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…

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…

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…