The Kapex Foundation  is hosting Pirate Tank in conjunction with the Hampton University School of Business. Pirate Tank will consist of a panel discussion on entrepreneurship and a pitch contest. Alison was invited to be a panelist and a judge for this event.

Modeled after Shark Tank, Pirate Tank creates the space for Hampton University business students to pitch their entrepreneurial ideas to the Pirate Tank. The best idea will receive a $5,000 grand prize.

As a panelist, Alison will share her journey to entrepreneurship in the arts and culture sector. As a Pirate Tank judge, she will listen to Hampton University student pitches and help decide on the grand prize winner.

As a Hampton University Alum, Alison is excited to return to her "home by the sea" to participate in this event.

In the midst of the global pandemic, arts leaders around the United States quickly rallied to design processes that could facilitate a swift dissemination of emergency funding to artists and arts organizations. While many of the standard application procedures and fund administration efforts for these funding programs weren’t as stringent as standard philanthropic practices, the Intercultural Leadership Institute (ILI) leaders sat on many of the grant panels for the aforementioned efforts and observed how the artists, culture bearers, arts practitioners and change makers within the ILI community were largely being excluded from funding opportunities.

The ILI leaders were determined to ensure that their communities were not excluded in the emergency relief efforts. They organized and advocated for ILI to act as a re-granting organization disseminating $5M to meet the needs of their communities (e.g., the artists, culture bearers, cultural organizers that have been historically excluded and overlooked) in a way that honored and centered grantmaking practices rooted in community.

ILI hired McNeil Creative Enterprises to conduct a study that examined the impact of the COVID relief efforts. Come out to the October ILI Family Dinner and hear Alison McNeil share about how ILI did it and the impact that it had on the ILI community. We will also talk about the benefits of participatory action research.

Get Tickets Here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/famili-dinner-ilis-covid-relief-impact-walison-mcneil-tickets-722888227147 

Alison McNeil was invited to serve on a panel alongside David Mallet (Management Consultants) and Geoff Chang (Arts Consulting Group) during Linda Shelton's graduate level Governance and Trusteeship in Performing Arts Organizations class. Alison will share her philosophy and approach on conducting human-centered executive searches and finding quality talent to help shape the future of the arts & culture sector.

Alison has been invited by the Zeta Chi Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. to speak about her career in the arts. As part of the sorority's national initiative, Alpha Kappa Alpha chapters around the world are hosting events that expose students to arts enrichment and culture by focusing on visual and performing arts and by showcasing talent through the exploration of writers, entertainers and various other artists. As a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Alison is honored to be invited to participate in this event and believes it's a privilege to share her career journey and current efforts with the students and parents that will attend this event. To register for this event, click here.

Program evaluation is a multidisciplinary, rapidly expanding, global field. Guest speakers from a variety of disciplines have been invited to the University of North Carolina, Wilmington (UNCW) to host events that will broaden student understanding of how evaluation is applied in diverse, real-world contexts.

Alison has been invited to speak with graduate students enrolled in UNCW's evaluation program. She will explore the critical elements for sound program evaluation in the arts and culture sector, particularly as it relates to data analysis and reporting. By describing lessons learned along the way, Alison will highlight the importance of a holistic methodology that informs future planning, documents impact, advocates for needs, and creates policy change.

Alison McNeil was invited to serve on a panel alongside Nigel Campbel, Dr. Antonio Cuyler, Ruby Lopez Harper, and Donna Walker-Kuhne during Dr. Durrell Cooper's graduate level course entitled Reimagining Performing Arts Organizations in the 21st Century. Alison was asked to share her thoughts from her experience as an executive recruiter and evaluator in the arts and culture sector.

Alison has been invited back for the 3rd year in a row to speak with the graduate students enrolled in Sherburne Laughlin's American University's arts management class. Alison will conduct an interactive class about the effective frameworks used to deliver and receive quality feedback. Students will engage in dialogue and role play to apply concepts taught during the class.

The Cultural Research Network and American Evaluation Association  are hosting a 3-part webinar series entitled Equitable Evaluation Practice in Cultural Organizations. Alison has been invited to share how funder/evaluator partnerships can advance (or inhibit) equity in evaluation.

Presenters: Mina Matlon, Alison McNeil, Kaitlyn Wittig Mengüç

Drawing inspiration from the West African concept of konbit, unprogrammed Quaker meetings, and scholastic traditions of artistic critiques, Forming a Cultural Konbit will harness the collective work and wisdom of session participants in order to offer feedback and support on key issues or questions participants are struggling with in their respective areas of work. These seemingly disparate concepts are grounded in communal learning and support—from a focus on cooperative labor, to the rejection of a hierarchy, to the recognition that dialogue and debate can offer a critical investigation of contemporary practices towards action.

Structured as a working group during the 2021 annual Common Field Convening, the session will invite participants to collaborate in the development of shared values and vision for the group, to exchange ideas and knowledge with the co-presenters and each other during a demonstration konbit, and to continue to learn from and support each other by considering strategies for reconvening over the course of the next year and beyond.

The District of Columbia International School hosted a DC Virtual Career fair for the international baccalaureate student body in DC. Alison was invited to speak about entrepreneurship and careers in the arts.

ArtTable was founded in 1980 by a group of professional women in the visual arts to foster greater support, recognition, and opportunities among their peers.

ArtTable DC has invited Alison to speak about entrepreneurship in the arts. Alison will discuss why she launched her own practice, how her business has navigated the pandemic, and what keeps her grounded when business is not promised.

The Pennsylvania Dance Education Association's Social Justice Committee seeks to educate, support and advocate for an inclusive culture of dance in Pennsylvania. They endeavor to acknowledge and celebrate the contributions of Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) dance artists and to stimulate awareness of the need for equity in our dance practices and to provide resources to dance educators for this growth. They are hosting this webinar to discuss the disparities in funding in the non-profit arts sector. Alison has been invited to serve as a speaker on this topic.

Moderator:

• Antoinette Coward Gilmore, Founder, CEO and Artistic Director of Danse4Nia Repertory Ensemble

Presenters:

• Alison McNeil, Founder and Chief Creative Officer, McNeil Creative Enterprises
• Denise Saunders Thompson, President and Chief Executive Officer for The International Association of Blacks in Dance, Inc.

Alison McNeil was invited to serve on a panel alongside Douglas Clayton, Senior Vice President at Arts Consulting Group during Linda Shelton's graduate level Governance and Trusteeship in Performing Arts Organizations class. Alison shared her philosophy and approach on conducting just executive searches and finding quality talent to help shape the future of the arts & culture sector.

Alison was invited to speak with the graduate students enrolled in Sherburne Laughlin's Seminar in Arts Management class.  Alison conducted an interactive class about the effective frameworks used to deliver and receive quality feedback. Students engaged in dialogue and role play to apply concepts taught during the class.

Alison McNeil was invited to deliver a guest lecture to Gregory King's class. She discussed her career as a performing artist, her entrepreneurial journey, and her commitment to equity and justice in the arts & culture sector.

Alison is pleased to be on this conference panel during the 2020 Grantmakers in the Arts Conference.

Session Details:

This diverse group of Black women will share a brief history of their collaborative work on the Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh Initiative, a 30+ year shared funding program of The Pittsburgh Foundation and The Heinz Endowments aimed at supporting Black artists and arts organizations. Panel attendees will learn about the program's history and how the recent on-boarding of Black women radically changed the course of the work and its outcomes.

As a tribe within a tribe, these Black women hold their own Black womanhood as a valid identity to fight within the philanthropic sphere and in life. Each presenter will share the principles that guide their local and national endeavors which center inclusion based on existing skill-sets, strategies for evaluating impact with and in Black communities, and their intergenerational approach to philanthropy that uplifts Black people, especially Black women, in every step of the process.

Through social, intellectual, and financial capital these women cosponsor systems, policies and logistics in an effort to leverage networks, increase program visibility and envision experimental funding strategies thereby creating more opportunities for Black female artists, arts workers and cultural leaders across the field, both now and in the future.

Panelists:

• Shaunda McDill, Program Officer, Arts & Culture, The Heinz Endowments
• Alison McNeil, Founder and Chief Creative Officer, McNeil Creative Enterprises
• Jessica Moss, Philanthropic Fellow, Arts & Culture, The Pittsburgh Foundation
• Celeste Smith, Program Officer for Arts & Culture, The Pittsburgh Foundation
• Lisa Yancey, President, Yancey Consulting, LLC

Alison is excited to be serving on a panel during the 2020 Arts Administrators of Color Network Annual Convening.

Session Details:

Do you experience fear when using data for organizational decision making? Are you using the appropriate performance measures to demonstrate your organizational success? Can you identify data's value throughout your organization's operations? Do you find difficulty with tying your mission to your evaluation plans? If you answered yes to any of these questions, this session is for you!

Panelists:

• Antonio C. Cuyler,  Director of the MA Program & Associate Professor of Arts Administration, Florida State University
• Alison McNeil, Founder and Chief Creative Officer, McNeil Creative Enterprises
• Andrea Thompson, Director of Development, Afro Latin Jazz Alliance

Alison McNeil was invited to deliver a guest lecture to Dr. Antonio Cuyler's undergraduate level Performing Arts Management class. His students were expected to design their own arts organization as a part of their coursework. To complement their preparation for this assignment, Alison was invited to reflect on her experiences and lessons learned as an entrepreneur in the arts and culture sector. She offered insights and sparked dialogue informed by her entrepreneurial journey, including what led her to launch an arts service organization, an arts consulting firm and a philanthropic fund that invests in artists.

The HU Ideas Symposium presents a national conference hosted by the Office of the Provost. The “From Protest to Policy National Conference” will amplify the important social and racial justice work that already happens every day at Howard University in classrooms, in laboratories and research centers, in libraries and archives, and in meetings (both formal and informal) of visionary, historically aware, and culturally conscious minds across the campus. The conference promises to bring together thinkers from a variety of academic and professional backgrounds – humanists, political scientists, economists, historians, medical experts, community organizers and many more – to harness the tremendous potential of our collective knowledge and expertise.

This conference panel session acknowledges that artists, educators, and cultural workers have long been among those at the forefront of the United States’s social and racial justice efforts. This panel will discuss the important roles of education and the arts in imagining and creating a more just future.

Panelists:

• Elka Stevens, Associate Professor & Fashion Program Coordinator- Department of Art, Howard University   
• Akili Ron Anderson, Associate Professor-Department of Art, Howard University                       
• Alison McNeil, Founder and Chief Creative Officer, McNeil Creative Enterprises                                                      
• Cori Bush, Congresswoman MO-01

Moderator:

• Gwendolyn Everett, Associate Professor, Art History, Howard University

The Black Funders of St. Louis hosted a lunch & learn webinar series to celebrate Black Philanthropy Month. These roundtable discussions and educational seminars focused on social justice, racial equity, nonprofit growth, civic engagement, and black charitable giving. Series panelists included the brightest Black nonprofit professionals, activists, elected officials & subject matter experts.

Alison was honored to be invited to speak on a national roundtable discussion about her efforts related to launching the Maynor Biggers Artist Fund (MBAF). Alison co-founded MBAF in 2014 with Nefertari Kirkman-Bey Pross. The Maynor Biggers Artist Fund (MBAF) is a giving circle of Hampton University alumni that pools its resources together to invest in artists and artist companies who use their art as a vehicle for social change. MBAF recipients exemplify a true commitment to shifting the narrative, raising awareness, enhancing consciousness around societal ills in communities.

Panelists:

• Akira Barclay, Southside Giving Circle - Chicago, IL
• Ciara Coleman, Purposeful Project - New Orleans, LA
• Valaida Fullwood, New Generation of African American Philanthropists - Charlotte, NC
• Alison McNeil, Maynor Biggers Artist Fund - National
• Tracey Webb, Black Benefactors - Washington, DC

Moderator

• Maranda Witherspoon-Richardson, Black Funders of St. Louis - St. Louis

The Sole Defined Live! programming series is the brainchild of Dance Place's 2018 Artist in Residence, Sole Defined. The series is intended to convene dance professionals to discuss topics impacting the dance world.

Alison was honored to be invited as a panelist in the session that discussed the realities of being a dance professional in 2020. Topics included philanthropic patterns in the dance community, ways to increase equity across dance genres, and ways to secure funding via the traditional grant making process.

Panelists:

• Nicole Chantal de Weever, Founder & President, Art Saves Lives Foundation
• Conrhonda Baker, Program Associate - Howard Gilman Foundation & Founder- The Best Saka
• Jane Rabinovitz, Co-Director of Dance Programming, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
• Alison McNeil, Founder & Chief Creative Officer, McNeil Creative Enterprises

Moderator:

• Terina Alladin, Managing Director, International Performing Arts for Youth
  

Alison was featured on   “The Counter Narrative Show”  with other art archivists, curators, art administrators, and collectors. Together they discussed their your unique perspective, challenges, and lived-experiences trying to produce, promote and amplify Black art.

Featured Panelists:

• Alisha Patterson, Managing Director, Afro House
• Anika Kwinana, Program Manager, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
• Thomas James, Visual Arts Curator, Creative Baltimore Alliance
• Angela N. Caroll, Writer and Cultural Critic
• Alison McNeil, Founder and Chief Creative Officer, McNeil Creative Enterprises

Moderator:

S. Rasheem, Host, The Counter Narrative Show

Alison has been invited to speak with graduate students enrolled in American University's arts management program about values alignment and giving feedback.

Program evaluation is a multidisciplinary, rapidly expanding, global field. As such, guest speakers -from a variety of disciplines-have been invited to the University of North Carolina, Wilmington (UNCW) to host events that will broaden student understanding of how evaluation is applied in diverse, real-world contexts.

Alison has been invited to host two events at UNCW. During these events she will explore the critical elements for sound program evaluation in the arts and culture sector. By describing lessons learned along the way, Alison will highlight the importance of diversity of thought,  inclusion, community engagement, and a holistic look at programs to inform future planning, advocate for needs, and create policy change. The intended audience  is undergraduate and graduate students across Watson College of Education departments (1) Department of Early Childhood, Elementary, Middle, Literacy, & Special Education (2) Instructional Technology, Foundations and Secondary Education, and (3) Educational Leadership. Additional attendees may include UNCW students from various academic departments across campus (e.g., arts, public administration), including students minoring in Leadership studies.

Alison is excited to be leading a workshop during the 2019 Arts Administrators of Color Network Annual Convening.

Session Details:

Preparing for change within an organization requires a bit of planning. In an ideal environment, we are able to collect and interpret data on our current experiences and use that insight to inform our future planning and decisions-making. But how do we know if we are asking the right questions? How do you use the information you’ve collected to make change within your organization? What are the best techniques to leverage the data you’ve collected? How can you use the data and insights collected to tell your story to your community and funders? This course/workshop/class presentation will provide guidance on how data can support understanding, mitigate risks, address equity disparities, plan for future success, and document impact.

In 2017, Richmond Memorial Health Foundation (RMHF) began exploring notions of health and equity as understood by Richmonders by funding eight artists and artist collectives to consider the following questions in tandem with their creative works. (1) What does it mean to be well? (2) How do aspects of identity, such as race, ethnicity, gender, age, migrant status and socioeconomic status, relate to health outcomes? (3) What structural barriers exist to achieving states of physical, mental, and social well-being? The artists, through creative expression, unearthed experiences of the past, realities of the present, and possibilities for the future.

In 2019, RMHF doubled its original investment from 2017 to continue the creative exploration of health equity more expansively by funding nonprofit organizations that hire artists to engage diverse communities in participatory sessions in order to lift up their voice and perspective in fostering solutions for achieving equity. We call this EQUITY IN ACTION!

RMHF also committed capacity building funds for each nonprofit grantee to measure the impact of their programs.

This session will compare the evolution of RMHF's exploration of the intersection of art and health as it relates to equity and the impact that creativity plays in healing.

Panelists:

• Kendra Jones, Director for Arts & Equity, Richmond Memorial Health Foundation (Funder)
• Alison McNeil, Founder and Chief Creative Officer, McNeil Creative Enterprises (Program Evaluator)
• Alfonso Perez, Artist (Former Grantee & Partnered with Grantee Organization)
• Gigi Amateau, Writer, (Grantee Organization)

The DC Department of Employment Services hosted its inaugural Young Women in the Workforce Intensive to allow young women (ages 19-24 years old) in Washington DC to gain exposure, resources, and other tools needed to confidently pursue their ambitions in the workforce. Attendees included young women from Washington DC enrolled in the Summer Youth Employment Program.

Alison was honored  to speak about her experiences as a consultant in creative spaces. She shared how she got started as an entrepreneur, her greatest lessons, and how she defined success for herself.

Panelists:

• Alison McNeil, Founder and Chief Creative Officer, McNeil Creative Enterprises
• Sehat Walker, Creative Consultant, The General Store Inc.
• Jovette Gadson, Public Affairs Specialist, U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development

Moderator:

Goldie Patrick, Executive Director, FRESHH Theatre Company

Each year over 500 individuals associated with the professional dance field join Dance/USA for the Annual Conference. Attendees include independent artists, dance presenters, agents and artist representatives, education and service providers, executive directors, artistic directors, company managers, fundraisers, presenters, development and marketing staff, and more from across the country and around the world.

Session Description:

During this conference session, we invite session attendees to consider the multiple ways of examining and tracking the impact of art.

It takes a certain level of transparency on both the grantee and grantmaker’s part to recognize that the existing evaluation and performance measurement models are not only limiting but can be dismissive of artistic intentions and desired outcomes. We will explore new ways to think about documenting and measuring impact. Through interactive dialogue, improvisation tested frameworks, and reading materials, we will begin the process of articulating new ways to identify and track our impact and efforts.

This session was informed by the reflections of lived and shared experiences of artists, arts administrators, and grantmakers gathered during the 2018 Urban Bush Women Summer Leadership Institute.

Chanon Judson, Associate Artistic Director & Associate BOLD Coordinator, Urban Bush Women

Stephanie McKee, Executive Artistic Director, Junebug Productions

Alison McNeil, Founder & Chief Creative Officer, McNeil Creative Enterprises

George Mason University's (GMU) Office of University Life hosts its Pizza & Perspectives series to create a space for students and the surrounding community to discuss topics that relate to personal and professional growth. Alison has been invited to share her journey to leadership, the adversity she faced along the way, and the support she received from unlikely spaces and places. She will sit on a panel with incredibly dynamic leaders each carving out their own path along the way.

Moderator:
Rebecca Keatinge, GASPA President and GMU Graduate Student

Panelists:
Linda Mathes, CEO National Capital Region, American Red Cross

Alison T. McNeil, Founder & Chief Creative Officer, McNeil Creative Enterprises

Liz Nohra, Chief of External Relations, Leadership Center of Excellence

FRESHH Inc. is a nonprofit grassroots theatre company and incubator  committed to celebrating and cultivating the voices of Black Women and girls in theatre. Through its varied programming, FRESHH creates space and opportunities for Black women and girls to thrive in theatre. Alison has been invited to conduct a workshop for the members of FRESHH's Vanguard Women's Ensemble. During the workshop, participants will explore what it means to tell your story,  identify ideal funders, and secure funding and grant opportunities.

Alison will be participating as a faculty member for the 2019  Chorus Management Institute (CMI). CMI is a three-day intensive workshop hosted by Chorus America that gives participants tools, strategies, and a professional network they can put to immediate use back at their arts organizations.

The Downtown Brooklyn Arts Management Fellowship is a paid 6-month opportunity for a cohort of young people to gain experience and skills for careers in arts management. The program aims to increase the diversity of staff in cultural organizations, by creating a route into arts management without unpaid internships or master’s degrees. It is sponsored by four organizations in the Brooklyn Cultural District: BRIC, Mark Morris Dance Group, Theatre for a New Audience, and the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts. This program is supported by generous funding from the Theater Subdistrict Council, LDC.

Alison was pleased to chat with the Fellows about preparing for and managing change within arts & culture organizations.

FRESHH Inc. is a nonprofit grassroots theatre company and incubator committed to celebrating and cultivating the voices of Black Women and girls in theatre. FRESHH centers it’s work on four pillars: Bold, Powerful, Brilliant and Resilient. Alison received FRESHH's Resilient award. She was recognized for her “relentless support and contributions” in support of Black women & girls and the arts.

National Arts Strategies convened 50 arts & culture leaders from across their alumni networks to work together to explore how biases affect organizational culture, how to lead through adversity to create lasting change, and ways to implement racial equity principles in arts and culture organizations.

Alison was pleased to be invited to facilitate the dialogue for advancing racial equity in arts and culture organizations.

Arts Administrators of Color-DMV (AAC-DMV) is committed to empowering artists and arts administrators in the Washington, DC metropolitan area by advocating for access, diversity, inclusion, and equity in the arts. On September 29, 2018, AAC-DMV will host is annual convening bringing together artists and arts professionals across the Washington, DC metropolitan area. Alison McNeil will serve on a panel about entrepreneurship in the arts. The convening will be held in Baltimore, MD at The Motor House.

Alison McNeil was invited to deliver a guest lecture to Dr. Antonio Cuyler's graduate level Leading the Arts Organization class. His students were expected to design their own arts organization as a part of their coursework. To complement their preparation for this assignment, Alison was invited to reflect on her experiences and lessons learned as an entrepreneur in the arts and culture sector. She offered insights and sparked dialogue informed by her entrepreneurial journey, including what led her to launch an arts service organization, an arts consulting firm and a philanthropic fund that invests in artists.

Words Beats and Life is a DC based nonprofit organization that creates arts based educational experiences rooted in hip hop that equips youth, arts managers, teaching artists and scholars to move from theory to practice. In June 2018, they launched the inaugural Arts Management Institute. Fifteen young people enrolled in Washington, DC's Summer Youth Employment Program will participate in this Institute. The Institute will include lectures, guest speakers, creative community tours, arts workshops and hands on management skill training for all participants. Alison has been invited to design and facilitate a workshop on program evaluation. What an incredible opportunity for the young people of DC!

This session will explore the following questions: (1) How does an arts service organization utilize a “systems-change” mindset when evaluating their offerings? (2) What are the challenges in translating the core values of a project to the core values of an organization? (3) What are the barriers in thinking about systemic change?

During this session, the panelists will reflect on their experiences unpacking the aforementioned questions through a project meant to accurately represent the operations of under-resourced and under-represented arts & culture organizations.

• Katie Ingersoll, Education Manager, DataArts
• Michelle Higgins, Community Engagement Manager, DataArts
• Alison McNeil, Co-Founder & Partner, Third Eye Cultural Collaborative

ArtTable was founded in 1980 by a group of professional women in the visual arts to foster greater support, recognition, and opportunities among their peers.

Join ArtTable DC for the first program in a series of professional development programs this Spring! For details about how to RSVP click here.

Have you considered leaving your organization to try your hand at consulting? Does the appeal of flexible hours and choice of projects sound appealing? What are the risks with striking out on one's own? What are the benefits? This panel brings together four women who have successfully transitioned into consulting and freelance work, each with different reasons and trajectories. One panelist carefully planned the transition for several years (Alison's story), another turned to consulting suddenly when full-time employment ended. One panelist will talk about consulting as a gradual step towards retirement, and another will talk about why she returned to an organization after years as a freelancer. If you are considering striking out on your own, you won't want to miss this event!

Panelists:

• Alison McNeil, Founder and Chief Creative Officer, McNeil Creative Enterprises
• Carlyn Madden, Principal, Carlyn Madden Consulting Services
• Edith Graves, Director of Communications, Anthony Wilder Design/Build and Studio E Partners
• Marsha Semmel, Principal, Marsha Semmel Consulting, formerly Director, Institute of Museum and Library Services

Moderator:

• Claire Huschle, Director, Scaffold

The International Association of Blacks in Dance  (IABD) is part of the Comprehensive Organizational Health Initiative (COHI) funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. COHI builds organizational resiliency within the national arts ecosystem by broadening access to resources in underserved regions, creating more equitable systems of support for artists and cultural organizations, and strengthening community participation. While participating in COHI, IABD launched an effort to document the stories of blacks in dance as informed by a representative sample of IABD member organizations in a report called The Black Report: The State of the Union for Blacks in Dance.  MCE is a contributor to this report.

IABD and MCE presented the preliminary results from The Black Report  during the 2018 IABD conference in Los Angeles, CA.

For the last several years the Leadership Center for Excellence has identified 40 leaders under the age of 40 that live in the DC metro area and are actively committed to creating change in their community and/or profession. These leaders are doing incredibly impactful work in health, education, the arts, technology, environment, and the law. Alison  was recognized as one of 40 individuals doing work to change the world. Alison was recognized for efforts to create equitable systems in the arts and culture sector. What an honor!

Supported by a collaboration between the Rhode Island Foundation, the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, and the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, the Expansion Arts Program (EAP) offers funding and organizational assistance to community-based, culturally diverse arts and cultural organizations. To support the capacity building efforts of the EAP grantees, Alison co-designed and presented a 3-hour workshop with her Third Eye Cultural Collaborative colleagues to help grantees better understand the grant making process. Participants discussed ways to navigate the traditional grantmaking system, learned how grantmakers are working to reduce funding gaps and disparities to address the cultural equity issues in philanthropy,  investigated creative models that are emerging to support artists and organizations and went through the process of looking at their organization’s traits and systems and developed a practical plan to begin to work with grantmakers.

Alison will be moderating a panel during  the inaugural convening of the Arts Administrators of Color DMV Network.

Session Background

Panelists share their challenges in building capacity and the creative strategies that lead to new funding opportunities.

Session Participants

Moderator:

• Alison McNeil, Founder and Chief Creative Officer, McNeil Creative Enterprises

Panelists:

• Ruby Harper Lopez, Director of Local Arts Services, Americans for the Arts, Americans for the Arts
• Takenya LaVisount, Senior Grants Program Manager, Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County
• Regan Spurlock, Grants Programs Manager, DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities

For the last several years, National Arts Strategies (NAS) and the University of Pennsylvania hosts the Executive Program in Arts & Culture Strategy for early to mid-career professionals in the arts and culture sector, as well as those seeking to enter the sector.

The University of Pennsylvania faculty, the NAS team and some of the best and brightest leaders working in the world come together to deliver tested tools, frameworks and expert industry knowledge to help  develop understanding of the business side of the industry. The program is part distance learning and part in person convening.

During the in-person convening, at the University of Pennsylvania, Alison McNeil discusses how to plan for a fruitful online learning experience. She shares strategies for success, common barriers and pitfalls, and best practices applied during the online learning experience.

Alison with her Third Eye Cultural Collaborative colleagues facilitated discussions and exercises that provided guidance on how data can support arts organization's efforts to understand current demographics, engage new audiences, and identify varied approaches to leveraging data to plan for the future.

A thriving network chapter needs a clear structure and strategy to ensure continuity and relevant programming. Often networks are started by a couple of energetic individuals doing it all but if they forego proper planning and recruitment they will ultimately face burnout and a dying network.

Join consultant and planning expert Alison T. McNeil and Emerging Arts Leaders/Los Angeles Advisory Board member Lauren Nichols for a conversation on how to approach the planning process in order to create a strong framework and grow a successful and sustainable network. McNeil is the Founder & President of McNeil Creative Enterprises. She has experience consulting with Emerging Leader Networks, including Emerging Arts Leaders/Los Angeles, on strategic visioning and building a strong foundation.

Webinar participants should expect insight on the following topics:

• What to Consider When Launching an Emerging Arts Leaders(EAL) Network
• How to Plan for EAL Network Success
• Common Issues/Challenges Faced by EAL Networks
• Techniques to Address Issues/Challenges

Join the deputy director of Fractured Atlas to discuss ways to foster innovation even inside risk-averse organizations, such as most nonprofits. This session addresses issues of capacity, diversity/equity, engagement, evaluation, and leadership.

Session Speaker: Tim Cynova, Deputy Director, Fractured Atlas.

Session Moderator: Alison McNeil, Founder and Chief Creative Officer, McNeil Creative Enterprises