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Kristin Friedrich, Director of Communications
323-449-7370, KFriedrich@arts.lacounty.gov
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Photo courtesy of Artlab21. |
LA COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF ARTS AND CULTURE AWARDS OVER $6.4M TO
ARTS, CULTURAL, SOCIAL JUSTICE, AND SOCIAL SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS
Funding Grows for Arts Nonprofits, as Flagship Organizational Grant Program Receives First Increase in LA County Budget in Over 15 Years
To support local arts nonprofits and the communities they serve, the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture (Arts and Culture) has announced over $6.4M in grants to 318 nonprofit organizations through its 2024-2025 Organizational Grant Program and Community Arts Impact Grant awards.
Thanks to leadership from the Board of Supervisors, including motions from Supervisors Solis, Mitchell, and Horvath, there was a larger allocation of funding this year, due to a $1.2M increase to the Organizational Grant Program (OGP), the first increase in over 15 years for LA County’s longest-running arts grant program. OGP grants will go to 238 organizations, 34 of which are first time applicants to the program. The total allocation for grantees this year is $5,668,000, and awards range from $700 to $122,300.
OGP strengthens the Los Angeles region’s cultural ecosystem with funding to organizations of every artistic discipline, budget size, and geography. Grantees can use these funds to support critical needs, from staffing and organizational infrastructure to public arts programming in museums and visual arts, performing arts, film, arts education, arts service organizations, literary arts, and more. Grantees can also access Arts and Culture’s slate of professional development opportunities—programs designed in-house, as well as scholarships for trainings and conferences. OGP addresses systemic inequity in arts funding; 94% of the organizations that were awarded have budgets under $5M and 50% of those have budgets under $200K. These organizations are often underfunded and include those that reflect and serve communities of color, historically marginalized, and rural communities. A complete list of OGP grantees, and the programs and events this funding will support, can be found here.
Different than Arts and Culture’s longstanding funding for nonprofits with a primary focus on the arts, the Community Impact Arts Grant (CIAG) supports arts-based programs of social justice and service organizations. CIAG was designed to address two priorities: making arts services available to LA County residents who might not experience them through traditional arts venues and outlets, and encouraging integration of the arts in cross-sector work at local nonprofits. Grantee programs span art forms and communities reached, from therapeutic visual arts, to social justice filmmaking, music education for youth, dance empowerment, and memory programs for dementia.
There were 80 awarded organizations in CIAG this year, 19 of which were new awardees—making this year’s grantee pool the largest in the program’s history. The total CIAG allocation is $750,000, and awards range from $6,300 to $10,600. A complete list of CIAG grantees, and the programs and events this funding will support, can be found here.
After grant guidelines are released, Arts and Culture follows with a robust offering of application workshops and technical assistance, and then a peer panel review process ensues, facilitated by staff. Applications for both programs were reviewed and scored by a combined 105 diverse expert panelists from the Los Angeles region’s community of cultural workers, artists, curators, nonprofit arts administrators, arts funders, and arts educators. Award recommendations were reviewed by the Arts Commission, an advisory body appointed by the Board of Supervisors.
"Los Angeles County is increasing its investment in the artists, creators, and storytellers who enrich the lives of our diverse communities," said LA County Board Chair Lindsey P. Horvath. "We value the important work of arts organizations and are excited to support even more nonprofits this year. Congratulations to all of this year’s grant recipients."
"My work to develop and advance Los Angeles County’s Cultural Equity and Inclusion Initiative (CEII) and the Countywide Cultural Policy is a testament to my commitment to ensuring all Angelenos, regardless of where they live, have access to the arts. Both of these policies set out strategies to improve inclusion in the wider arts ecology for all residents and at the heart of these works was the finding that more investment was needed in the Organizational Grants Program (OGP). To that end, I authored motions year after year to double OGP in order to make more funding available to local artists and art organizations. I’m grateful that after years of advocacy, an additional $1.2 million is being invested in the program. Many thanks to all of the arts ecology advocates for joining in this effort. Today, we celebrate another step toward increasing equity and access to better integrate arts and culture into the daily lives of every community," said Supervisor Hilda L. Solis.
"The Organizational Grant Program has supported Los Angeles County’s arts nonprofits since the 1990s, and today, the nonprofit sector that it helped build is a crucial part of the larger LA County arts and culture infrastructure and creative economy," said Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell. "These grants not only equitably support the post-pandemic recovery of our arts organizations but bring resources to hardly reached communities and direct access to quality arts activities and programming."
"Arts and culture resources positively impact health and wellbeing, economic opportunity, neighborhood resiliency, civic engagement, and youth development. The Board of Supervisors recognizes the power of arts to drive positive cross-sector outcomes, and I am grateful they approved a $1.2M increase for us to deliver to the arts sector in the Organizational Grant Program this year. Supporting our region’s community-based organizations strengthens all of us, and our grant programs are key delivery mechanisms for these high-return, equitable investments," said Kristin Sakoda, Director of the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture.
"Equitable access to funding like OGP is critical in ensuring LA County’s arts and culture organizations continue to thrive. On behalf of the Arts Commission, we congratulate all the awarded organizations and thank the Board of Supervisors and the Department of Arts and Culture for making these programs possible," said Leticia Buckley, Arts Commission President. |
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About the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture
The mission of the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture is to advance arts, culture, and creativity throughout Los Angeles County. It provides leadership, services, and support in areas including grants and technical assistance for nonprofit organizations, countywide arts education initiatives, commissioning and care for civic art collections, research and evaluation, pathways to the creative economy, professional development, free community programs, and cross-sector creative strategies that address civic issues. For more information, visit lacountyarts.org
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