Education Consultant

Overview
ICA LA wishes to engage an experienced Education Consultant to collaboratively lead the close assessment of the museum’s Agency of Assets program, make recommendations, and, based on those recommendations, create tools that can be immediately implemented to support the planned growth and annual evaluation of the program. Proposals from interested consultants will be due by April 21, with the engagement set to run from May 1 to August 31 (4 months), in parallel with the Agency of Assets 2023 schedule to allow opportunities for the Education Consultant to also experience the program first-hand.

Mission

ICA LA is an epicenter of artistic experimentation and incubator of new ideas. ICA LA’s mission is to support art that sparks the pleasure of discovery and challenges the way we see and experience the world, ourselves, and each other. ICA LA is committed to upending hierarchies of race, class, gender, and culture. Through exhibitions, education programs, and community partnerships, ICA LA fosters critique of the familiar and empathy with the different.

Background

In June 2022, the Staff and Board of Directors of ICA LA formally adopted a multiyear Strategic Plan, anchored by a renewed vision: ICA LA will fully become a place to gather, learn, and transform. Artists’ empathy, creativity, and ability to impact social change will guide every experience. Together, we will model a sustainable future for culture and community across Los Angeles.

In addition to ICA LA making meaningful investments in its home in the Arts District (gather) and creating meaningful opportunities for first encounters with art, within the museum and around DTLA (transform), ICA LA has made learn a strategic priority: ICA LA will create opportunities with artists, curators, students, and families to learn, uplift aspiring cultural workers, increase our use of technology to better serve audiences globally, and more consistently engage communities across Los Angeles and globally.

To advance the Learn priority and the overall vision, ICA LA’s Strategic Plan recommends enhancing the museum’s signature Learning & Engagement program (“L&E”) and, in particular, Agency of Assets—an initiative designed to propel local youth into leadership roles in the arts through employment opportunities, sustained mentorship, and hands-on experience.

Scope of Work

Based on the Strategic Plan, the proposed scope of work for the Education Consultant would consider the following goals for Agency of Assets, ultimately materializing in a written report that includes the final policy, evaluative tools, and other deliverables described below, in addition to any other components the Education Consultant might recommend as they bring to bear their knowledge and experience on this project.

1. Number of Students. Drafting a plan for how to incrementally maximize the number of students participating annually (currently, 12). In doing so, understand what this sustainable, year-over-year incremental growth should look like—i.e., how many students and partner organizations could be supported while still maintaining the “human scale” of individualized support and close relationships that has distinguished ICA LA’s approach?
2. Selection Criteria. Drafting policy to clarify criteria for the selection and evaluation of all participating artists, students, and employers. For the selection criteria, assess the total potential opportunity to expand the program by more objectively “filtering” the wider pool of potential individual and institutional partners. Also, these plans should consider how to strategically leverage consistent, long-term partnerships with a larger base of potential employers across the entirety of the Downtown LA cultural sector, not necessarily limited to art, architecture, and design.
3. Evaluation Criteria. For the evaluation criteria, drafting key data points and tools that would consider both quantitative data (e.g., future employment rates) and qualitative data (e.g., student testimonials on their quality of experience) to understand how students and their families, cultural sector employers, and local school leaders benefit from Agency of Assets; and once a student has “graduated” from Agency of Assets, how ICA LA might continue taking steps to track their professional development in order to strengthen the case for the program’s impact.
4. Staff Position. Drafting a job description and provide support for the recruitment of a management-level position solely devoted to Agency of Assets.
5. Fellowship. Designing a potential future fellowship position for one Agency of Assets alum. With a commitment to the philosophy of “mutual mentorship,” this participating fellow would shadow and assist L&E staff across all programs, but especially within Agency of Assets. In doing so, understand the ideal timing, criteria, recruitment process, staff, and financial resources needed to create a truly educational fellowship experience (as opposed to simply a “paid internship”).
6. Workshops & Curriculum. Assess the need in the broader field for potential Agency of Assets workshops and curriculum—teaching tools that would be provided by ICA LA to educators to implement independently of the museum. If recommended to pursue further, understand what the likely budget, outreach plan, and sample lesson plan(s) for these workshops and curriculum would be.

Pay Range

$50-75/hour

Submitting a Proposal
The principal point of contact and project lead for the Education Consultant will be Asuka Hisa, Director of Learning & Engagement. Proposals must be submitted by April 21, formatted as a PDF of less than five pages, and include the following: Summary, Objectives, Deliverables, Scope of Services (including a timeline), and Preliminary Budget. Additionally, please include relevant background for key personnel. Proposals should be directed to:

Anne Ellegood, Good Works Executive Director
Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
1717 East 7th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90021
(213) 928-0833
aellegood@theicala.org