemporary art gallery featuring work by local artists. It also serves as her personal studio and a visual arts classroom for students of all ages and experience levels.
Born in California, Danielle grew up in the Bay Area of Northern California. She holds a BFA from Sonoma State University, with concentrations in painting and printmaking. She also holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Studio Practice from the Graduate School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania.
Connect with Danielle:
Email: CumberlandConnector@sjca.net
Kiyomi Locker
History | South Jersey
Kiyomi Locker is SJCA's Arts & Culture Connector for history across South Jersey. While the county-based Arts & Culture Connectors focus on performing, visual, and folk arts within their respective counties, Kiyomi works to broadly connect with South Jersey's history sector. She also plays a pivotal role in assisting the organization to pursue various DEIA initiatives.
Kiyomi is a multiracial, cisgender woman and is a historian in Central & South Jersey. She holds a B.A. in History from Georgian Court University, as well as an M.A. in Museum Studies from Johns Hopkins University. She is passionate about the ideals of DEIA and advocating for small historical organizations.
Connect with Kiyomi:
Email: SJHistoryConnector@sjca.net
Andrea Sauchelli
Ocean County
Andrea Sauchelli is SJCA's Arts & Culture Connector for Ocean County. Based in Manahawkin, she is a full-time artist — an abstract landscape painter whose work plays heavily with nature’s movement, contrasting lines, and organic forms. Her work is featured as part of permanent collections throughout South Jersey, as part of AtlantiCare’s Healing Arts Program. She has exhibited in New Jersey, New York, and Philadelphia.
Andrea is also an art instructor at Pine Shores Art Association where she leads Plein Air in Pine Air — a free plein air artists gathering. She is represented at Refind Gallery in Bay Head and Solace Studio & Gallery in Surf City. She is also a Signature Artist of STROBE (ArtC’s South Jersey Artists Collective) and a Signature Artist at the Noyes Museum of Art in Atlantic City. Andrea holds a BFA from the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences at Rochester Institute of Technology.
She is excited to act as an advocate for the arts in South Jersey because it provides her with a role to play in strengthening and advancing the arts and creativity throughout the region.
Connect with Andrea:
Email: OceanConnector@sjca.net
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Want to become a Connector?
Have questions on the Connectors Program?
Curious about SJCA's other programs?
Contact Us!:
Julie Hain, Executive Director Shoanne Seijas, Membership and Programs Manager
Email: jhain@sjca.net Email: sseijas@sjca.net
Phone: (609) 833-7380 Phone: (609) 833-7381
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More about the Connectors Program
Understanding the mission of SJCA's 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)
