CREATE
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2015 Grants Challenge

Popup Venue for 2016 Hollywood Fringe

HFF is looking to test a pop-up theatre venue during the 2016 and 2017 festivals to explore whether a temporary venue (1) provides the local community greater accessibility to the festival; (2) increases the participation of performers and producers from lower economic backgrounds by providing a subsidized cost for renting space; and (3) acts as a catalyst for additional theatrical spaces to grow in the community.

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In what areas of Los Angeles will you be directly working?

One square mile in Hollywood. Borders are La Brea to the west, Western to the East, Franklin to the north, and Melrose to the south.

How do you plan to use these resources to make change?

Engage residents and stakeholders

Implement a pilot or new project

How will your proposal improve the following CREATE metrics?​

Employment in the creative industries

Arts establishments per capita

Measures of cultural and global economic influence (“soft power”) (Dream Metric)

Describe in greater detail how you will make LA the best place to CREATE.

HFF is looking to test a pop-up theatre venue during the 2016 and 2017 Festivals to explore whether a temporary venue (1) provides the local community greater accessibility to the Festival; (2) increases the participation of performers and producers from lower economic backgrounds by providing a subsidized cost for renting space; and (3) acts as a catalyst for additional theatrical spaces to grow in the community.

The pop-up venue will take currently abandoned space on Hollywood’s Theatre Row and turn it into a vibrant component of Hollywood’s theatrical ecosystem. Hollywood’s Theatre Row is on Santa Monica Boulevard between El Centro Avenue and McCadden Avenue. Having the pop-up venue in this location will help the area remain the theatrical hub for the Festival as some theatres in the area are closing their doors.

The venue will be managed by HFF and have dedicated show producers. This model will allow for a lower cost per performance to the artist, with preference given to those from underserved groups in the Hollywood community. The pop-up venue will also have high visibility on Theatre Row and in Festival communications, and will be promoted as a potential model that artists can adopt to showcase their art, whether in the Festival or elsewhere. In addition, HFF will publicly share its learnings and best practices of running the pop-up venue, giving artists and other potential pop-up managers a “how-to” guide if they wish to build a pop-up venue of their own.

One of HFF’s goals is to increase its engagement with the local community, especially those from underserved ethnicities and those with lower incomes. Historically, HFF has had a broad array of individuals from different socioeconomic levels participate. Based on a survey of participants in the 2014 Festival, 23% of attendees made less than $25,000 a year and 50% made less than $50,000 a year. The age range of participants is also multi-generational, with 32% under the age of 35, 45% between the ages of 35 to 54, and 23% aged 55 or older.

Moving forward, HFF wants to ensure that the underserved in the Hollywood community become an integral part of the Festival. HFF is already working toward this by leveraging its website and technology platform to provide scholarships and free/subsidized tickets for potential performers and audience members from underserved groups.

Please explain how you will evaluate your work.

HFF will judge the pop-up venue project’s performance upon it meeting the following goals:

(1) To create and manage a pop-up venue for the Hollywood Fringe that will support 25-30 shows at $100 per slot (over 200% lower than market rate) during the June 2016 and June 2017 Festivals

(2) To provide 5-10 venue scholarships to performers or producers from underserved economic and/or ethnic groups

(3) To show through example how to create viable theatrical pop-up venues, with 1-3 additional pop-up spaces established by individual artists or producers during the June 2017 Fringe Festival

(4) To share the findings and best practices on the Fringe website and with partner organizations, reaching an estimated audience of 20-25,000.

How can the LA2050 community and other stakeholders help your proposal succeed

Money (financial capital)

Publicity/awareness (social capital)

Infrastructure (building/space/vehicles, etc.)

Community outreach