The Exploring Engagement Fund was established with the belief that arts provide a distinct, powerful public benefit that helps create a vibrant, inclusive, and compassionate society. From 2012 to 2018, the Exploring Engagement Fund supported new approaches that these nonprofit arts organizations used to actively engage more diverse participants.…

From 2012 to 2018, the Exploring Engagement Fund of The James Irvine Foundation provided risk capital for more than 100 engagement projects conducted by California arts nonprofits. These organizations had innovative ideas and a readiness to take bold steps to engage groups often underrepresented among mainstream arts participants--specifically…

In the United States, there is a disproportionately low number of Black physicians in comparison to the demographic composition of Black people in the nation. This underrepresentation gap is result of historic systemic racism that led to Black people being abused and left out of healthcare and medical education. Despite improvement in healthcare…

To stay relevant to changing communities, many arts organizations have been developing engagement programs--that is, programming designed to reach more and different people and involve them more actively in how art is made and experienced. While engagement efforts are often episodic or separate from an art organization's core programming, in late…

While engagement programs are often episodic or separate from an art organization's core programming, in late 2013 a group of 10 arts nonprofits across California set out to make engagement central to their work. They aimed to transform their programmatic, organizational, and business models in ways that would improve and sustain their reach and…

Many California arts organizations want their participants and artists to reflect the socioeconomic diversity of the state's population. The Exploring Engagement Fund supports new approaches that these nonprofit organizations are using to reach more diverse participants. Through project experiments, Irvine and its grantees are learning valuable…

This report distills lessons from the early implementation of Exploring Engagement Fund projects. The first phase of the Fund featured five rounds of grantmaking. It is based on information from three of these rounds; it covers the first year in a series of two-year grants. It is drawn from analysis of grantee reports and interviews, and offers…

Across the nation, large urban school districts are experiencing premature and rapidly accelerating deterioration of school buildings. The conditions of buildings and equipment, most importantly in classrooms and school support spaces, are deteriorating to the point of hindering the core mission of schools: educating children. This report is the…

The Superintendency is one of the most important jobs in America. The future of countless families depends on how successful superintendents are in their positions. Research shows that student academic achievement increases when superintendents remain in one district for as few as three years; however, there are many threats to long-term…

Background/Context: Parent involvement in education is widely recognized as important, yet it remains weak in many communities. One important reason for this weakness is that urban schools have grown increasingly isolated from the families and communities they serve. Many of the same neighborhoods with families who are disconnected from public…

Today museum educators are playing expanded roles that contribute to institutional change. At the heart of museum education are the core values of accessibility, relevancy, and inclusiveness, which are critical for developing the museum's civic engagement endeavors. As educators practice these values in their work and pursue community engagement…

Authorized by Title X of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the Community Relations Service (CRS) is a mediation service dealing with community racial disputes. CRS has spent much of the past three years working in Los Angeles and is now handling problem solving in multiracial, multicultural schools in Stockton, California. Workshop participants usually…

A SURVEY TO DETERMINE WHAT THE COMMUNITY UNDERSTANDS OF THE LOCAL JUNIOR COLLEGE AND ITS FUNCTIONS WAS CONDUCTED BY PERSONAL INTERVIEWS WITH 367 RANDOMLY SELECTED HOUSEHOLDERS. OF THOSE INTERVIEWED, 52.6 PERCENT HAD NO OPINION ON THE COLLEGE, 37.9 PERCENT FELT THAT THE COLLEGE WAS PERFORMING WELL OR ADEQUATELY, AND 9.5 PERCENT FELT IT WAS NOT. IN…

High-performance, high-poverty schools are distinguished from other high-poverty schools by the strength of their school-level and district leadership, described as goal-oriented and ethical; their commitment to building a learning community, characterized by inclusion, collegiality, and collaboration; and their focus on putting research on how…