Enabling Engagement

Launching Irvine’s New Arts Strategy

PRESENTATION SESSION

Tuesday, October 11, 9:30 am – 11:00 am

Organized by Josephine Ramirez, program director, arts, The James Irvine Foundation.

Contributions by Alan Brown, principal, WolfBrown; Sandra L. Gibson, independent consultant; Maria Rosario Jackson, senior research associate in the Metropolitan Housing and Communities Center and director of the Culture, Creativity, and Communities Program, Urban Institute; Steven J. Tipper, associate director, The Curb Center for Art, Enterprise & Public Policy.

This session provides an inside look into Irvine’s arts grantmaking strategy do-over. How did we do it? How is it launching? What are we learning? What does it mean? We’ll include information about what influenced this new strategic direction—stronger alignment with overall foundation goals, field research, new practices related to the pervasiveness of digital technology, opportunities to better serve California's “minority majority” communities—and the potential policy-relevant implications for arts philanthropy. Using video-, cellphone- and internet-based platforms, the session features pre-taped and live feedback from celebrity arts policy wonks and pithy text messages from session participants.