South Jersey venture aims to draw artists together

A new organization has been set up in South Jersey to draw together and support individual artists.

ArtC attempts to coral a scattershot arts community by diligently searching for underexposed artists in the region, then give them a multimedia online presence.

Unlike those in dense metropolitan areas, artists, studios, and galleries in South Jersey tend to be spread thinly all over the region. While there are artist-support organizations serving South Jersey, they tend to lend help only to those who seek it.

“The lack that we saw was that most organizations don’t seek the really good artists,” said founder Bill Horin. “If they come to the organization, then you can find them. But there was no way to find the really good artists in South Jersey. It’s like little tribes everywhere–there’s no really strong arts community here.”

Currently there are only 14 artists and four organizations listed on ArtC. None of them provided their own promotional material for the website. That is handled by Horin, a photographer by trade, and his staff of writers and designers who visited studios and galleries, creating original images, video, and copy to promote the artist or organization.

ArtC is a program of the Noyes Museum of Art in Oceanville.