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A Message from Our Director
Photo courtesy of Long Beach Opera. |
Dear colleagues,
In times of challenge and change, I am always reminded of the restorative power of the arts to heal. The work you and our cultural community do exemplifies this truth. Below, we share achievements and opportunities that reflect on arts in healing, recovery, and community connection.
Next month, we will host our fourth Wildfire Conservation Clinic at the Altadena Library, offering artists and community members the chance to receive expert conservation cleaning, assessment, and care for artworks and belongings damaged in the wildfires. We celebrate the participants of a healing arts workshop series that took place at the D.O.O.R.S. Center in Lancaster, a result of our partnership bringing arts to re-entry services with the County's Justice, Care, and Opportunities Department.
We are also proud to share two arts-based projects that address homelessness—artist Lane Michael Stanley’s healing-centered toolkit for arts engagement and Creative Strategist Patrisse Cullors’ documentary Close to Home, which has just been accepted in two prestigious film festivals.
It's Grants Season! Applications are open, or are soon open, for three programs that support nonprofits delivering arts and culture. We also share a consultant opportunity below, and invite you to check out an event with LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes that explores LA's rich culinary heritage and cultural hubs as keys to community, diversity, and connection.
Together, these programs reflect our belief that the arts are not only vital to our culture, but also to our collective healing, resilience, and recovery. We invite you to explore the updates below—and join us in advancing an LA County where creativity uplifts us all.
Onward!
Kristin Sakoda |
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Grants Season is Here
Photo courtesy of Jacob Jonas Dance Company. |
Apply Today
Are you affiliated with an arts organization? Or, perhaps, an organization that offers arts programming? Or maybe you want to provide internship opportunities for LA County university and community college students. No matter what your funding needs are, the Department of Arts and Culture has you covered! Applications for both our Organizational Grant Program (OGP) and Community Impact Arts Grant (CIAG) program opened on August 26! And applications for our Arts Internship Program (AIP) grant open on September 4! |
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Organizational Grant Program (OGP)
Photo courtesy of the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC).
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OGP provides Los Angeles County nonprofit arts organizations funding to address priority needs and ensure cultural services for our diverse communities.
Application Deadline:
SEP 30, 2025 | 11:59PM (PDT)
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Community Impact Arts Grant (CIAG)
Photo courtesy of InnerCity Struggle.
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CIAG supports arts projects and programming taking place at nonprofit social service and social justice organizations, and in tribal governments and municipal departments, enabling these organizations to deliver a wide variety of cultural services to County residents.
Application Deadline:
SEP 30, 2025 | 11:59PM (PDT)
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Arts Internship Program (AIP)
Students attend the 2024 Arts Internship Program Summit. Photo by Yoko Morimoto.
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AIP provides eligible LA County arts nonprofits, municipalities, and social justice/social service organizations that offer arts programming with grants to hire undergraduate and community college students for 400 hours of paid work experience. The program will maintain a flexible timeline to be responsive to both students and organizations.
Application Deadline:
OCT 9, 2025 | 11:59PM (PDT)
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FREE FIRE RECOVERY CONSERVATION CLINIC
Graphics by Francisco Tejeda. |
Saturday, September 13, 2025 | 10AM – 2PM
Altadena Library
600 E Mariposa St.
Altadena, CA 91001
Do you need help with your fire-damaged art and cherished belongings? We are here to help!
Art Recovery LA, Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, and Altadena Library District are offering FREE services to those affected by the fires, including:
- Condition assessments of your recovered artworks and belongings
- Cleaning objects to remove soot and ash
- Demonstrations to remove the smell of smoke from small objects
- Custom archival boxes for safe storage for select items
Due to high interest in this program, this event is open only to those affected by the recent fires who need assistance with artworks/belongings that were damaged by the fires. |
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| The Conservation Clinic is made possible by LA County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, the LA County Department of Arts and Culture, Altadena Library District, Conservation Association of Los Angeles (CALA), and FireAid. |
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Open Call
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Art Consultants Prequalified List
We’re inviting qualifications from Art Consultants to expand a diverse Prequalified List of individuals and/or teams to provide curatorial, public programming, community engagement, and public art project management services on an as-needed basis within a large range of budgets, project types, and constituencies.
This opportunity will expand the existing Art Consultant Prequalified List that is used to invite selected Art Consultants to bid on specific projects on an as-needed basis.
NOTE: Art Consultants on the current Prequalified List will not need to re-apply and will automatically qualify for the 2025 Prequalified List.
Application Deadline: Tuesday, September 2, 2025 | 5PM (PDT)
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ARTIST LANE STANLEY DEVELOPS HEALING-CENTERED ARTS ENGAGEMENT TOOLKIT
FOR LA COUNTY
The cover of Healing Survival by Lane Michael Stanley. |
In April 2024, artist Lane Michael Stanley began what would become an 11-month residency with the County, focusing on developing a toolkit for integrating healing-centered arts practices into community engagement with people experiencing homelessness and people living in and community members impacted by RV encampments.
Healing Survival: Arts-Based Strategies for Softening and Solving Collective Struggles is intended to support the County’s response to the homelessness crisis and is designed to:
- Improve empathy and understanding through deep listening
- Facilitate open communication
- Support productive dialogue
- Promote shared abilities to tackle transformative work
- Help communities build collective power
- Envision new solutions to the homelessness crisis
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Using the Arts in Re-Entry
(L-R): Workshop participants Asia, Rita, ACTA’s Ethel Zafranco, Program Coordinator Saidah Gray, and participant Angela. Photo by Monica Almeida. |
| Since the first D.O.O.R.S Center opened in 2019, the new County model of support for adults on felony probation as they reenter the community has included the arts. For the past six years, we have been partnering with the Office of Diversion and Reentry and now the Justice, Care, and Opportunities Department to offer arts programming that supports clients’ healing, social-emotional development, job skills training, and family reunification. The Alliance for California Traditional Arts (ACTA) has been providing healing-centered, culturally responsive arts programming for D.O.O.R.S Center clients and their families in the Antelope Valley since 2023. Earlier this month, ACTA completed a 16-week series of art-making workshops led by artist Ethel Zafranco, which culminated in an opening event and exhibit at the center. Many of the participants—who for this series have all been women—are survivors of domestic violence. Some told the audience they were so withdrawn and leery of creative expression that they hid their early pieces in their purses. By the end, they were proudly collaborating on large-format murals. |
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CREATIVE STRATEGIST PATRISSSE CULLORS’ DOCUMENTARY SELECTED FOR TWO FILM FESTIVALS
Creative Strategist Patrisse Cullors, the Executive Producer of documentary Close to Home.
Photo by Ryan Pfluger. |
Patrisse Cullors’ Creative Strategist residency with the LA County Homeless Initiative focused on dispelling myths and shifting narratives about people experiencing homelessness. During the residency, she engaged with the LA Emissary, a youth-led organization founded to inform funding, policy, and systems change to end youth homelessness through solutions driven and envisioned by those who are systems impacted.
Patrisse conceived of a short documentary to raise awareness of their work—and the result, Close to Home, reflects the voices and stories of four young people who have experienced homelessness and highlights their work with the LA Emissary, as they imagine a world where everyone has access to safe, affordable, and reliable housing. We learned recently that Close to Home has been selected for two film festivals: Seattle International Film Festival and the LGBTQ Toronto/Los Angeles Film Festival. The film will stream globally on the Seattle International Film Festival’s online platform through September 7, 2025. |
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Save The Date
Chef Gilberto Cetina of Holbox, which was awarded a Michelin star last year. |
LA Culinary Heritage: Mexico and France
Wednesday, October 8, 2025
LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes
501 N. Main Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
We’re partnering with LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes for a conversation on LA’s rich culinary heritage through the lens of Mexican, French, and Indigenous fusion! The program—highlighting food as culture in Los Angeles—features culinary stars Chef Gilberto Cetina of Holbox, Chef Fátima Juárez of Komal, Chef Chuy Cervantes of Damian and Ditroit Taqueria, and baker Arturo Enciso of Gusto. The chefs will discuss Indigenous ingredients, the Columbian Exchange, French techniques, and their impact on kitchens across LA County. Moderated by Evan Kleiman—author, chef, and host of KCRW’s Good Food.
In 2024, we collaborated with City of Paris, Le Carreau du Temple, and LA Plaza to present chef Cetina at the Food Temple culinary festival in Paris, at the conclusion of the 2024 Paris Cultural Olympiad. The 2025 LA Culinary Heritage: Mexico and France event carries it forward. It is part of a new legacy of Cultural Olympiad artistic collaborations highlighting the role of culture in creating legacy for communities in Olympic and Paralympic Games, initiated by the Department of Arts and Culture, City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, Paris Department of Cultural Affairs, and other partners during the 2024 Paris Cultural Olympiad, with a view to Los Angeles 2028. |
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Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Network Summit
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TWo-Day Event
The Department of Arts and Culture is a proud partner of the Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Network.
Join us for a powerful two-day event at Pasadena City College. The Summit is dedicated to fostering connection, raising awareness, and building essential skills for suicide prevention.
The Summit is free of charge to all registrants and will feature opportunities to connect, learn, and take action to reduce suicide. |
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| Collaborative Care Day |
Friday, September 12, 2025
8AM - 4PM (PDT)
Pasadena City College
Designed for caregivers, first responders, mental health professionals (licensed and non-licensed), and community leaders. This day will provide tools and strategies to strengthen suicide prevention efforts across Los Angeles County. |
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IN BRIEF
- Our friends at LA Opera Connects invite you to Creative Care: An Opera for Life and Wellness Program. Offered free on Zoom, this wellness-focused workshop series is inspired by LA Opera’s upcoming productions and timely themes. Each gathering combines mindfulness, creative expression, and self-reflection, led by Connects teaching artists. The first workshop is Tuesday, September 16 from 12-1pm, featuring Leonard Bernstein’s iconic West Side Story as the creative starting point. For more info and to register, visit LAOpera.org/CreativeCare.
- Check out Director Kristin Sakoda in the Department of Human Resources podcast Art as Public Service.
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