This is my final post on Ring Festival LA, which concluded on June 30. Los Angeles Times music critic Mark Swed proclaimed that "LA Opera's Ring had become an LA Opera's Ring instant LA legend." And Donna Perlemutter commented in the Huffington Post that the"momentous production" was "a one-of-a-kind for the history books." We at LA Opera can justly celebrate the success of this enormous effort, while regretting the ephemeral nature of the performing arts. Ring Festival LA, and its 1,000 events that preceded and surrounded the Ring cycles, has come and gone, also. It, too, leaves memories and a kind of legend as a great city-wide arts festival. But the Festival leaves something more that will impact the future. The Festival gave birth to a spirit of community collaboration that will continue for years to enliven Los Angeles' cultural scene.
Ring Festival LA forged a model for community collaboration between cultural and educational institutions. With all the Festival partners doing their own events, at their own expense (and for their own profit), around a central theme, a synergy developed where the whole became greater than the sum of the parts. Surveys done during and after the Festival confirm that partners experienced more exposure and bigger attendance for their events than if they had not been part of Ring Festival LA. We showed that coordinated programming and co-promotion work. A spirit of participation and celebration developed throughout the city that would not have occurred if we were doing business as usual. Collaboration is not a zero-sum game.
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