January at the Department of Arts and Culture

Dear Colleagues,

I am grateful that LA County recognizes that arts and culture strengthen the quality of life and the social and economic development of our people and communities. The Countywide Cultural Policy, adopted by the Board in 2020, serves as a roadmap for how the County and its departments can ensure that every resident has meaningful access to arts and culture.

I am also excited that our work building equity across sectors--guided by the Cultural Policy--is expanding all the time. The latest example is a focus on arts and homelessness. In support of the Board’s focus on LA County's homelessness crisis, through its proclamation of a Local Emergency and other measures, we are leveraging the arts as a strategy to address homelessness. The artist residency at Pathway Home, part of the County’s Homeless Initiative, is part of those efforts. Please explore this residency opportunity, stories of community-building art commissions and conservation projects in the annual report from our Civic Art Division (which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year!), and other updates below. 

Onward!
Kristin Sakoda

We are inviting LA County-based artists to submit an application for a nine-month residency to work in partnership with the Department of Arts and Culture, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, County of Los Angeles Homeless Initiative, and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works.

During the residency, the selected Artist will collaborate with County staff, project partners, community stakeholders, and others to develop a framework or toolkit for integrating arts, culture, and creativity into community engagement activities before, during, and after Pathway Home encampment resolutions. The Toolkit should include tools and guidance for using healing-centered arts practices to engage vulnerable populations and disadvantaged communities, particularly persons experiencing homelessness and persons living in and community members impacted by RV encampments.

Deadline to Apply: February 20, 2024 | 5PM (PDT)

This year we recognize the twenty year anniversary of our Civic Art Division. In 2004, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors adopted the County’s first Civic Art Policy, allocating one percent of design and construction costs of new County capital projects to a Civic Art Special Fund for the creation of public artworks. The policy is managed by the Civic Art Division, which commissions socially engaged civic artworks, supports conservation efforts, and manages artistic and cultural programs and services throughout the unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County in all five Supervisorial Districts. This annual report is a yearlong snapshot of this work. 

As part of the Board of Supervisors’ recent Galvanizing Communities in Support of the Arts motion, the Department of Arts and Culture is creating a social media awareness campaign to help residents of LA County discover, share, and support their local arts and culture organizations.

Because we want to highlight as many organizations as we can, we invite you to populate the Arts and Culture Near You map with your organization’s public-facing information (the name, address, website, and a brief description.). It only takes a minute!

The 2024-25 Advancement Grant application period is open now, and closes 4 through March 13, 2024. Strategic arts plan coaching requests will also be accepted during that period. Keep your eye out for more information coming in January 2024.

Los Angeles County school districts that are in partnership with the Arts Ed Collective and will be implementing board approved strategic plans for arts education in 2024-25 are eligible to apply.

• We want to share CA for the Arts'  Advocacy Field Survey. Its purpose is to help develop and pursue advocacy goals that are defined by the experiences, knowledge and aspirations of California artists, creatives, cultural organizations and arts supporters. The survey takes about 15 minutes to complete and closes on February 15.

• We also wanted to share a call for workshop proposals. In 2024, the  Innovation, Culture, and Creativity (ICC) project will fund workshops across the U.S. that explore support for innovation at the intersection of culture, creativity, and technology. Funded by the National Science Foundation’s  Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships  (TIP) and organized by a multidisciplinary team from UCLA and UC Santa Barbara, the ICC project is bringing together experts and stakeholders in convenings across the country to identify actionable opportunities at this intersection.