The Public Artists in Development (PAiD) program’s Artist Council is an eight-member group of artists selected to provide recommendations to help shape the future of Los Angeles County's public art policy and processes.
Over the course of a 6-month long, two-part program of dialogue and art creation led by PAiD program art consultant, Dyson & Womack, the Artist Council has engaged in a series of discussions about topics such as public art contracts, creating community engagement plans, project management, and working with subcontractors. Guest presenters have included public art administrators, other established artists, and subject area experts. At the end of their tenure on the Council, the artists will craft a set of recommendations that seek to address historical barriers to participation and expand support for artists working in the field of public art.
The group was also granted individual project budgets to create temporary public artworks to engage communities about their work and further the artists’ artistic goals. The projects include the creation of sculptural installations, pop-up events, and performance-based artworks, which will be on view beginning in late March through May 2026. You can read more about the artists and their projects below.This is the second cycle of the Artist Council program.
The 2025 - 26 Cohort
Amir H. Fallah creates paintings, murals, sculptures, and installation that explore systems of representation embedded in the history of Western art. His ornate environments combine the visual vocabularies of painting and collage to deconstruct traditional notions of identity,
Autumn Breon is a Los Angeles-based artist whose work engages queer Black feminist praxis, historical memory, and speculative futures. Her practice spans performance, installation, and public art that centers liberation and care.
Brian Sonia-Wallace is a poet, educator, and public artist based in Los Angeles. Former Poet Laureate of West Hollywood, he is the author of "The Poetry of Strangers" (HarperCollins) and "Maze Mouth."
Mims is an artist, abolitionist, and facilitator based in Los Angeles. Her work spans performance, advocacy, public art, social practice, and the creation of fine art objects.
Edgar Ramirez is a Los Angeles-based artist whose practice draws from the industrial landscapes and visual language surrounding the Port of Los Angeles.
Hedy Torres is a Mexican-born artist based in Los Angeles, who immigrated to the United States in 2006. Her early experience working as a street vendor deeply shaped her practice, inspiring a focus on the stories of immigrants and street vendors whose labor and resilience often go unrecognized.
Born to immigrants from Kaiping, China, Lena Chen (b. 1987, San Francisco) was raised in the San Gabriel Valley, an ethnoburb of Los Angeles built on the unceded territory of the Gabrielino/Tongva people. She is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans performance, new media, and social practice.
Originally from San Diego and working in Los Angeles, California, noé olivas is a multidisciplinary artist, cultural worker, and cofounder of Crenshaw Dairy Mart, a community space centering ancestry, abolition, and healing.