LOS ANGELES DOWNTOWN ARTS DISTRICT SPACE

Short Term Goals

• To expand organizational capacity by hiring a full time staff and increasing the LADADSpace budget.
* To complete build out and open the new Arts District Center for the Arts (ADCA)
* To increase the number of kids in our at-risk youth program
* To implement our strategic plan; addressing our growth and expansion, organizational policies and systems, and outreach to underrepresented communities
* To continue supporting emerging and established artists and the development of their work and sustain our program support
* To continue operating as the community liaison, facilitating film making in the Los Angeles Arts District
* To creating and facilitating new mural projects

The LADADSpace Board meets a minimum of six times per year to discuss programming and long term planning. Our business plan for the ADCA is circulating in the business community and grant proposals are pending among foundations interested in supporting the organization and the Arts District Center for the Arts (ADCA). As we are planning a major move and a huge growth spurt in capacity and impact in the next two years, we have just entered our second year in an intense strategic planning process. Given that we do not have a staff at this time, input on this process is limited to that of consultants and board members.

LADADSpace believes that community strength and viability is built through successful collaborative relationships between business owners, developers, organization leaders, community residents, and local artists. As an effective organization, we believe we are only as strong as our weakest link. Our community partners are integral to our success in affecting positive change. As part of our current strategic planning process we have created board expansion goals to be tracked over a period of 5 years to learn how we might better serve underrepresented communities in bordering neighborhoods. We are working directly with the Los Angeles City Council Member for Council District 14, Jose Huizar, and his staff, as well as local civic groups and our community partners to develop programming that achieves our broad goal and that is consistent with local values and needs.

- Leadership Skills (Guy Zimmerman; award winning writer and director of Padua Theater, Jonathan Jerald; District Gallery Director, writer, producer, and critic whose credits include Vanity Fair, and California Magazine, and various European based publications. He has written extensively about Los Angeles, artists, and the LA Arts scene, Tim Keating created and ran a pioneering arts non-profit in Hartford and Diana Wyenn is a theater professional and a full time marketing executive at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA,) As a group our Board has deep roots in the Arts District community stretching back almost 40 years. Our Board members have served on local community organizations and served on the neighborhood council.

LADADSpace has:
- Experience creating arts festivals with upwards of 10,000 participants
- Experience facilitating the creation of public art
- Experience producing ground-breaking, experimental theater in non-traditional venues including the word debut of playwright Murray Mednick's :Clown Show for Bruno"
- Experience working with location managers to mitigate the impact of filming as part of our strategy to preserve the neighborhood as renewable resource for filmmakers.
- Experience bringing together community partners for community planning
- Experience advocating for arts district development and meeting community needs
- A track record of supporting local emerging artists and established artists within the Arts District and beyond

Since 2004, LADADSpace has offered mini-grants to local arts organizations and individual artists whose theater productions, art exhibits, projects and workshops enrich the local and regional arts community. For over ten years LADADSpace has advocated for affordable artist housing and public art deregulation and has steered community-planning projects. As the Arts District is one of the most filmed locations in the world, LADADSpace facilitates the relationship between the production companies, city officials, and community members ensuring that the Arts District remains a renewable resource for filming.
LADADSpace operates the District Gallery, promoting work by contemporary, urban LA artists. LADADSpace organizes and facilitates mural projects throughout the downtown community and has created a program for at-risk youth that puts youthful offenders referred by the LA County District Attorney through an arts boot-camp.The graduates have their records expunged. LADADSpace is building the Arts District Center for the Arts (ADCA) that will include a gallery/exhibition space, a 99-seat theater/screening room, as part of the One Santa Fe Development Project. The Arts District Community will have access to the facilities to reach a broad audience with exhibitions, performances, workshops, and cross-genre collaborative projects that challenge the traditional boundaries of the plastic and presentational arts.
One of the biggest surprises we have encountered is the success of theater in non-traditional spaces. One of most successful productions was Padua Playwrights perfoming a series of playlets at various locations within vast two story loft. The audience wondered from kitchen to bedroom to bar, for short pieces of theater in each location. It was a critical and popular sucess that exceeded our expectations.
We have learned that no idea for a non-traditional production of art or theater is not doable. The more experimentation the better! We've learned that audiences like to be surprised that our greatest challenge is consistently creating novelty in our programming.
The opening at our District Gallery are occasions that not only promote the work of local artists but that brings together the community.
In late 2015 and early 2016, LADADSpace will open the Arts District Center for the Arts, featuring a screening room, gallery and theater workshop space and board members are currently engaged in developing programming and cultivating financial support.