Publications
E-News Sign Up
Sign up below for the latest news and updates!
This report summarizes the work of our network of school districts, nonprofit partners, County service providers, and arts advocates from the 2023-24 fiscal year.
The first-ever Annual Report for the LA County Department of Arts an Culture highlights activities and impacts from 2023-24.
In 2023, 228 positions were initially awarded to 157 organizations and of those, 224 positions at 155 organizations were successfully launched. An estimated 4,180 applications were received for these positions.
In its second evaluation of the Creative Wellbeing approach, Harder+Company Community Research found that young people who participated experienced positive social-emotional benefits while also exploring their interests, building technical art skills, and increasing their access to the arts. Adults who participated in the program are experiencing and embodying Creative Wellbeing values and healing themselves through this work. They further found that
This third study by SMU DataArts analyzing the demographic makeup of the arts and cultural workforce in LA County finds a significant shift toward greater racial and ethnic diversity since 2019, particularly at the leadership level.
Civic Art Division annual report for the 2022-23 fiscal year.
This past year, the Arts Ed Collective celebrated 20 years of service to the young people of LA County and acknowledged the hundreds of new and longstanding partners who came together to accomplish what none of us could have achieved alone
The 2022-23 County Wide Cultural Policy Report collectes updates on how the Department of Arts and Culture is implementing the Countywide Cultural Policy.
The Civic Art Demographics Study, a collaboration between Arts and Culture’s Research and Evaluation and Civic Art divisions, is a comprehensive analysis of artworks and artists in the Collection. It is one part of a broader initiative to review Civic Art policies, procedures, commissions, and support for artists. Research consultant Special Service for Groups, Inc. (SSG) conducted the study on behalf of Arts and Culture and prepared the report.
With this activity kit, create a version of "Con Mucho Amor" by Lorenzo Hurtado Segovia with household items like a few sheets of paper and some pens.
This study explores the role that young adult advisory councils (YAACs) can play in helping arts and culture nonprofits address emerging issues, better understand the communities they serve, and achieve their missions. Through interviews with 25 YAAC managers and participants at arts nonprofits across the US, five key themes emerged:
Inspired by nature’s power to inspire and heal, artist Renée Fox’s mural Sunrise over the San Gabriels, created in 2021, invites visitors to the Olive View Restorative Care Village in Sylmar to contemplate the splendor of the local landscape and native flora and fauna. Throughout Fox’s coloring book are illustrations, which capture the native birds, plants, and butterflies of the San Gabriel foothills. The artist hopes that her mural and this coloring book will inspire curiosity and exploration of the natural world
LA General Medical Center has a long and storied history of providing health and medical services for greater Los Angeles. LA General Child Care Center is located directly west of the iconic General Hospital in Boyle Heights. This Community Coloring Zine is an extension of the mural, "On The Same Team," created by artist Andrew Hem for the exterior wall of the Child Care Center.
Civic Art Division annual report for the 2021-22 fiscal year.
To kick off our anniversary celebration, Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell authored a motion to commemorate 75 years of arts and culture in LA County, which the Board unanimously passed. And to continue the celebration, we've created a special 75 Years of Arts and Culture report.
The drawings for this book were created by artist Olalekan Jeyifous and are inspired by his aluminum mural installation "Canyon Dreamscape," a commission by the LA County Department of Arts and Culture for the Olive View Restorative Care Village in Sylmar, California.
The drawings for this book were created by artist Cheryl Molnar and inspired her glass mosaic mural, "Birds in Flight," a commission by the LA County Department of Arts and Culture for the High Desert Restorative Care Village in Lancaster, California.
This coloring book was created by artist Christine Nguyen and is inspired by her three artworks the artist created for the Sheila Kuel Family Health and wellness Center in San Fernando California.
This coloring book has been created by artist Anne-Elizabeth Sobieski, and is inspired by the artworks she created for Fire Station #104.
Since 2015, the Department of Arts and Culture has collected consistent data about the demographic makeup of people who attend our professional development and technical assistance (PD/TA) programs. This report summarizes our analysis of six years of PD/TA programs offered by the department, from 2015-16 through 2020-21.
Civic Art Division annual report for the 2020-21 fiscal year.
Creative Strategist Clement Hanami has been in residence with the Department of Public Health’s PLACE Division since 2018 working on the Vision Zero Initiative, a County initiative to reduce traffic fatalities and severe injuries while increasing safe, healthy, and equitable mobility for all.
An evaluation of the first six residencies of the Creative Strategist program finds that a significant amount of art-as-process occurred across the residencies, with many of the creative strategists doing work engaging communities, especially those historically underserved by local government.
In 2020, the Department celebrated the 20th Anniversary of the Arts Internship Program, while simultaneously adjusting the program to ensure viability and flexibility in the face of challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Department, the arts sector, and students in the County.
Make or Break: Race and Ethnicity in Entry-Level Compensation for Arts Administrators in Los Angeles County is a study of compensation for entry-level arts administrators in Los Angeles County and reveals troubling disparities between those who identify as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and their White counterparts.
This zine is designed to help artists, arts organizations, and arts funders use data as you plan for reopening. It includes findings from Audience Outlook Monitor surveys and interviews with arts audiences and visitors in LA County. It also offers suggestions for other data to consider as you plan to reopen.
The Department of Arts and Culture contracted with WolfBrown to provide our grantees with an opportunity to participate in the Audience Outlook Monitor (AOM), a national study to measure and track audience readiness and attitudes towards returning to live arts and cultural events. The AOM survey was deployed three times between August 2020 and January 2021.
An annual report chronicling the activity of the Department of Arts and Culture's Civic Art Division from January July, 2019 - July, 2020.
Based on interviews with disabled and non-disabled artists and art professionals, this research study, Accessibility and the Arts: Reconsidering the Role of the Artist, investigates the role of artists and the museums that exhibit their work in making artwork accessible to people with disabilities.
The 2019-20 End of Year Report provides an overview of how the Arts Ed Collective has adapted our work to support partners, youth, and families during the COVID-19 pandemic. This summative report on activities between January and June 2020 addresses the ways in which County agencies, school districts, and community-based organizations are pivoting to remote programs and services to ensure that youth across the region engage in quality arts education.
What began as a health crisis has become an economic crisis and a moment of reckoning for racial justice. Since mid-March, systemic and structural inequities across LA County have become more visible than ever before.
The New Regional Blueprint for Arts Education contains strategies for increasing arts education in school, after school, and in communities, including juvenile justice, foster youth, and workforce development systems.
Creating Connections: An Arts and Culture Framework and Toolkit establishes standards for arts and culture as core programming across all County parks, and was developed by Creative Strategist Sandra de la Loza.
Healing Through Story: A Toolkit on Grassroots Approaches is a resource developed with and for Department of Mental Health staff by artist and LA County Creative Strategist Anu Yadav focusing on the power of story as an arts-based healing process.
During the 2018-19 fiscal year, Arts and Culture's Civic Art Program managed a total of 74 civic art projects, with 21 new projects initiated and 17 completed.
A report on the 2019 Arts Internship Program, which included 203 College students interning at 125 organizations.
A study using qualitative methods to understand arts audiences in LA County.
This is the second study conducted by SMU DataArts for Arts and Culture, analyzing the demographics of the arts and cultural workforce in LA County.
A report about the implementation of a new eligibility requirement for the Organizational Grant Program that requires all grantees to submit a statement, policy, or plan outlining their commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and access as part of their applications.
Building Creative Career Pathways for Youth analyzes opportunities for youth in 70 creative occupations in the creative industries as well as programs designed to help youth access those jobs. This field scan found that Arts Education programs are nearly ubiquitous in the County, although not necessarily high quality nor equitably accessible to all residents.
Some Place Chronicles is a series of five creative placemaking projects set in five unincorporated communities in the Second District of Los Angeles County. Numerous and varied engagements with the people who live and work in these communities have culminated in five unique books—each containing explorations, documentations, and pragmatic and poetic testimonies of what has been and dreams of what might be—created by five different artists/collectives. The chronicle of Ladera Heights, View Park, and Windsor Hills—A Place We Call Home: East of La Cienega and South of Stocker—is authored by Sandy Rodriguez and Isabelle Lutterodt, working together as Studio 75.
The LA County Department of Arts and Culture's Civic Art Program is pleased to present the 2017/18 Annual Report. In FY 2017/18, a total of 68 civic art projects were actively managed, 26 new projects were initiated, and 20 projects were completed.
A summary and evaluation of the Summer 2018 Arts Internship Program from the perspectives of both interns and supervisors.
The Antelope Valley Artist Outpost continues with the release of Yestermorrow: Llano—An Artist's Field Guide to Llano, California.
Report and Documentary Highlight Benefits of Artworks for Civic Engagement
Four Projects in South LA Represent Shift Towards “Art As Infrastructure”
Some Place Chronicles is a creative placemaking project that features the people, histories and cultures of East Rancho Dominguez, Florence-Firestone, Lennox and Ladera Heights/View Park/Windsor Hills.
The Department of Arts and Culture's Civic Art Program is pleased to present the 2016/17 Annual Report. In FY 2016/17, a total of 62 civic art projects were actively managed and covered 60 communities reaching over 8,500 community members throughout the County.
Read The Report
Read our report on the 2016-17 Research and Evaluation Plan: what we did and why, and some key lessons we learned along the way.
Artist Sandy Rodriguez was placed as an artist in residence at the Recuperative Care Center at the Martin Luther King Medical Campus in Willowbrook, CA, in 2016/17. This residency was part of a $1.6 million investment in Civic Art funded through the LA County Percent for Art policy. A final evaluation report on the residency is available now.
The LA County Arts Education Profile survey was administered to all 2,277 public schools in LA County to learn about the quantity, quality and equity of arts education. We found that nearly every school offers at least some arts instruction, and most schools offer at least two disciplines. At the same time, we found troubling inequities that reflect disparities in the wider society.
On Saturday, April 22, 2017, nearly 150 participants, speakers, volunteers, and observers assembled in downtown LA to spend the day exploring how data can be used to improve access to the arts for all ten million residents of Los Angeles County. This report tells the story of what we did, and provides a toolkit for others who want to do their own datathon.
This report outlines the Cultural Equity and Inclusion Initiative, an 18-month public process that led to the development of 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.
This study analyzes the demographics of the arts and cultural workforce in Los Angeles County—specifically, staff members, board, volunteers, and independent contractors associated with 386 cultural nonprofits, most of which receive funding from Arts and Culture, and/or seven other municipal funders in the County. The findings presented in this report are based on 3,307 unique responses to the DataArts Workforce Demographics survey, conducted from May 2016 - July 2016. Among the key findings:
The Civic Art Program Annual Report provides a comprehensive review of projects completed in the 2015/16 fiscal year and their impact on the community.
Recent research has found that across the US, arts audiences are declining, while arts participation is on the rise. How can both be true at the same time? This review of the literature on Public Engagement in the Arts explores this question.
This literature review provides background information on how others have addressed how to improve diversity, cultural equity, and inclusion in the arts and culture sector, with a particular focus on boards of directors, the arts and culture workforce, audiences and programming, and culturally specific arts organizations.
In 2012, 35,076 volunteers worked nearly six million hours at 386 nonprofit arts organizations in LA County. This report explores the role of volunteers in arts nonprofits.
In 2015, Arts and Culture analyzed data from 2014 reports written and submitted by grantees of the Organizational Grant Program, to identify trends in the field and to improve the program.
In 2013, 198,110 people in LA County were employed in 79 creative occupations. Half of those jobs did not require a bachelor’s degree. What kinds of careers are available, how well do they pay, and what training is required?
In 2013, the Arts Ed Collective + Arts and Culture administered a survey to arts organizations and teaching artists across the County, to find out who provided arts education services to LA County's 2,198 public schools.
This study found that arts nonprofits in LA County may be more likely than employers in other sectors to provide health benefits to their employees.
Analyzing data from the Cultural Data Project, Arts and Culture found that nonprofit arts organizations in Los Angeles County paid some $266.6 million in salaries to the equivalent of 4,650 full time employees in 2011.
Arts education across all 81 school districts in LA County has held steady since 2005/06, despite the recession and even as the total number of students enrolled in public schools has declined. That’s what Arts and Culture learned when analyzing data on arts courses, enrollment, and teachers that was reported by school districts to the California Department of Education (CDE).