City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs Invests Over $3 Million in Local Arts Organizations

The City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) announces that it is once again investing more than $3 million in 258 nonprofit arts organizations and festival producers to provide creative public activities and services to LA's residents and visitors between July 1, 2017 and June 30, 2018.

DCA will contract 270 grants to arts service providers to provide free or low-cost activities for the public throughout the City of Los Angeles.

Click here for full list of grantees: culturela.org/current-grantees.

More than 1,150 public activities are planned including: outdoor festivals and parades, art-making workshops with professional artists, and hundreds of culminating events which follow or include public presentations. These activities will be delivered on the radio, online, and in schools, hospitals, social service centers, senior facilities, and at art venues throughout the year.

"With this critical funding, DCA supports our nonprofit partners throughout Los Angeles in providing more access to quality arts and cultural activities to people across our great city for free or at a low cost," said DCA General Manager Danielle Brazell. "We are honored to work with these providers and producers to serve more of our constituents."

"The grant contracts range from $800 to $53,000, with an average grant of approximately $11,000," said Joe Smoke, DCA's Grants Administration Division Director. "The most subscribed application categories are theater, music, and combined art forms. The grants are scored by teams of peer reviewers from the Southern California community. The panelists recommended funding 95% of the applicants."

The primary goal of DCA's Cultural Grants Administration Division is to invest in arts/cultural festivals; festival collaborations between community service organizations and local arts organizations; nonprofit arts organization administrative operation projects; and nonprofit arts organization creative projects. This investment results in quantifiable sets of business/networking activities, culture/history presentations, dance concerts or classes, design/visual art exhibitions or museum projects, literature or publishing projects, media activities or presentations, music concerts or classes, outdoor festivals or parades, theatrical workshops or productions, traditional/folk arts activities or presentations, and/or multi-disciplinary arts activities for LA's residents and visitors. All DCA grant-funded services support public-benefit activities.

DCA's Cultural Grant Program is an annual opportunity. The deadline is the fourth Friday each August. In the month before applications are accepted, the staff provides online instructions, webinars, and tutorials in public libraries.

As a leading, progressive arts and cultural agency, DCA empowers LosAngeles' vibrant communities by supporting and providing access to quality visual, literary, musical, performing, and educational arts programming; managing vital cultural centers; preserving historic sites; creating public art; and funding services provided by arts organizations and individual artists.

Formed in 1925, DCA promotes arts and culture as a way to ignite a powerful dialogue, engage LA's residents and visitors, and ensure LA's varied cultures are recognized, acknowledged, and experienced. DCA's mission is to strengthen the quality of life in Los Angeles by stimulating and supporting arts and cultural activities, ensuring public access to the arts for residents and visitors alike.

DCA advances the social and economic impact of arts and culture through grant-making, public art, community arts, and strategic marketing and development. DCA creates and supports arts programming, maximizing relationships with other city agencies, artists, and arts and cultural nonprofit organizations to provide excellent service in neighborhoods throughout Los Angeles.

For more information, visit culturela.org, or follow on Facebook at facebook.com/culturela; Instagram @culture_la; and Twitter @culture_la.

To post a comment, you must register and login.