Southern Arizona Arts and Cultural Alliance (SAACA) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the preservation, expansion and creation of arts and culture in Southern Arizona.
The Southern Arizona Arts and Cultural Alliance seeks to enhance access to the arts and to promote cultural awareness, through the production of large-scale festivals, seasonal events and other collaborative and cross-sector programming. The Alliance also administers educational opportunities in arts and culture for all ages.
“SAACA’s events and programs are built through collaboration, creating a true foundation for community engagement,” says Chelsey Killebrew, Communications Director for the Agency. “We focus on economic development through the arts via strategic business partnerships to ensure the arts remain a core value in the community for years to come.”
“We exist because we know that the arts are a powerful vehicle for communication, a way to express ideas that are beyond the capacity of words and a medium for cultural enlightenment.” – Chelsey Killebrew, Communications Director for the Southern Arizona Arts and Cultural Alliance
Each year, the SAACA works with more than 1,000 local and national visual artists to create opportunities to exhibit and sell their artwork, hires more than 400 unique local musicians and groups to perform, partners with 12 local schools to implement a music education program, and provides hundreds of opportunities for all ages to engage in arts and culture through free community events.
As you can probably imagine, putting on all these programs and events is no easy task – the Alliance relies on hundreds of volunteers each year to make their mission a reality. “Before using VolunteerLocal, we would contact our volunteers via email listing the opportunities that were available, and if we got a low recruitment response to a particular event we would contact them via phone,” says Killebrew. “We are having success recruiting new and younger volunteers with VolunteerLocal, and would recommend it to other organizations.” Want to get involved? You can sign up for the Oro Valley Festival of the Arts today!
SAACA is currently launching two much-needed programs in arts education and therapeutic arts for the community. Volunteers at fundraising and outreach events are needed now more than ever. The education program connects students and administers to a comprehensive resource of high-quality arts education programs, and the therapeutic arts program integrates arts as form of healing for veterans at the Southern Arizona VA hospital.
