Under the CACDP system arts organizations need to complete an online data profile only once a year. It is available electronically and can be submitted as part of grant applications to the participating funding agencies throughout the year. Arts organizations can find out more information and register at www.caculturaldata.org.

In addition to the Arts Commission, the following public arts agencies in Los Angeles County have adopted CACDP: Arts Council for Long Beach, Culver City Cultural Affairs Division, Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, Pasadena Cultural Affairs Division, Santa Monica Cultural Affairs Division and West Hollywood Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission.

The Arts Commission is one of a group of five California arts funders providing a total of $2.5 million to implement CACDP; the others are the California Arts Council, The Getty Foundation, The James Irvine Foundation and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The Arts Commission’s share is $460,000 and supports the participation of the L.A. County municipal arts agencies. A complete list of participating funders is available at http://www.caculturaldata.org/faq.aspx.

The CACDP is the first comprehensive data collection available to the state’s arts organizations. California is the first state in the western United States, as well as the largest overall, to participate. The Cultural Data Project started in Pennsylvania in 2004 and launched in Maryland in 2007. The Pew Charitable Trusts houses and administers the project for each state.

Project organizers offer online training materials (http://www.caculturaldata.org/training.aspx), timely technical support and a financial advisor on call as well as training workshops throughout the state to help arts organizations complete their data profiles over the first year of implementation. More than 1,000 arts organizations attended the initial round of information sessions held throughout the state late last year, and the general consensus among participants was positive.

Los Angeles County arts organizations can improve the impact they have on their communities and the state by participating in the CACDP. After the first year of data collection, aggregate information will be available to enable users to compare their organizations to others by discipline, budget size, and geography as well as create internal management and financial reports. Another benefit will be a powerful, long-term database resource for documenting the overall contribution of the arts sector to the state’s economy. Almost 100 Los Angeles County arts organizations have already begun their cultural data profiles since the beginning of January.

The Los Angeles County Arts Commission is launching a partnership program for the 87-seat indoor theatre in the John Anson Ford Theatres complex: [Inside] the Ford. Since 1993, the Arts Commission has operated a partnership program for the Ford summer season that provides support to Los Angeles County-based producers and performing arts organizations to present events in the 1245-seat Ford Amphitheatre. The [Inside] the Ford Winter Partnership Program builds on the success of the summer program.

The program addresses the fact that many Los Angeles County-based theatre companies do not have permanent performance homes and that the cost of producing theatrical works has become prohibitively expensive in the area. It offers theatre companies without a permanent performance venue the opportunity to produce in [Inside] the Ford at a highly subsidized cost and with significant promotional support. The first Winter Partnership Season will run November 2008 through April 2009.

Similar to a grant program, proposals for the [Inside] the Ford Winter program are considered on a competitive basis. The Arts Commission will partner with three theatre companies and assist each to present a proposed theatrical work. Proposals are being accepted electronically through the Ford’s web site.

"The Winter Partnership program is a wonderful opportunity for theatre companies in the region," said Adam Davis, General Manager of the Ford Theatres. "This is a chance to produce in one of the best small theatres in L.A. at a rate well below the prevailing rental scale and receive help with public relations and marketing besides. Many memorable events have emerged from summer partnership program in the amphitheatre. We look forward to the proposals for the new winter program."

Before opening a proposal application, prospective applicants should first read the program's guidelines. Both the guidelines and application are available at http://www.fordtheatres.org/en/about/apply.asp.

The deadline to apply is Wednesday, April 2, 2008.

Workshops about the [Inside] the Ford Winter Partnership Program and how to submit a competitive proposal will be held on Monday, February 11, 2008 at 7:30 p.m. and Tuesday, March 4, 2008 at 7:30 p.m. at [Inside] the Ford, 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East, 90068, in the Hollywood Hills.

Parking for these workshops is free. Please RSVP with your name, organization, email address and phone number to publicevents@arts.lacounty.gov or call 323-856-5793.

The [Inside] the Ford Winter Partnership program is supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

[Inside] the Ford has a history of serving intimate theatre in L.A. Its first season, 1998-99, featured three productions presented under the Art Commission’s subsidized rental program designed to help theatre companies without permanent facilities. From 2000-01 through 2003-04, [Inside] hosted a season of new plays and musicals produced by County-based theatre companies and supported in part by A.S.K. Theatre Projects. Since 2005-2006, the theatre has been the home of the Ensemble Theatre Collective, known as ETC@ITF, a collaboration of five L.A.-based theatre companies supported in part by the Flintridge Foundation. ETC@ITF winds up its Ford residency in 2007-08. See the story below for information on [Inside]’s current productions.

In February and March, the cozy 87-seat [Inside] the Ford, the indoor theatre in the John Anson Ford Theatres complex in the Hollywood Hills, will play host to an unlikely love story and a comic fantasy.

Circle X Theatre Company opens Will Eno’s The Flu Season on February 16. Set in winter, the play is an unpredictable reluctant love story that recently won the Oppenheimer Award, presented by NY Newsday for best debut production in the previous year in New York by an American playwright. The British paper The Guardian said, “This is a play to remind us why sunsets make us sad, how nostalgia is like fog and why we live our lives as though we are in mourning for them. THE FLU SEASON is stingingly funny and really rather beautiful.” The Flu Season runs through March 29.

The critically acclaimed Ziggurat Theatre Ensemble creates a vibrant, topsy-turvy world that's as astonishing as it is hilarious in Fafalo running February 29 through March 2. Colorful masks and huge, spectacular puppets conjure up the excitement and comedy of the circus in this comic fantasy about a most unlikely candidate who is crowned king. All three performances are free.

For more information and to reserve tickets, please call the Ford box office at 323 461-3673.

All these presentations are part of Ensemble Theatre Collective at [Inside] the Ford, a collaboration of the five member companies and the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, with support from The Flintridge Foundation.

The Los Angeles County Arts Commission seeks presenter applications for Free Concerts in Public Sites that take place from May 1 through October 31, 2008. Eligible organizations include Los Angeles County-based parks, libraries, hospitals, juvenile halls, probation camps, arts organizations, civic centers, senior citizen centers, and other non-profit performance venues. Applicants must be willing to coordinate all logistics, production and marketing of the event, and show that they can effectively bring in an appropriate audience size for their proposed concert to be considered.

The deadline to apply is Wednesday, February 27, 2008.

Performances must be free and open to the general public. For more information about eligibility, the application process and selection criteria, please visit www.lacountyarts.org/free.html.

Professional musicians based in L.A. County are invited to apply to be considered for the Arts Commission’s Musicians Roster (http://www.lamusiciansroster.org). Presenters of the County’s free concerts choose their groups from the roster. Even though the concerts are free, the musicians are paid. The roster is also a resource for the community at-large to access the rich and diverse pool of musical talent available. To find out how to apply, visit /free.html.

The application deadline is March 5, 2008.

Arts for All’s Professional Artist School-based Training Program in Culver City began its third year on January 10. The training brings area artists together with expert arts education professionals from the Armory Center for the Arts and the Music Center to provide artists with in-depth training keyed to California’s Visual and Performing Arts Standards and teach them to collaborate with district teachers to integrate arts into the curriculum. The series of workshops running through June culminates in the presentation of sequential lessons in Culver City Unified School District’s K-8 classrooms. Upon completion participants receive Professional Designation in Arts Education certificates and letters of recommendation.

Instructors include Lorraine Cleary Dale, Director of Professional Development at the Pasadena-based Armory Center for the Arts, Susan Cambigue-Tracey, Director of Curriculum and Teaching Artist Development at the Music Center, and four master teaching artists from the Music Center including visual artist Alvaro Asturias, mime Sharon Diskin, percussionist Andrew Grueschow and dancer-choreographer Kristen Smiarowski.

The Dana Foundation, the Music Center and the Armory for the Arts are subsidizing the program. It actually costs $4000 per participant; but the Arts Commission is making the course available for $125 per person. Since 2003, more than 400 artists have received training in the Visual and Performing Arts Standards through Arts for All. Increasing the number of teaching artists in schools is part of Arts for All’s 10-year strategy to restore comprehensive arts education to the 80 school districts in L.A. County.