(Above)"Tapestry of Dreams" by Matt Doolin.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas has introduced a motion, co-authored by Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, to be voted on by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors at this Tuesday’s, August 4 Board meeting. The motion would direct the Chief Executive Officer to identify funding in the Fiscal Year 2020-21 Supplemental Budget to increase the Organizational Grant Program by $3.6M over three years.
"Implementing the CEII Report recommendation to expand the Organizational Grants Program (OGP) would support the County’s small and mid-size arts organizations that are too often disadvantaged in their ability to access arts funding. This lack of access, in turn, makes it difficult for underserved communities to gain access to arts programs and other opportunities. In addition to providing stable funding and technical support to the County’s more disadvantaged arts organizations, every dollar granted out by the OGP is matched one-for-one from other sources."
—Ensuring the Equitable Recovery of Los Angeles County’s Arts Organizations Motion
In the spring of 2017, the Department of Arts and Culture developed the Cultural Equity & Inclusion Initiative with wide community input. This included 13 recommendations to the LA County Board of Supervisors to ensure that everyone in LA County has equitable access to arts and culture, and to improve inclusion in the wider arts ecology for all residents in every community. One of those recommendations was to increase funding to the Organizational Grant Program (OGP).
OGP provides Los Angeles County nonprofit arts organizations funding to address priority needs and ensures cultural services for the diverse community that comprise LA County.