April is Arts Month! Chair Holly J. Mitchell and Supervisor Sheila Kuehl authored a motion to recognize the role of arts and culture in healing and recovery from COVID-19, and to continue the County’s work of ensuring that all the benefits of, and opportunities provided by, the arts are available and accessible to all residents, no matter who they are or where they live. The motion encourages all County departments to promote the arts this April.

Los Angeles County’s creative ecosystem is one of the most vibrant in the world—with arts nonprofits, businesses, artists, and creative workers collaborating in performing arts, design, film and screen industries, arts education, visual and literary arts. The County has invested meaningfully in arts and culture for more than a century, from grants for small and mid-sized arts nonprofits to large County-owned cultural venues. But there is more work to do to expand equity and access. The Countywide Cultural Policy is an exciting new part of this work—it will help us go further in using the arts to improve service delivery for residents, support our economy, promote wellbeing, and strengthen our communities.

To celebrate Arts Month, we have made a few artworks available to download as desktop wallpapers or video conference backgrounds (for programs such as Skype and Zoom). The artworks on this page represent only a small portion of the full Los Angeles County Civic Art Collection. To learn more, click on the artwork you wish to read about or visit the County Collection to explore more art! We also encourage you to check out the great Arts Month resources from Arts for LA.