The mission of the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture is to advance arts, culture, and creativity throughout LA County. We provide leadership, services, and support in areas including grants and technical assistance for nonprofit organizations, countywide arts education initiatives, commissioning and care for civic art collections, research and evaluation, access to creative pathways, professional development, free community programs, and cross sector creative strategies that address civic issues. All of this work is framed by our longstanding commitment to fostering access to the arts, and the County’s Cultural Equity and Inclusion Initiative.
The Department of Arts and Culture coordinates the Los Angeles County Arts Education Collective, that envisions positive child and youth development that addresses large-scale societal inequities, fosters social-emotional development, promotes healing, builds cohesion and cultural identity, and uplifts communities through the arts. .
The Los Angeles County Civic Art Program works with leading and emerging artists, County departments and communities to create artworks, design, public engagement activities, exhibitions, temporary art and event-based programming throughout Los Angeles.
The Department of Arts and Culture provides funding support through a variety of grant programs, ensuring cultural services and opportunities are accessible to LA County residents of all ages.
The Department of Arts and Culture supports a range of professional development opportunities, including scholarships for staff members of grantee organizations, and a range of workshops and networking training opportunities for individual artists and administrators.
The Department of Arts and Culture uses data and analysis to support work that ensures all residents of LA County can engage with the arts in a variety of ways. We do this primarily through applied research, evaluation, data mining and sharing promising practices.
In the spring of 2017, the Department of Arts and Culture released the Cultural Equity & Inclusion Initiative, which 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.