SAG-AFTRA Dedicates Member Imagination Center, Opens On-Camera Lab Administered by SAG-AFTRA Foundation
SAG-AFTRA today dedicated the Member Imagination Center at the union’s headquarters in Los Angeles. President Gabrielle Carteris, Executive Vice President and Innovation & New Technology Committee Chair Rebecca Damon, Secretary-Treasurer Camryn Manheim and other SAG-AFTRA elected leaders participated in a ceremonial ribbon-cutting to launch the center.
“This space is extraordinary. It is being developed specifically to serve our national membership as a forward-looking think-tank equipped with digital media educational offerings and distance learning capabilities giving members across the country dynamic ways to interface, hone their craft and expand their knowledge,” said Carteris. “No matter where you are in the country, you will be able to access our distance learning program to attend classes and events in the Member Imagination Center.”
Newly named SAG-AFTRA Foundation President Courtney B. Vance also celebrated the opening of the On-Camera Lab, which will be administered by the SAG-AFTRA Foundation.
“We’ve been operating a pilot program of our on-camera lab in New York City for the last two years that has been highly successful, and we’d been looking for a space to make this valuable program available in Los Angeles,” said Vance. “We’re grateful to SAG-AFTRA for giving this program a home in their Member Imagination Center. The Foundation looks forward to providing SAG-AFTRA members with high quality, on-camera taped sessions for free, as we do with all of our programming.”
The dedicated space will allow members to tape auditions, learn digital film and television production techniques, attend seminars with world-class technology thought leaders, and participate in classes aimed at building their knowledge and experience in a digital production environment.
An expanded classroom and meeting space and the on-camera lab for self-taping auditions are already completed and operational. Open to all members across the country, the on-camera lab is similar to the successful Foundation facility that was pilot-tested in New York, and which has produced more than 14,588 self-taping sessions for SAG-AFTRA members in two years.
The classrooms and on-camera lab will be followed shortly by additional state-of-the-art digital media facilities, including a full-size studio for SAG-AFTRA video production and member education, an intimate concert stage for performances by up-and-coming recording artist members with seating for VIP industry guests, a podcast recording suite and additional self-taping studios and other distance learning facilities.
SAG-AFTRA’s National Officers, National Board members, Los Angeles Local board members, executive staff and board members from the SAG-AFTRA Foundation attended the dedication.
The Member Imagination Center is slated for completion in spring 2020.
Photo credit: SAG-AFTRA