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Photo caption: Staff and Commissioners visiting Descanso Gardens' Roots of Cool exhibit, partially funded by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through our Community Impact Arts Grant.
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Dear Colleagues,
As we close a year with unprecedented hardships, I believe more than ever that the arts have the power to help communities heal, rebuild, and reimagine. Your artistry, cultural services, and positive impact made all the difference in 2025. At the Department of Arts and Culture, we remain steadfast in our commitment to you and our mission to advance arts, culture, and creativity throughout LA County. The past year’s core programs and recovery-focused efforts are chronicled in a 2024-25 annual report we’ll share in the new year. For now, we highlight a few extraordinary accomplishments.
Highlights
- We provided vital grant funding to more than 550 arts organizations in the Organizational Grant Program, distributed in two-year cycles—awarding over $4.5M to 236 arts nonprofits in FY 2023–24, and over $5.6M to 238 nonprofits in FY 2024–25. Our Community Impact Arts Grant delivered $750,000 to support arts projects and programming at 80 nonprofit social service and social justice organizations, municipal departments, and fiscally sponsored organizations.
- We concluded a historic effort distributing over $46M in critical funds from the federal American Rescue Plan and other pandemic recovery programs to support the LA County nonprofit arts sector between 2020 and 2024. These efforts are explored in our research report, Relief, Recovery, and Reform.
- In 2025, through the LA County Arts Internship Program, we invested more than $1.6M in arts workforce development, providing over 171 Department grantee organizations with paid internships and 228 diverse college students with creative career experiences that will benefit them throughout their professional journeys.
- In November, the Board adopted a motion authored by Supervisors Solis and Horvath to update the Countywide Land Acknowledgment, including several Tribes with ancestral ties to the land that is now Los Angeles County and the re-named Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation. We worked with LA City/County Native American Indian Commission to release updated resources on lacounty.gov.
- Our Creative Strategist program engaged artist christy roberts berkowitz in a residency with the Department of Human Resources to produce a second LA County Employee Wellness, Arts, and Culture Festival, using poetry to support our public workforce in the aftermath of the fires at the Natural History Museum of LA County. As Creative Strategist with the LA County Homeless Initiative, artist Patrisse Cullors dispelled myths and shifted narratives about people experiencing homelessness, executive producing the documentary Closer to Home.
- In our work coordinating the Arts Ed Collective, we provided flexible matching Advancement Grants to LA County school districts to expand access to quality arts education, with more than $2.6M awarded to 36 school districts to support arts education. Our work in school districts, community, and County care systems can be explored in the Arts Ed Division’s End of Year Report.
- With our Creative Wellbeing approach, we promoted mental health through the arts, funding community arts partners to provide healing-centered arts instruction for nearly 6,300 school-age youth and youth in foster care, as well as arts-based self-care and professional development for nearly 3,450 adults who support them.
- We celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Board’s adoption of the LA County Civic Art Policy, while our Civic Art Division managed 119 active projects and completed 34 projects spanning County facilities, artistic mediums, and artists commissioned.
- We responded to the January fires with creative recovery efforts, including directing FireAid funded grants to over 380 artists and creatives, many who lost homes or studios; sharing response and recovery resources; and serving 430 artists and community members in a series of Conservation Clinics, their fire-damaged artworks, family photographs, paintings, pottery, and sculptures cared for and cleaned by a volunteer team of nearly 150 partnering conservators and staff.
As I reflect on these achievements, I am immensely grateful to the Board of Supervisors, the Cultural Equity and Inclusion Initiative and Cultural Policy that guide us, our Arts Commission, the extraordinary work of our Department of Arts and Culture staff, all our collaborating partners, and you.
Onward,
Kristin Sakoda
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Deadline Extended
Site visit to Culver City Middle School. Photo by Rudy Torres. |
Join the High School Arts Internship Program Regional Hub Partners List
We recently announced a deadline extension for our RFSQ to join a prequalified list of community-based organizations capable of providing comprehensive support and services for rising public high school seniors participating in an eight-week paid summer internship program.
Regional Hub Partners will provide services that include, but are not limited to, hosting a cohort of 10 student interns at a dedicated physical space, implementing a curriculum of workshops to prepare students for college and career success, curating and implementing excursions to arts and cultural organizations in LA County, providing mentorship, highlighting careers in the creative sector, promoting arts and culture as a community resource, supporting outreach and recruitment, and building a strong alumni network.
NEW Deadline to Apply: January 14, 2026 | 5PM (PST).
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Arts Ed Collective 2024-25 End of Year Report
Farragut Elementary students during a ukulele lesson (Culver City Unified School District). Photo by Rudy Torres. |
The LA County Arts Education Collective (the Collective), which our department coordinates, recently released its 2024-25 End of Year Report. In a year marked by wildfires, federal funding cuts, and threats to immigrant communities, the report highlights the vital role of the arts in healing and resilience. Through the Advancement Grant Program, more than $2.6M grant dollars and matching funds were invested into school-based arts education for 36 local education agencies during the 2024-25 school year. With school districts focused on implementation of Arts and Music in Schools (Prop 28), the Collective continued to provide expertise and guidance to ensure school districts leverage Prop 28 funds effectively and equitably in support of arts education. The Creative Wellbeing initiative also provided healing-centered arts programs for fire-impacted youth, families, and educators in Pasadena and Altadena.
A half-decade after the LA County Board of Supervisors’ adoption of a new Arts Ed Blueprint, we are proud to share how the work of the Collective continues to ensure that all young people—across schools and communities—can engage in the arts as a vital part of their growth and development. |
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MAXIMIZING PROP 28 FUNDS
Arcadia USD site visit. |
| California’s Arts & Music in Schools Act (Prop 28) is making historic investments in arts education—but districts must spend their first-year funds before the upcoming deadline or risk having them clawed back by the California Department of Education. We are thrilled to share a recording of the Create CA webinar, "Creativity Can't Wait: Maximizing Arts and Music in Schools Act Funds." It includes an overview of Prop 28 deadlines and spending requirements; insights from parents, advocates, and district leaders on local strategies; a case study from a district that is planning to use a waiver; and concrete action steps for districts, families, and community advocates. Find this webinar and other resources on our Prop 28 webpage! |
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Announcing Free Professional Developemnt Workshops For Artists
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In Fall 2024, the PAiD program offered 14 free online workshops to support artists' career development. The PAiD Program is excited to announce the second cycle of its FREE online professional development workshop series designed specifically for artists begins in January 2026. The series will build on 2024's content, offering more in-depth information about financial and project management, overcoming creative setbacks, working with art fabricators, and other topics tailored to support artists’ career development. |
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| The Public Artists in Development (PAiD) is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to promote the career growth and economic empowerment of underrepresented artists in LA County. This program was created to address critical structural barriers to participation identified by the Civic Art Division and across the broader field of public art. The program will expand educational resources, training, mentorship, and new project opportunities to encourage the skill-building and professional readiness of diverse artists. |
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IN BRIEF - ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
- Save the date in the new year! Our friends at Arts for LA were selected as the regional engagement partner for the California Arts Council’s Regional Engagement Tour for the Creative Economy Strategic Plan released in October. There will be two Town Halls to bring together creative sector employers and cross-sector partners to discuss the plan: Jan. 28, 6-8 pm, at The Music Center Annex, and Jan. 29, 6-8 pm, at the Saban Media Center. More info coming soon.
- The LA County Office of Education's January 14 Arts Program Assessment Workshop will support school districts strengthening assessment strategies and student-centered decision making. Bring your team to learn about tools to assess visual and performing arts programs in a practical, accessible way.
- Cultural institutions, arts organizations, and artists and performing groups affected by heavy rains flooding can call the National Heritage Responders hotline (202.661.8068) for 24/7 guidance from trained conservators and collections care professionals. A Save Your Family Treasures guidance is available here.
- We're proud to be a part of the development of the SELA Cultural Center, which will become an incredible hub for the Southeast LA community. To gather input from residents, artists, and educators on what the future center could look like, take part in this survey (it's available in English and Spanish).
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