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A Message From Our Director
Wenot (Life Giver) by Teresa Baker (Mandan/Hidatsa), located in the Hall of Records - Regional Planning Office. LA County Civic Art Collection. |
Greetings,
Earlier this month, our Board of Supervisors unanimously approved updated language for LA County's Land Acknowledgement. Since adopting the Countywide Land Acknowledgement in 2022, we've worked to embed this protocol into County practice and share thoughtful resources developed with local Tribes and partners such as the Land Acknowledgement Toolkit.
As we observe Native American Heritage Month this November, I reflect on gratitude and the significance of acknowledgment—not just as an important practice when we gather, but as meaningful action toward justice and repair.
That spirit of recognition and response animates another announcement. We've just released Relief, Recovery, and Reform: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic for Arts and Culture, documenting how LA County invested more than $46 million between 2020 and 2024 to support our cultural sector through funding distributed by Department of Arts and Culture. It describes the responsive grant programs we created, prioritizing speed, equity, and accessibility. We are grateful to the Board of Supervisors for these funding allocations, and to grantees for their work. This report doesn't just look back—it proposes 12 reforms to strengthen arts and culture infrastructure against future crises.
I am also appreciative of our partners in the Arts Ed Collective Funders Council, who help us ensure the next generation of youth has access to culturally relevant arts education, in schools, institutions, and communities. These initiatives, all of which you can explore further below, share common ground: acknowledging historic inequities while building more just, resilient systems for the future.
In this season of thanks, I'm grateful for the Board, Arts Commissioners, our Department staff, and all of you.
Onward!
Kristin Sakoda |
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Updated Countywide Land Acknowledgment
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| A land acknowledgement is a statement that recognizes an area’s original inhabitants who have been forcibly dispossessed of their homelands. While still relatively uncommon among city, county, and state governments in the United States, Land Acknowledgments are a long-standing protocol within Native communities and are standard practice in countries such as Australia and Canada. The County adopted the Countywide Land Acknowledgement in 2022, and earlier this month, the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a motion by Supervisors Hilda L. Solis and Lindsey P. Horvath to update its language. The acknowledgement now reflects the official name change of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians to the Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation. Additionally, during the development of the Land Acknowledgment Toolkit, several Tribes from LA County listed by the State of California Native American Heritage Commission requested they be added to the Countywide Land Acknowledgment. |
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New Report:
Relief, Recovery, and Reform Evaluation
Photo courtesy of Angels Gate Cultural Center. |
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We are pleased to announce the release of Relief, Recovery, and Reform: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic for Arts and Culture, which documents LA County's support for arts and culture relief and recovery during the pandemic. Between 2020 and 2024, the LA County Board of Supervisors invested more than $46 million in relief and recovery funding for arts and culture, most in the form of grants to nonprofit organizations administered by our Department. This report documents where those funds came from and the programs that distributed them. To deliver funds as quickly as possible to the organizations and people who needed them most, we built multiple grant programs from scratch. We created mechanisms that spread the funding as widely as possible with a focus on supporting communities that had experienced the greatest impacts from the pandemic, while also minimizing the burden of application and reporting requirements. The new report also places LA County’s relief and recovery efforts for arts and culture into the historical context of American relief and recovery from other economic crises, and exposes weaknesses in the systems that fund arts and culture. It concludes by recommending 12 reforms in four categories, each of which can strengthen the arts and culture sector while helping to harden it against future emergencies. |
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A Huge Thank you to The Arts Ed Collective Funders Council!
Attendees at recent Arts Ed Collective Funders Council convening. |
On October 29, Arts and Culture convened the Arts Ed Collective Funders Council to discuss California's arts education landscape and to celebrate the contributions of long-time Funders Council members. Special thanks to Arts Commissioner, Jennifer Price-Letscher at the Parsons Foundation, for hosting the meeting at their office.
On behalf of Los Angeles County, Chair Kathryn Barger provided honorary scrolls that were presented by staff member Gina Ender to member organizations that have funded the work of the Arts Ed Collective, supported arts education and arts-based youth development, and advanced broader systems change efforts for over a decade.
Our philanthropic partnerships are unique in their depth and longevity. Since 2004, $23M philanthropic dollars have been contributed to expand arts education via the Arts Ed Collective. With 57 total funders participating in partnership with the County, we've leveraged philanthropic and government funding, resulting in over $60M of public and private dollars invested in school-based arts education and arts-based youth development, to date.
The Arts Ed Collective Funders Council includes:
Herb Alpert Foundation
Angell Foundation
The Philip and Muriel Berman Foundation
The Boeing Company
Louis L. Borick Foundation
Vladimir and Araxia Buckhantz Foundation
Colburn Foundation
The Carol and James Collins Foundation
The Carl & Roberta Deutsch Foundation
The Green Foundation
The Music Man Foundation
The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation
Rosenthal Family Foundation
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Dwight Stuart Youth Fund
The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
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CREATIVE CAREER PATHWAYS UPDATE
Image provided by Logan Jackson, instructor of the Watts Labor Community Action Committee's MCPP program. |
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We are excited to report that the second cohort of the Media Career Pathways Prototype (MCPP) is successfully underway! Part of the our Creative Career Pathways for Youth initiative, MCCP is a community-based media arts workforce training program that explores pathways to visual effects, gaming, animation, and music production careers for LA County youth who have historically experienced barriers to employment. It connects young people to creative career advisors, comprehensive case management, wraparound services, stipends, certifications, career readiness practices, and work-based learning. MCPP is implemented by the Watts Labor Community Action Committee (WLCAC) in partnership with The Alliance for Media Arts + Culture and Heart of Los Angeles, and with evaluation by Harder + Co. This year's 12 Transitional Age Youth (TAY), ages 18-24, are participating in a pre-apprenticeship curriculum focused on filmmaking, writing, and producing skills. |
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Join us for a Community Scanning Day!
Images courtesy of Bertha Ruiz-Hoffman (left) and Josh White Photography/JWPictures (right). |
December 6, 2025 | 2PM - 5PM (PST)
1550 West Beverly Boulevard
Montebello, CA 90640
Bring your photographs of the Benjamin Dominguez’s Fantastical Sculptures at Whittier Narrows Recreation Area to be scanned and shared!
We're inviting community members to share their personal and family photos of artist Benjamin Dominguez’s sculptures at Whittier Narrows Recreation Area (Legg Lake) over the years for a digital archive. A copy of the digitized files will be emailed to you after the event!
We are seeking images that capture the artworks, including:
- Everyday moments of the community playing and interacting with these artworks!
- Special or historical events where the artworks are visible.
- Images of the artist, including the artwork’s creation or conservation.
- Any period from the original artwork’s installation in 1961 to the present.
Together let’s celebrate these beloved public artwork’s nearly 65 years in South El Monte by creating a collaborative photo collection for all to enjoy! |
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Register for this free event on Eventbrite.
This is a program of the Department of Arts and Culture in partnership with the County of Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation. Whittier Narrows Recreational Area is a park owned or operated by the County of Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation. |
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Self & Community Care Sesssions are Back
Artwork by Danielle Galván Gomez. |
JOIN US Next Week
Wednesday, December 3, 2025 | 11AM - 12PM
Please join this healing-centered space to support your own wellbeing and share with anyone you think could benefit.
This workshop, facilitated by The Unusual Suspects Theatre Company invites
participants to explore the healing power of creative expression through poetry and
theatre. Led by an experienced teaching artist, the session uses the “recipe poem” as a
tool for reflection and performance. Participants will craft their own poetic “recipes”
and bring them to life through theatrical expression—blending words, emotion, and
movement into a meaningful collaborative experience.
This is a space to take a break, explore creativity, connect to your joy and purpose, build community, and support your own healing and wellbeing.
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| This series is a collaboration between Creative Wellbeing and the Wellbeing4LA Learning Center. All programming is virtual and will take place on the Wellbeing4LA platform. Log in, or create a free account to register. |
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IN BRIEF
- The first sector specific report on the Creative Economy for the State of California has been published and submitted to the legislature. California’s Future Is Creative: Strategies for Cultural Resilience, Economic Growth, and Global Leadership is the culmination of collaborative efforts and a critical first step toward strengthening the state's creative industries and workforce. Our Director Kristin Sakoda was previously appointed to the CA Creative Economy Working Group, which was engaged by the California Arts Council in its development of the plan.
- Dancers and choreographers! Please consider volunteering as an "Occupation Expert" as a dancer or choreographer to represent the dance ecosystem for the O*NET Data Collection Program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor. As the nation's most comprehensive source of occupational data, O*NET is a free resource and provides instant access to detailed descriptions on more than 900 occupations that drive the U.S. economy. Your participation helps to ensure that the complexities of these dance professions are described accurately in the O*NET database.
- The Los Angeles Sentinel recently covered the screening of Close to Home, filmed during artist Patrisse Cullors’ residency with the LA County Homeless Initiative in our Creative Strategist program. The film focuses on four youth advocates from the LA Emissary as they share their lived experiences of homelessness and reimagine a future where housing is a human right. Check out the article!
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