The 2013 Leadership Award recipients are making headlines. In the month since the awards were announced, media outlets across the state have been spotlighting the work of these extraordinary individuals who are advancing innovative solutions to some of California’s biggest challenges.

Vida en el Valle, a weekly Spanish language paper serving the San Joaquin Valley, profiled recipients Aida Cardenas (Building Skills Partnership, Los Angeles) and José Quiñonez (Mission Asset Fund, San Francisco), noting that both "have dedicated a substantial part of their lives helping others build their own."

The San Francisco Chronicle featured an op-ed by Quiñonez describing how Mission Asset Fund, through its Lending Circles program, helped a low-income family establish a credit score, build assets and start a small business.

A number of compelling conversations have been taking place over the last several weeks as a result of some very thoughtful blog posts about our Arts grantmaking strategy. (Nina Simon kicked it off with this post and then linked to related posts here.) What I find most exciting about all of this is the fact that a range of thoughtful leaders are engaging with ideas that are obviously important to Irvine, and their engagement will help make our grantmaking better. I’d like to take the opportunity to add to the dialogue as well as clarify a few points about our Arts strategy that were raised in the conversation so far.

Irvine has funded the arts since our inception because we care deeply about the importance of a healthy arts ecosystem that connects people and builds communities. We have an interest and an obligation in strengthening the arts system as a whole and we believe that the system will thrive if it focuses on engaging Californians who so far have largely been absent as audiences, visitors and donors. In becoming an adaptive, relevant and responsive field, we become more able to address the fact that the majority of Californians don’t engage with our system---not responding to this situation is clearly not the answer. Our response then, the core focus of our grantmaking that launches later this year, will be to support sustainable, core operational shifts as arts organizations expand engagement.

Dear Friends,

Within the past few weeks, I have read with interest the observations of a number of active bloggers in the arts field whom I have come to respect and admire: Nina Simon, Diane Ragsdale, Clay Lord and Barry Hessenius. Each of them has blogged on aspects of the Irvine Foundation’s new arts strategy and, in doing so, has contributed to a robust dialogue that has played out on their respective blogs as well as on Twitter.

And that’s what prompts my contribution to this discussion: I will comment only lightly on the substantive issues they have raised related to our Arts strategy as my colleague, Josephine Ramirez, who directs our Arts program, plans to post a more substantive comment on those issues in the next week or so. There is another aspect of this discussion that I do want to comment upon and invite others to engage on with me and my colleagues in philanthropy.

From my early days as Irvine’s CEO, and with great support from our Board of Directors, I have placed a premium on transparency, both with regard to our work at Irvine and for the broader field of philanthropy. I have certainly not been alone in this quest (Brad Smith at the Foundation Center is probably our field’s leading champion), and I think it’s a fair observation to say that the field has come a long way in the past decade.

On January 23rd in Sacramento, the Future of California Elections (FOCE) hosted its first public event. FOCE initially formed in late 2011 with help and support from the James Irvine Foundation and is now setting up shop as an independent entity. This meeting was our opportunity to introduce FOCE and its work to the state’s policy community.

As someone who has been helping facilitate the group since its formation in late 2011, and who will be directing FOCE’s efforts going forward, I was both excited and nervous about the event.

I was excited because I believe in the motivation behind the project: identify leaders and practitioners who understand the challenges facing the state’s election system and then help find common ground for policies that will increase participation without sacrificing efficiency or effectiveness. But I was nervous because FOCE was getting ready to expand the conversation beyond its two dozen or so founding members to include policymakers and other advocates from across the state.

Dear Friends,

We are pleased to announce the recipients of the 2013 James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards. The awards recognize Californians who are implementing innovative, effective solutions to critical state issues. This year’s recipients are particularly collaborative in their approaches and excel at building upon the resourcefulness and determination of California’s residents to improve the future of our state.

They are:

Last week, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan joined ArtPlace director Carol Coletta in touring the Oakland neighborhood that was designated one of America's Top 12 ArtPlaces. As she announced the award at the press conference, Carol made the point of saying this award was data-based and in fact entirely statistical. Since it’s not biased or subjective, the selection carries even more weight for many in the Oakland community.

Mayor Quan proudly accepted the award on behalf of the city that has become, in her words, "cooler than San Francisco!" And she emphatically credited a public-private-nonprofit partnership for the incredible turnaround of several depressed neighborhoods ranging from Old Oakland to Uptown. It's clear that the vibrancy brought to the areas by the emergence of arts nonprofits, in conjunction with for-profits, had economic and human impacts.

ArtPlace, an initiative of national and regional foundations, federal agencies and major banks to accelerate creative placemaking, identified the top ArtPlaces in the nation’s largest U.S. metropolitan areas. An array of data and other factors were considered in selecting the neighborhoods, which were successful at combining art, artists and venues for creativity and expression with independent businesses, retail shops and restaurants, and a walkable lifestyle to make vibrant neighborhoods. Other California neighborhoods that joined Oakland in the Top 12 were San Francisco's Mission District and Central Hollywood in Los Angeles.

We are pleased to announce the election of Gregory M. Avis, a Founding Managing Director of Summit Partners in Palo Alto, as the new Chair of our Board of Directors. Greg joined the Irvine board in 2003 and has served as Vice Chair for the past two years. Avis succeeds Peter J. Taylor, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the University of California, who retired from the board after serving a full board term of 12 years, including three as board chair.

In 1984, Greg helped found Summit, one of the nation's leading private equity and venture capital firms, which has raised nearly $15 billion in capital since its inception. Greg has served on the boards of more than 40 companies primarily in the technology and life sciences industries, including Clontech Laboratories, Ditech Communications, Powerwave Technologies and RightNow Technologies.

Greg’s community activities include current service on the boards of Williams College (Chair), Antioch College, New Profit and ARTSTOR and past service on the boards of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation (Chair), San Jose Repertory Theatre (Chair) and the National Outdoor Leadership School. Additionally, he is a Senior Fellow of the American Leadership Forum, Silicon Valley.