RFQ for Festival/Cultural & Performing Arts Producers

The Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) Arts Development Fee Program and new Performing Arts Division, believe that the performing arts can play an important role in reshaping attitudes, countering cultural stereotypes, preserving and teaching the appreciation of different cultures, fostering community pride and affirming the artistic contributions of the City’s diverse communities.
To this end, the Department of Cultural Affairs is seeking to establish a pre-qualified list of experienced and talented festival, cultural and performing arts event producers/programmers. This Request for Qualifications (RFQ) is open to professional festival, cultural and performing arts producers, presenters and arts and community-based organizations who possess the knowledge, creative and technical expertise, and administrative capacity to oversee small to large-scale events. The Department is interested in working with both emerging and established individuals, organizations, teams, and collectives to realize and produce festivals, cultural and performing arts events throughout the City of Los Angeles.
CRITERIA
The successful festival, cultural and performing arts event producers/programmers must demonstrate their experience with developing and producing festivals, or presenting a variety of world-class performing arts events including, music, dance, theater, and interdisciplinary projects; or working with diverse community partners on  cultural event planning, logistics, and implementation including: creating a process for enlisting community participation and support when appropriate; securing all relevant city permits; coordinating logistics for vendors; coordinating festival and/or event install and de-install needs such as ticketing, security, booths, tents, fencing, generators, toilets, trash, signage, inspections, parking and audience logistics/ flow, and any other required logistics.
The festival, cultural, or performing arts event producer/programmer will also be responsible for marketing and outreach of the event in collaboration with DCA’s Marketing Division and respective Council Office when appropriate. The selected producers must be available to attend planning and coordination meetings with City agencies and relevant parties as required.  Producer/Programmers should have experience in working within traditional performing arts venues, along public streets, parks, and other non-traditional public locations.
BUDGET
Budgets will vary, based on the event, and must be inclusive of all costs associated with the production of the event. Funding for the project may be through the Arts Development Fee Trust Fund and/or other art programs administered by the Department of Cultural Affairs in conjunction with another department of Council Office.
ELIGIBILITY
This RFQ is open to professional and experienced festival, cultural event and performing arts event producers/programmers that operate in the County of Los Angeles. Employees of the City of Los Angeles are ineligible to apply.
SELECTION PROCESS
A selection committee, comprised of, but not limited to, independent arts professionals and representatives of the Department of Cultural Affairs will convene to review the applications received in response to this RFQ. Upon review of all submissions, the committee will select producers/programmers to comprise the 2017 pre-qualified list, which will remain active for two (2) years from the date of the selection panel. Once selected, pre-qualified producers will be eligible for consideration of a project as individual projects are initiated by DCA.
HOW TO APPLY
All applications must be submitted electronically via Slide Room. The deadline to apply is Friday, December 30, 2016 at 11:59 PM. Incomplete and late applications will be deemed ineligible and not be considered.
A complete application must include:

CONTACT INFORMATION Including name, business name (if applicable), physical address, mailing address, telephone and email.  Please identify one person to be DCA’s primary contact, and include the direct contact information for them.  
STATEMENT OF INTEREST (PDF or DOC format only, 2 pages max) for producing a festival, cultural or performing arts event including your organizational capacity.
CURRICULUM VITAE (PDF or DOC format only, 4 pages max); Please submit a CV for each staff person on the team.  
TEN (10) IMAGES (JPG format only, 72 DPI min + 5 MB max per file)  of a festival, cultural or performing arts event that you have produced before; image files must be labeled sequentially (i.e. 01, 02, 03…) and include information such as the name of the event, year, approximate attendance, the client, budget and location. Please do not submit more than 10 images total.  

*Additional material included that is not requested by DCA will not be reviewed.
RIGHTS + RESPONSIBILITIES
DCA reserves the right to decline all applications to this RFQ, and/or cancel this RFQ, or any roster of pre-qualified artists, at any time. This RFQ is subject to the City’s Campaign Finance, Contractor Responsibility, Equal Benefits, Equal Opportunity, Living Wage, Minority / Women Business Enterprise and Slavery Disclosure Ordinances, as well as any other ordinances in effect in the City of Los Angeles.  

About DCA

The Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) manages the City of Los Angeles Public Art and Performing Arts Programs. DCA supports the creativity of local artists by funding and partnering with the City’s arts and cultural communities. The City demonstrates an ongoing commitment to arts and culture through DCA’s ongoing activities, including community arts programming, cultural grants, marketing, public art, and youth arts and education programs, to stimulate and foster the creation of arts and cultural experiences throughout the diverse neighborhoods of LA.

Questions
Please contact Tania Picasso, Arts Manager, at 213 202-5525 or Ben Johnson, Director of Performing Arts, at 213-202-550