NEIGHBORHOOD PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM FAST FACTS
WHAT IS CITY OPERA's NEIGHBORHOOD PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM?
CITY OPERA wants to partner directly with your neighborhood council for any of the following purposes:
1) to revitalize or rejuvenate a specific part of your neighborhood.
2) to increase business traffic within a targeted area of your neighborhood.
3) to build a rallying point, and to build a sense of community within your neighborhood.
4) to increase cultural awareness, identity, and solidarity for specific populations.
5) to positively impact the perceived property values of real estate adjacent to cultural activities.
6) to celebrate any neighborhood occassion.
WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF PROGRAM PARTICIPATION?
1) an immediately accessible means of investing in your local community environment.
2) increases the cultural cachet of your neighborhood throughout the larger
3) provides an option to traditional cultural and redevelopment programs focusing on permanent art installations and/or architectural projects operated by outside private, commercial, or city agencies.
4) physical changes to real estate and property within the neighborhood are not required.
5) an adjustable, dynamic, and naturally evolving program that responds specifically to the needs of your neighborhood's residents and stakeholders.
6) no huge capital investment or administrative burden required.
7) no displacement of residents or businesses required.
Through live music and CITY OPERA's Neighborhood Partnership Program, your neighborhood council can easily gain access to cultural value in your community's public or private spaces for specific events of any kind.
WHICH NEIGHBORHOOD's ARE ELIGIBLE TO PARTICIPATE?
Any and all certified neighborhood councils are eligible to participate. Blight is not a requisite, but neighborhoods seeking a cultural remedy to distressed conditions or substandard quality of life issues are encouraged to apply. Residential, retail, commercial, and industrial site projects are all encouraged. In our opinion, blight is not the sole reason a neighborhood should pursue cultural equity.
HOW MUCH DOES PROGRAM PARTICIPATION COST?
CITY OPERA knows your neighborhood council's resources are limited. For this reason, we offer three ways to participate in this program:
1) via direct funding from your neighborhood council's annual budget (based on a sliding scale and percentage of available funds).
2) via your council serving as an ACADEMIC AMBASSADOR (i.e., by fostering relationships between CITY OPERA and LAUSD elementary schools within the geographic boundaries of your neighborhood).
3) a combination of 1 and 2 above.
We do everything possible to enable your participation regardless of your council's budget constraints. The cost of participation can range from $0 to $5000 or more. During the 2006-2007 season, we anticipate most participating councils will opt-in at the $750 to $2500 range, and significantly lower these costs or eliminate them altogether through Academic Ambassador Discounts.
SOUNDS GREAT! HOW DO WE START?
Give us a call or email us, and our company director will meet with you and discuss program options at your next neighborhood council meeting.
PROGRAM AND PRICING—DETAILS
City Opera wants to serve all of the members in your entire community, more than the students within a few select schools. We believe traditional outreach programs focus too narrowly on schools, and neglect the environment students move through when off campus. Moreover, we believe if the adults in a community embrace the arts and culture, their kids are more likely to do so as well, too. The Neighborhood Partnership Program was designed to establish broader coalitions between CITY OPERA, the schools it serves, and the stakeholders in your neighborhood at large—all in an effort to increase accessability to the arts for everyone in your community.
As a result, the cost of CITY OPERA's Neighborhood Partnership Program can vary on a sliding scale depending on your council's willingness to provide nominal administrative and/or marketing support for the program as well as in part by its involvement with local neighborhood schools. If your council can serve as a bridge between CITY OPERA's outreach mission to LAUSD elementary schools within the geographic boundaries of your neighborhood, the cost of the program can be deeply discounted and may even be free. For example, at the "duet level" of the program, if CITY OPERA is already servicing more than one school site in your neighborhood, or if your council can foster relationships between CITY OPERA and one or two additional schools, there is no cost for participation. More ambitious projects—a small summer concert series, for example, where a duet plays at a specific retail site once per month over the course of three months—may have a nominal cost. Whereas a significant undertaking—for example, a community orchestra concert in a local park or church or plaza—requires a more substantial commitment. However, through this program, projects of any scope are more possible than ever before.
Below are some recommended levels of budget allocation for participating neighborhood councils and the corresponding CITY OPERA service allowance in terms of artistic personnel available for a community event at any location within your neighborhood:
Duet Level: not less than 1.5% of annual funding
Trio Level: 2%
Quartet Level: 2.5%
Quintet Level: 3%
Band Level: 3.5%
Chamber Symphony Level: 5%
Community Orchestra Level: 10% or more
Note: Above recommendations are for one service. This is a pilot program and participant requirements are subject to change.
ACADEMIC AMBASSADOR DISCOUNT
for neighborhood councils that partner with local LAUSD schools to encourage musical events on campus and throughout the greater neighborhood community
Subtract half a percent from the above recommended budget allocations for every LAUSD elementary school within the geographic boundaries of your neighborhood that chooses City Opera as an "Arts Community Partnership Network" (aka ACPN) vendor within the same year.
Note: Funds for schools participating in the ACPN program have already been provided to each school site to spend as they see fit. No additional cost or administrative burden is required by participating schools in your neighborhood. The only administrative burden for the school is indicating CITY OPERA as one of their ACPN vendor choices on a reservation request form and faxing it to CITY OPERA at least once in any given year. Schools have enough funds to choose several vendors in the ACPN program throughout the year, and CITY OPERA is not required to be their only ACPN service provider.
For additional information contact CITY OPERA's director, Sean Bradley, at 213.925.8598, or send an email to sean@cityopera.net.