Rising Arts Leaders San Diego (RALSD) strives to provide programming and resources to emerging arts and culture administrators to build their leadership skills, improve their professional competence, enhance their career progression and keep abreast of new developments in the field.
Rising Arts Leaders San Diego was a program of The San Diego Foundation’s Arts & Culture Working Group, produced in partnership with the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture and in affiliation with the Americans for the Arts Emerging Leaders Network. RALSD is fiscally sponsored by Media Arts Center San Diego and is part of an emergent network of up and coming arts leaders throughout California supported by the Center for Cultural Innovation. Originally funded through The James Irvine Foundation RALSD has received a grant from Center for Cultural Innovation / CAL Now Network to continue programming into 2020. There are currently four active networks statewide: San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Silicon Valley. Though each network is structured differently to reflect the nuances of its region, the networks meet in an effort to strengthen the state’s emerging leaders’ representation.
RALSD serves early and mid-career nonprofit arts and culture administrators with programs that support individual professional and leadership development.
• To provide participants with leadership and professional training, including symposiums, seminars, workshops, mentorship programs and other learning opportunities.
• To enable participants to connect in person and online with peers and experienced arts professionals in structured and informal learning environments.
• To provide information and resources which will enhance the participants’ knowledge of current affairs in the field and other career development opportunities.
• To build the governance and infrastructure of the program to ensure its growth and sustainability into the future.