MISSION STATEMENT
To promote and support performing, variety and demonstration artists while establishing direct connections and program offerings to Southern California schools, libraries, preschools, cities and other community organizations.
ORGANIZATIONAL DESCRIPTION
The Los Angeles Dream Shapers is a 501c3 non-profit arts organization that supports and promotes artists across a wide variety of artistic disciplines including performing arts (storytelling, dance, music and theatre), variety arts (magic, mime, puppetry, and juggling), and demonstrating arts (science, math, language, and character) to Southern California libraries, schools, preschools, cities and other community organizations. We provide our community with a diverse roster of insured, prescreened and quality artists who provide:
- Highly innovative artistic programming.
- Programming that meets a wide variety of needs, content, requirements and budgets.
- An extensive range of professional artists and disciplines.
- Meaningful arts experiences for children.
- Engaging arts experiences for families.
- Diverse arts presentations for public and educational performances.
We work with the institutions within our community to create:
- a robust and involved artist and community collaborations.
- to create programming and events that meet our communities needs.
- strong and effective connections between artists and the community.
- a voice for artists, their work and concerns.
- Presentations that will help to generate a life-long enthusiasm for the arts.
We offer all artists:
- easy access to information, assistance, connections, and collaboration.
- advice and guidance for seasoned artists as well as up-and-coming ones
- continuing educational and professional development opportunities.
- showcases for demonstrating their art forms to libraries and schools.
- directories that feature year round connections for work.
- online arts demonstration opportunities for stronger outreach.
Dream Shapers is a unique arts organization in that we are inclusive of all independent artists. Not only do we offer benefits to our own roster of performers (similar to larger arts organizations i.e. The Music Center and Orange County Performing Arts Center), but we provide support to all artists in our community. No other organization provides this service throughout Los Angeles and Southern California.
- Storytelling
- Music Artists Programs and Concerts
- Dance programs including Native American Dance and Culture
- Variety Programs – Magicians, Mimes, Jugglers, Puppeteers, Stilt Walkers, Cowboy Trick Ropers, walk around entertainment
- History Programs that reflect a wide variety of cultures, people and events in American History.
- Bilingual Programs – Spanish and English shows
- Multicultural Programs reflecting mankind’s diversity.
- Animal / Science Programs that are fun and educational
- Holiday Programs for Black History Month; Martin Luther King; Irish Heritage; Earth Day; Cinco De Mayo; Fourth of July; Halloween; Native American Month; Thanksgiving; Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanza.
What began as a collective of independent artists known as Storytellers and Troubadours in 1994 transformed into The Los Angeles Dream Shapers, a leading advocate and supporter for performing, (storytelling, dance, music and theatre), variety (magic, mime, puppetry, juggling), and demonstrative arts (science, math, language). Dream Shapers is a 501c3 non-profit arts organization serving all of Southern California from San Diego to Bakersfield. Over the last eight years, the organization’s budget has increased 20% annually with a majority of funding coming from fee-based services such as workshops and memberships. Currently, our roster of over 40 artists provide more than 800 programs to schools, libraries, preschools, cities and other community organizations each year. In addition, our Showcases and Directories generate over 1000 shows each year for over 100 independent artists. We reach over 1 million children and families annually. Dream Shapers mentors new and advises seasoned artists through telephone communication, e-mail correspondence, one-on-one appointments, seminars, workshops and gatherings.
Prior to Dream Shapers, independent artists were routinely excluded from arts organization (i.e. The Music Center and Orange County Performing Arts Center), had no cohesive voice to the community and struggled with promotion. Years ago, independent artists were faced with the daunting task of marketing themselves on their own. There was no focused way for them to outreach to community institutions and create awareness for themselves and their arts programming. Pre-existing large arts organizations excluded independent artists for a wide variety of reasons. Foremost was because they were simply not adding any additional artists either in general or because programs were too similar to what currently existed or also because art forms did not meet their definition of “arts,” which consisted strictly of performing arts. Typically, demonstration (science, lectures, animals) and variety arts (mime, magic, juggling) were routinely dismissed in Southern California though they are customarily embraced in other parts of the country.
This non-inclusion hindered independent artists. It was a challenge to compete with the advertising budgets and resources of these large arts groups. Large arts organization monopolize the marketplace by promoting their artists with extensive budgets, showcases that were not open to anyone outside their roster and years of connections and partnerships that were not possible to develop by independent artists. Independent artists had no cost effective way to get their message out or clearly establish their professionalism or quality.
Dream Shapers was founded by a group of artists to: 1) develop a roster of performers would help to enhance the awareness of Dream Shaper as an arts organization in Southern California; 2) generate financial support for artists so they could continue bringing their art to the community; 3) provide advertising and other promotional opportunities to create a greater awareness for artists and their programs; 4) be a voice and an advocate for artists and 5) develop a dialogue between artists and our community institutions (schools, libraries, preschools, cities, community organizations) and their needs, wants and requirements.
Dream Shapers worked diligently to fulfill this commitment by developing a roster of highly qualified performers covering the widest range of art forms available from any arts organization. We collaborated with both the County of Los Angeles Libraries and the Inland Empire Library Systems to implement and develop performers Showcases and Directories that are available for all artists to participate. These Showcases and Directories are attended and used by hundreds of librarians throughout Southern California. We have assisted the Los Angeles Public Library with establishing an audition and showcase process. We helped develop a process that was effective and useful for the library while being beneficial for artists involved. Through these collaborations Dream Shapers has become an effective intermediary between artists and the libraries and vice versa.
We have recently partnered with the Orange County Department of Education and Orange County Music and Art Administrators to outreach to a desired population of ours which is schools. Program Preview Day Showcase & Arts Faire focuses on artists with standards-based programming. We established an artist audition process for this event so artists could demonstrate their California Educational Standards-based arts programming. This was to help maintain a level of quality and clear curriculum connections for showcasing artist while providing valuable feedback to help improve school offerings. In years past, it was a definitive “yes” or “no” without insight or clarification given to guide artists. We helped to change that! Dream Shapers also successfully coordinated Program Preview Day Showcase & Arts Faire for schools throughout Orange County. We developed a user-friendly formatted Directory for the event and mailed a copy to all public and private schools. We created a new Web site and online video showcase at www.programpreviewday.com that links to a live clip of each artist that demonstrated as well as direct link to their personal Web site. We provide artists, who participated in this event, with standards connection workshops and social gatherings for networking, assessing and develop camaraderie within the arts community.
We joined Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) to develop and create arts programs for their Arts Community Partnership Network (ACPN). We attended over 20 meeting to jointly collaborate with LAUSD and other arts organization to design the overall ACPN program while developing our arts in the school offering. As a result, we offered a holistic arts approach that included an orientation meeting for establishing how to best bring the arts experiences to the students that school, student storytelling workshops that were presented over a series of weeks, school-wide assembly programs to enhance student learning, a teacher enrichment storytelling workshop for practical in-class use and an assessment meeting to review how well we met our goals and feedback on making the program better for the future. The results from years of feedback based on conversations and completed questionnaire was that the teachers, parents and administrators believed that our arts program to be beneficial and felt we were 90+% effective in meeting the arts goals we had established.
Since 2000 our artists have presented almost 10,000 programs throughout Southern California. Approximately 50% of our programming has been presented in libraries, 30% in schools, 10% to city events, 8% to preschools and 2% to other community organizations (clubs, theatres, museums, etc.) We supported the development and presentation of the Los Angeles World Storytelling festival held for 2 years and USC, attended by hundreds and featured some of the finest storytellers in Southern California. We are presently working with the Muckenthaler Cultural Center in Fullerton to present the Orange County Storytelling Festival, which will host storytelling performances, workshops and open forums.
Dream Shapers is highly inclusive of artists and art forms. We work on behalf of the artists on our roster as well as all independents, which even includes artists affiliated with larger organizations. We have an open application process meaning artists may request to be a member of Dream Shapers at any time of the year. We provide all artists with information, guidance, education, and personal artist attention. We offer advertising opportunities, networking and professional development. We collaborate and assist many decision-makers with arts programming and provide them with collateral that they use all year long. We endeavor to keep all our efforts open and fair. We regularly assess our effectiveness and allow everyone to offer feedback in order to grow and better serve artists and the community. We provide insurance coverage to artists ($2 million policy), pool resources, and offer cost-effective marketing and advertising. We help generate income for artists to aid in their longevity of presenting programs.
- Create in our Southern California community the awareness of performing, variety and demonstrating artists.
- Generate more work and income for artists.
- Inspire young minds and families through a broad range of entertaining programs that encourage imagination, learning and creativity.
- Promote standards of programming, conduct, integrity, dependability and performance protocol among the artists and others engaged in the organization.
- Stage storytelling and folk arts festivals, showcases and workshops.
- Align performing arts with school core curriculum and the California Visual and Performing Arts Standards.
- Provide affordable and accessible artistic presentations to schools, preschools, libraries and community organizations.
- Serve a community rich in racial, religious, ethnic, and economic diversity with accessible professional entertainment.
- Accessible and beneficial to all artists in Southern California.
- Strengthen Dream Shapers Identity (branding)
- Fortify Dream Shapers Roster (artists, programs and standards connections)
- Enhance Organizational Operations and Structure (infrastructure and board)
- Expand Dream Shapers Sustainability for Programming (fund raising, grants, increased)
| Performing arts – |
Music, Dance, Theatre/Storytelling, Mime |
| Variety Arts – |
Magic, Juggling, Puppetry, |
| Demonstration arts – |
Presentations, demonstrations and lectures on Science, Character, Anti Bullying |
| Student Workshops - |
We do offer 5 to 10 week arts residencies / student workshops for hands on arts experiences in storytelling, music and puppetry. |
| Schools - |
We primarily offer educational, standards based, school assembly programming to K-5 Elementary. However some artists do present programs for middle and high school events. All artists featured under this category have auditioned and demonstrated the ability to perform for school programs. |
| Libraries - |
Library year round and summer reading programs. All artists featured under this category have auditioned and demonstrated the ability to perform library programs. |
| Preschool - |
Preschool programs are specifically designed for children from about 2 years to 5. All artists featured under this category have auditioned and demonstrated the ability to perform preschool programs. |
| Cities - |
Programming for city events, park and recreation departments featuring concerts, shows and walk around entertainment. All artists featured under this category have auditioned and demonstrated the ability to perform for city programs. |
Community Organizations: Programming for organizations like Boy and Girl Scouts, YMCA, theatres, museums, women’s clubs, senior organizations, fairs, festivals, etc. All artists featured under this category have auditioned and demonstrated the ability to perform these organizations.
Dream Shapers always encourages artists to contact us and seek to become a roster performer. Here are the basic steps:
- Be confident that you have a top quality program(s).
- Check the current roster to see where your programs would fit. Look to be sure you are not duplicating something or someone who is already performing. If you are similar explain to us why and how your offering would be different.
- Decide what venues you are qualified for (preschool, school, library, community events) and can demonstrate this through performances, DVD presentations or letters of recommendation. We also set up auditions for artists.
- Then contact us with your request and where you would fit on the roster. Contact us!
- We will send you all the information you will need to know about working with us and how to apply. Once you have applied, we will accept you (based on your submission, references, history and audition).
- Once accepted we will need photographs, video content, text and supplemental materials (lesson plans, hand outs, etc.).
Dream Shapers is a group of outstanding professional performers who provide entertainment and educational value that meets or exceeds what other performers and arts organizations offer. We understand that there is a perceived risk involved in hiring our performers instead of others that you have grown accustomed to working with. To earn your business, we give you this guarantee: If you do not agree that we have matched or exceeded the value of what you believe you would have otherwise received, we will not charge you for the performance. No strings attached. We are extremely confident that you will in fact be delighted and that we will become one of your regular suppliers of top-notch assembly and show performers.
Each of our performers is dedicated to the artistic nourishment of children and family audiences. All our performers have received rave reviews from Southern California schools, libraries, festivals and other community events. All performers have an impeccable history of not only the highest quality programs but also of professionalism. Our goal and our tradition is to honor children and families with every song, every story, every puppet show, every magic trick and every performance we joyfully give. We love kids and families. We love our work. We guarantee you'll love us too!
We have a $2,000,000 general liability policy that meets California PTA requirements. This policy covers all the performers and programs that we offer to schools, libraries and community events. Additionally insured documentation is available at no additional cost. All documentation is available upon specific request.
