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Mission
LA Stage Alliance (LASA) is a 501 (c) (3) non profit organization dedicated to building awareness, appreciation and support
for the performing arts in Greater Los Angeles through community building, collaborative marketing, audience development,
professional development to strengthen operations for members and advocacy.
LASA serves over 325 organizational members (professional, educational and community-based producing
and presenting performing arts organizations) annually in the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside,
San Bernardino, Santa Barbara and Ventura and individual members comprised of local, regional, national and
international performing arts patrons.
Community building
Through member meetings and roundtable discussions, LASA convenes over 400 arts groups, partners and organizations
annually to discuss and disseminate information and research, to share accomplishments and to provide networking opportunities.
LASA has partnered with the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles to establish a prototype Hollywood Art Retention
Project (HARP) that seeks to assist arts and cultural organizations to remain in Hollywood, and to bring organizations back to the area.
The CRA/LA retained the services of LASA as the lead consultant to conduct in-depth facility and organizational needs assessments.
CRA/LA will launch a second Arts Retention Project in North Hollywood in October 2007 and LASA expects to provide services through 2008.
LASA is the affiliate for MetLife Foundation National Arts Forum Series, a program of Americans for the Arts. The 2007 Forum Series
examined the roles the arts play in workforce development at various life-stages, with a goal to build a “cradle-to-grave” case for
business support for the arts. This support could take the form of corporate giving, workforce giving, employee volunteerism, board
service, audience participation, or purchasing creativity-based corporate training programs. Organizations involved included Disney,
Sony Pictures Entertainment, Boeing, Deloitte, KPMG, NSBN, SPF:architects, Princess Grace Foundation, LA Chamber of Commerce and
ComedySportz.
Collaborative marketing and audience development
Historically, LASA has focused exclusively of collaborative marketing and audience development initiatives for its members. LASA
publishes both an annual member report and a membership directory that are widely disseminated to provide information on current
programming, survey results and member information. LA Stage is a full-color; glossy, bi-monthly magazine devoted to the performing
arts scene and is available by subscription, on newsstands, and through free distribution. LAStageBlog.com is an interactive and on-going
dialog for the performing arts community. LA Stage Times is a cooperative program with the Los Angeles Times that provides LASA members
deeply discounted advertising rates reaching over four million readers weekly. LAStageTIX.com is an online ½ price ticketing program
that regularly returns $340K in ticket revenue to members providing greater access to the arts. We sell on average 22,000 half-price
tickets to over 500 shows from 175 different companies with over 26,000 opt-in subscribers receiving our weekly email. Tickets are also available in person at Visitor information Centers managed by LA Inc, the Los Angeles Visitors and Convention Bureau. LASA is the local partner for Theatre Communications Group/ Free Night of Theater program. The Ovation Awards are Los Angeles’ only peer-judged competitive awards for theater and the major, annual convening of the theater community in Los Angeles recognizing excellence in 29 categories of performance, design, writing, directing, and production with over 400 productions registered for consideration annually. The ceremony includes two awards accompanied by cash prizes and has embarked in a partnership with Center Theater Group in the public presentation of their Sherwood Award winners receiving a $10,000 prize.
Professional development to strengthening operations for members
LASA offers a series of skill building and organizational development workshops called The Next Stage to provide practical training
to an arts field comprised mostly of “accidental administrators” who began their careers as artists and, out of necessity, became arts
managers, strategic planners, grant writers, special events coordinators, volunteer managers, Board nurturers, and computer gurus. LASA
presents the Performing Arts Touring 101 series in partnership with the Western Arts Alliance, a day-long workshop for performing arts
organizations interested in touring. LASA is the local affiliate of the National Arts Marketing Project (NAMP), a program of the Arts &
Business Council of Americans for the Arts supported by American Express offering marketing workshops for arts administrators.
Advocacy
LASA serves as a partner with local (Arts for LA, Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, Los Angeles County Arts Commission),
statewide (Californians for the Arts/California Arts Advocates, California Arts Council), regional (WESTAF) and national (Americans for the
Arts) support, service, funding and advocacy organizations through dissemination of materials and information, participation in meetings and
convenings and board service. LASA is seen by the greater Los Angeles performing arts community and its partners as the “go-to” resource for
information and resources.
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