Leslie Ito
Equitable funding from private foundations and government agencies
Posted by Aug 13, 2010 0 comments
Leslie Ito
This title is neither violent onomatopoeia nor a Femi Kuti reference, rather I quote my mom’s favorite phrase which is synonymous to “check, check, check.” While I’d cringe whenever my mom exclaimed this in her Filipino accent, I think it captures my enthusiasm around the three key accomplishments (some unexpected) that resulted from the Los Angeles emerging leader mentorship program.
People rarely wield the science to invent and hand-craft their own mentor. I’ve observed that mentors tend to emerge in unlikely places and heighten or recede in their presence throughout one’s life. But, in 2007, a nine-member taskforce of Los Angeles Emerging Arts Leaders (EAL/LA) had lost patience with an organic model of mentor acquisition, and began scheming on how to meet a dream career mentor through professional connections and a structured program.
After a year of monthly meetings to strategize recruitment, the matching process, the structure, marketing, and evaluation, we officially launched the Arts Professional Advisors Link (APAL) in the fall of 2008. Each emerging leader member completed an “application” which described professional development needs and wants in a mentor. As a team, we reviewed one another’s applications and leveraged our connections, to help match advisors to the profiles drawn up in the applications. Advisees were charged with all of the administrative work around the program and were to initiate and organize all advisor meetings (four at the least) over the course of the program year. The advisee was to steer the content of the meeting conversations and bring clear, yearlong goals to the table around which the advisor might provide guidance. Over the course of the year, we threw a kick-off orientation mixer, a mid-year opera outing and mixer and a culminating mixer.
Read MoreYes, the new age of extreme participation is a challenge for brand managers. No, you haven't lost control.
Read MoreWhen it comes to television culture in the second decade of the 2000s, it seems like we've reached new lows in what qualifies as entertainment. From The Bachelor to The Real Housewives of (insert city/state here), reality television that celebrates being rich, obnoxious, or both dominates what now passes as pop culture (but I'm not throwing stones as an avid fan of The Amazing Race and even—gulp—Survivor).
However, many American television viewers rallied around the little arts education show that could, Glee, this past season. Despite often-tepid writing, usually the heart of the show permeated through (more in the first half of the season), mixing with interesting musical numbers to create a new genre loved and adored by millions of past, present, and future theater/music/dance geeks, dweebs, and nerds.
But for those of you that have access to BBC America, the truly inspirational arts education show is the award-winning documentary series, The Choir. The British series follows choir director Gareth Malone as he attempts to build a program in a school that had never had one before. Malone walks viewers through the entire process from auditioning singers, to dealing with voice changes, and even a very painful second round of cuts a few weeks into the process.
The goal is to get the group good enough to perform in the World Choir Games. I won't ruin anything by telling the results, but if you Google around, you will find that he later added two more additions of the show after the initial show's 2007 airing.
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