2007 Issue No. 2

I. Arts Commission awards $4,518,000 in grants to 163 County arts groups

II. Arts for All Initiative celebrates milestones

III. Applications for 48th Annual L.A. County Holiday Celebration due August 8

IV. Ford Amphitheatre seeks proposals for 2008 Summer Season,
applications due September 12

V. Arts Commission offices moving

VI. Free summer music bonanza



ARTS COMMISSION AWARDS $4,518,000 IN GRANTS TO 163 COUNTY ARTS GROUPS

The Los Angeles County Arts Commission has announced $4,518,000 in two-year grants to 163 nonprofit arts organizations through its Organizational Grant Program. An estimated 6.9 million people will be served by the organizations receiving grants in the upcoming year.

Organizational arts grants by Los Angeles County for fiscal years 2007-08 and 2008-09, broken down by size of organization, are as follows.

SMALL BUDGET (under $100,000) – 65 grants totaling $759,900
MID-SIZE BUDGET 1 ($100,000-$500,000) – 55 grants totaling $1,025,600
MID-SIZE BUDGET 2 ($500,000-$1,500,000) – 22 grants totaling $940,800
LARGE BUDGET (more than $1,500,000) - 21 grants totaling $1,791,700

Grant amounts range from $2,000 to $293,100. Grantee organizations are spread throughout L.A. County with offices located in 46 of the County’s 88 municipalities.

Twenty-nine (18 percent) of these organizations are receiving County arts grants for the first time. Of these, 19 are in the Small Budget category, 8 are in the Mid-Size Budget category, and two are Large Budget.

This grant cycle marks the first time all grants are for two years. The Arts Commission has been working toward implementing two-year awards for all organizations since last year when the Board of Supervisors doubled the grants allocation. Two-year grants increase stability for arts organizations enabling them to plan ahead and lighten their administrative workload because they prepare grant proposals every other year instead of annually.

In addition to the 163 arts organizations whose grants were approved by the Board of Supervisors on July 3 are 147 organizations who will receive $1,601,250 for the second year of two-year grants awarded last year. These grantees bring the total number of arts organizations receiving County funds to 310.

A complete list of grantees is online on the Arts Commission’s web site,
/grantabout.html

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ARTS FOR ALL INITIATIVE CELEBRATES MILESTONES

Two hundred arts education stakeholders gathered at the Music Center to look back and forward at the Arts for All: 5 th Year Review luncheon on May 30. Arts for All is the County’s 10-year initiative to return meaningful, sequential arts education to all 80 County school districts. Speakers at the event included L.A. County Supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky and Yvonne B. Burke. Major accomplishments of the first five years noted and celebrated were:

• The addition of 9 new districts for the 2007-08 school year, bringing the grand total to 28
  districts committed to the goals of Arts for All
• 13 Arts for All districts have arts coordinators or are reviewing candidates for the position
• Partners in the Arts for All Pooled Fund, which supports technical assistance and
  implementation of arts ed plans in the districts, have contributed close to $1.5 million,
  matched by $1.5 million from participating school districts
• www.LAArtsEd.org: The online arts education portal has been expanded to include a
  searchable database of tools and resources including examples of school district arts
  policies, resources for strategic planning, and discussions that can support and expand
  schools commitment to systemic arts education. Visit here.


In June, the Board of Supervisors allocated an additional $224,000 for FY 07-08 to enable the Arts Commission to strategically maximize the growing state funding going to Los Angeles County school districts for arts education.