Connecting the Dots Through Marketing: Engaging Our Communities Through the Arts. Soup to be Collected for Needy.

Join the Northern New Jersey Community Foundation’s (NNJCF) ArtsBergen quarterly networking meeting, Connecting the Dots . . . Through Marketing: Engaging Our Communities Through the Arts. The NNJCF, a nonprofit organization based in Englewood, will present the second quarterly mixer in the Connect the Dots series on Tuesday, January 19, 2016 at Fairleigh Dickinson University’s Student Union Building, located at 1000 River Road in Teaneck. Artists, writers, arts administrators, educators, municipal and community leaders, business owners, and arts supporters living or working in Bergen County are invited to attend. The free event will take place in the Rutherford Room from 6:00-8:00 p.m.

Speakers will discuss how they engage communities through marketing and outreach, present marketing tactics and tools to use, and share success stories. The confirmed speakers for the evening are award-winning visual artist Andrea Arroyo from New York City and Evonne Davis and Emma Wilcox, co-founders, Gallery Aferro in Newark, New Jersey. Featured guest performer, Howdy Stranger, a professional improvisation comedy group based in Hackensack, will entertain the audience with interactive games and skits.

During 2016, the Connect the Dots series will explore creative placemaking, the practice of integrating arts and culture into the fabric of a region, town, or city block. A goal of the series is to create an environment to stimulate conversation about creative placemaking and encourage partnerships that can initiate projects across Bergen County.

“We’re building community by presenting the arts in new social and economic roles: bridging diversity and boosting local economies,” said Michael Shannon, NNJCF President.

Bring a Can of Soup for Center for Food Action

As part of the NNJCF’s ongoing work to promote collaboration and civic engagement in the community, people are asked to bring to the meeting a non-perishable can of hearty soup to contribute to the nonprofit Center for Food Action (CFA). The food donation will help keep neighbors in the region warm and nourished during the winter months.

“We are grateful for the NNJCF’s support of the Center for Food Action to help local families in need. We are all in this together,” said Jennifer A. Johnson, Director of Communications and Director Relations, CFA.

Space is limited. Pre-registration is required and may be done online. For further information, call 201-568-5608.