Jennifer Steele, Santa Rosa Beach

Executive Director Cultural Arts Alliance of Walton County

Jennifer Steele’s home is so overstuffed with art that she feels compelled, it seems, to provide other places for it to land and to be seen and enjoyed.

As the executive director since 2008 of the Cultural Arts Alliance of Walton County (CAA), she is in the perfect position to do so, given the nature of her job, sure, and the support she is grateful to have from the area she serves.

She is energized by her belief that the arts are essential, not frivolous or exclusive, and act as economic drivers that benefit entire communities. She makes developing partnerships with businesses, public agencies and other nonprofits a central part of her job. After all, what’s an alliance without allies?

At its latest strategic planning session, the CAA resolved to be positioned and ready to identify and respond positively to opportunities and partnerships with other organizations, both public and private.

Steele noted established partnerships with the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Emerald Coast to expand arts education, Point Washington Medical Clinic to bring art to the underserved, Walton Correctional Institution to provide healing arts to the incarcerated, and the Walton County Tourism Department to expand an Art in Public Spaces program.

“All help advance the CAA’s mission to foster the inclusive and collaborative advancement of the arts while filling other needs in our community,” Steele said.

She is quick to shout out fellow nonprofit leaders, most of whom are women.

“I like to think we are mutual mentors, and I greatly value the moral and in-kind support we provide to one another,” Steele said.

Respectfully, she has advice for civic leaders who want to increase the presence and impact of the arts in their communities.

“Be open to collaboration and willing to trust arts leaders to bring something innovative to the table,” she said. “Fortunately, there is a great deal of data showing the impact of the arts on a community’s economy and quality of life, and there are stories to back up the data. The CAA recently joined 400 other organizations in a nationwide economic impact study through Americans for the Arts, and we are confident the results will encourage civic investment in the arts.”

For Steele, educators were her most impactful mentors. She credits her arts and humanities professors and university theater directors with helping her find professional direction and achieve a career in the arts community, which she regards as “authentic and empathetic.”

“Dr. Randy Wheeler is at the top of my list of mentors, and I am sure he is for many other theater graduates of Valdosta State,” Steele said. “I have his mantra, ‘Organization is the key to creativity,’ on repeat in my head. He exemplified a balance of pragmatism, intelligence, compassion, humor and of course, drama.”

For Steele, sources of satisfaction are various.

“Great days at work are when grant proposals get approved, or we confirm big headliners for the 30A Songwriters Festival, or witness the installation of sculptures in the Underwater Museum of Art, or when I see my team inspired by our mission and excited to be at work serving our community.

“Also, a day off is great.”

Jennifer Steele was nominated for the 2024 Pinnacle Awards by Melissa Wheeler, Marketing Director, Cultural Arts Alliance of Walton County.

Videography by The Workmans