Pentacle is pleased to be able to provide Help Desk/L.A. during the 2010-2011 year.  Cycle 2 will run from July 1, 2010 through June 30, 2011.

Help Desk/L.A. will complete its first cycle on June 30, 2010. Working with ten artists and eight mentors, Help Desk/L.A. launched in January 2009 and participants began work in July 2009. It has been an extremely successful year.

The premise of Help Desk/L.A. remains constant. Through Help Desk/L.A. Pentacle supports infrastructure and works with participating dance and performance artists to build a professional community amongst their peers. At the heart of Help Desk/L.A. are two equally important relationships: the one between artist and mentor and the one between artist and his/her community. Help Desk/L.A. will:

• provide participating artists and companies with strategic planning, guidance and infrastructure support to their professional entity during the course of a fiscal year.
• provide administrative guidance with a particular project.
• offer a forum for artists and participating non-performing partners to attend monthly working meetings that will foster a strong peer-based community.

Participating artists will be paired with a mentor based on an application process that includes submission of written materials and meetings with Pentacle staff. Each participant will work with a mentor to articulate the goals of the organization, determine strategies for attaining the goals and guidance in areas of infrastructure support. Regular meetings of all Help Desk/L.A. participants and mentors will focus on issues elucidated from the issues being worked on by participants, as well as larger issues that impact the greater community. Participants will work on a community project derived from work undertaken during the cycle.

Help Desk/L.A. is fluid and flexible enough to meet the diverse needs of its artist participants. The program focuses on helping to create viable and stable infrastructures for lightly institutionalized artists and empowering artists to find and create the support they need. Help Desk/L.A. participants seek to develop a lively and supportive professional community for Los Angeles area dance and performance artists and by so doing will also support the non-performing champions of dance.-a substantial accomplishment considering the stresses faced by the dance world.

The fee for participation in Help Desk/L.A. is $600 from July 1 to June 30.

To R.S.V.P. for the event or for more information about Help Desk/L.A., contact Felicia Rosenfeld, Program Director at feliciar@pentacle.org.

Process by which an artist or company
can become part of Help Desk/L.A.

Those interested in participating should submit in writing the following information by May 15, 2010:

• A description of your organization that describes the mission of the organization, the current artistic vision of the organization, and the administrative structure of the organization.
• A description of the goals for your organization.
• What you hope to accomplish by participating in Help Desk/L.A.
• A copy of your most recent IRS Form 990.  If you are unincorporated, please submit a financial statement that most accurately reflects your professional artistic activities for the most recently completed calendar or fiscal year.
  

Pentacle will accept participants into Help Desk/L.A. based on clarity of expectations and goals to be obtained from the partnership and commitment by the prospective participant to being a pro-active member of a professional peer community. Proposals will be reviewed by a panel made up of Pentacle Staff and members of the Los Angeles area dance community.