Special Projects Coordinator

Job Description

Job Description

SPECIAL PROJECTS COORDINATOR

The State Theatre  •  Traverse City, Michigan

Full-Time  •  Starting at $20/hr  •  Compensation grows with performance

 
This Role

A builder, a strategist, and a finisher —  It is not a fixed lane.

What You Will Do

Your responsibilities will evolve, but your first order of business is clear: build the foundation. 

•        Lead special projects from scoping through completion — events, campaigns, community initiatives, and new business development

•        When a project stalls or a resource isn’t available locally, bring three alternate paths forward, not a report on what didn’t work

•        Model the labor, the timeline, and the outcome before committing the organization’s resources

•        Manage multiple active projects in various stages simultaneously without losing detail or momentum on any of them

•        Pivot when leadership redirects — and bring the same energy to the new direction as you brought to the last one

•        Support the team in an occasional House Management backup role

•        Occasionally working alongside our Development Director to leverage already existing strengths/knowledge/connections to build a stronger and deeper reservoir of diverse support as needed.  

•        Represent the theatre with polish in professional settings and with authenticity in community — business professional in public, and film nerd backstage 

•        Recruit and lead a corps of community volunteers who serve as ambassadors and early-stage fundraising partners

•        Build relationships with intention and discipline — strategic connection-building, not casual socializing

•        Use political and social intelligence to warm up cold relationships, earn trust with high-capacity contacts, and move people through a cultivation pipeline

Who You Are

We are going to be direct. We have a theatre to save and a community to serve and we do not have time for a slow ramp or a personality hire. The State Theatre has thrived for 110 years.  

Here is what we are looking for:

The Non-Negotiables

•        You are a self-starter who does not need the roadmap drawn up before you begin moving — you identify potential roadblocks and help build the route with the team. 

•        You have grit —  you can operate in a high-paced entertainment environment with short turnarounds and shifting priorities without burning out or shutting down

•        You are organized and disciplined with your time — you have a fixer instinct

The Kind of Person You Are

•        You are genuinely aligned with this theatre’s mission — you believe in the civic power of film, in free expression, and in the idea that a community should control its own cultural story

•        You are a connector with range — you can build trust with a retired philanthropist, a young professional, a seasonal resident, and a school principal in the same week

•        You know the difference between being everyone’s friend and strategically growing the right relationships.

•        You are emotionally resilient about your work — when a project gets set aside or a priority shifts, you adapt without feeling that your effort was wasted

•        You have 2–5 years of experience in community organizing, sales, communications, non-profit development, entertainment, or a related field.

•        Familiarity with Traverse City’s community, business, and philanthropic landscapes are a genuine advantage

What We Offers

Compensation: Starting at $20/hr with meaningful upside for the right candidate. We will pay more for a high performer and we will say so plainly.

A real career trajectory: Local leadership is actively looking for someone who grows into a peer, not a permanent report. The table has room. Earn your seat.

A mission worth the effort: The Traverse City Film Festival is committed to showing ‘Just Great Movies’ and helping to save one of America’s few indigenous art forms — the cinema.  

A community that cares: Traverse City is one of the most engaged, culturally curious small cities in the Midwest. The relationships you build here are real and lasting.

Who We Are

For 110 years, The State Theatre has stood at the center of Traverse City’s cultural life — a single-screen film house with a history as layered as the community it serves. This is not a theatre defined by nostalgia. It is defined by a conviction: film is free speech.

For two decades, in partnership with Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Moore, we have brought rare, thought-provoking, and deliberately challenging cinema to a part of Michigan that would otherwise see only what studios and algorithms decide is safe. Documentaries. Political films. Environmental stories. Films that make people uncomfortable in the best possible way.

We offer free screenings to school children at the end of each semester — because every child deserves to sit in the dark and discover that a story on a screen can change how they see the world. Film is conversation. Protest. A mirror held to the human condition. We believe that right belongs to the community, not to corporations or governments. In this 110-year-old theatre, it still does.

How to Apply 

Your cover letter should answer two questions:

• Why does the State Theatre’s mission matter to you personally?

• Why do you feel this is a good fit for you & tell us why you are the best fit? 

We are not looking for polished corporate language. We are looking for your actual voice and a clear signal that you understand what this role is. Applications without a cover letter will not be reviewed.

The State Theatre is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome candidates from all backgrounds who share our belief that film — and the community spaces that show it — belong to everyone.