89.3 KPCC
By Priska Neely
Priska Neely reports on the April 4, 2017 board meeting where LA County supervisors voted unanimously to advance a proposal, brought forward by supervisors Hilda Solis and Sheila Kuehl, that the Arts Commission prepared over 18 months. The proposal included 13 recommendations to increase diversity in key areas, notably staffing and audience, of arts organizations.
In November 2015, the LA County Board of Supervisors signed a motion that tasked the Arts Commission with figuring out how to make the County's arts and cultural institutions more diverse. A task force of over 30 arts leaders developed a 13 actionable strategies--taking into consideration data from a survey conducted across local arts organizations and input from 650 community members who attended town hall meetings organized by the Arts Commission around the issues of cultural inclusion and equity in the arts--that were incorporated into a report presented to the supervisors.
As a next step, the board motion directs the county's chief executive officer 'to provide a written report to the Board with recommendations on funding these initiatives.'
Supervisor Solis acknowledged that there's still a long road ahead in the roll out, but told those gathered at the meeting that she will make it a priority.
'Everyone's worried about the budget,' said Solis, 'but people are also worried about the arts.'
