Venice Arts - Executive Director

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

ABOUT VENICE ARTS

Established in 1993, Venice Arts' mission is to ignite, expand, and transform the lives of Los Angeles' low-income youth through photography and film education, and to use its participatory storytelling practices to amplify the voices of underrepresented communities around the world.

With an understanding of the power of visual storytelling and self-representation, Venice Arts' first programs paired professional photographers with low-income young people, teaching them to use their cameras to share their world and launching Venice Arts' pioneering work in what is now called participatory or participant-produced media; still central to Venice Arts' practices today.

Over 30 years, Venice Arts has grown into an award-winning, nationally recognized creative youth development organization. Primary programs include Media Arts Education & Mentoring, offering youth ages 10-18 sequenced curricula in photography, filmmaking, animation, and comics, as well as college success and creative career pathways support; and the Center for Creative Workforce Equity, offering young adults ages 18-24 creative career-directed education, including CA State registered pre-apprenticeships, as well as opportunities for paid internships, apprenticeships, and job placements. Additionally, Venice Arts hosts exhibitions and public programs in its Gallery and has a long history providing consulting and training to nonprofit organizations, foundations, and academic institutions—locally and globally—interested in harnessing the power of visual storytelling and participatory practices.

ABOUT THE POSITION

Reporting to the Board of Directors, the Executive Director is the key leader driving a dynamic vision for the organization's future, including leading its strategy and assuring the quality and impact of programs and services. Operating within a $1.5 million annual budget, the Executive Director embraces the transformative potential of the arts in youth development and in building equity and opportunity through the arts.

ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES

Organizational Leadership & Strategy

• Facilitate Board member recruitment and development.
• Support Board members to steward personal and professional networks that forge mission-aligned funding and partnerships, helping to assure the long-term financial health of the organization, while positioning Venice Arts as a leader in community arts education and creative workforce sectors.
• Keep the Board fully informed about programming initiatives and fiscal sustainability, while proactively identifying challenges, addressing issues, and seizing opportunities.
• Lead updates to Venice Arts' strategic plan, and assure the development of aligned operational plans, including productive program and organization evaluation practices.
• Manage members of the Executive Team (Directors of Institutional Giving, Development & Communications, and Operations) to ensure success in fundraising, operations, partnerships, and communications.
• Manage the Program Directors (Education and Center for Creative Workforce Equity) to ensure that programs and initiatives are of the highest caliber, responsive to the community, and aligned with strategic goals and opportunities.
• Foster a work environment that attracts, retains, and supports high-quality staff, with a dedicated focus on communication and morale, and reinforcing organizational culture.

Financial Management & Fund Development

• Have broad fiduciary responsibilities, including overseeing financial policies and practices, and the maintenance of a healthy cash flow and adequate reserves.
• Develop the annual organizational budget, monitoring, evaluating (including through an annual audit), and reporting on financial health to the Board of Directors.
• Work with the Directors of Institutional Giving and Development to create and implement a multi-year, diversified funding plan including grants, corporate partnerships, major donors and community contributors, events, earned revenues, and other, innovative funding sources.
• Maintain a robust, personal cohort of individual, major, and corporate donors, cultivating and stewarding these relationships to assure donor engagement and revenue growth.
• Support the Director of Development and Communications with the development of multiplatform communication strategies and practices.

Community Engagement and Advocacy

• Promote Venice Arts as a thought partner and industry leader in the realm of arts education, creative youth development, and creative workforce equity.
• Act as the primary spokesperson for Venice Arts, managing media interactions and participating in public events.
• Assure that Venice Arts sustains and grows collaborative relationships with educational institutions, art organizations, creative and entertainment partners, and others to assure innovative alliances that benefit Venice Arts and its students.

QUALIFICATIONS

• You are an Executive Director, or a member of a senior leadership team with at least five years experience, of a nonprofit organization with an annual operating budget greater than $1M.
• You thrive as an external leader, ably representing Venice Arts in a broad range of settings, with a goal to build programmatic, funding, and collaborative relationships that serve Venice Arts' mission and programs.
• You are, equally, an accessible, resourceful internal leader, able to work effectively with individuals from diverse backgrounds and experiences and comfortable managing staff and broadly overseeing the internal operations of the organization.
• You show dedication and an unwavering commitment to the ongoing professional growth and development of employees, volunteers, and the Board of Directors.
• You have a profound belief in, and fervent passion for, the transformative power of creativity; experience in the arts, whether professional or personal, is a plus. A Bachelor's degree or equivalent executive leadership experience is required.
• You demonstrate experience, knowledge, and skill in the following, required areas:
  • In arts education, with an understanding of creative youth development principles, preferred, as well as familiarity with creative workforce equity.
  • As a fundraiser and development strategist, showing success across the fund development spectrum.
  • In working effectively with members of a Board of Directors, including an ability to engage Board members as donors, fundraisers, and organizational stewards.
  • As a thought partner in the development of multi-platform communications strategies; an understanding of visual communications and high-impact storytelling is a plus.

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS

The salary range is $125k - $140k, commensurate with experience. Benefits include health and dental insurance; paid vacation, holiday, and sick days; non-matching 401K, and more.

Venice Arts is an Equal Opportunity Employer and encourages applications from qualified individuals regardless of race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation or different ability.

Envision Consulting was retained by the Venice Arts to conduct the search for their incoming Executive Director.