SU-CASA needs a single entity charged with providing administrative support to the City Council, DCLA, and DFTA, as well as the borough arts councils, cultural organizations, and senior centers implementing SU-CASA. No single office currently serves this function for the program as a whole, leaving several administrative functions unfulfilled. The office would have the following responsibilities:
Coordinate both arms of the program: the grants to cultural organizations and the grants to borough arts councils to select independent teaching artists.
Determine training needs for senior center staff, teaching artists, and administrators.
Define required capacity for senior-serving organizations and disseminate that information.
Standardize and publicize procedures for teaching artists and cultural organizations (timeline, application process, payment, reporting requirements).
Provide guidance on budgeting and program costs.
Ensure that all eligible senior centers and other senior-serving organizations understand the value and requirements of SU-CASA and the process for inclusion.
Serve as the marketing hub.
Encourage participation in a yearly self-evaluation component; DCLA can share individual site evaluations with arts councils and cultural organizations.
Selection and matching process
Personnel from the City Council, DFTA, and DCLA should meet twice a year (before and after adoption of the city budget) to determine ways to expedite the selection process.
Pay special attention to the matching process:
Consult with senior center program directors and evaluate centers based on language, culture, choice of art form, facility, and schedule. Ensure that older adults have a voice.
Seek teaching artists who speak languages besides English, as well as older artists, in both the recruitment and decision processes.
Expect teaching artists and cultural organizations to have a planning meeting at the designated senior center and hold a demonstration class for center members.
Establish a process for reassignment of teaching artists or cultural organizations after the planning meeting if the pairing is not feasible.
Allow senior centers and teaching artists more time to prepare, promote, and run the programs. A longer start-up period would help teaching artists integrate the program into the center.
Programming structure and support
Clearly define program structure options that go beyond current proposal and contract specifications. For example, splitting a residency into two distinct, shorter workshop series might make it easier for participants to attend consistently and could expand SU-CASA’s impact by attracting different students.
Establish a structure to support senior-serving organizations in learning about the program options and selecting the right one for the situation.
Provide ongoing support to artists and cultural organizations as they design and conduct the programs to promote best practices and establish a point of contact in case of questions or problems.