OUR PROGRAMS
NEW WORK DEVELOPMENT NETWORK
CIPA’s National New Work Development Network (NWDN) is a nationwide partnership system providing resources for building new work. It acts as a catalyst for greater industry-wide participation in new work development processes to advance the overall health of our new work ecology.
The program is led by CIPA members and Tommy Kriegsmann/ArKtype, who recently held a series of focus groups with artists, funders, producers, presenters, and agents/managers to create a multi-year multi-disciplinary program plan that will continue to develop over the next few seasons.
The idea of a ‘new work development network’ builds on pivotal programs such as the National Performance Network (NPN), NEFA’s National Dance Project (NDP) and National Theater Project (NTP), and other nationally-conceived initiatives, along with international models that fundamentally bolster generative practice and shape our industry and audiences for the better.
NWDN aligns the quality of support for new work development with the health of our creative ecosystem, believing it is crucial that available resources are culled, evaluated, and regularly strengthened to provide the maximum support possible for developing new work.
RISING PRODUCER FELLOWSHIP
CIPA’s Rising Producer Fellowship launched in 2022 with an inaugural theme: Imagining New Models.
The Fellowship takes place from January to November 2022 and supports three producers at a critical professional moment by equipping them with financial, procedural, and interpersonal resources to better establish their careers. CIPA’s Rising Producer Fellows for 2022 are Courtney Ozaki, Raven Cassell, and Ray Jordan Achan.
CIPA members Sophie Blumberg, Chelsea Goding, and Cynthia J. Tong designed the Fellowship based on CIPA’s mission. Each participant receives direct funding of up to $3,000 to cover strategic professional expenses, mentorship opportunities, and professional development sessions.
The Fellowship recognizes that each producer will have varied individual professional needs and draw on the potential of collective brainstorming, network-building, and strategic advising to provide the most significant impact possible for each fellow and the cohort.
The program is administered by Lucy Jackson, Patricia Garza, Tiffany Vega-Gibson, and Miranda Wright, active creative and independent producers working in Brooklyn, New Orleans, and Los Angeles.
PRODUCER HUB
CIPA’s first affiliate project, Producer Hub (initially launched in July 2020), offers producers at every level community, mentorship, education, and other resources needed to create work. Producer Hub has supported over 20 producers and artists across the country through its fiscal sponsorship program and has made it possible to raise over $2 million cumulatively. Producer Hub’s free and open access resource databases focus on Anti-Racist/EDI Training, Grants & Funding, Professional Development, Job Opportunities, and Recommended Reading Materials. www.producerhub.org.
DEIA Training
In its inaugural year CIPA's DEAI team took several important foundational and programmatic steps to ground the organization in its principles. Programmatically the DEAI initiatives included (1) requiring a commitment to DEAI studies as threshold to membership, (2) Providing free and sliding scale anti-racism training for members and their associates, (3) the development of decentralized leadership models, (4) scholarship programs for QT and BIPOC members attending professional conferences for the first time, and for long-range membership in collaboration with the fellowship program's rising star initiative, (5) the commission of artist-lead video resources for presenters seeking to make their spaces and staff conscientious and accessible for mobility consideration in re-opening and (6) in collaboration with APAP 2022 we hosted a conference session discussing and modeling recentering leadership of the global majority in performing arts spaces. CIPA continues to seek feedback and programmatic ideas tp support its grounding commitment to being a leader in anti-racist practices in the field and beyond.