The mission of the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture is to advance arts, culture, and creativity throughout LA County. We fulfill our mission by providing services and support in areas including grants and technical assistance for nonprofit organizations; professional development opportunities; commissioning civic artworks and managing the County’s civic art collection; implementing countywide arts education initiatives; research and evaluation; career pathways in the creative economy; free community programs; and cross sector creative strategies that address civic issues. This work is framed by the County’s Cultural Equity and Inclusion Initiative and a longstanding commitment to fostering access to the arts.
This tile artwork was created in 1996 through the Arts and Children Project for juvenile offenders founded by L.A. Theatre Works, a youth intervention program with the L.A. County Probation Department and the L.A. County Office of Education. Artist-in-residence Lucy Blake-Elahi supervised the creation of the tile artwork and the youth worked on every stage of the artwork from the design to the installation.
About the Artist:
Lucy Blake-Elahi is a Los Angeles-based artist. She is a graduate of Pratt Institute, Brooklyn and State University of New York, New Paltz. She has been an art & art history instructor at UCLA’s Graduate Art Education Department, West Los Angeles College, Culver City, and was artist-in-residence in Yellowstone National Park. As a public artist, Blake-Elahi has permanent artwork in LA County, Long Beach, Culver City, Pasadena and Inglewood, CA.