Our story at Partnership Arts
Jenny Rivera and Nico Bejarano met while working together at a small non-profit organization in Southern California known for renegade programming. During their tenure together, they collectively raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, successfully increased the institutional and foundational funding of the organization, increased the size of the Board of Directors, and were forced to navigate a public relations crisis that could have derailed the organization.
They have both since moved on to work for larger organizations where systems of stability allow for sustainable growth, but both see the important role the smaller arts non-profit organizations play in the greater arts eco-system and believe their skills and experience can provide necessary support and insight.
With the passion of artists and the pragmatism of business professionals, they wish to impact the world of the arts with their solutions and progress-based consulting and education plans.
Both Nico and Jenny believe passionately in the importance of the performing arts sector. Jenny first decided to consider a career shift from artist to administrator after the financial crash of 2008 and the bankruptcies of many beloved opera companies that occurred in the wake of that time period. Nico began his career as an administrator just as companies, already struggling with declining audiences, had to face the Covid-19 pandemic. Both partners have seen companies they loved and cherish falter and even close.
Their ultimate goal is to utilize their unique skill set and strong occupational partnership to improve the sector by helping to uncover an often missing piece of the organizational success puzzle; the understanding required to balance the creative and the pragmatic.
As artists who have been both self-employed and itinerant, as company executives and managers who have seen the challenges arts organizations face on a day-to-day basis, and as Board members of community organizations, the pair has a unique perspective and a real desire to find effective solutions to seemingly intractable problems. They are especially interested in helping small to midsize organizations who have unique sets of challenges and in supporting a new generation of artists that are empowered through knowledge to succeed in a difficult field.