Employment/Volunteer
Jobs at CNY Arts:
Position: Director of Communications & Marketing
Type: Full Time
CNY Arts seeks applications for the full-time, exempt position of Director of Communications
and Marketing. This is a management-level position that will communicate on an ongoing basis
with the team regarding CNY Art’s daily program communication and marketing processes,
including research, government and foundation correspondences, social media outreach (e.g.,
calendar, Twitter, Instagram), and more. The Director of Communications and Marketing also
acts as a liaison between CNY Arts and its community-based constituents, including arts
educators, individual artists, heritage agencies, the general public, and other identified
stakeholders (i.e., funders, and elected officials). The Director of Communications and Marketing
reports directly to the Executive Director.
This is an onsite position located in Syracuse, NY.
QUALIFICATIONS
Required Qualifications:
● Minimum of bachelor’s degree in marketing, communications, public relations, or a
related field
● Demonstrated progressively responsible experience, including executive-level writing
and communications, and PR and marketing expertise, including customer relations
management, data collection, and analysis
● Outstanding writing (including speech writing for executives), proofreading, and editing
skills with a proven ability to create written content that engages a variety of audiences
● Valid driver’s license required for trips across 5500 square miles in central New York at least four times per year or more as needs dictate.
Preferred Experience
● Experience in arts services and membership services
● Aptitude for data collection and analysis, public speaking and/or leading workshops
● Experience in arts administration, particularly with customer relationship management
software and online systems, communications, marketing, and public relations
● Expertise in an arts discipline and general knowledge of the arts industry
Candidates Must Have the Ability To
● Communicate complex and nuanced information in a simple, compelling way
● Conduct and report research and provide context and examples that bring stories to life
● Build productive, collaborative relationships with grantees, board members, faculty, and
other identified stakeholders
● Maintain a high level of discretion and excellent judgment and work with and manage
confidential information
● Meet the Executive Director’s expectations for written style and content and to accept
and respond to revisions and advice rapidly and effectively
● Manage multiple projects, work independently, and meet tight deadlines
● Use Microsoft Office products
● Working knowledge of Microsoft Office products and comfort utilizing website content
management systems
● Strongly understand both traditional and emerging media tools and their applications
● Demonstrate experience using strategic communications, branding, and social media to
help further an organization or department's mission
● Be professional, service-oriented, creative, self-motivated, highly organized, a team
player
ABOUT THE JOB
Duties & Responsibilities
● Reports directly to the Executive Director weekly, oversees calendar operations and
supervises staff in populating calendar, upgrading systems, providing news for biweekly
(or more) events newsletters, and quarterly newsletters
● Prepares for media interviews by coordinating interview details, prepping key messages,
and handling necessary follow-up. Create boilerplate press kits and tailor them
appropriately for each event and/or interview as needed
● Identifies executive communications engagement opportunities that amplify CNY’s
brand awareness
● Attends CNY Arts events sometimes after normal business hours or days of the week
● Collaborates with the supporting staff on projects, and ensures priorities are integrated in
all appropriate communications.
● Creates efficiency and effectiveness internally by ramping up customer relationship
management with a variety of (currently) separate soft wares that can be melded
● Manages social communications through various social media channels
● Ensures the accuracy of all facts and details in outgoing materials
● Follows issues, trends, and developments in the arts and reflects them in prepared
communications monthly, as or needed; shares in-depth training on these topics, and
others, in webinars and in-person workshops across six to seven counties (5500 square
miles) at least once a quarter through the year
● Advances the internal response to crisis situations, and engages on sensitive topics
proactively to prevent them from becoming an external crisis
● Develop and maintain relationships with leadership, administrators, and communicators
to build proactive communications strategies and engage in upcoming initiatives, and
manage sensitive or delicate communications
● Provides technical assistance workshops to the field on communications and marketing
strategies
● Contribute to the organization's communications strategies by generating increased
visibility and awareness of our objectives, goals, and positions, including building
audiences for community-based programs
● Use industry-standard programs to generate visual content for print or digital distribution
that supports brand awareness, audience engagement, public input, strategic initiatives,
or organizational objectives.
Specific Projects
1. Create a Consolidated Media Calendar
● Buckets marketing efforts into categories
● Monitors to ensure audience does not become exhausted from over-messaging
● Ensures timely messaging for upcoming events
● Ensures proper lead time to assemble materials and create content (copy, images, video,
etc.
● Acts as a resource for making decisions about which messaging to prioritize based on
costs, labor, audience, return-on-investment (ROI), which platforms/formats are
appropriate, etc.
● Creates a sustainable rhythm of content creation, publication, and measurement/tracking.
This includes digital media, print/press media, and in-person experiences
2. Reevaluate Media Formats & Platforms
● Scrutinizes media formats and platforms utilized to maximize impact
● Analyzes existing engagement data and expands into video content
● Determines who is and who is not seeing our content, how to increase visibility, where
we should redirect some of our energy to be more effective
3. Monetize the Arts Calendar
● Creates options for selling featured ad space on the calendar pages, and across our social
media channels
● Presents CNY Arts as an affordable and artist-friendly advertising platform for our
constituents
● Uses Google Analytics and qualitative data to identify spaces, durations, and cost for
paid promotions
● Creates promotion submission standards and templates
● Creates a promotion portal for submission and review
● Evaluates cost effect platforms such as Google Forms to support this work initially
● Identifies other spaces for paid promotions (newsletters, exclusive content, microsites,
etc.) including fundraising and education promos
4. Evaluate Data Collection
● Collects and evaluates the data generated from CNY Arts media formats, platforms, and
monetization of the Arts Calendar using Google Analytics
● Collects and analyzes data from surveys, focus groups, and in person events
5. Strategic Development
● Creates market surveys to further define our constituents through:
a) Segmentation surveys that divide our constituents into smaller groups that share
similar attributes so we can better communicate with them
b) Target market surveys to help us better understand how specific groups of
people participate in the arts market (buying tickets, seeing shows, making art, etc.)
c) Purchase process surveys to track where consumers get stuck in a purchase or
subscription process. This could also be applied to the grant application process.
d) Brand awareness surveys to measure what people know and think about the
organization
e) Spot surveys are one-question surveys used on social media to promote
awareness of the organization. They ask questions more obliquely like: “Have you been
to a concert lately?” or “Which of these Tik-Tok dances do you know?”
f) Testimonial surveys directed to folks who have used our services. We ask for
feedback and a personal account of their experience that can be used to improve the
service and sometimes in future marketing. Using all of the survey data we collect can
inform both day-to-day activities and the 10-year cultural plan.
● Conduct focus groups
● CRM Study: Review current CNY Arts Mailchimp’s extended services, when set up
properly, would suit the CNY Arts’ CRM needs, but it is worth exploring both options. I
would investigate and present my findings so a considered decision can be made.
6. Education
● Provide communications training and technical assistance in marketing, fundraising,
technology, unconscious bias, community building, and more.
ABOUT CNY ARTS
CNY Arts' mission is to promote, support, and celebrate arts and culture in Central New York.
At CNY Arts, we believe that a healthy arts industry is essential to the quality of life and
community in Central New York. We strive to connect the public to the rich array of arts and
cultural opportunities in the area. We provide support and assistance to individual artists and arts
and cultural organizations through access to grants, capacity-building assistance, education and
training, and promotional services. We serve the counties of Cortland, Herkimer, Madison,
Oneida, Onondaga, and Oswego. Our goal is to enhance a greater appreciation for the arts and
cultural vibrancy of the region.
STATEMENT ON INCLUSION, DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND ACCESS
CNY Arts, the regional Central New York arts council, has begun a process to look back
through its history and evaluate and improve its own programs and services to ensure that
equity, diversity, inclusivity, and access in our creative communities are fundamental values and
central tenets of our work. We believe:
● Art and creative expression are a universal language.
● Art moves society and creates long-lasting change.
● Art inspires empathy and understanding.
● Art gives voice to and creates spaces for those who have been marginalized.
● Art brings our communities together so we can begin the healing process.
Through our work, we will continue to amplify the voices of our minority and marginalized
artists. We will work to listen to minority artists and address their needs.
As the movement for justice and equality continues, CNY Arts is committed to the ongoing
practice, reflection, and assessment of being anti-racist and ensuring equity, access, and
inclusivity to our diverse artists, audiences, and community.
BENEFITS
This position is a full-time, exempt position with health insurance, long-term disability,
generous time off (personal, vacation, illness, etc.), and retirement with a non-matching
contribution.
In your cover letter, please include the salary range you would hope to receive.
TO APPLY
All correspondence should be directed in confidence to CNY Arts’ executive director, Stephen
Butler, executivedirector@cnyarts.org at CNY Arts, 421 Montgomery Street, 11th Fl. Syracuse, NY
13202.
Completed applications should include:
1) Cover letter
2) Resume or CV
3) List of three professional references with contact information.
Applications submitted by September 29, 2022 will receive priority consideration. This search
will remain open until the position is filled.
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