The second of four 2015 North County Arts Network (NCAN)
meetings was held on April 16 at The California Center for the Arts, Escondido
(340
North Escondido Boulevard, Escondido, CA 92025). The honorary NCAN host was Jerry Van Leeuwen, the Executive Director of CCAE and all 110
participants were treated to wonderful food and drink by this gracious
supporter of north county arts.
Daniel Foster made introductions and explanations as
there were many new people attending this event. NCAN aims to strengthen the
arts organizations and communities of North County San Diego and beyond through
convening, networking, and strategic/collaborative approaches that will produce
leveraged impact for arts and culture in the region. The goals for this
evenings meeting is to discuss the purpose and forming structure for NCAN, map
and survey our NCAN community and priorities, create dialogue and discussion
with all attendees, and provide excellent informal networking opportunities to
build relationships and sense of community.
A panel
facilitated by Leah Goodwin, Education
Partnerships, CCAE had in put to help define the need for this newly formed
organization from Jim
Gilliam, Arts Administrator, City of Encinitas, Jacquelyn Kilpatrick,
Director, School of Arts, CSUSM, Vincent Kitch,
Cultural Arts Manager, City of Carlsbad and Wendy Wilson, Executive Director, Escondido Arts Partnership.
There were five
break out groups after the panel. I was one of the facilitators for the first
group Marketing, Membership, and
Development Group with Erin Decker,
Sr. Associate Dir. of Development, La Jolla
Playhouse. Alexandra Kritchevsky, Grants Manager, La Jolla Playhouse was
our secretary and will be presenting
full notes as will the other four groups. I hope to post those results in the future.
We started with
a brief statement about how the three topics were related: Marketing gets people
in. Membership makes them want to stay in and Development turns members into supporters.
NCAN is all about coming together and that implies collaborations, so
collaboration was a big part of our discussion. We discussed sharing an
understanding of our audience and the importance of clarity of our message. I have outlined below just a few of the
strategies that were discussed.
Marketing
strategies
- Online networks
- Best practices in marketing strategies
- Cross collaborative events/programs jointly marketed
- Shared ad space
- Potential shared database of North County arts patrons
- Splitting the cost of market research
Membership
strategies
- Joint membership privileges
- Discounts for members at for profit services and shops
- Best practices in membership growth and involvement
Development
strategies
- Joint grants applications (NEA, etc)
- Joint fundraising events for collaborative programs
I found that
five breakout groups were not enough for 110 people and the number of people in
our group (over 30) made it more difficult to really know the participants. If
we intend to do any real projects together, we need to get to know and trust
each other. So I am hoping for no panel and smaller groups at the next session
which will be held at the Lux Institute on July 16. We might also need to have
a separate pre-event for first timers so they are familiar with NCAN and what
we are trying to achieve. I see NCAN very much as a pilot program for other
parts of the county. If we can make it work in the north and invite others to
form their arts network, we can eventually all join together to form an
official SD County Arts Council.
The most
exciting aspect for me was to encourage some new brave initiatives that might
fail but if they succeed will raise all boats on the tide. Sometimes you need
the support and help of your colleagues to make this kind of leap of faith.
The four other
groups were:
Visual Arts Programming Group
Wendy Wilson, Executive
Director, Escondido
Arts Partnership
Daniel Foster,
Executive Director, OMA
Raziah Roushan,
Dir. of Marketing, OMA (Secretary)
Performing Arts Programming Group
Christy Yael,
Intrepid Shakespeare Company
Riley
Carbonneau, Dir. of Performing Arts, CCAE
Jennifer Pena,
CCAE (Secretary)
Civic / Municipal Arts Group
Jim Gilliam, Arts
Administrator, City of Encinitas
Vincent Kitch, Cultural
Arts Manager, City of Carlsbad
Naomi Nussbaum,
Executive Director, Synergy Art Foundation (Secretary)
Arts Education Group
Leah Goodwin,
Education Partnerships, CCAE
Merryl Goldberg,
Professor, School of Arts, CSU San
Marcos
Kirsten Vega,
Education Coordinator, CCAE (Secretary)
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| Daniel Foster opening welcome |
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| Jayce Marie awarding Wendy Wilson as a women of merit in the arts |
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| panel discussion |
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| Break out groups |
