Author:
Ariana Mah
Jan 19, 2012, 1:10 pm
Exploring Engagement and Los Angeles Dance
Exploring Engagement and Los Angeles Dance: A Conversation with Rick Noguchi of the James Irvine Foundation
By Monica Belli and Shayna Keller
The DRC is excited to share our conversation with Rick Noguchi, Senior Program Officer in the Arts for the James Irvine Foundation*. We based our questions on the Irvine Foundation’s recent introduction of its new grantmaking strategy, the Exploring Engagement Fund.
Rick has worked with the James Irvine Foundation for three years beginning in 2008 as a Program Officer for the Arts and appointed Senior Program Officer in 2010. He has a long and impressive history working within the field of arts funding and philanthropy within Southern California. Prior to joining the Irvine Foundation, Rick worked with the California Community Foundation. Rick has also served in a variety of programing, fundraising, and management position with the Arizona Humanities Counsel, the Japanese American National Museum, and the UCLA Extension Program. Rick graduated with an MBA and MFA in creative writing. He is an awardwinning author of two books of poetry: The Ocean Inside Kenji Takezo (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1996); and The Wave He Caught (Pearl Editions, 1995). He also wrote the children’s book, Flowers from Mariko (Lee & Low, 2001) with Deneen Jenks.
The DRC recently spoke with Rick about the current and future state of arts funding, how technology can be used for purposes of arts engagement, and the potential impact of the Exploring Engagement Fund on the dance community.
DRC: The Exploring Engagement Fund encourages the development of new programs, which always involves some level of risk-taking and experimentation. How is the Irvine Foundation defining success in this new initiative?
RN: Well, first let me note that the new grantmaking strategy in the Arts at The James Irvine Foundation is designed to help nonprofit arts organizations adapt and thrive in a landscape undergoing major shifts due largely to demographic changes and technological advances. We have three priorities of "piloting change," "strengthening change," and "sustaining change" within our new strategy through which we hope to help nonprofit arts organizations continue to serve all Californians.
The Exploring Engagement Fund utilizes our "piloting change" approach, so grants will enable organizations to explore engagement using the pathways of "who engages, how they engage, and/or where engagement takes place." Because the aim of the Fund is about organizations taking risks and trying new approaches, we don’t anticipate evaluating individual grants based on the "success" of the funded project per se. Given the nature of this type of investment, we hope to see changes in how Californians participate in the arts and to see adjustments in the greater arts field as a result of this collective action by organizations supported through this kind of grantmaking.
DRC: In many ways, dance is an inherently social practice. The values of audience engagement and participatory art making are part of ongoing dialogues within the field of dance. What are some examples of performing artists or arts organizations you believe have achieved the levels of engagement the Irvine Foundation seeks to fund?
RN: I am glad you asked this! We are well aware that people are engaging in dance and other art forms in increasingly active and expressive ways. And there are many nonprofit organizations that are offering engagement opportunities. As we were developing the new Arts strategy, we realized that examples of this type of work would help illustrate some participatory arts practices. For this reason, we commissioned a report titled Getting In On the Act that includes case studies to provide a better understanding of how people are engaging in the arts and how arts organizations are enabling this involvement. Written by WolfBrown and Associates, Getting In On the Act is available on our website at www.irvine.org/active. I’d encourage your readers to review this report for examples of active arts participation across the arts sector in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Dance Resource Center readers will find the case study on public dance events very relevant. The Big Dance in London and the Bal Moderne in Brussels are making dance a part of peoples’ lives by using professional choreographers, dancers and dance teachers to produce large-scale public dance projects in which anyone can learn and dance together. We hope to see more of this type of programming being offered to Californians, but we are also excited to see other participatory practices in dance being offered by our nonprofit arts partners in the state.
DRC: Most of the Dance Resource Center’s members are independent artists or work with small nonprofits whose budgets do not yet meet the Irvine Foundation’s qualifications for funding. How do you see the Exploring Engagement Fund affecting the broader cultural ecology, beyond the organizations that receive funding? Specifically, how will the Irvine Foundation’s new initiative impact these smaller performing artists and organizations?
The James Irvine Foundation is able to support 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations with a minimum annual operating budget of $100,000. In the past, we have been able to indirectly support individual artists and smaller nonprofit organizations through grantees that use Irvine funds to commission or contract individual artists and smaller organizations to create artworks. We anticipate a similar type of impact with the Exploring Engagement Fund. Grantees can apply for funds to use individual artists or partner with smaller arts groups to assist with engagement in the arts, particularly if the grantee organization does not have the capability in-house.
In terms of the impact on the broader cultural ecology, the Exploring Engagement Fund falls under our "piloting priority" which allows organizations to experiment using the Who, How and/or Where pathways. It is intended as risk capital for organizations that are interested in exploring how they might adapt to the changes in the arts landscape by testing the pathways of Who, How and/or Where. Ultimately, our overall strategy seeks to have a positive effect on the broader cultural ecology by helping nonprofit arts organizations adapt and thrive in the sector by achieving success with new projects that engage people in the arts through the three pathways of Who, How and/or Where.
I should also mention that for organizations located in our priority regions of the Inland Empire and San Joaquin Valley with operating budgets under $100,000, we will be designing grantmaking programs specifically for those regions that may include regranting opportunities for projects aligned with our new strategy.
DRC: In a field like dance, which often depends on physical presence, how do you see technology and social media factoring into the arts engagement process?
RN: We are anxious to see how the variety of arts organizations can creatively employ and incorporate technology into their programming. We are most interested to support organizations that use new technologies in a way that enables people to actively produce or create art, rather than just participating in an observational way using technology. Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir and the YouTube Symphony are performing arts examples in which technology was used to achieve active arts participation with everyday people. Both of these examples use technology in surprisingly different ways. The Virtual Choir used digital recordings of singers as part of the actual presentation whereas the YouTube Symphony used digital recording of musicians as part of its crowd sourcing process to identify performers from around the world to perform together in Australia. In terms of outreach and promotion, we are looking for projects that go beyond traditional marketing uses of technology, and instead allow people to participate in the arts in new and different ways through technology. Again, the Getting In On the Act report might be a helpful reference to get a sense of some of the uses of technology related to the "how" pathway.
DRC: What do you see as the role of California’s arts service organizations in the future of arts engagement?
RN: Arts service organizations play a key role in their discipline-specific communities. They provide peer communications, advocacy, professional development and networking opportunities to further strengthen the organizational effectiveness of their constituencies. For the most part, they serve in key leadership positions for their respective fields. In this capacity, arts service organizations are aligned to help their constituencies manage the shifts in the nonprofit arts environment, including the growing interest among all Californians for arts experiences that are participatory and in nontraditional venues. With their expertise in offering technical assistance, arts service organizations can play a vital role in helping artists and arts organization better understand how to incorporate arts engagement as part of their capabilities. In California, where demographic shifts and technological advances are already very apparent, arts service organizations can help arts organizations adapt and thrive by addressing who is engaging in the arts, how they are engaging and where they are engaging. In this transition, we will all need to learn how to manage the changes in our environment and the arts sector will be stronger when we do it together.
*The James Irvine Foundation is a philanthropic nonprofit organization established to enrich the cultural and civic lives of Californians. Founded in 1937 by James Irvine to meet the growing needs of the people of California, the has provided over $1 billion in grants to over 3,000 nonprofit organizations with the objective of advancing the educational and economic prospective of low-income populations, engaging Californians in civic and cultural life of their communities and states, enhancing diverse racial and ethnic understanding across socioeconomic groups, and enriching the state’s intellectual and creative environment (http://irvine.org)
By Monica Belli and Shayna Keller
The DRC is excited to share our conversation with Rick Noguchi, Senior Program Officer in the Arts for the James Irvine Foundation*. We based our questions on the Irvine Foundation’s recent introduction of its new grantmaking strategy, the Exploring Engagement Fund.
Rick has worked with the James Irvine Foundation for three years beginning in 2008 as a Program Officer for the Arts and appointed Senior Program Officer in 2010. He has a long and impressive history working within the field of arts funding and philanthropy within Southern California. Prior to joining the Irvine Foundation, Rick worked with the California Community Foundation. Rick has also served in a variety of programing, fundraising, and management position with the Arizona Humanities Counsel, the Japanese American National Museum, and the UCLA Extension Program. Rick graduated with an MBA and MFA in creative writing. He is an awardwinning author of two books of poetry: The Ocean Inside Kenji Takezo (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1996); and The Wave He Caught (Pearl Editions, 1995). He also wrote the children’s book, Flowers from Mariko (Lee & Low, 2001) with Deneen Jenks.
The DRC recently spoke with Rick about the current and future state of arts funding, how technology can be used for purposes of arts engagement, and the potential impact of the Exploring Engagement Fund on the dance community.
DRC: The Exploring Engagement Fund encourages the development of new programs, which always involves some level of risk-taking and experimentation. How is the Irvine Foundation defining success in this new initiative?
RN: Well, first let me note that the new grantmaking strategy in the Arts at The James Irvine Foundation is designed to help nonprofit arts organizations adapt and thrive in a landscape undergoing major shifts due largely to demographic changes and technological advances. We have three priorities of "piloting change," "strengthening change," and "sustaining change" within our new strategy through which we hope to help nonprofit arts organizations continue to serve all Californians.
The Exploring Engagement Fund utilizes our "piloting change" approach, so grants will enable organizations to explore engagement using the pathways of "who engages, how they engage, and/or where engagement takes place." Because the aim of the Fund is about organizations taking risks and trying new approaches, we don’t anticipate evaluating individual grants based on the "success" of the funded project per se. Given the nature of this type of investment, we hope to see changes in how Californians participate in the arts and to see adjustments in the greater arts field as a result of this collective action by organizations supported through this kind of grantmaking.
DRC: In many ways, dance is an inherently social practice. The values of audience engagement and participatory art making are part of ongoing dialogues within the field of dance. What are some examples of performing artists or arts organizations you believe have achieved the levels of engagement the Irvine Foundation seeks to fund?
RN: I am glad you asked this! We are well aware that people are engaging in dance and other art forms in increasingly active and expressive ways. And there are many nonprofit organizations that are offering engagement opportunities. As we were developing the new Arts strategy, we realized that examples of this type of work would help illustrate some participatory arts practices. For this reason, we commissioned a report titled Getting In On the Act that includes case studies to provide a better understanding of how people are engaging in the arts and how arts organizations are enabling this involvement. Written by WolfBrown and Associates, Getting In On the Act is available on our website at www.irvine.org/active. I’d encourage your readers to review this report for examples of active arts participation across the arts sector in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Dance Resource Center readers will find the case study on public dance events very relevant. The Big Dance in London and the Bal Moderne in Brussels are making dance a part of peoples’ lives by using professional choreographers, dancers and dance teachers to produce large-scale public dance projects in which anyone can learn and dance together. We hope to see more of this type of programming being offered to Californians, but we are also excited to see other participatory practices in dance being offered by our nonprofit arts partners in the state.
DRC: Most of the Dance Resource Center’s members are independent artists or work with small nonprofits whose budgets do not yet meet the Irvine Foundation’s qualifications for funding. How do you see the Exploring Engagement Fund affecting the broader cultural ecology, beyond the organizations that receive funding? Specifically, how will the Irvine Foundation’s new initiative impact these smaller performing artists and organizations?
The James Irvine Foundation is able to support 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations with a minimum annual operating budget of $100,000. In the past, we have been able to indirectly support individual artists and smaller nonprofit organizations through grantees that use Irvine funds to commission or contract individual artists and smaller organizations to create artworks. We anticipate a similar type of impact with the Exploring Engagement Fund. Grantees can apply for funds to use individual artists or partner with smaller arts groups to assist with engagement in the arts, particularly if the grantee organization does not have the capability in-house.
In terms of the impact on the broader cultural ecology, the Exploring Engagement Fund falls under our "piloting priority" which allows organizations to experiment using the Who, How and/or Where pathways. It is intended as risk capital for organizations that are interested in exploring how they might adapt to the changes in the arts landscape by testing the pathways of Who, How and/or Where. Ultimately, our overall strategy seeks to have a positive effect on the broader cultural ecology by helping nonprofit arts organizations adapt and thrive in the sector by achieving success with new projects that engage people in the arts through the three pathways of Who, How and/or Where.
I should also mention that for organizations located in our priority regions of the Inland Empire and San Joaquin Valley with operating budgets under $100,000, we will be designing grantmaking programs specifically for those regions that may include regranting opportunities for projects aligned with our new strategy.
DRC: In a field like dance, which often depends on physical presence, how do you see technology and social media factoring into the arts engagement process?
RN: We are anxious to see how the variety of arts organizations can creatively employ and incorporate technology into their programming. We are most interested to support organizations that use new technologies in a way that enables people to actively produce or create art, rather than just participating in an observational way using technology. Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir and the YouTube Symphony are performing arts examples in which technology was used to achieve active arts participation with everyday people. Both of these examples use technology in surprisingly different ways. The Virtual Choir used digital recordings of singers as part of the actual presentation whereas the YouTube Symphony used digital recording of musicians as part of its crowd sourcing process to identify performers from around the world to perform together in Australia. In terms of outreach and promotion, we are looking for projects that go beyond traditional marketing uses of technology, and instead allow people to participate in the arts in new and different ways through technology. Again, the Getting In On the Act report might be a helpful reference to get a sense of some of the uses of technology related to the "how" pathway.
DRC: What do you see as the role of California’s arts service organizations in the future of arts engagement?
RN: Arts service organizations play a key role in their discipline-specific communities. They provide peer communications, advocacy, professional development and networking opportunities to further strengthen the organizational effectiveness of their constituencies. For the most part, they serve in key leadership positions for their respective fields. In this capacity, arts service organizations are aligned to help their constituencies manage the shifts in the nonprofit arts environment, including the growing interest among all Californians for arts experiences that are participatory and in nontraditional venues. With their expertise in offering technical assistance, arts service organizations can play a vital role in helping artists and arts organization better understand how to incorporate arts engagement as part of their capabilities. In California, where demographic shifts and technological advances are already very apparent, arts service organizations can help arts organizations adapt and thrive by addressing who is engaging in the arts, how they are engaging and where they are engaging. In this transition, we will all need to learn how to manage the changes in our environment and the arts sector will be stronger when we do it together.
*The James Irvine Foundation is a philanthropic nonprofit organization established to enrich the cultural and civic lives of Californians. Founded in 1937 by James Irvine to meet the growing needs of the people of California, the has provided over $1 billion in grants to over 3,000 nonprofit organizations with the objective of advancing the educational and economic prospective of low-income populations, engaging Californians in civic and cultural life of their communities and states, enhancing diverse racial and ethnic understanding across socioeconomic groups, and enriching the state’s intellectual and creative environment (http://irvine.org)
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