The second day of the Summit started strong with a plenary session lead by Don Howard, Interim CEO, James Irvine Foundation, one of the team of ArtPlace America funders and the local foundation that provided a lot of support for this event. Prior to joining Irvine Mr. Howard worked at the Bridgespan Group, the nonprofit management consultancy that specialized in capacity building. The focus of this session was field building.
Mr. Howard then introduced Abigail Marquez, associate director, Education and Workforce Development, City of Los Angeles and Dixon Singleton, executive director, Youth Policy Institute who presented on the exciting federal Promise Zone designation recently awarded by President Obama to Los Angeles.After doing a short presentation about field Mr. Howard was joined by Tracy Taft, executive director, International Sonoran Desert Alliance and Chris Beck, Senior Project Adviser, Rural Development, US Department of Agriculture. If you have a placemaking capital project you’d be well served to watch Ms. Taft’s presentation of how she identified, applied for and secured a wide range of funding sources for her project. To me her presentation just reinforced how entrepreneurial nonprofit leaders need to be to advance their organization’s mission. If you don’t know Mr. Beck, you should. He’s one of those rare government leaders who is a problem solver who consistently thinks outside the box. Food can be such a big part of place, so think about reaching out to Mr. Beck to explore how you might be able tap into some of the many resources available at the USDA.
After the morning break the below breakout sessions took place:
- Performance, Temporary, and the Art of the Ephemeral led by Leslie Koch, president, The Trust for Governors Island and Jim Lasko, executive artistic director, Redmoon Theater
- Artists: Leadership, Engagement, and Investment led by Jun-Li Wang, artist community organizer, Springboard for the Arts and Bruce Farnsworth, project director, Light Brigade
- Community Identity: Past, Present, and Future led by Gayle Isa, executive director, Asian Arts Initiative and Andrew Hestness, vice president, Native American Community Development Institute
- Sheparding Permanent Change: Capital Projects and the Built Environment led by Anjee Helstrup-Alvarez, executive director, MACLA/Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana and Maarten Jacobs, director, Near Westside Initiative
- Regional Placemaking and Government: State, County Local, Tribal led by Donna Neuwirth, executive director, Wormfarm Institute and Jason Smart, program officer, Rasmuson Foundation
- Debt Capital: Financing a Vision led by Felicia Harmon, coordinating consultant, Arts @ the Feed and Grain and Colin Hamilton, senior vice president, National Advancement, Artspace Projects Inc.
Unfortunately, due to space, equipment and technology limitations only Performance, Temporary, and the Art of the Ephemeral breakout session was livestreamed and recorded.
With an exciting capital project ahead of us at WaterFire Providence, I decided to attend Debt Capital: Financing a Vision, which unfortunately was not videotaped. There was lots of sharing about different funding strategies, techniques, tools and experiences among participants. There was interest in exploring social impact bonds, a relatively new financing mechanism for social causes, although to date no one has any experience in the arts sector. There was also discussion about PRI’s (Program Related Investments) which have become an effective funding instrument for foundations. I presented that there is opportunity for organizations to collaborate through the current initiative organized by the Rhode Island Coalition for Performing Arts Facilities (RICPAF) which presented a comprehensive, collaborative capital projects proposal to Governor Lincoln Chafee which he included in his FY2015 Budget and highlighted in his 2014 State of the State address.
After a box lunch on the plaza in beautiful Southern California sunshine, the conference resumed with a session focused on impact and evaluation. Lyz Crane, deputy director, ArtPlace America, gave a nice acknowledgement to WaterFire Providence for our November 2013 The Art of Placemaking Conference which was part of our creative placemaking learning lab of our ArtPlace grant. (Make sure you check out the videos of the presentations that are posted here. We will be updating this page with new videos weekly. Presentations are also available as audio podcasts via the Stitcher mobile device app.) The following ArtPlace America grantees shared their stories:
- Laura Zabel, executive director, Springboard for the Arts
- Jordan Parks, executive director, Paradise Garden Foundation
- Brian Friedman, executive director, Northeast Shores Development Corporation
- Prema Katari Gupta, director, Planning & Economic Development, University District
Again, due to space, equipment and technology limitations only only one breakout session was livestreamed and recorded. Here’s Laura Zabel sharing her experience.
A fascinating plenary session titled People and Place, People in Place was moderated by ArtPlace America Executive Director Jamie Bennett after the afternoon break. Eui-Sung Yi, design principal, Morphosis Architects and director, The Now Institute at UCLA’s Department of Architecture and Urban Design, sat in for his colleague Thom Mayne and was joined by Professor Manuel Pastor, Professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity, University of Southern California. This was an information packed and often comedic session that is a must watch.
In the evening we took buses from the conference hotel to a reception at the wonderful Mercado La Paloma, a project of Esperanza Community Housing Corporation, a 2012-2013 ArtPlace America grantee. There was great local food, drinks, shopping and entertainment. Special thanks to Garth Trinidad and Aaron Byrd of KCRW and Leslie K. Gray and Erin Christovale for their contributions in making it a super party and an evening to remember.
