Building Businesses and Dancing Communities

Arts Launch Intern Andrea Aguirre and her time at Arts Orange County

By Gamy Cortes

At UC Irvine’s Claire Trevor School of the Arts (UCI Arts), the office of Access & Engagement connects students and local artists in ways that open doors into the professional world, promoting the creative sector of Orange County.

Two programs are at the core of this endeavor. Arts Launch pairs UCI Arts students with Orange County arts organizations, offering paid, year-long internships that build hands-on management skills and career pathways. Creative Connections sends teaching artist interns into K-12 classrooms, where they collaborate with educators to bring art, dance, drama and music to students who may not have had those resources otherwise.

Together, these programs are cultivating the next generation of creative leaders while making the arts more accessible, inclusive and alive.

Balanced Movements

As a dance performance and business economics major, Andrea Rose Aguirre ’27 has spent her time at UC Irvine learning how two seemingly different languages come together: the language of the body and the language of numbers and markets.

“I have always loved being able to mesh together my creative and strategic mindset to apply it to projects in both creative and analytical settings,” said Aguirre.

Aguirre could not point to a single memory, a recital or a teacher that served as the catalyst to her passion for dance. She began dancing at the age of 8, and her passion continued to grow. Business economics came later, sparked by an AP economics class she took in her senior year of high school. Together, the two disciplines offer something neither could alone: a thinker who can feel and a performer who can plan.

Before Aguirre moves her body an inch, she starts with a story and then improvises, letting her body find its own way toward a piece’s inherent meanings. Only after that organic discovery does she begin to shape the movement into a deliberate and shareable emotion.

“Dance makes me feel in tune with my body, the space around me, and the people around me,” said Aguirre. “It makes me feel connected.”

That connection is her favorite part, especially, Aguirre says, in a world where disconnection has become a cultural condition.

“Dance exists at a time where people are searching for connection within each other,” said Aguirre. “I feel as if dance, being the universal language of the body, creates a welcoming and safe place for people to relate, bringing people together.”

Connecting in the Arts

Aguirre’s professional development took a formative turn through her internship with Arts Orange County (Arts OC), an independent nonprofit arts council for Orange County, California, that is dedicated to sustaining, strengthening and advancing the region’s creative ecology. 
Her time was marked by learning the inner workings of marketing for a nonprofit organization. Aguirre would create newsletters, market campaigns, craft social media posts and make listings for SparkOC. As an Arts OC program, SparkOC shares a similar mission in advocating and advertising for the arts, such as hosting cultural events, workshops, offering jobs, promoting artists, organizations, venues and more so that Orange County residents can easily find the artistic or charitable happenings in their community.

“What stood out to me was the specificity of these tasks and how many times we went back and made edits and adjustments to craft the most engaging work possible,” said Aguirre.

One memory that stood out was her time at the Arts OC Spring Mixer, where local artists met to connect.

“Watching how naturally everyone connected made me really appreciate the sense of community the arts world creates,” said Aguirre.

For the Arts OC team, valuable insight into what artists needed was drawn from conversations. For instance, after noticing discussions at a mixer, the team created a collaborative posting protocol to help individual artist members get their work seen by a wider audience. But what Aguirre found most meaningful was her own connection with a local artist.

“I had many conversations, but one in particular lasted for hours,” said Aguirre. “She was older than me and out of college, telling me her experience working in the entertainment industry, and how she broke away to carry out her artistic dreams. I really enjoyed hearing her story because I, too, am trying to navigate my path as a creative.”

What’s Next?

This summer, Aguirre will be interning at SF3, SmartFone Flick Fest in Sydney, Australia. It will be Aguirre’s first time outside of the country, as well as her first time working in some capacity in film, two unknown terrains she is very excited about.

As she moves on from her internship at UCI Arts, Aguirre looks to her future in the arts with confidence and inspiration.

“In my experiences with Arts Launch, I have learned that my purpose is not only to perform, but to contribute to a more connected arts community,” said Aguirre.

To learn more about Arts Orange County, visit here. To learn more about Spark OC, visit here.

To learn more about Arts Launch, visit here. To learn more about the Department of Dance, visit arts.uci.edu/dance.