The Music Center Receives More Than $1.5 Million from The James Irvine Foundation and the Getty Foundation

The Music Center, L.A.'s performing arts destination, today announced it received more than $1.5 million in grants designed to further its groundbreaking work in arts engagement programming, an important focus of the performing arts organization for more than 12 years. The James Irvine Foundation awarded The Music Center a three-year grant of $1.2 million as part of the final phase of the foundation's New California Arts Fund (NCAF). The Getty Foundation recently announced a new $300,000 grant that, together with a previous planning grant, brings the total to $365,000 to support The Music Center's participation in Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA in the fall of 2017.

Funds from the James Irvine Foundation will help The Music Center create and optimize new and existing spaces for arts engagement on The Music Center campus; enhance its delivery of compelling, relevant arts experiences to continue to engage Los Angeles' ethnically diverse young adult population; and build on the success of programming such as the highly successful Sleepless: The Music Center After Hours, which was developed during the NCAF's first phase. With the grant from the Getty Foundation, The Music Center joins Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA as one of three performing arts institutions, helping to expand the initiative beyond the more than 70 participating arts institutions with concerts, performances and other events. The Music Center will present Cuba: Antes, Ahora / Cuba: Then, Now, a four-day exploration of traditional and contemporary Cuban music and dance, incorporating opportunities for family-friendly participatory and educational programs alongside more traditional performing arts events.

"The Music Center is honored to be the recipient of these two prestigious grants, which acknowledge our commitment to delivering arts experiences that are reflective of and responsive to the communities we serve," said Rachel Moore, president and CEO of The Music Center. This funding makes it possible for us to provide even more access to arts experiences that reach across boundaries of age, race, ethnicity, gender and beyond with the goal of encouraging audiences to discover new cultures and build greater understanding for each other. With the help of The James Irvine Foundation and the Getty Foundation, The Music Center is poised to ensure the performing arts remain relevant in 21st century America and that our programming continues to reflect the world in which we live."

The Music Center will employ NCAF funds to maximize the use of The Music Center's many venues, including its work in Grand Park, with new arts engagement initiatives that provide ways members of the community can express their artistic voices and participate in civic life. With support from the Getty Foundation, The Music Center will provide audiences with an immersion into the current artistic conversation alive in Cuba today; it will present works by Cuban-based Malpaso Dance Company with live music performed by Grammy-award winning jazz composer Arturo O'Farrill, along with a diverse group of artists and arts that honor contemporary and traditional Cuban voices.

"The James Irvine Foundation is pleased to continue its long-standing partnership with The Music Center and to help the organization sustain its vital work in arts engagement," said Josephine Ramirez, portfolio director, The James Irvine Foundation.
"This grant supports both the development of community programming and the organizational capacities necessary to help ensure arts engagement remains central to The Music Center's role for the long-term as it serves Los Angeles' growing and diverse communities."

"I am delighted that The Music Center is a partner for Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, and I look forward to attending the Cuba: Antes/Ahora festival in the fall," said Deborah Marrow, director of the Getty Foundation. "Latin American and Latino visual arts are deeply connected with music and dance of all types. There will be extraordinary exhibitions and events happening all across our region during Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA."

About The Music Center
As L.A.'s performing arts destination, The Music Center is L.A.'s home to the world's greatest artistic programs and events. With four iconic theaters and four renowned resident companies - Center Theatre Group, the LA Master Chorale, the LA Opera and the LA Philharmonic - and recognized for its illustrious dance programming, Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at The Music Center, The Music Center is a destination where audiences find inspiration in the very best of live performance, as well as nationally recognized arts education and participatory arts experiences. The Music Center also programs and manages Grand Park, a 12-acre adjacent greenspace, with year-round free programming. For more information, visit musiccenter.org Follow The Music Center on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat (@MusicCenterLA).

About The James Irvine Foundation
The James Irvine Foundation is a private, nonprofit grant making foundation dedicated to expanding opportunity for the people of California. The Foundation's grant making focuses on expanding economic and political opportunity for families and young adults who are working but struggling with poverty. The Foundation's NCAF supports arts engagement programming that encourages and expands participation in the arts among California's growing and diverse communities. The final phase of NCAF is intended to advance gains made in the first phase and sustain the institutional future of expanded arts engagement. Since 1937 the Foundation has provided over $1.5 billion in grants to more than 3,600 nonprofit organizations throughout California. With about $2 billion in assets, the Foundation made grants of $74 million in 2015. For more information, please visit irvine.org

About the Getty Foundation
The Getty Foundation fulfills the philanthropic mission of the Getty Trust by supporting individuals and institutions committed to advancing the greater understanding and preservation of the visual arts in Los Angeles and throughout the world. Through strategic grant initiatives, it strengthens art history as a global discipline, promotes the interdisciplinary practice of conservation, increases access to museum and archival collections, and develops current and future leaders in the visual arts. It carries out its work in collaboration with the other Getty Programs to ensure that they individually and collectively achieve maximum effect. For additional information, please visit getty.edu/foundation

About Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA
Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA is a far-reaching and ambitious exploration of Latin American and Latino art in dialogue with Los Angeles taking place from September 2017 through January 2018. Led by the Getty, Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA is a collaboration of arts institutions across Southern California. Through a series of thematically linked exhibitions and programs, Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA highlights different aspects of Latin American and Latino art. With topics such as luxury arts in the pre-Hispanic Americas, 20th century Afro-Brazilian art, alternative spaces in Mexico City and boundary-crossing practices of Latino artists, exhibitions range from monographic studies of individual artists to broad surveys that cut across numerous countries. Supported by more than $16 million in grants from the Getty Foundation, Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA involves more than 70 cultural institutions from Los Angeles to Palm Springs, and from San Diego to Santa Barbara. Pacific Standard Time is an initiative of the Getty. The presenting sponsor is Bank of America.

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