LA COUNTY ARTS REPORT CULTURAL EQUITY & INCLUSION INITIATIVE
Strengthening Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Arts and Culture Sector for All Los Angeles County Residents APRIL 2017 1 Photo courtesy A Window Between Worlds Between A Window courtesy Photo
"Given that Los Angeles is arguably the most diverse County in the country, as well as the creative capital of the nation, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission should play a leadership role in implementing model programs and leading discussions about how to ensure that arts organizations appropriately reflect the diversity of our communities...”
—Resolution by Supervisors Hilda L. Solis and Mark Ridley Thomas November 10, 2015
2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
THIS REPORT IS THE CULMINATION OF 18 MONTHS OF WORK AND REFLECTS THE IDEAS AND INPUT OF MANY PEOPLE ACROSS LOS ANGELES COUNTY. BY DESIGN, THIS REPORT REFLECTS THE VISION AND VALUES OF THE CULTURAL EQUITY AND INCLUSION INITIATIVE (CEII) PROCESS.
Many diverse voices have been As with any significant product emerging from incorporated, including members of an inclusive public process as ambitious and the Advisory Committee as well as forward-thinking as this one, the process of participants in the Town Halls and collecting and distilling their wisdom into a Working Groups. Their numbers are so coherent and readable narrative was led by a great that we cannot list all of them number of key individuals whose time, energy, here. We are grateful for their time and and commitment to the CEII process and the thoughtful insights they shared. vision must be acknowledged. We are confident that this report offers With gratitude, workable strategies for how to intertwine the goals of achieving diversity, equity, Tim Dang CEII CO-CHAIR inclusion and access so that all residents Helen Hernandez and all communities in LA County can CEII CO-CHAIR AND ARTS COMMISSIONER experience the benefits of the arts. Maria Rosario Jackson CEII CO-CHAIR
3 ARTS COMMISSIONERS
FIRST DISTRICT Hilda L. Solis, SUPERVISOR FOURTH DISTRICT Janice Hahn, Supervisor Helen Hernandez, EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Betty Haagen, SECRETARY (FORMER COMMISSIONER) Norma Provencio Pichardo Peter Lesnik, (FORMER COMMISSIONER) David Valdez Kathryn McDonnell, (FORMER COMMISSIONER) Darnella Davidson SECOND DISTRICT Mark Ridley-Thomas, Supervisor Eric Eisenberg Pamela Bright-Moon, VICE PRESIDENT Elizabeth (Liz) Schindler-Johnson Eric Hanks Hope Warschaw FIFTH DISTRICT Kathryn Barger, Supervisor Alis Clausen Odenthal THIRD DISTRICT Sheila Kuehl, Supervisor Bettina Korek, PRESIDENT Constance Jolcuvar Claudia Margolis Claire Peeps, IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT Rosalind Wyman ARTS COMMISSION STAFF Laura Zucker EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Leticia Rhi Buckley DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING Miriam Gonzalez EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT Erin Harkey FORMER CIVIC ART SENIOR PROJECT MANAGER Bronwyn Mauldin DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH AND EVALUATION ADDITIONAL ARTS COMMISSION STAFF ASSISTED BY STAFFING TOWN HALLS AND WORKING GROUPS. ADVISORY COMMITTEE, CULTURAL EQUITY AND INCLUSION INITIATIVE FOR ORGANIZATIONAL AFFILIATIONS SEE APPENDIX A Tim Dang CO-CHAIR* Helen Hernandez CO-CHAIR* Maria Rosario Jackson CO-CHAIR* Betty Avila Julia Diamond Letitia Fernandez Ivins* Prumsodun Ok Glenna Avila* John Echeveste* Joel Jacinto Debra Padilla* Carlos Benavides Jordan Elgarbly Charmaine Jefferson* Claire Peeps* Deborah Borda Quetzal Flores Gregorio Luke Randy Reinholz Pamela Bright-Moon* Edgar Garcia Claudia Margolis* Luis Rodriguez Ben Caldwell* Kiki Ramos Gindler Kathryn McDonnell Koji Steven Sakai* Barbara Carrasco Mynor Godoy Rachel Moore* Jose Luis Valenzuela* Juan Devis Leslie Ito Elena Muslar* Diana Vesga * INDICATES PARTICIPATION IN ONE OR MORE WORKING GROUPS
OTHER WORKING GROUP PARTICIPANTS (NOT LISTED ABOVE) FOR ORGANIZATIONAL AFFILIATIONS SEE APPENDIX B Aaron Paley Diana Luna Laura Longoria Rebecca Renard Wilson Andrew Campbell Edgar Gamino Len Dickter Scott Harrison Carla Corona Garin Hussenjian Leslie Ishii Shannon Daut Constance Jolcuvar Griselda Suarez Lorena J. Morgan Wyatt Coleman Craig Cree Stone Heather Moses Lucas Rivera Zeal Harris Danielle Brazell Jenny Perez Margaret Aichele David Ford Karen Mack Mario Davila David Valdez Katy Sullivan Norma Provencio-Pichardo
CONSULTANTS Diane Burbie/The Aspire Group, Evonne Gallardo, Terry Wolverton/Consult’Her
SUPPORT FOR THE CULTURAL EQUITY AND INCUSION INITIATIVE WAS PROVIDED IN PART BY THE FOLLOWING PARTNERS: Annenberg Foundation, Durfee Foundation and Weingart Foundation
4 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY...... 7 I. THE CONTEXT FOR CULTURAL EQUITY AND INCLUSION IN THE ARTS IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY...... 15 Introduction...... 15 Diversity in Los Angeles County...... 18 Diversity, Cultural Equity and Inclusion in Los Angeles County Cultural Institutions...... 20 Cultural Equity and Inclusion Initiative Resolution...... 27 II. THE CULTURAL EQUITY AND INCLUSION INTIATIVE PROCESS...... 30 Vision, Values and Guiding Principles...... 31 How the Work of the Initiative Was Carried Out...... 32 Town Hall Meetings and Working Groups...... 34 LA Arts Funders...... 36 III. WHAT WE LEARNED FROM CEII PARTICIPANTS...... 37 Five Target Areas of Focus...... 37 Emerging Solutions...... 49 IV. RECOMMENDATIONS TO INCREASE CULTURAL EQUITY AND INCLUSION...... 54 How the Recommendations Were Developed...... 54 Recommendations...... 56 Impact and Measuring Success...... 71 Appendix A: CEII Advisory Committee Members and Affiliations...... 72 Appendix B: Working Group Participants...... 73 Appendix C: Arts Workforce Demographic Survey Findings...... 74 Appendix D: Diversity Initiatives in LA County Cultural Institutions...... 76 Appendix E: Cultural Diversity Efforts in Other Cities Across the United States...... 82 Appendix F: The Cultural Equity and Inclusion Initiative Process...... 87 Appendix G: Sample Agenda for Town Halls...... 90 Appendix H: Overview of Town Halls...... 91 Appendix I: Who Attended? Poll Everywhere Data...... 92 Appendix J: Sample Agenda of Working Groups...... 93 Appendix K: Cultural Equity and Inclusion Literature Review: Executive Summary...... 94 Appendix L: LA Arts Funders Meeting Attendees...... 113 Appendix M: The Thirteen CEII Recommendations in Cost Order...... 114
5 “...the aspiration for equity has galvanized communities, advocates, government leaders, organizers, scholars, business leaders and philanthropists to rethink priorities, refocus strategies, and forge new partnerships to create a more equitable nation. There is growing consensus that equity is a win for everyone, not a zero- sum game, and it is essential for prosperity as America bolts toward becoming a majority people of color.”1
—Angela Glover Blackwell, Chief Executive Officer, PolicyLink CEII Town Hall. Photo by Gennia Cui. Gennia by Photo Hall. Town CEII
1 Blackwell, A.G. (2016). Equity Is... Retrieved from http://putnam-consulting.com/philanthropy-411-blog/equity-is.
6 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
THE BENEFITS OF THE ARTS ARE MANY, AND EVERYONE DESERVES TO HAVE EQUAL ACCESS TO THEM. FROM ARTS EDUCATION FOR YOUNG PEOPLE TO ARTS PROGRAMMING FOR SENIOR CITIZENS, THE ARTS HAVE BEEN PROVEN TO MAKE INDIVIDUAL LIVES BETTER AND TO STRENGTHEN COMMUNITIES.
The Arts improve health and well-being, provided by, the arts are available and and they improve cognitive skills. Even accessible to all residents, no matter who more, the arts can bring people together they are or where they live? This includes across demographic, economic and social everything from jobs and serving on boards lines. They are places where people of directors, to improvements in health and can both see and express themselves, education, to reflective and illuminating their communities and their cultures in content and programming. This question is at public performances and exhibitions. the heart of the Cultural Equity and Inclusion The arts also offer important career Initiative (CEII). and leadership opportunities. While Los Angeles County has invested in In a County as ethnically and culturally arts and culture for more than a century, diverse as well as geographically sprawling there are concerns that all County residents as Los Angeles, what can be done to ensure do not have equal and meaningful access to that all the benefits of, and opportunities the arts and the benefits they provide.
7 In November 2015, Los Angeles County From Diversity to Inclusion Supervisors Hilda Solis and Mark Ridley- Data collected about the arts and Thomas introduced a resolution that was culture workforce as part of the CEII unanimously passed by the Board of process show there is much work to be Supervisors, directing the Los Angeles done. The work that arts institutions County Arts Commission to conduct “a funded by the County have already done constructive County-wide conversation toward greater diversity constitutes a about ways to improve diversity in cultural strong base to build upon, but there is a organizations” for all LA County residents. growing recognition that it is necessary to move beyond simple measures of The Board specifically directed the Arts diversity to address deeper issues of Commission to focus on four key target cultural equity, inclusion and access in areas: Boards of Directors, Staffing, the arts. Lack of diversity, equity, Audience/Participants, and Programming. inclusion and access may not be To this the Arts Commission added a fifth: intentional, but may be due to a lack of Artists/Creators. priority within an organization, or simply continuing past practices without In addition to being a national leader in arts considering their full effects. In passing and culture, LA County is one of the largest the CEII resolution, the LA County Board of Supervisors has created a historic and most diverse counties in the United opportunity to maximize LA County States. The population of LA County has assets including the institutions it been majority “people of color” since the funds, the wider arts ecology throughout late 1980s. According to the U.S. Census LA County, and the diversity and Bureau2, 48 percent of residents are Latino creativity of its residents, to improve or Hispanic, 14 percent are Asian or Pacific lives and communities for all. Islander, 8 percent are African American, 1 percent are Native American, Alaska Native or Other, and 2 percent are Two or More Races. The remaining 27 percent are White.
2 Data from 2014.
8 For most people, “diversity” first brings to To conduct the CEII initiative, the Arts mind concepts of race and ethnicity. Commission engaged in a comprehensive However, the term includes other important series of strategies that included areas of diversity such as socio-economic An Advisory Committee reflecting status and gender, and people experience diversity in race and ethnicity, socio- them as intersectional rather than separated economic background, gender, age, and hierarchical. In LA County, for example, physical ability, LGBTQ status, arts 19 percent of LA County residents live at or discipline and geography across LA below the poverty line County, led by three Co-Chairs who are 14 percent are unemployed or leaders in the LA County arts ecology, under-employed Fourteen Town Hall meetings in locations 56 percent speak a language other across LA County where 650 participants than English at home shared their experiences and ideas for improving cultural equity and inclusion in 6 percent report they are living the arts, with a disability Working Groups formed around each of 51 percent are women the five key target areas that honed ideas that emerged through the town hall Today, the arts ecology of LA County includes process into formal recommendations, major cultural institutions, nonprofit arts The first-ever survey of arts organizations organizations of all disciplines and sizes, and across LA County to measure the private businesses. In passing the CEII diversity of boards, staff, volunteers resolution, the Board of Supervisors and contractors, committed itself to being at the forefront of a national conversation about how arts and Consultation with peers in New York and cultural organizations can and should reflect other cities to identify best practices in and embrace diversity in all the ways it is diversity, cultural equity and inclusion in experienced and understood, in all the arts, communities across LA County.
9 Opportunities for the public to Some of these recommendations build on share their ideas anonymously, work already being carried out by the LA through an artist-led project, County Arts Commission or other County institutions; others would constitute new A literature review that showed the initiatives. Some build on existing current state of knowledge and partnerships with non-County organizations, conditions in the field, and while others would create new partnerships. Input from other LA County cultural All of the recommendations presented in this institutions as well as local arts funders. report are conceptual, and will require further development for implementation. Although each recommendation is presented Through this process 13 actionable according to the working group that recommendations to improve cultural equity developed it, almost all would impact more and inclusion in the arts emerged. These than one of the issues the Board of recommendations open the doors to Supervisors identified as priorities for the resources and promote tools that can break CEII initiative. Fuller details on each down barriers of exclusion in a way that recommendation presented here in the fosters and promotes arts and culture – as Executive Summary can be found in the well as the benefits they provide – for all Recommendations section of the full report. residents of LA County.
10 RECOMMENDATION FROM THE CEII CO-CHAIRS Full details on each of these recommendations begins on page 56. 1. Los Angeles County Cultural Policy Establish a cultural policy for LA County with concrete elements focused on equity, diversity, inclusion and access that would solidify the gains made through the CEII process and recommendations, and will serve as a road map for how all LA County departments can contribute to cultural life. This cultural policy would position LA County as a national arts leader in advancing cultural equity and inclusion in every sector of our civic lives.
RECOMMENDATION FROM THE BOARDS OF DIRECTORS WORKING GROUP 2. Inclusive Language, Policies and Infrastructure to Recruit and Retain Diverse Staff and Boards in LA County Arts and Cultural Organizations Initiate a requirement that all cultural organizations receiving LA County funds have written, board-adopted statements, policies or plans that outline their commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and access, and monitor progress.
RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE STAFFING WORKING GROUP 3. College Arts Pathways: Paid Arts Internships for Community College Students Double the existing LA County Internship Program to increase the number of paid arts internships with the additional positions set aside for community college students emphasizing inclusivity of those from communities of color, low-income neighborhoods, persons with disabilities, and other communities that experience barriers to arts access.
4. Teen Arts Pathways: Employment and Learning Opportunities in the Arts and Culture for High School Students Develop an LA County initiative creating access to work-based learning and leadership opportunities for all high school students, particularly students of color, low-income students, LGBTQ students, disabled students, current and former foster youth, and youth on probation, as well as others who experience barriers to participation, to prepare youth for careers in the arts and creative industries.
11 5. Creative Workforce Development Center(s) Establish center(s) that link students and mature workers, especially those from communities of color, low-income, LGBTQ and disabled communities, and other communities that are under-represented in the arts, to educational, training and networking opportunities to help them gain skills to work in creative jobs.
RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE ARTISTS/CREATORS WORKING GROUP 6. Neighborhood Bridges: Municipal Grants to Expand Arts and Cultural Programming to All Neighborhoods and Communities Implement an LA County grant program to provide funds to municipal funders that includes diversity, equity, inclusion and access requirements, for re-granting to fiscally sponsored organizations, collectives, traditional and folk artists, and individual artists, especially those from communities of color, low-income, LGBTQ and disabled communities, and other communities that are under-represented in the arts.
7. Artists Working Cross-Sector to Address Social Problems Place artists, arts administrators or other creative workers who are representative of diverse constituencies in LA County departments in paid positions as creative strategists to develop innovative solutions to social challenges.
RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE PROGRAMMING WORKING GROUP 8. Increasing Diverse, Inclusive and Equitable Cultural Opportunities and Programming in Unincorporated Areas Provide new cultural opportunities and funds particularly for residents of unincorporated areas of the County by extending LA County’s civic art requirement to private developers and enacting ordinances that encourage the creation of cultural assets.
9. Grants to Organizations Serving Diverse Communities Expand LA County’s Organizational Grants Program, which supports arts and culture organizations that have been historically or are currently underfunded and under-resourced, including those that represent communities of color, low-income communities, LGBTQ and disabled communities and other communities experiencing barriers to participation in the arts.
12 10. Parks and Libraries Arts Partnership Establish grants and professional development services to parks and libraries in areas of LA County with the least arts programming, to support production and marketing costs of arts events with a focus on communities of color, low-income communities, LGBTQ and disabled communities, and other communities that experience barriers to participation in the arts.
RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE AUDIENCES/PARTICIPANTS WORKING GROUP 11. Connecting Audiences to Cultural Information Establish a five year LA Countywide communications initiative that shares information about the arts with all LA County residents through both traditional and nontraditional methods, taking into account language barriers, geographical concerns, and economic divides that require different forms of outreach.
12. Connecting Organizations to New Audiences and Participants Establish LA County planning and implementation grants to small and mid-sized arts organizations to build their capacity to reach new audiences and participants including those in communities of color, low-income communities, LGBTQ and disabled communities and other communities that experience barriers to arts participation.
13. Equitable Access to Arts Education: A Three Part Strategy for All Students in Public Schools
• Grants to fund dedicated arts coordinators who both reflect and promote the diversity of the student population, to serve every school district in LA County,
• Grants to school districts in support of their arts education plans
• Alignment of in-school and out-of-school arts learning opportunities
13 Antelope Valley Art Outpost. Photo by Gennia Cui Gennia by Photo Art Outpost. Valley Antelope
"We know that the arts play a significant and meaningful role in sparking vitality in communities of all sizes and shapes. We want to bring this country closer to a point when all communities are safe, lively, inclusive and economically vibrant. Every American deserves to call such a community home."
—Jane Chu, Chair, National Endowment for the Arts
14 THE CONTEXT FOR CULTURAL EQUITY AND INCLUSION IN THE ARTS IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY
INTRODUCTION
The benefits of the arts are many and varied. The benefits of the arts can also be found at Research has shown that arts education can the community level. People who participate lead to improvements in literacy, math and in the arts within their communities have science skills for young people still in school, as been found to engage in other community- well as improving their communication oriented actions and to have higher levels of strategies and even their physical health.3 community satisfaction.5 Other studies have Arts education is also associated with improved found that people see the arts as critical to social skills and emotional regulation. The arts quality of life in their local communities, and offer benefits for senior citizens as well: studies that communities with fewer economic have shown that seniors who participate in the resources want more arts opportunities in arts experience improvements in both physical their own neighborhoods.6 Research on why and mental health as well as reduced doctor people attend arts events or participate in visits and lower use of medication.4 arts activities have found that the top three
3 Menzer, M. (2015). The arts in early childhood: Social and emotional benefits of arts participation. Washington, DC: National Endowment for the Arts. 4 National Endowment for the Arts. (2006). The creativity and aging study: The effect of professionally conducted cultural programs on older adults. Washington, DC: National Endowment for the Arts. 5 Theodori, G.L., Hudec, C.L. & Drumm, C. (2015). An investigation of arts-based rural community development. Washington, DC: National Endowment for the Arts. 6 Zitcer, A., Hawkins, J., & Vakharia, N. (2015). A capabilities approach to arts and culture? Theorizing community development in West Philadelphia. Planning Theory & Practice, 17 (1), 35-51.
15 reasons are to socialize with friends or empowering and economic benefits of arts family, to learn new things, and to support and culture are not equally, nor equitably, their community.7 Music, dance, theatre and available to all County residents, the Los visual arts can bring people together across Angeles County Board of Supervisors the social and demographic factors that passed a resolution in November 2015 divide them. directing the Arts Commission to lead an inclusive public process to develop In addition to all these benefits, arts recommendations to increase cultural organizations are places where people can equity and inclusion in the arts. make careers and have leadership opportunities on boards of directors. The Cultural Equity and Inclusion Initiative Through the arts, people can both see and (CEII) that emerged from this included an express themselves, their communities Advisory Committee made up of local and their cultures in public performances experts and led by three Co-Chairs. and exhibitions. Perspectives, opinions and ideas were collected from the public through a series of In other words, investments in the arts Town Halls and Working Groups. A set of 13 and in ensuring they are accessible, recommendations for how to improve available and relevant to all are smart diversity, cultural equity and inclusion in investments that can improve lives the arts emerged, and are presented in this and strengthen communities. report. These 13 recommendations Los Angeles County is one of the largest represent a starting point for ensuring that and most diverse counties in the United the arts and their benefits are available to States, and is a national leader in arts and all County residents, regardless of who they culture. Concerned that the humanizing, are and where they live.
7 Blume-Kohout, M.E., Leonard, S.R., & Novak-Leonard, J.L. (2015). When going gets tough: Barriers and motivations affecting arts attendance. Washington, DC: National Endowment for the Arts.
16 Three key terms were set at the beginning of While a truly “inclusive” group is this process: diversity, equity and inclusion. necessarily diverse, a “diverse” group They are often used in combination with each may or may not be “inclusive.” other because each means something As will be discussed later, the Co-Chairs and distinctly different. The D5 Coalition, a Advisory Committee jointly developed a national coalition working to advance vision statement that included working diversity, equity and inclusion in definitions for the three terms specific to the philanthropy, has defined them as follows:8 arts in LA County. Diversity: The demographic mix of a A fourth term emerged through the specific collection of people, taking into CEII process: access. In LA County, account elements of human difference, access is commonly associated with but focusing particularly on race and issues of geography; arts opportunities ethnicity, LGBTQ populations, people with often are overly concentrated in disabilities and women. certain areas in a way that creates a Equity: The promotion of justice, perceived lack of arts investment in impartiality and fairness within the other areas. Cost is another key aspect procedures, processes, and distribution of accessibility, with free activities of resources by institutions or systems. considered to be the most accessible. Tackling equity issues requires an As used in the CEII context, access understanding of the underlying or root also refers to whether programming is causes of outcome disparities within relevant, and whether a wide audience our society. has an entry point to the content.
Inclusion: The degree to which diverse The recommendations that are presented in individuals are able to participate this report are intended to increase and fully in the decisionmaking processes improve diversity, equity, inclusion and access within an organization or group. to the arts for all residents of LA County.
8 See http://www.d5coalition.org/tools/dei
17 DIVERSITY IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY
In order to understand the importance of the southern end of the County; during the diversity, equity, inclusion and access in the evening rush hour that distance can take more arts, it is necessary to understand the than four hours to drive. diversity, complexity and sheer size of Los The population of LA County has been majority Angeles County. With a population of more “people of color” since the late 1980s. According than ten million people, LA County is more to the U.S. Census Bureau,9 48 percent of populous than all but nine U.S. states. It is residents are Latino or Hispanic, 14 percent are home to 88 incorporated cities, and more than Asian or Pacific Islander, 8 percent are African one million residents live in unincorporated American, 1 percent are Native American, Alaska areas where public services are supplied Native or Other, and 2 percent are Two or More entirely by LA County government. Nearly 1.6 Races. The remaining 27 percent are White. million K-12 students in LA County attend school in 81 separate public school districts. POPULATION OF LA COUNTY BY RACE/ETHNICITY
Across the 4,083 square miles of LA County, the population is divided between areas that are very densely populated like Koreatown White (42,611 people per square mile) and Westlake 27% Latino/Hispanic (38,214 people per square mile) to sparsely 48% populated areas like Northeast Antelope Valley
(10 people per square mile) and Angeles Crest Asian/Pacific Islander (3 people per square mile). Distances can make 14% travel within LA County daunting. For example, African American the small, unincorporated town of Gorman in 8% the far northwest of LA County is more than 90 Native American/ Alaska Native/Other Two or More Races miles by freeway from the City of Long Beach at 1% 2%
9 Data from 2014.
18 The youth population under 18 is even more 6 percent live with a disability diverse than the working age population. 51 percent are women It is projected that only three years from now, in 2020, fully three-quarters of the Nearly 19 percent of the workforce in LA County population in LA County will be people is age 55 or older, and 40 percent of the of color. According to the U.S. Census, 35 workforce is age 45 or older. In addition, there percent of LA County residents were born are approximately 47,000 homeless people outside of the U.S., and LA County residents on the streets of LA County, with women being speak at least 185 different languages. the fastest growing group of people without a place to live. By the year 2040, the majority of For most people, “diversity” first brings to the U.S. population will be people of color. The mind concepts of race and ethnicity. However, CEII initiative is not limited to concerns of the term includes other important areas of communities of color, but also recognizes and diversity such as socio-economic status and addresses other barriers to full participation in gender, among others, and people experience the arts, including poverty, language spoken them as intersectional rather than separated at home and physical ability. and hierarchical. In LA County, for example, residents responding to the American In a County as diverse as Los Angeles, the Community Survey10 have reported that challenge is to ensure access to the arts for all. LA County is in a position to provide local 19 percent of residents live at or below and national leadership on issues of diversity, the poverty line equity, inclusion and access in the arts. The 14 percent are unemployed or under- work done here in valuing and nurturing the employed wealth of our cultural assets, and in ensuring all LA County residents have access to the 56 percent speak a language other than benefits of the arts, can become models for English at home the rest of the country.
10 The American Community Survey (ACS) is an ongoing survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau that provides vital information on a yearly basis about the U.S. and its people. It supplements the more well-known decennial U.S. Census, providing both more current and more detailed information.
19 DIVERSITY, CULTURAL EQUITY AND INCLUSION IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS
The arts and creativity are crucial to Recognizing this, the LA County Board quality of life for all. They give people and of Supervisors has invested in arts and communities an opportunity to express culture for more than a century. County themselves in the language of their own cultural institutions that reside in County- culture. Music and dance, paintings, owned facilities receive significant funding photography and film, literature and directly from LA County government. storytelling, the theatre, and the many Most of these facilities are located ways these are interpreted and expanded downtown within the boundaries of the using digital and online technologies, City of Los Angeles, away from outlying are all central to the human experience. population centers within the County. They are a place of celebration and a LA County also promotes equity, inclusion source of solace. They create spaces and access to the arts through its where people can cross boundaries legislative agenda. In both the state created by geography, history, culture, capital of Sacramento and in Washington, politics and language. The arts are a DC, the County advocates for increased tool that is sometimes deployed to help funding for the arts and arts education, address complex social problems such as well as for cultural and educational as homelessness and environmental agencies, including museums. protection. Beyond this, in LA County the arts and creativity also play a major Today, the arts ecology of LA County has role in the local economy. The arts and expanded beyond those institutions to the creative industries are significant include nonprofit arts organizations of all economic drivers and important sources disciplines and sizes. Tax records show of jobs for LA County residents. there are more than 3,000 Arts, Culture
20 and Humanities nonprofits in LA RACE OR ETHNICITY LA County arts workforce compared to total population County. The arts ecology also includes a wide range of private businesses. Arts Workforce Total Population
The creative industries, including the White/ 60% design and entertainment industries, Caucasian 27% Black/African 4% generate one out of every six jobs in American 8% 10% Asian the County. Early investments by the 14% LA County Board of Supervisors paved Hispanic/ 14% Latino(a) 48% the way for other arts institutions to Some Other 1% Race follow, as the next section describes. <1% Two or 4% More Races 2% A baseline survey conducted in <1% Other* <1% the summer of 2016 as part of Decline to 7% state OR No the Cultural Equity and Inclusion response**
Initiative found that among 0% 20% 40% 60% participating arts nonprofits *Other combines American Indian or Alaska Native or Native in LA County – including staff, Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander board members, contractors and **These two categories are combined, although “Decline to state” is a clear statement of intent while “No response” does not volunteers – the workforce is more reflect specific intent White than the County population as Key findings from this survey can be found in Appendix C. a whole, as the following chart shows:
21 LOS ANGELES COUNTY Today NHM comprises a family of museums CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS located in South LA, Mid-Wilshire and The LA County Arts Commission was Newhall. In 1961, LACMA was established established as the Music Commission in as a separate institution and moved into 1947 and in its first two decades primarily its Wilshire Boulevard campus in 1965. funded professional and community music The original complex consisted of three groups such as orchestras. In 1966, the sites, with the permanent collection in the Commission brought dance and theater Ahmanson Building, special exhibitions in organizations under its funding umbrella and the Hammer Building, and the Bing Theater changed its name to the LA County Music for public programs. Over the decades, the and Performing Arts Commission. In 1985, campus and the collection have expanded the LA County Music and Performing Arts considerably and are now slated for major Commission received additional funding for renovations, set to begin in 2018. the first time from the state arts agency, The Music Center complex—originally the California Arts Council. This enabled it consisting of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, to support a larger number of community- the Mark Taper Forum, and Ahmanson based arts organizations from varying Theatre—opened in 1964 as a public/ disciplines. Many of these arts organizations private not-for-profit partnership with have since grown into important the County of LA. In 2003, The Music cultural institutions of both national and Center, home to Center Theatre Group, the international repute. The LA County Music LA Master Chorale, LA Opera and the LA and Performing Arts Commission changed Philharmonic, opened Walt Disney Concert its name to the LA County Arts Commission Hall. Grand Park, which opened in 2012, is a in 1997 as it celebrated 50 years of 12-acre park located in the Civic Center and existence, signifying the organization’s is managed by The Music Center. equal support to all art disciplines. In 2011 LA County opened LA Plaza de In 1913, the Museum of History, Science Cultural y Artes. LA Plaza is a museum and and Technology opened its doors. This cultural center adjacent to historic Olvera institution was eventually split and became Street that is devoted to Mexican and the Natural History Museum (NHM) and Mexican-American art and culture. the LA County Museum of Art (LACMA).
22 In addition to these LA County institutions, LA County’s arts ecology is a vibrant the arts and culture ecology in LA County mix of large institutions, nonprofit has expanded in size, scope and cultural organizations of all sizes, businesses, traditions. In the 1960s and 70s, numerous individual artists, artist collectives nonprofit arts and cultural organizations and teaching artists. Their work takes were founded to address the increasingly place everywhere, from performing diverse populations of LA County and arts venues to small galleries to to explore new art forms. Many of these street corners and public plazas, organizations were founded to serve specific to backyards and living rooms. communities that did not have equal access As our understanding of “participation” to the arts, or whose culture was not being in the arts has evolved, so has the work presented by mainstream and traditional of these individuals and organizations. institutions. While these organizations are Organizations that in the past only nonprofit and often receive funds from state, provided traditional programming where county or city funders, they do not have the audience members observed artworks same formal partnership with LA County as created by others have learned from those that occupy County-owned facilities. organizations that provide opportunities Each year nearly 400 arts nonprofits receive to the public to participate actively in some financial support from LA County the arts. As a result, participation in the through the LA County Arts Commission’s arts is no longer limited to observation Organizational Grants Program. Another 50 as an audience member, but today non-arts nonprofits receive County funding includes opportunities to dance, sing, for their arts programming through the play, make, write and perform. There is Community Impact Arts Grants Program, also recognition that the arts are not which was launched in 2015. In addition to merely entertainment, but can play a key support they receive from the LA County role in improving lives and communities. Board of Supervisors, the work of both the Diversity, equity, inclusion and access are LA County institutions and arts nonprofits critical to ensuring that the benefits of the throughout the county is largely funded arts are available and meaningful to all through individual donations, grants from residents of LA County. foundations and corporations, and earned revenue, primarily from ticket sales.
23 EQUITY AND INCLUSION existing equity and inclusion related INITIATIVE IN LOS ANGELES initiatives include the Organizational Grant COUNTY CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS Program, which distributes more than $4.5 A survey conducted in the summer of million annually to nearly 400 nonprofit 2016 as part of the CEII process found arts organizations of all budget sizes and that 68 percent of board members and 53 cultural traditions across LA County. These percent of the staff at arts organizations arts organizations are located throughout Countywide are White. In LA County as a LA County with offices in 48 of LA County’s whole, only 27 percent of the population 88 municipalities. Arts for All, the regional is White. Each of the LA County cultural arts education initiative, is a partnership institutions has engaged in efforts to with the LA County Office of Education improve diversity, equity, inclusion and/ that works to ensure all 1.6 million K-12 or access. All of the 13 recommendations students in LA County have access to presented in this report build on the work high quality arts education. Of these already being done by these institutions students, 86 percent are students of color and in some cases expand well beyond it. and 67 percent receive free or reduced While this set of institutions and their work price meals. The County’s Arts Internship is a strong base to work from, full equity program, which works in conjunction and inclusion for all County residents with the Getty’s Multicultural Internship will require working across the wider arts Program, is the largest paid summer arts ecology including nonprofit organizations, internship program for college students businesses, informal collectives and in the U.S. In summer 2016, 57 percent of individual artists. This section describes participants were students of color, and 75 some leading initiatives of each of the percent were women. In addition, the LA County cultural institutions. A more County Arts Commission promotes equity detailed listing of initiatives as well as of access to the arts and arts education their mission statements can be found in through its policy-level work in Sacramento Appendix D. and Washington, DC.
The LA County Arts Commission works to With 1.6 million visitors each year, the ensure that all residents of LA County have LA County Museum of Art (LACMA) has access to the arts. The Arts Commission’s been devoted to collecting works of art
24 that span both history and geography, Each year, more than two million people enjoy in addition to representing LA’s uniquely live performances and free community arts diverse population. Over the past ten years events at The Music Center. As it endeavors LACMA has taken significant measures to be a performing arts center for the 21st to increase diversity in its programming, century, The Music Center has made a audience, staffing and leadership and commitment to greater diversity among its the Board of Trustees and established many stakeholders, including its board, staff an increase in diversity across these and programming. The Music Center Board dimensions as one of the measures of of Directors approved a strategic framework success for LACMA. In programming, for diversity that speaks specifically to the today LACMA is a leader in the field of importance of ensuring that The Music Center, Latin American art with a dedicated as LA County’s performing arts center, works Center for the Art of the Ancient Americas. diligently to be connected to the communities LACMA is also recognized for its strong it serves. Today, more than one-third of its collections in Japanese, Chinese, Korean, board of directors is persons of color. Southeast Asian and Islamic art. LACMA The Natural History Museum (NHM) provides has a dedicated African art gallery and Art visitors, science researchers and historians of the Pacific gallery, areas often under- with natural and cultural insights into the represented in museums. In the last five past, present, and future. NHM’s staff is 385 years, LACMA presented 45 non-Western people, 47 percent of whom are people of exhibitions (including LA based artists of color. Sixty-one percent are women. Twenty- color), to which it devoted 53 percent of its eight percent of its combined Boards are exhibition funds. This program has helped people of color. to increase diversity of its audience and 84 percent of the students it serves are Opened to the public in 2011, LA Plaza people of color. In staffing and leadership, de Cultura y Artes occupies a unique LACMA has embraced initiatives to create a space in the LA museum community as pipeline of diverse talent for the curatorial the only County museum dedicated to field nationwide, and today women and a specific ethnic group and as the only people of color constitute more than 80 museum/cultural center that celebrates percent of LACMA’s curatorial staff. and cultivates an appreciation for the history, art, culture and traditions of
25 Mexicans and Mexican-Americans in LA While the work described here has led to since the founding of the city in 1781. progress in increasing diversity within LA Plaza carries out its mission through these institutions, LA County has not a robust schedule of exhibitions, public yet achieved full equity, inclusion and programming and educational initiatives access in the arts for all residents. The CEII that explore these themes and attract an initiative launched by the LA County Board estimated 85,000 visitors annually. LA of Supervisors, which will be described in Plaza’s permanent and changing exhibits the next section, reflects a recognition of explore diverse facets of local Latino this fact. Through the CEII process, people culture and provide a showcase for Latino from across LA County came together to artistic talent. The LA Plaza staff consists discuss the work still to be done. The LA of 20 full time positions, with only one County Board of Supervisors has created currently filled by a non-Latino. LA Plaza a historic opportunity to maximize LA welcomes candidates of all backgrounds County assets including the institutions it who share a passion and commitment funds, the wider arts ecology throughout for the LA Latino experience. The Board LA County, and the diversity and creativity of Trustees consists of 15 members, all of its residents, to improve lives and Latino except for one. communities for all.
26 CULTURAL EQUITY AND INCLUSION INITIATIVE RESOLUTION
“Parts of the County are tremendously underserved and people there don’t know what services exist that they could be taking advantage of. The struggle is for basic resources, space to gather or present, means of getting the word out, programs that don’t require driving great distances.” —Baldwin Park Town Hall attendee
In November 2015, Supervisors Hilda Solis Work with the advisory group to identify and Mark Ridley-Thomas introduced a “best practices” being utilized around resolution, which was unanimously passed the country to address issues of by the Board. It called upon the LA County cultural equity. These include methods Arts Commission to assemble an Advisory to expand the diversity of audience Committee to conduct “a constructive members, exhibits, and performances, County-wide conversation about ways to as well as to encourage individuals improve diversity in cultural organizations, in from under-represented communities the areas of their leadership, staffing, to enter the arts as a career, creating a programming, and audience composition.” pipeline for them to access leadership positions. Specifically, the resolution directed the Executive Director of the Arts Commission to: Establish a close working relationship with the New York Cultural Affairs Establish an advisory group of diverse Department, whose consultant is art/community leaders within LA County compiling “best practices” to inform their to develop recommendations for ways to work, as well as with others performing enhance the participation and leadership similar work, to benefit from their of individuals from under-represented experiences. communities in the arts.
27 Report back to the Board within 90 Submit a final report that sets forth days in writing with a status report on concrete recommendations designed findings to date and estimated funding to 1) provide greater access to arts jobs needed to hold countywide convenings by individuals from under-represented on this issue to develop a final report communities, including in leadership with input from diverse stakeholders. positions, and 2) create more diverse The report should include proposed arts boards, staff, audience members, funding sources (other than LA County), and programming at appropriate arts such as from philanthropic organizations institutions. The estimated cost of and private enterprises. proposed initiatives should be included.
In passing this CEII resolution the Board of Supervisors committed itself to being at the forefront of implementing model programs and leading constructive County-wide conversations to ensure that arts and cultural organizations reflect and embrace the diversity of all LA County communities, and that the benefits of the arts for individuals and communities are available to all residents.
28 Photo by Gennia Cui Gennia by Photo
“I only had one art class prior to pursuing a studio arts major at a university. That was all it took to ignite my passion for art. I hope to do so for my future students as an art educator with a social justice lens. I aim to share my passion and each individual to use art as a tool to communicate their views, beliefs, and cultural history.” —Sharper Edges Art Project Respondent
29 THE CULTURAL EQUITY AND INCLUSION INTIATIVE PROCESS
“Arts enhance and improve the community. Art is the first thing that can create change at a broad level.” —Lancaster Town Hall attendee
The work of the Cultural Equity and Inclusion Rocco Landesman, former Chair of the National Initiative (CEII) took place against the Endowment for the Arts has written, “Students background of heightened and urgent who have arts-rich experiences in school do national debates about racial and ethnic better across-the-board academically, and they divisions and great income disparity in the also become more active and engaged United States. Those who work in arts and citizens, voting, volunteering, and generally culture have seen firsthand the power of arts participating at higher rates than their and culture to bridge differences. As Dennis peers.” In addition, a growing body of Scholl, former Vice President for Arts at the empirical studies is finding that artistic Knight Foundation says, “We see the power engagement can have a profound impact on of culture to bring a community together.” physical, mental and emotional health.
Rip Rapson, president and CEO of The Kresge The LA County Board of Supervisors passed Foundation, agrees. In an editorial published the CEII resolution to “ensure that arts in The Detroit Free Press, he wrote, “Artists organizations appropriately reflect the don’t simply reflect reality. They use their diversity of our communities.” The power of hammers and their nails, canvases and pens, arts and culture to transform communities, their voices and bodies to forge a different increase citizen engagement and improve reality. There’s no community more health require that the sector embody all powerfully suited than the arts community to four values of diversity, equity, inclusion help us do just that.” and access.
30 VISION, VALUES AND GUIDING PRINCIPLES
In March 2016 the LA County Arts Commission The work of the CEII Advisory Committee was convened the 35-member Advisory Committee led by this statement of vision and values who, under the leadership of the three Co-Chairs, and by the following guiding principles: approved a process for the CEII as well as a three- Every individual participates in part vision statement that reads as follows: creative thinking and expression Inclusion and access: Every resident of Los Every individual has the right to Angeles County shall have opportunities and engage in arts and culture that access to encounter, appreciate, participate in, celebrate their highest potential learn and be informed about the arts and culture. Our community’s diversity is an asset Equity: Arts and cultural organizations and to our arts and cultural environment artists from all disciplines and cultural traditions and our economy shall be valued equally and supported equitably. Including communities through the Diversity: Arts and cultural organizations arts and culture achieves our highest shall reflect and embrace the diversity of the potential by promoting mutual respect County in staffing, board leadership, and understanding programming, including artists, and audiences/participants.
Guiding Principles: From the outset, the Advisory Committee was committed to an approach that did not mandate what actions any given organization or institution must take, nor to advocate diminishing any existing resources. The CEII recommendations are focused on providing support for meaningful change as determined by each organization or institution, expanding resources for all, and creating new opportunities to improve diversity, equity, inclusion and access. Additionally, the Advisory Committee committed to honor the diversity and complexity of LA County’s arts ecology by considering all voices: large institutions and small organizations, culturally specific and community based organizations, individual artists and LA County residents.
31 HOW THE WORK OF THE INITIATIVE WAS CARRIED OUT
The Arts Commission engaged in a • Launched a website to inform the comprehensive series of strategies to community about the CEII initiative and conduct the Cultural Equity and Inclusion process, and to list additional Initiative. The Arts Commission informational resources;
• Identified three committee Co-Chairs, key • Contracted with DataArts (formerly the figures in the LA County arts ecology who California Data Project) and worked with brought a wealth of experience and seven local municipalities to conduct the knowledge as well as unique perspectives first-ever survey of arts organizations to to their leadership of the initiative; determine the diversity of boards, staff, volunteers and contractors; • Assembled an Advisory Committee reflecting diversity in race and ethnicity, • Hosted a series of 14 Town Hall meetings socio-economic background, gender, age, across LA County, at least two in each physical ability, arts discipline and supervisorial district, which were attended geography across LA County. This group by approximately 650 residents and arts met five times to oversee the direction of practitioners who talked about their own the initiative, and many of its members experiences with the arts and culture participated in other activities of the CEII; sector and barriers to diversity, equity, inclusion and access, and proposed • Consulted with peers in New York City, suggestions for improvement; Seattle, Nashville and other cities to identify “best practices” in diversity, • Worked with local artist and urban planner cultural equity and inclusion in the arts Rosten Woo, to conduct an interactive art (see Appendix E for details about what project, Sharper Edges: Tell Us How You was learned); Really Feel, which engaged participants at each Town Hall one-on-one, giving them • Conducted a literature review of published opportunities to share anonymous material organized around the five target opinions about their experiences of areas to learn more from the field; diversity, equity and inclusion;
32 • Assembled a series of five smaller Working provided additional support for the Town Groups made up of Advisory Committee Halls. This website includes pages about the members and Town Hall participants to Co-Chairs and members of the Advisory review the suggestions from the Town Committee, the vision and values underlying Halls, prioritize them, and work with Arts the process, and lays out the CEII process. Commission staff to craft them into The text of the original resolution from the LA actionable recommendations County Board of Supervisors is available (participants also offered additional there, as is the full literature review. Town strategies based on their experiences Halls were announced on the website and and expertise); people were able to sign up for them directly on the site. Throughout the process • Met with other LA County cultural participants have shared links to new departments to gather information about resources with staff, and these are compiled their diversity, equity, inclusion and on the Resources page. The website is being access initiatives and to build their maintained as a historical record of CEII and support for the recommendations; a resource for others interested in both the • Provided the recommendations to the Arts process and what we learned. The website Commissioners for review. can be found at ArtsEquityLA.com.
In order to ensure transparency and to These activities are described in greater increase availability of CEII information, a detail in Appendices F, G, H, I and J. In website was established to house the addition, Appendix C provides a summary of information about all elements of the CEII the DataArts workforce survey findings, and process. The nonprofit organization Arts for Appendix K provides an executive summary LA created and managed this site, and of the literature review.
33 TOWN HALL MEETINGS AND WORKING GROUPS
The approved process included a convening What changes could you suggest to of 14 Town Hall meetings, with at least two overcome these barriers and create in each supervisorial district. Town Halls greater equity and inclusion, keeping brought together artists, arts administrators, in mind the resolution topics but also leaders, public agency representatives, private adding your own. business owners, and residents to discuss Notes were taken during each of the small their experiences of diversity, equity and group discussions. These notes were inclusion within arts and culture in LA County, compiled with the Poll Everywhere data for and to propose suggestions for improvements. review and further analysis. At the Town Halls residents had an opportunity to voice their needs and viewpoints. Each Once the Town Halls were completed, conversation was documented in written notes. Working Groups were assembled, largely comprised of Advisory Committee At the Town Halls, participants were members, Arts Commissioners, and Town surveyed using Poll Everywhere, live polling Hall participants. The Working Groups, and reporting software, to find out who organized around the topic areas set forth was in the room and to hear some of their in the resolution, reviewed the suggestions perceptions of cultural equity and inclusion that had come out of the Town Halls. in the arts, both at the beginning and the end Each Working Group developed a problem of each town hall. Then participants were statement and a vision statement, asked to discuss two topics in small groups: then worked to craft suggestions into Discuss the barriers you have observed actionable strategies and establish their or experienced to diversity, equity and top priorities. inclusion in Los Angeles County arts and cultural organizations.
34 MAP OF THE LOCATIONS OF THE CEII TOWN HALLS
35 LA ARTS FUNDERS
On February 3, 2017 a group of 32 Foundation and corporate grantmakers people from 27 different local arts can only fund implementation of CEII funders were convened by the LA County recommendations to the degree that they Arts Commission to discuss the CEII meet their existing funding priorities; recommendations (see Appendix L for These funders are also limited by their a full list of participating organizations annual budget and grantmaking cycles; and individuals). There was robust discussion of the initiative, and Any CEII recommendation that includes participants expressed strong support a matching funding requirement may for the recommendations as approved put additional strain on local private arts by the Advisory Committee. Participants funders; and also expressed an interest in being a Past experience with such programs partner with the County in implementing as Parks After Dark have demonstrated the recommendations. Interest in specific that while private philanthropy can recommendations varied by funder, and be important partners to jumpstart a some recommendations were of greater demonstration project, grantmakers often interest than others. In terms of moving do not have the capacity to fund large forward with funding, the following scale initiatives past the initial phase. concerns were raised: Several funders expressed an interest in continuing the discussion.
36 WHAT WE LEARNED FROM CEII PARTICIPANTS
“Listen to the community, get them involved, let them identify what they want.” —Long Beach Town Hall attendee
FIVE TARGET AREAS OF FOCUS
The Board of Supervisors specifically asked At each Town Hall, attendees participated the Arts Commission to address four target in roundtable conversations about areas where cultural equity and inclusion their experiences with diversity, equity, could be improved: inclusion and access (or lack thereof) in arts and culture. They were invited to pose Boards of Directors suggestions about how these issues could be Staffing improved. At each table was a note-taker who Audience/Participants documented the conversation. These notes Programming were compiled by members of the consulting To these, the Arts Commission added a fifth: team and reviewed by Co-Chairs and the Artists/Creators. Arts Commission staff. They were also made available to the Advisory Committee.
37 Problems, issues, barriers and concerns BOARD OF DIRECTORS that were raised multiple times throughout this process are presented below. The “Diversity begins with the process of analysis used here was not to board, which then hires a count how many times any single idea was diverse staff.” presented, but to capture recurring themes. —Pasadena Town Hall attendee To place these ideas in numerical rank order according to which was said most often CEII participants identified several reasons would be to privilege the most outspoken for the lack of diversity on boards of directors voices and the most popular ideas. Instead, of arts organizations. They include: all of the commonly occurring themes are The perceived value of the board is treated equally in this report. primarily financial, which focuses on only Beyond talking about problems and barriers, one concept of wealth. participants in the Town Hall and Working There is fear among some that diversifying Group meetings discussed each of these five the board might change the organization. areas, identifying barriers to cultural equity as well as possible solutions to overcome Others have the desire to increase these barriers. The Working Groups were also diversity, equity and inclusion, but tasked with going beyond possible solutions believe they cannot find people of color to to develop actionable recommendations. recruit to their boards. They drafted vision statements of what No formal pipeline exists that can bring cultural equity in each of the five areas would diverse communities into board leadership. look like. This section summarizes both the barriers to cultural equity and visions of a more equitable future that emerged from the Town Hall and Working Group participants.
38 Other barriers identified by CEII participants County population is White. In addition, the include the following: DataArts study found that 51 percent of board members are women, compared to 64 When talking about boards of directors, percent of all staff. the assumption too often is to talk about the boards of mainstream organizations. Culturally specific organizations and Vision statement for those serving under-represented improved cultural equity communities have distinct needs and and inclusion among challenges with regard to their boards, Boards of Directors including limited access to affluent 1. As stewards, boards are critical to individuals and networks for potential the leadership of organizations and board members and/or donors. determine the advancing of the mission and vision to reflect the multitude of Funders are invisible players behind the perspectives of experiences of the scenes, as boards often make decisions communities they serve. based on what funders value. 2. Clarity about how an organization Further, participants said that boards defines its “community” informs are critical not only in whether their which aspects of cultural equity and membership reflects the diversity of the inclusion are important to its board region, but they are also key to making composition. Increasing cultural diversity, equity, inclusion and access a equity and inclusion on boards is priority for the organization. more than the recruitment of diverse new members. The DataArts workforce survey quantified 3. All board members can make this lack of diversity, finding that 68 meaningful contributions when the percent of board members of LA County arts board operates with an inclusive culture organizations are White. By comparison, that invites and values all voices, and approximately 27 percent of the total expands beyond the boardroom.
39 STAFFING
“Part of what we struggle with is that there’s not an open pipeline for people of color to enter into leadership positions. There are very few positions of leadership except in ethnically specific organizations. People talk about training young people but there are already people who are trained and ready to enter into these positions. How are the positions posted, what headhunters are used, are the selection panels comprised of diverse people?” —Santa Monica Town Hall attendee
CEII participants noted that people of color are considered for positions in arts and under-represented among the staff of arts and cultural organizations. culture institutions in LA County and they make Leaders from culturally specific up an even smaller share of senior positions. organizations may not be valued or While the survey did not ask about transgender considered for a leadership position in people or people from lower socio-economic mainstream organizations. backgrounds, participants in the Town Hall meetings discussed the fact that they may be People at the early stages of career under-represented in the arts workforce. development often lack knowledge about viable career paths within arts CEII participants identified the following barriers and culture, especially as it relates to to cultural equity and inclusion in staffing: positions in leadership and management. Board diversity is directly linked to hiring Young people often assume that a career diverse leadership. in the arts is limited only to art makers. There is no clear pipeline to upper-level Potential employers assume the pool positions when hiring happens through of candidates of color is too small, professional homogenous networks. inaccessible, or that candidates lack Transgender persons may be particularly requisite experience. disadvantaged when it comes to being
40 Pay scales in the nonprofit arts sector among staff in the LA County arts workforce, tend to be lower than in other industries. finding that 60 percent of all staff (including volunteers, contractors and board members) Job requirements need to be re-assessed is White. Staffing becomes less diverse at in light of cultural competency and higher levels, with 63 percent senior staff being connections to diverse communities. White. At the same time, the DataArts survey Participants stressed that the range of sizes and did find that overall, 60 percent of the arts and diversity of infrastructures in LA County arts and culture workforce is women, which is a notable culture organizations must be considered when achievement. However, this varies by seniority. addressing diversity, equity, inclusion and access Fifty-seven percent of senior staff are women in staffing. Culturally specific organizations may compared to 64 percent of all other paid staff. not have a diverse staff, but are serving the needs The DataArts study also found the arts workforce of underserved communities. Participants pointed to be older than the LA County workforce. More out that mutually vested interests can increase than 35 percent of the arts workforce is age 55 much needed communication and interaction or older, compared to 19 percent of the overall between high level staff members from small workforce. Representation of people with a organizations and from large institutions. disability in the arts workforce was found to be slightly higher than for the overall population in The DataArts workforce survey confirmed LA County, at 10 percent. Nearly 16 percent of participants’ view on the lack of diversity the arts workforce identified as being LGBTQ.
Vision statement for improving cultural equity and inclusion among staff 1. Los Angeles County’s arts organizations 2. Access is also provided to the existing pool provide viable career paths with a wide range of qualified candidates at management and of accessible entry points for a diverse staff executive levels. that support the expression, celebration and 3. The goals of providing increased opportu- sharing of all stories, with special attention nities and increased representation are to people of color, persons with disabilities, supported by inclusive policies for hiring, LGBTQ people and individuals from lower training and retention. socio-economic circumstances.
41 ARTISTS/CREATORS
CEII participants expressed that the “It wasn’t until I saw conventional definition of “artist” suggests a Basquiat that I even felt model that does not represent many cultural comfortable calling myself producers. It presumes an individual, trained in a European tradition, producing products “artist.” That word felt too (objects or performances) for consumers White, too European, like it (audience) through the gallery or performing wasn’t made for me.” arts venues. —Arts Internship Town Hall Attendee, Sharper Edges art project respondent Participants said this definition omits those:
who create in collectives or in communities To improve cultural equity and inclusion among artists and creators, CEII participants noted who create to preserve cultural traditions that support is needed in all the following areas: whose education has taken place outside Funding the academy Commissions who create ephemeral or intangible works Access to studio space to make who work with materials not considered work or rehearse “fine art” Access to venues to perform, who create for the benefit of their exhibit or publish friends, family or clan, or for personal expression Critical dialogue about their work
42 CEII participants pointed out that jobs in compensation than other mainstream for-profit and nonprofit arts and cultural artists. While there have been no empirical spaces have tended to go to those who studies to determine whether this follow the traditional model of “artist,” perception is accurate in LA County, at and many creators struggle to continue least one analysis of national data from to create without benefit of this support. the American Community Survey found Artists of color report that they are that nearly 80 percent of people who make sometimes expected to work for lower their primary living as artists are White.11 PROGRAMMING Vision statement for improving cultural equity Many CEII participants perceive an and inclusion among inequitable distribution of resources artists/creators between major institutions that support, preserve and present arts traditions 1. Artists, creators, cultural producers that derive primarily from European and tradition bearers, in all their cultures and smaller organizations that diversity of traditions, disciplines work in other, non-Western cultural and practice, are valued as essential to the quality of life; traditions, or whose staff and/or target their creations are understood audiences represent other cultures. to contribute to the texture of LA CEII participants identified the following County and help make it distinct. barriers to cultural equity and inclusion 2. Systems of support are in place in programming: for creative output in all its forms, supporting and sustaining Many smaller organizations and the diversity of worldviews, independent artists struggle to find languages and cultural traditions venues to present their exhibitions and that comprise the unique cultural performances. Skyrocketing real estate ecology of LA County. costs have an increasingly negative impact.
11 National Endowment for the Arts. (2011). NEA Research Note #105: Artists and Arts Workers in the United States: Findings from the American Community Survey (2005-2009) and the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (2010). Washington, DC: National Endowment for the Arts.
43 Some larger institutions, as well as CEII participants noted that hiring diverse mainstream mid-size and smaller artists alone will not make meaningful nonprofit arts and culture organizations, changes to programming. Participants draw primarily from European traditions pointed toward several issues that require in the arts, which can be perceived further consideration: as culturally irrelevant to a large Artists are too often asked to represent portion of LA County residents. If the their cultures in inauthentic or “norm” is perceived to be White, male, stereotypical ways, to conform to ideas heterosexual and able-bodied, many held by the dominant culture about them. residents’ lives and experiences are There is pressure to assimilate. absent from that equation. Diverse artists may merely constitute Audiences are drawn to programs in a token representation that allows the which they see themselves, their values presenter to believe they are being and concerns. When they do not see diverse. This tendency yields multiple themselves reflected, they may decide negative consequences including: their culture is not valued, or they may compromising the credibility of diverse decide the arts are irrelevant to their lives. artists, increased questions about the Programming decisions are also often organization’s cultural competency, and driven by ticket sales, and diverse, estrangement between the organization cultural offerings are not seen as and the new audiences and participants financially viable. they hoped to engage.
“Programming must reflect community and also introduce them to new cultures and art forms.” —South Gate Town Hall attendee
44 The expectation of assimilation has develop local artists rather than hiring limited the development of a new nationally or internationally known generation of artists whose passions artists for their productions. are grounded in creating relevant and There was concern expressed reflective art. that increased inclusion of Producers will sometimes cast White diverse artists and programs in and able-bodied performers to portray mainstream organizations may diverse characters (e.g., “yellow threaten the survival of culturally face,” “cripple face”), which may both specific organizations. misrepresent the culture and deny The 2016 DataArts survey did not include opportunities to diverse artists. collection of information regarding diversity There is a perception among some in programming. that organizations should nurture and
Vision statement for improving cultural equity and inclusion in programming 1. Throughout LA County, inclusive 3. Diverse programming is approached programs are available that allow all through a culture of inquiry, voices, stories and communities in LA serves as a catalyst for ongoing County to attain visibility and resonance. conversations among decision- makers, expands understanding of 2. Residents feel their own traditions and diverse experiences of individuals and history are validated and preserved, organizations, and bridges barriers. and have opportunities to find value in traditions different from their own. 4. Equitable distribution of resources Organizations and venues provide equitable makes it possible for all residents employment and development opportunities to have access to arts and cultural for artists and arts professionals. programs in their neighborhoods.
45 AUDIENCE/PARTICIPANTS “Arts and cultural Surveys by the National Endowment for the organizations should be Arts12 and the James Irvine Foundation13 asking the following question: demonstrate that while fewer individuals are How does your organization attending arts events as audience members, contribute to Los Angeles more are participating in creative activities County’s efforts in diversity, such as singing, creative writing, photography equity and inclusion in the or dancing, often engaging in these activities local arts ecology?” in small, informal groups and organizations. Additionally, it was noted by CEII participants —Working Group participant that many young residents are experiencing arts and culture on their digital devices. CEII participants identified the following Many arts organizations in LA County are barriers to audiences and participants: experimenting with using new technologies to share performances with wider audiences. At a fundamental level, LA County Some are provided in places where audiences lacks policy that integrates arts and come together (such as projection of an cultural participation as essential to opera performance in a park), while others are the quality of life of its residents. sharing artworks and performances online in Arts and cultural organizations’ marketing places where individuals can engage with them efforts are often constrained by limited on personal devices. The County has its own resources, causing them to reach only television channel, LA36, which currently runs those within geographic proximity, some arts programming and could be used to more affluent communities, and those both promote and share the arts with a wider who are already inclined to attend. audience. These factors should be considered by all arts and cultural organizations Marketing partnerships between that seek to engage more residents. large and smaller cultural specific
12 National Endowment for the Arts. (2013). How a Nation Engages with Art: Highlights from the 2012 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts. Washington, DC: National Endowment for the Arts. 13 Novak-Leonard, J., Reynolds, M., English, N., & Bradburn, N. (2015). The Cultural Lives of Californians. Los Angeles, CA: James Irvine Foundation.
46 organizations to reach new audiences and participants are often skewed to Vision statement for benefit the larger organizations. improving cultural equity and inclusion among Lack of education in arts and culture audiences and participants makes it even harder to reach many 1. Fostered by robust and lifelong audiences effectively as residents may arts education, all residents of LA have a limited definition of “the arts,” County have the opportunity to feel perceiving the arts as an elitist pursuit. comfortable and engaged in arts and cultural experiences that reflect their LA County residents often do not identities, worldviews and traditions, want to leave their communities to and build greater understanding of access arts and culture, due to both other cultures and perspectives as the time and cost to travel to distant well. Through this, residents grow venues, as well as admission fees. in their understanding that arts and cultural engagement builds There is a lack of visibility or general and sustains healthy individuals awareness of local/neighborhood and healthy communities. arts and cultural assets which 2. To create the right atmosphere for prevents residents from participating engagement and to ensure sustained in arts that exist in their own relationships, arts presenters neighborhoods, and a lack of support provide diverse audiences and systems to enable these assets participants with a welcoming to get off the ground or flourish. environment, including access to written materials in their language. Too many people do not know about the arts opportunities that are available. The 2016 DataArts survey did not include People from diverse communities measures of audience composition. A survey do not always feel welcome in focusing on audience demographics is traditional cultural venues. currently being developed by DataArts.
47 SHARPER EDGES/ TELL US HOW YOU REALLY FEEL This project, commissioned by the Arts Another participant in Sharper Edges said, Commission and conceived and conducted As a Filipino American arts viewer by Los Angeles artist and urban planner and participant, there are a lot of Rosten Woo, provided a place where CEII assumptions about what I like simply participants could engage in the “sharper based on my race and ethnicity. A lot of edges” of the diversity, equity, inclusion what I like culturally has nothing to do and access conversation. Participants with my ethnic background. entered a private space where they were interviewed anonymously about their And another quote from a participant: experience of diversity with the arts in I feel that in the hiring of arts admin LA. The interviews were transcribed, staff, barriers are put in place that don't randomized and then projected on a [appear] to favor one race or another, screen on a rolling scroll at every town hall. but that, if you scratch the surface Anonymity was assured and protected for they do. Arts institutions claim to want participants who engaged in this project. diversity in their staff but create and The purpose of Sharper Edges/Tell Us How use only the molds that they have used You Really Feel was to create a safe space before. There is no expanding the field, to talk about issues in the community no risk taking in recruiting or hiring. that participants may not have been More quotations from Sharper Edges willing or able to bring up in a large public can be found in Appendix F and all the forum. Example, one participant said, responses from the project can be found I speak three languages: English, on the website ArtsEquityLA.com. Spanish and Art. Trying to discuss art with my Spanish-speaking parents who migrated to this county with low education is impossible. I [found an] entrance to the art world but my parents got left behind.
48 EMERGING SOLUTIONS
In addition to identifying barriers and Of the 1.6 million K-12 students in LA County problems, participants in the Town Hall public schools, 65 percent are Hispanic/ meetings also began to identify solutions. Latino, 14 percent are White, 10 percent In some cases, issues that were raised are Asian/Pacific Islander, 8 percent are provided clear suggestions for solutions. African American and less than 1 percent In particular, four common themes are American Indian/Alaska Native. Two- emerged in the conversations as solutions. thirds of all students receive free or reduced These four solutions cut across and could price meals, an indicator of poverty. A large be used to address cultural equity and body of research exists that correlates inclusion for all five of the areas above. arts education to cognitive development ARTS EDUCATION and improved academic success, as well as civic engagement more broadly. Attendees emphasized that arts education “How can you incorporate should be extended not only to students arts into the schools? but their parents as well, reasoning that if Art is very important for parents do not understand the value arts kids and how children education can bring, they will not encourage get the opportunity to their children to engage in the arts. Arts express themselves.” education also needs to include information about viable careers in arts and cultural —Pomona Town Hall attendee organizations and in the creative industries. Arts education was discussed in multiple Attendees cited tremendous inequities ways. Lack of arts education was perceived between private and public schools, as the reason arts are not more valued in between school districts and even between society. At the same time, there was an schools within a district, so every child is expressed need that arts education be not gaining the same access to arts and expanded beyond classic, European traditions cultural learning. It was noted that special to include and validate the heritage and education students may be particularly art making practices of many cultures. lacking in arts and cultural opportunities.
49 “Communities are not always included in or made aware of the arts opportunities that are local to them. Better communication, accessibility and transportation will go a long way to connect diverse communities together and create collaborative experiences.” —Santa Clarita Town Hall Attendee, Sharper Edges art project respondent
Many Town Hall table conversations focused restrictions make it difficult to gain access exclusively on the issue of arts education. to spaces in school buildings and sometimes A large number of attendees saw arts parks, and costs may be prohibitive. education as pivotal to increasing cultural Attendees said that when arts and cultural equity and inclusion. People who experience programming does move into neighborhoods, the arts at a young age, they said, will grow it does not always reflect the traditions or up to be not only artists and creators but interests of the residents of the neighborhood. they will become board members and staff Organizations may see themselves as bringing art at arts organizations, and they will become to the community, without understanding what audience members and participants in the local resources – including artist and art making arts. In all those roles they will demand traditions – already exists in the community. programming that reflects their cultures. NEIGHBORHOOD ACCESS Some attendees stated that local residents may lack the management skills to grow an arts As stated in the “Audience/Participants” and cultural organization or enterprise and may section above, attendees discussed that many not have access (knowledge or proximity) to people are unable or unmotivated to travel to opportunities to acquire those skills. Increasing other regions of LA County to attend arts and arts programming in local neighborhoods that cultural events. Time, traffic and expense are reflect neighborhood cultures and values could all inhibiting factors. Many neighborhoods in provide more culturally equitable and inclusive LA County do not have robust support systems programming for more audiences and for local arts and cultural opportunities, neither participants while also leading to improved affordable venues nor programs. This may opportunities at the board, staff and artist/ be especially true in unincorporated areas of creator level. LA County. Attendees also noted that legal
50 FUNDING Many funders do not fund operating Working Group participants cited the support – a change in this could help difficulties faced by smaller, grassroots sustain smaller organizations; and culturally specific organizations in Funders often ask organizations to obtaining adequate funding. While the Arts generate new projects, sometimes to the Commission provides support to these detriment of established programs; organizations through its Organizational Grants Program, it can typically fund Many funders are currently focused on no more than 53 percent of the amount making grants for capacity building, requested due to budgetary limits. but that has come at the expense of grants to support programming; and Attendees cited policy issues among public and private funders that can It is very difficult to find sustainable disadvantage artists and smaller arts sources of funds, as grants are often for and cultural organizations, especially only one or two years. those in communities of color, low-income Because the Arts Commission coordinates communities, disabled communities, and with the cultural activities of the others. For example, municipalities, it is aware that 81 of the 88 Funders often will only grant a percentage municipalities in LA County currently offer no of an organization’s existing budget, open competitive grant funding for arts and making it hard to grow; culture in their communities.
Many funders do not fund anyone “There are funding without nonprofit status or those who policies that disadvantage use a fiscal receiver, which eliminates small, culturally specific individual artists; and community based Many funders require programming organizations.” history and do not fund start-ups; —Torrance Town Hall attendee
51 Town Hall attendees cited statistics about Many organizations report that they don’t the lack of philanthropic and corporate know how or don’t have the resources to funders in LA as compared to those in market to culturally diverse communities San Francisco and New York. It was also or connect to specific neighborhoods. stated that arts dollars in LA are invested Print and broadcast media, billboards primarily downtown and other “central” and street banners are costly, beyond locations within LA County where most the means of many arts and cultural of the County institutions are located, organizations. Opportunities for free without corresponding investment in editorial coverage like reviews of other parts of LA County. Expanded performances, productions or works funding opportunities could be a key of art are perceived to be decreasing. strategy to addressing cultural equity Electronic distribution of information is and inclusion among boards and staff, not appropriate for and does not reach audiences and programming, and artists. all communities or age groups. Better COMMUNICATIONS communication that is customized to different audiences could improve Town Hall attendees reported that even cultural equity and inclusion for when free or low-cost opportunities exist, audiences and programming, as well the communities that need them often as for board, staff and artists. do not know about them. Artists and job- seekers have a hard time finding out about opportunities that may be available.
“Communication is a huge issue. I don’t know what is going on or how to support. I don’t know how to connect. I feel like folks are segregated in their communities.” —Northridge Town Hall Attendee
52 “The arts are not just a nice thing to have or to do if there is free time or if one can afford it. Rather, paintings and poetry, music and fashion, design and dialogue, they all define who we are as a people and provide an account of our history for the next generation.”
—Former First Lady Michelle Obama CEII Advisory Committee members. Committee Advisory CEII
53 RECOMMENDATIONS TO INCREASE CULTURAL EQUITY AND INCLUSION
HOW THE RECOMMENDATIONS WERE DEVELOPED
A series of Working Groups organized that LA County could undertake, both around the five key areas were convened to through the Arts Commission and other review the suggestions that emerged from LA County government departments. the Town Hall meetings and hone them into Recommendations that would have recommendations. These Working Groups appeared to direct other agencies or were comprised primarily of Advisory organizations to take action were excluded. Committee members and people who The Co-Chairs of the Advisory Committee attended the Town Halls that had been added an overarching additional strategy: held across LA County’s five supervisorial establishing a Countywide cultural districts. Participants strategized based policy. The Co-Chairs also recommended on their expertise and experience. In some developing a plan to evaluate the cases, Arts Commission staff provided outcomes of the recommendations that support by developing suggestions into are adopted. In subsequent discussions more fleshed out, actionable strategies. with the Co-Chairs and Advisory Committee As the Working Groups voted to establish members, the recommendations were their top priorities they were mindful re-articulated, reorganized and in some that this report was requested by the cases combined into the following 13 Board of Supervisors. Therefore they recommendations presented below. For focused on recommending initiatives
54 example, all three recommendations The CEII resolution passed by the Board of from the Boards of Directors Working Supervisors requires that cost estimates be Group were combined into one. All of included with each recommendation. The the recommendations presented in this figures shown here are rough estimates report are conceptual, and will require based on preliminary staff analysis. If further development for implementation. and when any of these recommendations are adopted, a more thorough analysis of It is important to note that while the costs would be required. Final estimates recommendations from Working Groups may vary from what is presented here each focused on one aspect of diversity, depending on both a fuller analysis and equity, inclusion and access, the benefits on the scope of the LA County Board of each recommendation may go well of Supervisors’ desired results. beyond their area of focus. For example, the recommendation to fund local level arts For each recommendation below, the programming through a Parks and Libraries following information is provided: Partnership came from the Programming Description of the recommendation Working Group, but it would also benefit audiences/participants and, in the long Solution summary term, could lead young people who are Estimated project cost and timeline exposed to the arts in their neighborhoods to consider working in the arts, joining Potential planning and the board of an arts organization, or even implementation partners becoming an artist themselves. Ultimately, diversity, equity, inclusion and access in the five areas of the arts are closely intertwined. Benefits in one area can build a “virtuous cycle” that create benefits for County residents in other areas as well.
55 RECOMMENDATIONS
RECOMMENDATION FROM part a road map for how LA County departments THE CEII CO-CHAIRS can contribute to cultural life. This policy would include the outcomes the County seeks to 1. Los Angeles County Cultural Policy achieve, as well as mechanisms to measure LA County is one of the largest County them. This policy would also help the County government supporters of the arts in the United as it seeks to remain responsive to major States. The Board of Supervisors has already demographic shifts currently taking place. demonstrated through its investment in County While a number of major U.S. cities, including cultural departments and through the motion Chicago and New York, are strongly considering that launched this CEII initiative that it values adopting cultural policies, LA could be the first the arts and their benefit to all County residents. county to do so. This would make LA County A cultural policy would 1) codify the principles a national arts leader in equity, diversity, by which the Board of Supervisors makes inclusion and access for all. cultural decisions; 2) provide a framework for Solution: Establish a cultural policy for LA grounding the arts and cultural life of our region County with concrete elements focused on within the broader context of diversity, cultural equity, diversity, inclusion and access that equity and inclusion; and 3) formalize support would solidify the gains made through the for culturally equitable artistic practice and CEII process and recommendations, and will access across civic life. A cultural policy would serve as a road map for how all LA County apply to all County departments. This policy departments can contribute to cultural life. would need to be reviewed periodically to ensure This cultural policy would position LA County that it is staying current with the evolving arts as a national arts leader in advancing cultural and culture landscape, as well as changes to equity and inclusion in every sector of our the population of LA County as a whole. As the civic lives. landscape shifts, the County’s cultural policy should shift with it. Projected Cost and Timeline: $50,000 one-time cost for consultant support. Establishing a cultural policy for LA County would be in part a statement of values and in Partners: LA County Chief Executive Office
56 RECOMMENDATION FROM equity, inclusion and access needs and THE BOARDS OF DIRECTORS the commitments it intends to make. Each WORKING GROUP organization would report annually to the County on progress made toward the goals 2. Inclusive Language, Policies and it has set. The only cost to the County Infrastructure to Recruit and Retain would be to include an Organizational Diverse Staff and Boards in LA County Change Fund for arts nonprofits to Arts and Cultural Organizations provide trainings and support to develop The literature review conducted by the these policies and to advance cultural Arts Commission’s staff as part of the CEII diversity in their staff and boards. process notes that, “The formalization Solution: Initiate a requirement that of board diversity policies and practices all cultural organizations receiving has a significant positive effect on board LA County funds have written, board- diversity demographics.” This strategy adopted statements, policies or proposes that LA County require all plans that outline their commitment cultural organizations that receive LA to diversity, equity, inclusion and County funding have written board- access, and monitor progress. adopted statements, policies or plans with measurable goals that outline the Projected Cost: $50,000 annually organization’s commitment to diversifying (for technical assistance) their boards and staff at all levels. Exact Partners: LA County arts and requirements would be based on budget cultural organizations, professional size, with the smallest organizations only facilitators and training partners required to have a statement and the largest budget organizations required to RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE have a plan with measurable goals. This STAFFING WORKING GROUP recommendation does not require the 3. College Arts Pathways: Paid County to set goals or quotas. Instead, Arts Internships for Community each organization would set its own College Students specific requirements based on its size and mission. This policy will allow each Research shows undergraduates who receive organization to identify its own diversity, paid internships are significantly more likely
57 than those who have unpaid internships to as well as scaling up the robust educational receive a job offer upon graduation and are programming the Arts Commission offers in less likely to report barriers to long-term conjunction with each student’s internship career success. 14National Association of Colleges experience, a phased approach to gradually and Employers. (2014). The Class of 2014 Student Survey increase the number of available positions Report. Bethlehem. PA: National Association of Colleges and over five years is recommended to expand Employers.) Community colleges in LA County from the current 132 positions to 275. are significantly more diverse than four- Solution: Double the existing LA County year universities, and community college Internship Program to increase the number students have not participated in the Arts of paid arts internships with the additional Commission’s Arts Internship Program at positions set aside for community college high rates. Substantially increasing the students, emphasizing inclusivity of number of arts internships over several those from communities of color, low- years, and reserving the additional positions income neighborhoods, the disabled for students attending community colleges community, and other communities that (including trade-tech and vocational experience barriers to arts access. schools), would diversify the participant pool for this already successful program Projected Cost and Timeline: $433,000 even further. Increasing the number of for the first year of implementation, internships would also create an opportunity with funding added annually to reach to expand the geographic reach of arts $1,280,000 in five years, in addition to organizations eligible to host interns. This current Arts Internship Program costs. would, in turn, expand pipelines to creating Partners: LA County arts and cultural more diverse staff in arts and cultural organizations, community colleges organizations. This strategy builds on both the LA County’s Arts Commission’s long- 4. Teen Arts Pathways: Employment and running program as well as the Arts and Learning Opportunities in the Arts and Business Council of New York’s Diversity Culture for High School Students in Arts Leadership Internship Program. In LA County, more than 83 percent of children As this strategy would require additional under age 18 are of color, and more than recruitment efforts in community colleges, a quarter of all children in the County live
58 below the poverty level. Teen Arts Pathways students, LGBTQ students, disabled students, would expand opportunities for traditionally current and former foster youth, and youth on underserved high school students to access probation, as well as others who experience careers in the arts by connecting in-school barriers to participation, to prepare youth for coursework with work-based learning that careers in the arts and creative industries. leads to job placement both in the for-profit Projected Cost and Timeline: and nonprofit creative workforce. This $230,000 annual allocation strategy includes all jobs in the creative industries15 as well as creative jobs in any Partners: LA County school districts, industry.16 Staff would work with local and California State Department of Education, state education leaders, alongside regional institutions of higher education cultural centers and institutions, to enable 5. Creative Workforce Development Center(s) high school students to earn visual and performing arts course credit (high school One in every six jobs in the LA County region graduation F requirement) through after is generated by the creative industries. In school participation in learning and leadership addition, there are many creative jobs within opportunities provided by community- non-creative industries in LA County, such as based cultural organizations. This would photographers and web designers that work create pipelines to job opportunities in the for manufacturing companies. The purpose of arts which would lead to a more diverse and the Creative Workforce Development Center(s) inclusive workforce in the creative sector. would be to connect both students and mature workers to educational, training and networking Solution: Develop an LA County initiative creating opportunities that could help them learn about access to work-based learning and leadership and acquire the skills they need to work in the opportunities for all high school students, creative industries or in creative jobs in other particularly students of color, low-income
15 The annual Otis Report on the Creative Economy in Los Angeles defines the “creative industries” as being made up of the following twelve industries: Architecture and Interior Design, Art Galleries, Communication Arts, Digital Media, Entertainment, Fashion, Furniture and Decorative Arts, Product/Industrial Design, Toys, Visual and Performing Arts, Performing Arts Schools, and Publishing and Printing. For the most recent report, see https://www.otis.edu/sites/default/files/2015-LA-Region-Creative-Economy-Report-Final_WEB.pdf. 16 For more on creative jobs in other industries, see Creative Work: How arts education promotes career opportunities beyond the arts: http://www.lacountyarts.org/pubfiles/LACAC_CreativeReportB_FINAL2.pdf.
59 industries, with employers in both the nonprofit and culture. The vast majority – 92 percent and for-profit realms. Services provided could of those municipalities (81 of 88) – do not include connecting students to existing Career- provide grants or funding opportunities for Technical Education coursework, internships, the arts, although cities often have a closer job shadowing, on-the-job training, an alumni connection and deeper knowledge of local association for arts internship programs, and an artists and arts collectives in their areas. online job board for employment opportunities. While the Arts Commission’s Organizational This would expand pipelines to more diverse Grant Program provides support for close to staff in arts and cultural organizations as well 400 nonprofit arts organizations, it does not as other employers in the creative industries. have a way to support artists or collectives that are not organized as nonprofits. Solution: Establish center(s) that link students and mature workers, especially those from This strategy is similar to a program of the communities of color, low-income, LGBTQ and New York City Department of Cultural Affairs disabled communities, and other communities that funds the five boroughs to re-grant that are under-represented in the arts, to edu- to small budget and fiscally sponsored cational, training and networking opportunities organizations. It would initiate a 1:1 matching to help them gain skills to work in creative jobs. municipal arts grant program in LA County, with diversity, equity, inclusion and access Partners: High schools, two and four year colleges, built into the guidelines, to provide re-granting community organizations and businesses funds for fiscally sponsored organizations, Projected Cost and Timeline: collectives, traditional and folk arts and $490,000 ongoing annual costs individual artists. Cities would be required RECOMMENDATIONS FROM to establish a formal system for reviewing THE ARTISTS/CREATORS proposals and making grant awards that WORKING GROUP meet professional standards and practices in the field, to ensure the funds are distributed 6. Neighborhood Bridges: Municipal Grants fairly and equitably. This program would: to Expand Arts and Cultural Programming decentralize arts funding to All Neighborhoods and Communities throughout the region, LA County consists of 88 municipalities build infrastructure for diverse artists, with diverse approaches and needs to arts
60 form or strengthen municipal cultural Projected Cost/Timeline: Of LA County’s departments and support their 9.8 million residents approximately 8.8 development of policy frameworks, and million live in municipalities. At $1 per capita this program would scale over ten years, provide services to culturally to allow time for building the requisite diverse populations. municipal capacity, to reach $8.8 million in The arts can play a vital role in building funding. This would be matched 1:1 by the bridges between people who are participating municipalities for a total of $17.7 separated by social and demographic million of arts and cultural programming differences. This strategy would work brought directly to local residents. in conjunction with the strategy for 7. Artists Working Cross-Sector to Increasing Diverse, Inclusive and Address Social Problems Equitable Cultural Opportunities and Programming in Unincorporated Areas Artists bring creative thinking to solving (Recommendation #8) to ensure equitable complex problems, and can bring communities services throughout LA County. This fund together around shared cultural values. This would support and increase diverse and recommendation is to embed artists, arts inclusive programming and audiences. administrators and other creative workers as creative strategists in County departments. In Solution: Implement an LA County grant this role they would formulate strategies that program to provide funds to municipal foster transformational changes by increasing funders that includes diversity, equity, community engagement and participation, inclusion and access requirements, identifying cultural and community for re-granting to fiscally sponsored assets, supporting public programs and organizations, collectives, traditional events, creating new public artworks and and folk artists and individual artists, beautification projects, and ultimately especially those from communities of increasing access to artistic and creative color, low-income, LGBTQ and disabled experiences in every community. Artists, arts communities, and other communities administrators and other creative workers that are under-represented in the arts. who are placed as cultural strategists would Partners: 88 LA County municipalities represent all facets of diversity in LA County.
61 The Arts Commission already partners with $400,000, 16 in year four at $800,000 many LA County departments through civic and 34 in year five at $1.6 million. It is art allocations for capital projects, collection anticipated that over time these residencies management and creative placemaking will grow into permanent LA County programs, among other mechanisms. employee positions within departments. The Arts Commission also has begun to Partners: All Los Angeles County Departments participate in strategic planning workgroups and special initiatives led by other County RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE departments, such as the Healthy Design PROGRAMMING WORKING GROUP Working Group and the Department of 8. Increasing Diverse, Inclusive and Regional Planning’s Equity Indicators Equitable Cultural Opportunities and project, expanding the reach of the arts to Programming in Unincorporated Areas support other sectors and meet community needs across LA County. This strategy More than one million people (approximately would ensure that departments have the 300,000 households) live in “unincorporated” resources and tools to utilize artists, arts areas of LA County, places where there is administrators and other creative workers as no municipal government. Two-thirds of the creative strategists in formulating innovative land area of LA County is home to nearly 140 approaches in programming, engagement unincorporated areas, many of which are and core messaging around such issues as made up of some of the region’s most diverse homelessness, children’s welfare and voting. populations, and most of which are underserved culturally. Because they are in unincorporated Solution: Place artists, arts administrators areas there is no local municipality to provide or other creative workers who are cultural (or other) services to local residents. representative of diverse constituencies In these unincorporated areas there are in LA County departments in paid positions no large County cultural institutions and as creative strategists to develop there may be few formal arts nonprofits. innovative solutions to social challenges. Since 2004 LA County has implemented a Projected Cost/Timeline: This program One Percent for Art requirement on public would begin with two placements in year capital projects. Extending this requirement to one at a cost of $100,000, four in year private developers for commercial structures two at $200,000, eight in year three at
62 over $500,000 would increase access to As part of this recommendation the County the arts in underserved unincorporated may wish to explore the possibility of passing areas, and provide a flexible revenue stream a mural ordinance or other ordinances to annually to support the development of regulate the creation of culturally diverse cultural programs that cannot be funded and inclusive artworks created on private through the Arts Commission’s current grant property in unincorporated areas. This could guidelines. On March 14, 2017, the Board provide opportunities for artistic expression, of Supervisors unanimously approved a increase community cultural assets, and motion to move forward with implementing foster a sense of neighborhood pride that a private developers requirement for is reflective of the diversity of LA County. civic art in the unincorporated areas. The ordinance could be structured so that community members, peer artists and This strategy works in conjunction with the arts managers are involved in vetting the Neighborhood Bridges: Municipal Grants artworks and artists. The murals would be to Expand Arts and Cultural Programming created by local artists and should not be to All Neighborhoods and Communities culturally appropriated. While the City of (Recommendation #6) to provide arts and Los Angeles has enacted a mural ordinance, culture services to underserved communities in no other municipalities have, so LA County the unincorporated areas at a geographic level action on this would also be an opportunity to small enough to be responsive to local needs. provide a policy template for municipalities. Artist-led community engagement This recommendation can improve access programs in unincorporated areas would to the arts for residents of unincorporated be used to identify ways to leverage local communities. It may also lead to artists, community-based organizations, greater diversity among artists and arts culturally specific organizations, and organizations funded by the County by community assets to resolve community targeting local artists representative of the issues and create a local vision for cultural communities where the artworks are made. development. A particular focus could be made on areas designated as Disadvantaged Solution: Provide new cultural opportunities Unincorporated Communities and would and funds particularly for residents of include coordination with LA County’s unincorporated areas of the County Office of Unincorporated Area Services. by extending LA County’s civic art
63 requirement to private developers and makes County funding more accessible enacting ordinances that encourage to diverse communities and communities the creation of cultural assets. that are historically underfunded.17 In addition, multiyear grants provide stability, Projected Cost/Timeline: Revenue Generating. especially for smaller budget organizations. Funds to support these services would be By contrast, the grantmaking process offset by a requirement for private developers at many local government arts agencies to incorporate artwork into their development gives preference or even sets aside line or pay an in lieu fee to support cultural items for larger-budget organizations. services within the community. Estimated to Many of these local arts agencies, in an generate $8 million annually in art or fees. effort to improve equity and inclusion, are Partners: LA County Department of trying to bring themselves into alignment Regional Planning and LA County with the principles already being followed Department of Public Works by the LA County Arts Commission.
9. Grants to Organizations Serving Increasing support available through OGP can Diverse Communities ensure that a wider variety of diverse cultural services reach a wider range of LA County The participants in the Cultural Equity residents. These services positively impact and Inclusion Initiative identified the Arts residents, neighborhoods and communities Commission’s Organizational Grant Program by providing direct access and increased (OGP) as “the County’s cultural equity fund.” opportunities for quality arts activities OGP grants are structured in such a way that and programming that is often free or low smaller-budget organizations can request cost. As part of the application process, a larger percent of their budget compared grantees clearly define the community to larger-budget organizations, and no or audience they seek to serve. In FY organizations are exempt from application 2016/17 LA County awarded $4.518 million requirements. This puts smaller and mid- in two-year grants to 205 nonprofit arts size arts nonprofits at an advantage, which
17 “Underfunded and under-resourced organizations” refers to entities that have historically served communities of color, low-income communities, LGBTQ communities, disabled communities, and other communities that are under-represented in the arts. Such organizations are often short-staffed, concerned with affordability of space, and may rely very heavily on volunteer labor
64 organizations, the largest number funded in could be strengthened by assigning staff nearly a decade. This is on top of the $4.538 to do outreach and recruit arts nonprofits million in grants made to an additional 184 from underserved communities. This would nonprofit arts organizations in FY 2015/16. increase support to small- and mid-sized These arts organizations are located organizations which would, as a result, expand throughout LA County with offices in 48 of diverse and inclusive programming by funding LA County’s 88 municipalities. In addition underserved and marginalized communities. to the direct funding, the OGP program Solution: Expand LA County’s Organizational provides technical assistance training to Grants Program, which supports arts and strengthen the management capacity of its culture organizations that have been grantees, as well as offering opportunities historically or are currently underfunded for networking and peer learning. and under-resourced, including those As the number of organizations applying that represent communities of color, for OGP grants has risen over the years the low-income communities and other amount of County funding has remained flat. communities experiencing barriers As a result, today arts nonprofits only receive to participation in the arts. about 53 percent of what they request, which Projected Cost/Timeline: $4.518 million annually, means they must substantially reduce their in addition to what is currently allocated proposed projects to meet community needs. This strategy proposes doubling the existing Partners: LA County arts and grant dollars. Doing so could focus support cultural organizations for mid-size organizations on strategies that 10. Parks and Libraries Arts Partnership build capacity by improving sustainability and capitalization. The 1:1 match requirement Infrastructure for presenting arts events is could be leveraged as an incentive for unevenly distributed throughout LA County, organizations to diversify funding by tapping leaving the residents of many low-income into sources of new contributed or earned neighborhoods and communities of color revenue. Doubling the current funds would without equitable access to quality cultural also allow the program to move toward programming. This also impacts aspiring longer term grant awards, further stabilizing performing artists from these communities small and mid-size arts organizations. This as they have fewer opportunities to perform
65 in front of an audience, improve their these series to other intra-regional touring presentations and build a following. In some and cultural exchanges opportunities. neighborhoods, parks and libraries may This recommendation is structured to be the only providers of arts and cultural make investments in both the Parks and programming, but they are often under- Recreation Department and the Libraries resourced or lack specialized knowledge Department, allowing them to partner with and support in content development/ organizations that will provide programming curriculum development, arts producing, appropriate to the communities they serve. marketing and community engagement. This can be coordinated with – though To provide more resources and support not limited to – cultural programming to LA County Parks and Recreation and funded elsewhere by the County, including Library Departments staff and to increase County-supported cultural institutions the number of arts programs being offered and the existing Free Concerts in Public in the most underserved communities, the and Musicians Roster programs. Arts Commission would partner with these Solution: Establish grants and professional agencies to identify up to 60 parks and development services to parks and libraries 30 library sites located in communities in areas of LA County with the least arts with the least access to arts and cultural programming, to support production and infrastructure, then work with their staff to marketing costs of arts events with a design and co-produce free public concerts focus on communities of color, low-income as well as participatory and engagement- communities, disabled communities, focused arts programs. This initiative and other communities that experience would provide direct funding for producing barriers to participation in the arts. and marketing up to 720 events. It would provide professional development and Projected Cost/Timeline: Program would coaching for parks and library professionals ramp-up over three years with $1.5 million interested in enhancing the quality and allocated in the first year, $3 million in the expanding the reach of their arts and cultural second and $6 million annually thereafter. programming. Arts Commission staff would Partners: LA County Department of Parks and also facilitate dialogues with municipalities Recreation, LA County Library Department to connect local artists performing in
66 RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE communication tactics, including radio, AUDIENCES/PARTICIPANTS television and print advertising, digital WORKING GROUP and social media, grassroots community outreach, partnering with Metro to increase 11. Connecting Audiences to accessibility to venues and an extensive Cultural Information public relations campaign to reinforce the Close to $1 million has recently been spent arts as core to everyday life. Materials by the Arts Commission, funded by Metro, would be multilingual and would comply to transition LA County’s cultural calendar with the Americans with Disabilities Act.18 to DiscoverLA to provide comprehensive, The overarching message would be that online information about arts and culture cultural experiences in LA County are activities, programming and cultural within geographic and financial reach of offerings. DiscoverLA includes listings of everyone. This would increase outreach to free and low cost opportunities for LA County and participation by diverse and inclusive residents in diverse neighborhoods and audiences across all of LA County. communities, with detailed information Solution: Establish a five year LA Countywide about transportation, cost, location and communications initiative that shares informa- language. The website for DiscoverLA, tion about the arts with all LA County residents visited by 13 million people a year, is through both traditional and nontraditional currently marketed by the LA Tourism methods, taking into account language bar- and Convention Board outside of LA. This riers, geographical concerns, and economic recommendation is to conduct a countywide divides that require different forms of outreach. communications outreach campaign that lets residents of LA County know about Projected Cost and Timeline: $1,000,000 this resource for information about how to per year over a five-year period. access the arts. This five-year campaign Partners: LA Tourism and Convention Board would include traditional and non-traditional and Metro, as well as potential media partners
18 The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush in 1990. The ADA prohibits discrimination and guarantees that people with disabilities have the same opportunities as everyone else to participate in the mainstream of American life. The ADA is an "equal opportunity" law for people with disabilities.
67 12. Connecting Organizations to New Projected Cost and Timeline: $750,000 Audiences and Participants annually for three years.
Many arts organizations express frustration Partners: LA County arts and because they do not have funds to cultural organizations support even a minimal marketing and 13. Equitable Access to Arts Education: communications effort to reach and sustain A Three Part Strategy for All audiences from underserved communities. Students in Public Schools This strategy would provide planning and then implementation grants to small and Despite significant progress made over mid-size arts organizations to develop and the past 14 years with Arts for All, the implement marketing efforts, supported by regional arts education initiative, the marketing and communications technical 2002 Board approved regional plan to assistance, with a focus on more dynamic ensure that all students engage in the and innovative models of reaching new arts as a core part of K-12 instruction audiences and participants, and sustaining and despite a strong body of research their involvement. Strategies would take showing the benefits of arts for learning into consideration the changing ways and careers, a tremendous amount young people view content as well as remains to be done to move the arts into responding to the needs of people with the mainstream of public education. disabilities to ensure that both access Policy changes at the federal and state policies and marketing materials are level show promise in this regard. New welcoming and inclusive. This would California State Standards, Local Control lead to expanded diversity and inclusion Funding Formula, Every Student Succeeds among arts audiences and participants. Act and Federal Title I Policy all now allow school districts to fund arts education to Solution: Establish LA County planning and support the achievement of low-income implementation grants to small and mid-sized students, making this a key moment arts organizations to build their capacity to reach to address equity in arts education in new audiences and participants including those in LA County public schools. The goal is communities of color, low-income communities, to ensure that every student in public disabled communities and other communities school in LA County, including students in that experience barriers to arts participation.
68 special education programs and remedial percentage of staff costs each year, programs, receives quality arts education. with the full cost of the position paid by the district after three years. Smaller Recommendations to expand current districts could share an arts coordinator efforts to increase the quality, quantity and districts that already employ full- and equitable distribution of arts education time arts coordinators, about 12, could across LA County’s 81 school districts, apply for additional staff dedicated with specific emphasis on developing to district-wide arts coordination. opportunities for all students to engage in arts learning that includes and represents Projected Cost and Timeline: $12.9 LA County’s diverse artists, genres and million one-time over 3-5 years cultural traditions, include the following: Support for competitive 1:1 matching Support for dedicated arts coordinators grants to LA County school districts to to serve every school district. Arts advance key arts education action items. coordinators oversee the creation and To be eligible, school districts would be implementation of school districts’ arts required to have a board-adopted arts education strategic plans, hire arts education policy and updated strategic teachers, develop arts curricula, provide plan (62 districts currently would qualify). professional development for both Request amounts would be based on arts specialists and general classroom student population of each district. teachers to integrate the arts into other Projected Cost and Timeline: subjects, contract with community arts $3.8 million annually organizations and teaching artists for services, and build school-to-career Initiate alignment of in-school and out- pathways. Matching grants to initiate arts of-school19 arts learning opportunities coordinator positions that could serve to increase access to the arts for all 81 school districts would decrease youth across LA County, with particular over time as districts assume a greater emphasis on underserved communities.
19 “Out-of-school” has recently replaced the term “after-school” and refers to all instruction that occurs outside of normal school hours, regardless of where that instruction takes place. This can include programs that operate before and after school as well as programs on weekends or during summer or intersession periods.
69 Map community resources providing work already being done. Arts nonprofits out-of-school (extended learning) throughout LA County could be brought in to arts instruction and overlay with support this work. countywide data that maps in-school Solution: arts instruction. Convene leaders and practitioners of out-of-school learning to Grants to fund dedicated arts discuss strengths and needs, examine coordinators who both reflect state education standards for extended and promote the diversity of the learning, and identify opportunities to student population, to serve every increase student participation through school district in LA County purposeful alignment with in-school arts Grants to school districts in support instruction. This strategy is targeted of their arts education plans to position community arts partners to play a greater role in providing Alignment of in-school and out-of- students with robust arts learning. school arts learning opportunities
Projected Cost and Timeline: $385,000 Total Projected Cost: $17.085 million one-time funds over 18 months Partners: LA County Office of Education, Work funded through this recommendation School districts in LA County, out-of- should not be duplicative of arts education school arts education providers
70 IMPACT AND MEASURING SUCCESS
Investments made by the County in any of track both the progress and effects of any these recommendations will have direct recommendation that the County invests in. effects on the people served, but may also Beyond evaluation of any one program, move other local governments and arts however, progress should also be measured organizations to take action to improve at the County level. The County has already diversity, equity, inclusion and access in begun this task when it committed to the arts. The programs themselves are conducting the workforce survey that was models others can follow. More than this, piloted as part of CEII for an additional four though, County leadership on the issues years, which will allow measurement of of diversity, equity, inclusion and access change over time in the arts workforce. Other to the arts is likely to influence others in measures related to arts education, artists/ the wider arts ecology to take action as creators, neighborhoods, audiences and well. Appendix M provides a table showing programming could also be developed and these recommendations in order of cost. measured. The CEII Advisory Committee could The final question is how to measure be maintained at least in the first few years success, and how to ensure that the as a monitoring committee with responsibility benefits of any County investments to ensure that recommendations are continue for the long term. In order to implemented and have measurable impact. measure success, goals would need Furthermore, efforts to track progress to be set early in the planning stage, of any arts-specific initiatives should be incorporated into the implementation plan, coordinated with other County initiatives then resources would need to be set aside related to equity and inclusion, to ensure to collect and analyze data then report back the most effective use of resources and the results. Program evaluation can be used to greatest benefit for all County residents.
71 APPENDIX A
CEII ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEMBERS AND AFFILIATIONS
Betty Avila Leslie Ito SELF HELP GRAPHICS JAPANESE AMERICAN CULTURAL AND COMMUNITY CENTER Glenna Avila Letitia Fernandez Ivins CALARTS COMMUNITY ARTS PARTNERSHIP METRO Carlos Benavides Joel Jacinto LA COUNTY COMMISSION ON DISABILITIES COMMISSIONER, CITY OF LOS ANGELES BOARD OF PUBLIC WORKS Deborah Borda Maria Rosario Jackson LA PHILHARMONIC CO-CHAIR OF THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE, HERBERGER INSTITUTE FOR DESIGN AND THE ARTS, ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY Pamela Bright-Moon ARTS COMMISSIONER, SECOND DISTRICT Charmaine Jefferson KÉLAN RESOURCES Ben Caldwell KAOS NETWORK Gregorio Luke MUSEUM OF LATIN AMERICAN ART Barbara Carrasco ARTIST Claudia Margolis ARTS COMMISSIONER (FIFTH DISTRICT) Tim Dang CO-CHAIR OF THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE, Kathryn McDonnell EAST WEST PLAYERS FORMER ARTS COMMISSIONER, (FOURTH DISTRICT) Juan Devis Rachel Moore KCET THE MUSIC CENTER Julia Diamond Elena Muslar GRAND PARK LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY John Echeveste Promsodum Ok LA PLAZA DE CULTURA Y ARTES KHMER ARTS Jordan Elgarbly Debra Padilla THE MARKAZ ARTS CENTER FOR THE GREATER MIDDLE EAST SOCIAL AND PUBLIC ARTS RESOURCES CENTER Quetzal Flores Claire Peeps ALLIANCE FOR CALIFORNIA TRADITIONAL ARTS DURFEE FOUNDATION, ARTS COMMISSIONER (THIRD DISTRICT) Edgar Garcia Randy Reinholz OFFICE OF MAYOR ERIC GARCETTI NATIVE VOICES AT THE AUTRY Kiki Ramos Gindler Luis Rodriguez CENTER THEATRE GROUP TIA CHUCHA’S CENTRO CULTURAL Mynor Godoy Jose Luis Valenzuela UNITED WAY OF GREATER LOS ANGELES LATINO THEATRE COMPANY Helen Hernandez Diana Vesga CO-CHAIR OF THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE, LA COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART ARTS COMMISSIONER (FIRST DISTRICT)
72 APPENDIX B
WORKING GROUP PARTICIPANTS AND AFFILIATES
BOARDS OF DIRECTORS Tim Dang Maria Rosario Jackson Koji Sakai Tim Dang CO-CHAIR OF THE ADVISORY CO-CHAIR OF THE ADVISORY ADVISORY COMMITTEE COMMITTEE, EAST WEST PLAYERS COMMITTEE, HERBERGER CO-CHAIR OF THE ADVISORY Katy Sullivan INSTITUTE FOR DESIGN AND THE COMMITTEE, EAST WEST PLAYERS Mario Davila PERFORMER ARTS, ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY LA’S BEST Jose Luis Valenzuela David Ford Craig Cree Stone FORD THEATRE FOUNDATION Charmaine Jefferson ADVISORY COMMITTEE, CSULB, AMERICAN INDIAN STUDIES BOARD ADVISORY COMMITTEE, LATINO THEATRE COMPANY KÉLAN RESOURCES ARTIST Scott Harrison Jose Luis Valenzuela LA CHAMBER ORCHESTRA Diana Luna AUDIENCE AND UNAM - HOLA MEXICO FILM FESTIVAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE, Helen Hernandez LATINO THEATRE COMPANY PARTICIPANTS CO-CHAIR OF THE ADVISORY Heather Moses Margaret Aichele COMMITTEE, ARTS COMMISSIONER CULVER CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT PROGRAMMING DA CENTER FOR THE ARTS (FIRST DISTRICT) Elena Muslar Tim Dang Ben Caldwell Charmaine Jefferson ADVISORY COMMITTEE CO-CHAIR OF THE ADVISORY ADVISORY COMMITTEE, ADVISORY COMMITTEE, KÉLAN LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY COMMITTEE, EAST WEST PLAYERS KAOS NETWORK RESOURCES Debra Padilla John Echeveste Carla Corona Claudia Margolis ADVISORY COMMITTEE ADVISORY COMMITTEE, ANTELOPE VALLEY COLLEGE ADVISORY COMMITTEE, ARTS SOCIAL AND PUBLIC ARTS LA PLAZA DE CULTURA Y ARTES COMMISSIONER (FIFTH DISTRICT) RESOURCES CENTER Shannon Daut SANTA MONICA CULTURAL AFFAIRS Rachel Moore Maria Rosario Jackson Garin Hussenjian ARTS BLOGGER ADVISORY COMMITTEE CO-CHAIR OF THE ADVISORY Tim Dang THE MUSIC CENTER COMMITTEE, HERBERGER Leslie Ishii CO-CHAIR OF THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE, EAST WEST PLAYERS Claire Peeps INSTITUTE FOR DESIGN AND THE DIRECTOR, ACTOR ARTS, ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY AND ARTS EDUCATOR ADVISORY COMMITTEE, Len Dickter DURFEE FOUNDATION, ARTS Letitia Ivins CULVER CITY CULTURAL COMMISSIONER (THIRD DISTRICT) ARTISTS AND CREATORS ADVISORY COMMITTEE, METRO AFFAIRS COMMISSION Norma Provencio-Pichardo Danielle Brazell Laura Longoria Edgar Gamino ARTS COMMISSIONER (FIRST DISTRICT) DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS LUMMIS FESTIVAL WALLIS ANNENBERG CENTER FOR PERFORMING ARTS Griselda Suarez CITY OF LOS ANGELES Karen Mack ARTS COUNCIL FOR LONG BEACH Wyatt Coleman LA COMMONS Helen Hernandez CO-CHAIR OF THE ADVISORY David Valdez PHOTOGRAPHER AND AFRICAN Lorena J. Morgan AMERICAN HISTORIAN COMMITTEE, ARTS COMMISSIONER NBCUNIVERSAL, ARTS TEATRO JORNALERO SIN (FIRST DISTRICT) COMMISSIONER (FIRST DISTRICT) Tim Dang FRONTERAS Jenny Perez Rebecca Renard Wilson CO-CHAIR OF THE ADVISORY Aaron Paley COMMITTEE, EAST WEST PLAYERS SOUTH GATE COMMUNITY ACTIVIST CONTRA-TIEMPO COMMUNITY ARTS RESOURCES Craig Cree Stone Zeal Harris Lucas Rivera ARTIST CSULB, AMERICAN INDIAN STUDIES, STAFFING GRAND PARK ARTIST Glenna Avila Leslie Ishii Maria Rosario Jackson DIRECTOR, ACTOR ADVISORY COMMITTEE, CALARTS CO-CHAIR OF THE ADVISORY AND ARTS EDUCATOR Andrew Campbell COMMITTEE, HERBERGER Constance Jolcuvar INSTITUTE FOR DESIGN AND THE CITY OF WEST HOLLYWOOD ARTS COMMISSIONER ARTS, ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY (THIRD DISTRICT)
73 APPENDIX C
ARTS WORKFORCE DEMOGRAPHIC SURVEY FINDINGS
This is a summary of key findings from The arts and cultural workforce is the arts workforce demographic survey significantly more homogenous than Los administered by DataArts in summer Angeles County’s population. Depending 2016. The full report is available on on how the data are aggregated, as much the LA County Arts Commission’s as 60% of arts and culture workers identify website, lacountyarts.org. as White non-Hispanic versus a county population that reports as 27% White. A total of 3,175 people who were staff, board members, volunteers, and/ 60% White or independent contractors at arts 4% Black/African American organizations in LA County completed 10% Asian the DataArts Workforce Demographics 14% Hispanic/Latino(a) survey. Respondents were affiliated with >1% Indigenous 383 arts and cultural organizations in 4% More than one race or ethnicity LA County. Of these, 156 organizations General staff are more racially and ethnically had five or more persons responding diverse than any other category in the work- and 92 had ten or more responses. This force. Boards of Directors are the least diverse. survey collected data on heritage (race, ethnicity, and nation of origin), disability, Younger generations in the arts and age, gender and LGBTQ Identity. The cultural workforce are more racially and response rate was high enough that ethnically diverse than older generations. all results reported here have a margin While 69% of Baby Boomers identify as of error less than five percent. White non-Hispanic, 55% of members of
74 Appendix C
Generation X are White non-Hispanic, and Arts and cultural nonprofits in Los Angeles fewer than half (43%) of Millennials identify County are powered by female workers as White non-Hispanic. who represent 60% of the workforce compared to 50% of the County population Community organizations are the most as a whole. While women hold 64% of the racially and ethnically diverse, and also general staff positions, their representation have the largest share of Hispanic/ declines among the ranks of organizational Latino(a) workers. 37% of respondents from leadership, where they comprise 57% of those organizations identify as White non- senior staff and 51% of the board member/ Hispanic, compared to 60% of the overall arts trustee positions. and culture workforce. Ten percent (10%) of the cultural Mid-size organizations – those with annual workforce identifies as disabled, which budgets between $500,000 and $10 is slightly higher than the percentage million – are more diverse in terms of race identifying as disabled in the general Los and ethnicity compared to both larger and Angeles County population. smaller organizations. These mid-sized organizations are also the ones with the The LGBTQ community appears to be largest share of younger workers. well represented in the arts and cultural workforce. Sixteen percent (16%) of The Los Angeles County arts and cultural respondents identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bi- workforce is slightly older when compared Sexual, Transgender, or Queer. to the age of Los Angeles County’s population as a whole. Well over half (59%) Full report available at https://www. of survey respondents are members of lacountyarts.org/sites/default/files/ either the Baby Boomer generation or pdfs/artsworkforcedemog2017.pdf Generation X, compared to 43% of the Los Angeles County population.
75 APPENDIX D
DIVERSITY INITIATIVES IN LA COUNTY CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS
Each of the LA County cultural institutions ARTS FOR ALL, the regional arts education has engaged in efforts to improve diversity, initiative, is a partnership with the LA County equity, inclusion and/or access, which are Office of Education that works to ensure all described below. The mission statement for 1.6 million K-12 students in LA County have each is also provided. access to high quality arts education. Of these LOS ANGELES COUNTY students, 86 percent are students of color and ARTS COMMISSION 67 percent receive free or reduced price meals. Mission: The Los Angeles County Arts THE ORGANIZATIONAL GRANT PROGRAM Commission fosters excellence, diversity, distributes $4.5 million annually to nearly vitality, understanding and accessibility 400 nonprofit arts organizations of all of the arts in Los Angeles County, budget sizes and cultural traditions across encompassing 88 municipalities, and LA County. These arts organizations are provides leadership in cultural services. located throughout LA County with offices in 48 of LA County’s 88 municipalities. 2016-17 County funding: $10,487,000 for staff and programming20 The Arts Commission’s reach to diverse populations was further expanded in 2015 The Arts Commission works to ensure that through the Board-initiated COMMUNITY all residents of LA County have access to IMPACT ARTS GRANTS program, which funds the arts. The Arts Commission’s existing arts programming in nonprofits whose main equity and inclusion related initiatives work is not the arts. include the following:
20 Part of the Executive Office of the County, the Arts Commission is also a separate budget unit. Of the Arts Commission’s total general fund allocation, $4,658,000 is redistributed in grants to 435 nonprofit organizations.
76 Appendix D
THE ARTS INTERNSHIP program, in LOS ANGELES COUNTY partnership with The Getty Museum, is MUSEUM OF ART the largest paid summer arts internship Mission: To serve the public through program for college students in the the collection, conservation, exhibition, US. In summer 2016, 57 percent of and interpretation of significant works participants were people of color of art from a broad range of cultures and 75 percent were women. and historical periods, and through the translation of these collections into The annual HOLIDAY CELEBRATION, meaningful educational, aesthetic, where each year approximately 20 intellectual, and cultural experiences performing arts groups, each of for the widest array of audiences. which represents a different tradition or community, is featured on the 2016-17 County funding: $30,645,000 for Dorothy Chandler Pavilion stage. facility costs, staffing and programming
Professional development and Since its inception in 1965, the LA County technical assistance workshops Museum of Art (LACMA) has been devoted and programs for arts nonprofits, to collecting works of art that span arts educators and artists. both history and geography, in addition to representing LA’s uniquely diverse The Arts Commission also works on population. Over the past ten years, a number of Countywide initiatives, LACMA has taken the following measures seeking to find ways to utilize the to increase diversity in its programming, arts to help address diversity, equity audience, staffing and leadership: and inclusion in many different areas, including the LA COUNTY Developed and presented programming PURPOSEFUL AGING INITIATIVE, the that focuses on representing the Department of Regional Planning’s diversity of LA County both in its EQUITY INDICATORS project, and the collection efforts and its exhibitions. LA COUNTY HOMELESS INITIATIVE.
77 Appendix D
Increased diverse exhibition programs LACMA serves 220,888 students and with a connection to Los Angeles by teachers in all its education programs. presenting in the last five years 45 non- On average, 84 percent of the students Western exhibitions (including LA-based at the schools LACMA serves through artists of color), to which it devoted 53 its education initiatives are students of percent of its exhibition operating funds. color. LACMA has a free youth membership for children 17 and younger, with free With a growing annual attendance that admission for an accompanying adult. has reached 1.6 million, 57 percent of visitors attend free of charge. The THE MUSIC CENTER diversity of its audience is steadily (INCLUDING GRAND PARK) growing, with people of color representing Mission: The Music Center seeks to 55 percent of its attendance. transform lives through the arts and serve in a leadership role as it redefines Increased commitment and collections the performing arts in the 21st century in Latin American art and arts of the and beyond and honors and responds Ancient Americas, in addition to creating a to the unique and diverse voices and dedicated Center for the Art of the Ancient interests of the people and communities Americas, becoming a leader among in the County of Los Angeles and Southern museums in these fields. Expanded its California. The organization serves all holdings and opened dedicated galleries for in the County by ensuring the integrity African art and art of the Pacific. Continued and artistic excellence of its facilities renowned collection efforts and exhibitions – the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Mark in Japanese, Chinese, Korean, South and Taper Forum, Ahmanson Theater and Walt Southeast Asian, and Islamic art. Disney Concert Hall, as well as Grand Embraced initiatives to create a pipeline Park – by presenting and curating world- of diverse staffing for the curatorial field class artistic programming and nationally nationwide. Today, women and people recognized arts education programs; of color constitute more than 80 percent and by providing opportunities for civic of LACMA’s curatorial staff. Women and participation through arts engagement people of color constitute 75 percent of and other public programming. the executive team.
78 Appendix D
2016-17 County funding: resources, technological ability and age. Music Center $25,958,000 for facility costs It also ensures that its board, staff and current/future artists reflect the diversity Grand Park $4,242,000 for staff of the County and that its arts education and programming21 programs continue to increase access to As a critical part of its endeavor to the finest quality artistic experiences. be a performing arts center of the Both The Music Center Board of 21st century, The Music Center has a Directors and its senior and mid-level commitment to increased diversity and managers have participated in important inclusion among its many stakeholders, unconscious bias training workshops. including its board and its staff, and is That training is now being extended to the working to ensure that what is shown organization’s entire full-time and part- on its stages and plazas reflects the time staff of more than 500 people. diversity of the communities it serves. To that end: The Music Center’s work to ensure its Board of Directors is more reflective of The Music Center’s Board of Directors the diversity of the County has resulted approved a strategic framework for in more than one-third of the Board diversity that speaks specifically to the comprised of persons of color. importance of ensuring that The Music Center, as the County’s destination for In a strong show of commitment to civic the performing arts, works diligently to engagement, The Music Center created connect to the communities it serves. This a new senior position, vice president of framework expands on The Music Center’s community engagement, and named a prior efforts. It includes the creation woman of color to that role. and presentation of highly relevant, The Music Center has been producing accessible programming that represents low- or no-cost programming that the rich diversity of the County to serve appeals to a younger, multicultural audiences reflective of the County’s demographic for more than 10 years. The varied ethnic and cultural backgrounds,
21 Grand Park is a separate budget unit managed by the Music Center.
79 Appendix D
organization expanded on that model Annually, over 1.3 million people visit for its work in Grand Park, and continues NHM: 42 percent Hispanic/Latino/ to lead the development of public Chicano; 39 percent Caucasian; 8 percent programming that is being emulated African American; 8 percent Asian; and 1 by performing arts organizations large percent Native American. and small, both in Los Angeles and in One-third of these visitors attend the other locations around the country. museums for free through subsidized The Music Center’s arts education admissions programs including school programs, which include significant work to visits, the First Tuesdays program, empower teachers with the ability and tools and free admission for visitors who to integrate arts into the classroom, reach receive food stamps or EBT benefits and more than 76 percent students of color. members of the military.
NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM NHM serves over 220,000 students, Mission: The mission of the Natural History teachers, and homeschoolers through Museum of Los Angeles County is to inspire field trips, its Mobile Museum program, wonder, discovery, and responsibility for educator workshops, and homeschool our natural and cultural worlds. days—all of which are free. The majority of LAUSD elementary and middle schools 2016-17 County funding: $20,266,000 for that its Mobile Museum trucks visit are facility costs Title 1 schools. The Natural History Museum (NHM) LA PLAZA DE CULTURA Y ARTES provides visitors, science researchers and Mission: The mission of LA Plaza de historians with natural and cultural insights Cultura y Artes is to celebrate and into our past, present, and future. Diversity cultivate an appreciation for the initiatives include the following: enduring and evolving influence of NHM’s staff is 385 people, 47 percent of Mexican and Mexican-American culture, whom are people of color. Sixty-one percent with a specific focus upon the unique are women. Twenty-eight percent of the Mexican-American experience in Los combined Boards are people of color. Angeles and Southern California.
80 Appendix D
2016-17 County funding: $1,572,000 for LA Plaza’s approach and commitment facility costs to diversity is focused on providing practical, hands-on opportunities and Opened to the public in 2011, LA Plaza de experience for aspiring young Latino Cultura y Artes occupies a unique space museum professionals. That goal is in the LA museum community as the only served by participating in multicultural County museum dedicated to a specific internship programs with the Getty ethnic group and as the only museum/ Foundation, Arts Commission, colleges cultural center that celebrates and and universities and other foundations cultivates an appreciation for the history, that provide Latinos with practical on- art, culture and traditions of Mexicans and site museum experience. Several of Mexican-Americans in LA since the founding these former interns now hold full-time of the city in 1781. LA Plaza carries out positions with LA Plaza while others have its mission through a robust schedule found employment with other museums of exhibitions, public programming and and arts organizations. educational initiatives that explore these themes and attract an estimated 85,000 Many LA Plaza staff members are also visitors annually. active participants in professional organizations that conduct programs LA Plaza’s permanent and changing for multicultural students interested exhibits explore diverse facets of local in pursuing museum careers. Through Latino culture and provide a showcase for these efforts, it is LA Plaza’s intent to Latino artistic talent. help build the next generation of Latino The LA Plaza staff consists of 20 full museum professionals. time positions, with only one currently filled by a non-Latino. LA Plaza welcomes candidates of all backgrounds who share a passion and commitment for the LA Latino experience. The Board of Trustees consists of 15 members, all Latino except for one.
81 APPENDIX E
CULTURAL DIVERSITY EFFORTS IN OTHER CITIES ACROSS THE UNITED STATES
Throughout this initiative, the Arts Commission’s employees, the survey found that New York’s work has been informed by cultural affairs cultural workforce is 61.8 percent white, 35.4 departments and arts commissions around the percent people of color, and 53.1 percent country that have initiated efforts to address female. The results also revealed that diversity diversity, cultural equity and inclusion. The decreases as organizations increase in size, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and that leadership is generally less diverse (DCLA), Seattle Office of Arts and Culture and in upper management than low- and mid-level the San Francisco Arts Commission have staff. The survey did not provide substantive emerged as leaders in thought and practice, information on other measures of diversity, with interesting programs also emerging in including people with disabilities and people Nashville and Charlotte, North Carolina. There who self-identify as being of nonbinary gender. are many other initiatives developing around Outcomes of the report have included the country, too many to include here. the following: In January 2015, the New York City In March 2016, New York City’s Theater Department of Cultural Affairs convened Subdistrict Council announced a funding representatives from hundreds of cultural initiative of up to $2 million in grants organizations along with funders, government for the development and training of officials, and other local leaders to address theater professionals with a focus on inclusion and equity in the City’s arts and people currently under-represented in culture sector. One of the first steps of the the professional theater community. Initiatives was to survey the staff and board of This fund is overseen in part by the arts organizations who receive funding from Department of City Planning and is not the City of New York. With information from part of DCLA’s budget. 987 organizations provided on 36,441 paid
82 Appendix E
DCLA committed $1 million for cultural organizations, and TCA Track II, a series institutions on city-owned property to of community-led workshops, trainings support diversity efforts. and national speakers designed to galvanize the work of artists, teaching DCLA engaged a diversity and inclusion artists, organizers, activists and others firm that will work with the department who are using creative strategies to and its grantees to gather focus groups move the needle toward racial justice. and hold workshops to better facilitate identifying, documenting, and sharing Additional racial equity capacity successful strategies to promote building opportunities such as training diversity, equity, and inclusion. programs and convenings, a workshop series for arts professionals, open The Seattle Office for Civil Rights, office hours to support arts and cultural established by an ordinance approved organizations working towards racial in 2005, leads the Race and Social equity, funding centered on arts and Justice Initiative, a citywide effort to end cultural organizations who have been institutional racism in city government historically under-resourced due to race and to achieve racial equity across the and/or physical ability, a racial equity community. Seattle’s commitment to racial self-assessment for all applicants for equity is expressed in all printed and online organizational funding, and in 2017 the materials, including grant guidelines, implementation of racial equity training and has led to a wide array of programs for all panelists serving on the Seattle to address institutional and structural Office of Arts & Culture’s funding panels. racism. In 2016, the Office of Arts & Culture (ARTS) published a Commitment to Racial ARTISTS UP, a collaborative effort Equity that was co-signed by the Seattle between the Seattle Office of Arts & Arts Commission, a group of 16 volunteer Culture, 4Culture and Artists Trust, aims advisors. ARTS commitment to racial equity to create structural change on the part has grown over the years to include of the arts agencies providing programs, services and funding for individual Turning Commitment into Action Track I artists by partnering with artists of color (TCA), a series of racial equity learning throughout the state to find out what cohorts for staff from arts and cultural changes are needed to create greater
83 Appendix E
access and inclusion for communities of program provides funds to community color. Each governmental entity invests based organizations to address an equal amount towards this effort, structural racism. $75,000 is available currently totaling $45,000 annually. through this program each year.
The smART ventures flexible grant Seattle’s work has been widely cited as opportunity, with a budget of $50,000 a model for other local arts agencies, annually, was created to address including Nashville’s Metro Arts traditional barriers to funding from Agency, which recognizes Seattle as a oppressed communities. This quick- key influencer in its own work around turn-around opportunity provides cultural equity. To date, Nashville has easy access and one-on-one technical commissioned a research report based assistance to government funding on in-depth interviews with local leaders through Seattle’s Office of Arts & Culture. about the state of cultural equity in the The Neighborhood and Community Arts region. It also launched the Racial Equity in funding program, $48,000 annually, Arts Leadership (REAL) program, a learning and the Put the Arts in Parks program, cohort of twenty local arts leaders who $196,000 annually (in partnership with gather monthly to hear guest lecturers the Seattle Parks Department) were both and discuss issues related to racial and created to fund the arts and cultural cultural equity. festivals that have long been core San Francisco’s cultural equity work is celebrations of the immigrant, refugee guided by a citywide ordinance approved in and communities of color in Seattle 1993, and re-affirmed in 2016, establishing The Cultural Space program supports a the Cultural Equity Endowment Fund funded new anti-displacement fund for artists through hotel tax revenue. Of the estimated and cultural organizations with a total $411.9 million in hotel tax revenue program budget of $250,000; it is slated in fiscal year 2016-17, the Cultural Equity to launch in 2017. Endowment, administered by the San Francisco Arts Commission (both a city ARTS collaborates with the Office for and county agency) receives $2.9 million Civil Rights on the Racial Equity Fund, annually. Within this fund are several a capacity building grant program. This targeted grant programs:
84 Appendix E
The Cultural Equity Initiatives grant program The Grants for the Arts program, offers grants from $50,000 to $100,000 operated by a separate agency in to small and mid-sized arts organizations San Francisco, awards just over $11 for capacity-building initiatives that million in operating grants for a wide ensure the artistic and cultural vitality array of cultural organizations, and is and the sustainability of San Francisco’s also funded through the hotel tax. arts organizations that are deeply rooted San Francisco voted on a new proposition in historically underserved communities; in November 2016 that nearly passed The Artists and Communities in (63.23% of the 66.66% required), called Partnership grant program offers up the Allocation of Hotel Tax Funds. The to $20,000 in project support for arts measure was brought forth by a coalition organizations and community-based of local agencies, large and small, working organizations empowering underserved in the arts and homeless communities. communities through the arts. This If approved, the measure would have program seeks to foster social justice invested in both homeless issues and and equity, centering artists as leaders the arts. The measure would have for social change; and boosted funding for efforts to end family homelessness, requiring 6.3 percent The Arts for Neighborhood Vitality of hotel tax revenue be allocated to grant supports small, neighborhood- agencies dedicated to that cause. It also centered, publicly accessible art walks would have required the allocation of 6.6 and festivals where art and culture are percent of hotel tax revenue to the arts main components. beginning in FY 2017-18, increasing to Funds also are available to support arts 7.5 percent in 2020. The San Francisco organizations, low income artists and Arts Commission’s grant programs their families at risk of displacement due budget could have potentially increased to escalating rental and real estate costs to $36 million in a span of four years via grants, loans or technical assistance, with $20 million going to the Cultural primarily targeting arts organizations Equity Endowment Fund and $16 million deeply rooted in, and reflective of, to additional grant funding programs. historically underserved communities.
85 Appendix E
In addition to being informed by these senior leadership and board. The teams large-scale efforts by prominent local work together over the course of ten arts agencies, the Arts Commission months through five full and five half-day has researched individual programs convenings. A curriculum customized to addressing racial and cultural equity in the needs of the Charlotte community smaller municipalities across the country. guides the teams through researching One of the most promising is the Catalyst the origins and funding histories of their for Cultural Equity Program in Charlotte, particular art forms, and eventually each North Carolina. Created by Charlotte’s organization crafts its own accountability Arts & Science Council (ASC), the program, plan for addressing racial equity within and which recently completed its first year, is through their organizations. When the first designed to A) create a greater awareness group of organizations completed all of the within participating organizations sessions, they requested the ASC continue about the policies, rules, and unspoken to convene them regularly so that they assumptions that have impeded cultural can continue to support and learn from equity in staff or programming, and B) one another as they enact their plans. empower organizations to create a plan The program has selected its second, to change those practices. Participating expanded cohort this year and ASC plans to organizations send teams of two to offer it annually for the foreseeable future. six individuals, including members of
86 APPENDIX F
THE CULTURAL EQUITY AND INCLUSION INITIATIVE PROCESS
ADVISORY COMMITTEE topics identified in the resolution. They looked As requested by the Board of Supervisors’ for best practices as well as strategies that resolution, the Arts Commission formed an had been tried and not yielded the desired Advisory Committee that reflected the diversity results. An executive summary appears in of LA County residents: racial and ethnic, socio- the Appendix K. The full text of the literature economic, gender and LGBTQ status, age, review as well as a list of all references cited is physical/mental ability, and the geographic available on the website artsequityla.com. span of LA County. Efforts were also made to TOWN HALLS represent diverse arts and cultural disciplines, The Arts Commission hosted a series of and to include members outside the arts. fourteen Town Hall meetings throughout LA Advisory Committee members met at the outset County, with at least two in each supervisorial of the project to convey their concerns, at the district. Working with district offices and completion of the Town Halls to review the input Arts For LA, and utilizing a communications of residents and the arts and culture community, outreach that included social media, email at the conclusion of the Working Groups to review and print collateral, both arts practitioners the recommendations, and two final times to and residents were invited to attend one or discuss and approve the recommendations. more sessions to discuss their perception of Many members also participated actively in barriers to equity and inclusion in arts and the Town Halls and the Working Groups. culture, and to offer solutions. Approximately LITERATURE REVIEW 650 people participated, and many expressed Research and Evaluation staff of the Arts the wish that such dialogues would continue Commission conducted a thorough search of in their own communities. For example, published work on previous efforts to improve the host in Pomona, the dA Center for the cultural equity, inclusion and diversity in Arts, has already reconvened the group to the arts and culture sector, focusing on the continue the conversation.
87 Appendix F
SHARPER EDGES/TELL US HOW Museums are supposed to be for the YOU REALLY FEEL, AN ART public but it doesn’t always feel like it. PROJECT BY ROSTEN WOO I grew up in a working class family. No The Arts Commission commissioned artist and one was thinking about the arts. As an urban planner Rosten Woo to develop an art artist I definitely experience the issue project that would amplify this initiative. He of class. There’s a set of experiences, a designed a second vehicle to elicit community language, almost a code, that working input from those who might be reluctant to speak class people don’t learn. bluntly at a large meeting, or at a gathering that might include their community members, arts The southeast Latino communities peers, or potential employers or curators. In this of Los Angeles don’t seem to know interactive project individuals spoke privately, about the cultural institutions. I’ve via a text exchange with the artist or his invited many to join me at events and surrogate, about their experiences of diversity, it’s a total surprise these places exist. equity, inclusion and access or lack thereof. Including some of the largest museums like LACMA or Getty. My hope is that all EXCERPTS FROM SHARPER communities could benefit from the EDGES/TELL US HOW YOU richness of art that exists in LA if they REALLY FEEL: only know about it. I go to museums a lot and some of the stuff is just hard to get... I saw this I have attended several schools that have sculpture, and it was like a super realistic a lack of arts education opportunities. sculpture of a cleaning lady; it just felt They were located in minority like it was making fun of those people. neighborhoods. Elementary school, People see cleaning ladies all the time. middle school, and high school. Very few I do anyway. People stop and stare arts classes throughout and very poor because it’s art but I dunno, it felt like facilities. There was a lack of class space looking at an animal or something. My for our concert band in high school. We mom was a cleaning lady a lot. I don’t had to practice outdoors sometimes. think she’d want to be stared at. The I’m a worker in the information mines people standing around are just there of arts and culture. Lack of diversity to make sure you don’t touch anything. and the sense of alienation is a daily
88 Appendix F
experience. In the most immediate and around the topic areas set forth in the resolution, visually evident sense, I don’t see many met twice, for a total of six hours. Each developed people who look like me in my field. a problem statement and a vision statement, then worked to craft suggestions into actionable Dance has always been my first strategies and establish their three top priorities. love, however, due to the fact that A list of working group participants appears in my parents were poor, I did not take Appendix B. dance classes in my youth or get to go to a school where it was offered. I WORKFORCE SURVEY was intimidated and discouraged to In order to measure the demographic makeup pursue dance once I began to audition of the arts workforce in LA County, in summer against those who were considered 2016 the LA County Arts Commission contracted ‘professional’ because of their training. with DataArts (formerly the Cultural Data Project) to administer a survey. “Arts workforce” was ONLY thirty years ago, the head of my drama defined and operationalized to include staff, program told me: “Women don’t direct.” I board members, contractors and volunteers of did it anyways. Things are changing. But the seven municipal arts funders in LA County,22 we’ve got a long way to go, baby. including the Arts Commission, and the arts A complete description of the project, along nonprofits that are grantees of those seven with representative text, will be posted on funders. Two private arts organizations in LA the website artsequityla.com. County, the Broad Museum and Huntington WORKING GROUPS Library and Botanical Gardens, also participated in the survey. At the conclusion of the Town Halls, working groups were assembled, largely comprised A total of 3,307 people responded, representing of Advisory Committee members, Arts a total of 383 organizations. This response rate Commissioners, and Town Hall participants to was high enough that all results reported here review the suggestions that had come out of have a margin of error less than five percent. A the Town Halls. Each working group, organized summary of findings appears in Appendix C.
22 The seven municipal arts funders are the Arts Council for Long Beach, City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, City of West Hollywood, Culver City Cultural Affairs Division, Los Angeles County Arts Commission, Pasadena Cultural Affairs and Santa Monica Cultural Affairs Division.
89 APPENDIX G
SAMPLE AGENDA FOR TOWN HALLS
Los Angeles County Cultural Equity and Inclusion (CEII)
TOWN HALL May 25, 2016, 7pm-9pm Santa Monica Civic Auditorium
AGENDA
Reception/Dinner First Round Table Conversations Participate in Sharper Edges, an interactive Consider the areas of focus in the resolution: board, art experience by Rosten Woo, intended staff, audiences, programming and artists/creators. as an additional opportunity to share your Discuss the barriers to equity and inclusion you views and talk about your experiences see in these areas or others not identified. with equity, diversity and inclusion. Second Round Table Conversations We want to hear your stories! What changes do you suggest to Welcome And Introductions help overcome these barriers? Orientation Share Your Experience How Will The Process Work? Live polling with your cell phone or Tell Us Something About Yourself through www.pollev.com/artsequityla Using live polling you can respond to Next Steps the questions online or via text Thank you for attending! Don’t forget to tweet ONLINE: Type in the website address your experience using #artsequityla. pollev.com/artsequityla You are welcome to attend as many town TEXT: Send the phrase artsequityla to 22333 halls as you like and invite your networks! Visit our website www.artsequityla.com for the schedule and to find more information.
Please feel free to share your thoughts, comments and questions. Email [email protected]. #ArtsEquityLA
90 APPENDIX H
OVERVIEW OF TOWN HALLS
LOCATION DISTRICT DATE ATTENDANCE
Torrance Cultural Arts Center 4 Monday, May 2, 2016 35 Participants Torrance, CA South Gate Municipal Auditorium 1 Saturday, May 7, 2016 30 Participants South Gate, CA dA Center for the Arts 1 Saturday, May 14, 2016 36 Participants Pomona, CA Arts and Recreation Center 1 Monday, May16, 2016 27 Participants City of Baldwin Park, CA Museum of Art + History 5 Saturday, May 21, 2016 21 Participants Lancaster, CA Santa Monica Civic Auditorium 3 Wednesday, May 25, 2016 34 Participants Santa Monica, CA Natural History Museum 2 Wednesday, June 1, 2016 78 Participants Los Angeles, CA Armory Center for the Arts 5 Saturday, June 4, 2016 92 Participants Pasadena, CA Valley Performing Arts Center 3 Wednesday, June 15, 2016 31 Participants Northridge, CA Veteran’s Memorial Building 2 Saturday, June 18, 2016 63 Participants Culver City, CA Santa Clarita Sports Complex 5 Wednesday, June 22, 2016 28 Participants Santa Clarita, CA Museum of Latin American Art 4 Monday, June 27, 2016 100 Participants Long Beach, CA Arts Internship Program Arts Summit N/A Wednesday, June 29, 2016 Approximately 90 Pasadena, CA 2nd District Empowerment Congress, 2 Tuesday, July 12, 2016 16 Participants Arts and Culture Committee23
23 The Empowerment Congress is a dynamic partnership among neighborhood groups, residents, nonprofit organizations, businesses, religious institutions, and community leaders within the diverse communities of Los Angeles County’s Second Supervisorial District.
91 APPENDIX I
WHO ATTENDED? POLL EVERYWHERE DATA
Demographic data about Town Hall attendees was the Pomona Town Hall and Poll Everywhere was not collected by an electronic polling and reporting service used at the Empowerment Congress Town Hall. called PollEverywhere. Respondents text their answers Because the number of Poll Everywhere respondents to questions using their cell phones or other digital is different than the total number of Town Hall devices. The Arts Commission made available devices attendees and because respondents did not and staff support for anyone not familiar with the respond to all questions, the percentages have been technology. Participation was voluntary, and not every calculated to reflect the percentage of respondents attendee participated in every question. Additionally, to that particular question. there was difficulty with the WiFi connection at some locations, so data is incomplete. We have no data for The data has been aggregated for all the Town Halls.
QUESTION OPTIONS NUMBER PERCENT American Indian or Alaska Native 13 3% Asian 68 14% Which Census categories Black/African American 45 9% for race/ethnicity best describes you? Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander 14 3% Choose all that apply. White 183 37% (495 total responses) Hispanic or Latino 134 27% Some other race 25 5% I decline to state 13 3% 16 & under 2 <1%
Your age 17-24 88 20% 25-34 74 17% (432 total responses) 35-54 160 37% 55+ 108 25% A man 135 31% I identify as A woman 285 64% (442 total responses) Non-binary 12 3% I decline to state 10 2%
92 APPENDIX J
SAMPLE AGENDA FOR WORKING GROUPS
SESSION 1 SESSION 2
Welcome and introductions; Welcome and introductions present ground rules for discussion Review/refine goal statement Exploration of topic Review Suggestions ranked last Present topic and problem statement; time as “Explore further” discuss the essence of the statement. Invite new suggestions and discuss What’s missing from the statement, Prioritize suggestions what needs clarification? First round voting (3 choices) What is the overall goal we would like to Discussion, persuasion, amendments achieve in addressing this topic? Second round voting Discuss suggestions made by Town Hall attendees. Discuss measures of success Discuss the viability and possible impact of each. Next Steps Divide into those to be explored further, and those that need not be explored further.
Discuss concerns about any suggestions (need to modify, to clarify)
93 APPENDIX K
CULTURAL EQUITY AND INCLUSION LITERATURE REVIEW: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
LOS ANGELES COUNTY ARTS COMMISSION CULTURAL EQUITY AND INCLUSION INITIATIVE LITERATURE REVIEW
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
AUTHORS Bronwyn Mauldin Susannah Laramee Kidd, PhD Jesse Ruskin, PhD
WITH ASSISTANCE FROM Matthew Agustin
MARCH 30, 2016
94 Appendix K
INTRODUCTION fully understood set of actors, so this topic In its resolution passed on November 10, was added as a fourth section in this report: 2015, the LA County Board of Supervisors Culturally Specific Arts Organizations stated their goal as improving “diversity in cultural organizations, in the areas of The report begins with a background discussion their leadership, staffing, programming on diversity, cultural equity and inclusion in arts and audience composition.”22 This and culture, and it concludes with a series of literature review is intended to investigate broad lessons that emerged from the literature and provide background information that apply to all four of the areas identified by on how others have addressed this the Board of Supervisors in their resolution. question, both through academic A reference list of all literature reviewed research and practitioner experience. is available in the full report. The literature lends these concepts DIVERSITY, CULTURAL into a division by slightly different EQUITY AND INCLUSION categories, as follows: IN ARTS AND CULTURE Boards of Directors in Arts and Concerns about diversity, cultural equity Culture Organizations and inclusion have been part of American arts policy since the early days of the The Arts and Culture Workforce National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in Audiences and Programming 1965. The term “cultural equity” appears as early as 1978 in an NEA audience study Audiences and programming are closely where it is defined as a right to be both a intertwined in the literature, and producer and consumer of culture. The thus are combined in this report. NEA ultimately attempted to balance Culturally specific arts organizations and their “populist” and “elitist” perspectives of the potential contribution to diversity, cultural arts, with the understanding that “art for equity and inclusion in the arts ecology art’s sake” is not a sufficient rationale emerged as a potentially powerful but not yet for government funding of the arts.
22 For the full text of the resolution, see http://file.lacounty.gov/bos/supdocs/99052.pdf.
95 Appendix K
Since that time, ideas about the ways in which group to come up with recommendations to the public might engage with the arts have “enhance the participation and leadership evolved. “Old” ideas about art such as limiting of individuals from under-represented audience participation to a passive role have communities in the arts.” Their goal is to come to be seen as a barrier to discovering increase diversity in cultural organizations, the roles art and cultural activities can play specifically around leadership, staffing, in bringing diverse people together through programming and audience composition. an artistic process that reveals cultural Depending on the initiative, study or assets and strengthens communities. context, “cultural equity,” “inclusion” and In 2015, the discussion of diversity, cultural “diversity” are three terms that are often equity and inclusion taking place across used interchangeably, though they mean America more broadly was embraced in the subtly different things. These terms are also arts community as well. Research studies defined by how they are used in practice. For were released that found boards, employment, example, in its work to improve diversity in audiences and programming in the arts the arts sector, Arts Council England refers to are less diverse than the population of the race, ethnicity, faith, disability, age, gender, country, in fields from museums to publishing sexuality, class and economic disadvantage, to theatre. Seeking to address this, several and any social or institutional barriers that major entities took action. The New York prevent people from creating, participating City Department of Cultural Affairs collected or enjoying the arts. In the US, a review of diversity data from across museums and 21 initiatives to expand diversity in arts and performing arts groups in the five boroughs. culture nonprofits found many different Grantmakers in the Arts adopted a statement aspects of diversity to be included, and that of purpose for their work in racial equity in they varied by initiative. The top five elements arts philanthropy. DataArts (formerly the of diversity across all 21 initiatives were Cultural Data Project) piloted a new tool age, race, culture, socioeconomic status and to collect demographic data about boards ethnicity. Most studies show that achieving and the workforce of arts nonprofits. The diversity, cultural equity and inclusion in Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors any organization is a long-term, iterative passed a resolution directing the LA County process that engages all parts and levels of Arts Commission to establish an advisory the organization, no matter how big or small.
96 Appendix K
In order to measure change in diversity, the literature review. The research team cultural equity and inclusion in the arts in discovered that much of the literature LA County, the literature shows that terms is emergent in nature. The problems are must be defined, clear goals set and data being identified from many different points collected over time. To establish baselines of view. Consensus on the nature of the for improvement and benchmarks to problem is less defined. Proven solutions achieve, standardized definitions as well are difficult to find. Even as this document as common data collection procedures are went to press, new reports were published needed. This will allow for comparisons across and new initiatives were being launched. organizations, disciplines and geographic This literature review should be considered regions. It is also important to establish the a first look at the issues covered level(s) at which progress is to be measured. here. The examples provided are not Should diversity be measured within individual exhaustive. In seeking to understand institutions, within specific disciplines, across how to improve diversity, cultural equity all organizations in Los Angeles County and inclusion and ensure that all have or at other levels? Qualitative studies are equal access to the benefits that arts needed to complement quantitative research and culture offer, there is much more to and go deeper to understand why people be discussed, debated and learned. engage in the arts in the ways they do. BOARDS OF DIRECTORS IN ARTS This literature review was conducted over AND CULTURE ORGANIZATIONS a nine week period between December 9, Boards of directors of nonprofit 2015 and February 8, 2016. The research organizations across the US have been team reviewed academic, practitioner and found to be predominantly White, and this journalistic writing on diversity, cultural has remained true over time. Non-White equity and inclusion in the arts related to nonprofit board members in the US only boards, staff, audiences and programming increased by two percent from 1993 to through a wide lens in order to capture the 2010, from 14 to 16 percent. Analysis of the broadest sense of the state of research subset of arts and culture nonprofits in these and practice in the field. Culturally specific data show that their boards are similarly arts organization emerged as a critical part homogenous with respect to race and of the arts ecology, and this was added to ethnicity, and smaller organizations are even
97 Appendix K
more likely to have all White boards. Among be committed to increasing diversity. It is arts nonprofit organizations, organizations further recommended that boards show their that focus their mission on presenting commitment by creating a plan of action non-White or multi-ethnic programming and timeline that includes establishing have been shown to have a better track steps to monitor progress and formalizing record of maintaining a diverse board. board diversity policies and practices.
While many nonprofits express that they Some nonprofit boards have created board- see the value and benefits of expanding level task forces or executive committees diversity on their boards, there is limited to address diversity concerns, but this evidence of effective action being may in fact be counterproductive as it taken by nonprofit boards to increase ultimately may excuse the full board from diversity. Moreover, recent research finds being committed to making change. In practices tried in the past to increase one survey of board members of color, 43 diversity have not always succeeded. percent said that having a diversity or inclusion task force was not at all effective. BOARD STRUCTURE AND CULTURE Increasing diversity, cultural equity and While term limits are touted as an effective inclusion in the boards of directors at arts tool for increasing board diversity by and culture organizations begins with creating space for new board members, stating the board’s commitment to diversity the evidence of their effectiveness is in its mission statement and includes unclear, and they can have negative the development of robust recruitment impacts. It takes time and commitment to and leadership pipelines. The literature become an inclusive board, and term limits recommends this include making racial introduce a danger of losing effective board and ethnic diversity an explicit criterion members. Similarly, waiving fundraising when selecting new board members. requirements (“give or get policies”) for However, statements of intent are not some or all board members is not proven to enough. Inclusive onboarding practices increase diversity. The impact of fundraising are needed to help new board members requirements on board diversity is not yet acquire the necessary information and fully understood, and recommendations skills to contribute and succeed. Alongside in this area are not one-size-fits-all. the board, the chief executive must also
98 Appendix K
RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION To find new In focus group research with nonprofit board members from communities un- or board members of color, board culture was under-represented on a board, there are reported as the greatest influence, both several potential places to look. Constituent positive and negative, on board members’ groups and the donor base are one source. experiences. If major culture change is Arts organizations can look to audience needed within an arts board of directors, members. Corporate and foundation donors new members can be added in groups as well as government officials may have of three or four to decrease the pressure recommendations of potential candidates. to assimilate to the prevailing culture. Pipeline programs specifically designed to FUNDING AND FUNDERS The relationship connect individuals of diverse backgrounds between board diversity and nonprofit with nonprofit boards can be an effective funders is complex. Concerns have been tool for finding potential board members. The raised that diversity pushed from outside African American Board Leadership Institute, by a funder may create too shallow a project of Community Partners, is one such a change in an arts nonprofit. Some pipeline program based in South Los Angeles. culturally specific arts organizations have Research shows that board diversity emphasized the importance of funders does correlate with larger board size. In themselves making a commitment to hire addition, research has found significant staff knowledgeable about cultural equity positive association between board and to commit staff time to these efforts. diversity and interorganizational alliances, Arts organizations of color often rely more meaning that partnering with culturally heavily on government and foundation specific organizations – including non- income compared to mainstream arts arts organizations – can be effective for organizations. There are arguments identifying potential board members. in the field as to whether this is Other leadership structures and advisory simply an alternative but successful committees beyond the board can provide funding model or whether those alternative ways of giving potential board organizations should make changes to members a voice in decision making at their boards to increase their individual an arts nonprofit without making them contributed income streams subject to fundraising requirements.
99 Appendix K
One of the most significant barriers to nonprofits in LA County. While they made up increasing diversity an organization may nearly 19 percent of all paid employees, they face is the perception that its mission is worked more than 52 percent of all labor hours. not relevant to communities of color. This By comparison, volunteers made up the perception may be especially pervasive in largest number of workers in those arts arts and culture organizations. Increasing nonprofits (nearly 55 percent) but worked diversity, cultural equity and inclusion a little more than 30 percent of all labor in arts nonprofit boards requires a hours that year. CDP data also show commitment that permeates the entire that organizations with smaller budgets organization, may require partnerships with – many of which may serve culturally- organizations and people outside the arts, specific communities – are more reliant and will require a long-term commitment. on volunteers than paid staff, compared THE ARTS AND to organizations with larger budgets. CULTURE WORKFORCE People doing the work of managing nonprofit Very few initiatives to increase diversity, arts organizations are often referred to as cultural equity and inclusion in the arts “arts administrators” or “arts managers.” A and culture workforce have been formally recent survey of 575 arts administrators evaluated. Most of what is written is a mix of across the US found they were predominantly program, project and initiative descriptions, White, female, heterosexual and without while some provide recommendations disability. Arts management is a hidden on how to improve diversity. career option many people are unaware of. ARTS WORKFORCE The workforce of arts STATISTICS ON DIVERSITY In 2015 the New nonprofits is made up of paid staff, volunteers, York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) contract workers, and interns and apprentices. conducted its first survey of the staff and Increasing cultural equity, inclusion and boards of their grantee organizations. They diversity in the arts workforce must include found that these organizations do not reflect all aspects of the workforce, including the racial and ethnic diversity of the city. At artists. Analysis of data collected by DataArts the same time, they did find their staff and (formerly the Cultural Data Project) shows that board members are more diverse than those in 2012 a total of 66,070 workers provided groups in arts organizations are nationwide. nearly 22.5 million hours of labor to 469 arts
100 Appendix K
Their survey also found that more recent hires percent of artists, comparable to their share were more diverse than people hired a longer of the workforce, but this ranges from a high time ago. A recent survey funded by the of 78 percent of dancers and choreographers Mellon Foundation that collected data from to a low of 21 percent of announcers. museum staff across the US found similar STAFF RECRUITMENT Increasing staff trends. They also found that museums with diversity in the arts requires tackling the majority-minority staff were primarily found problem at all stages, from increasing in culturally specific institutions. The report awareness of arts careers, to recruiting more concluded that while there appears to be a diverse students into academic programs “bench” or “pipeline” of women being prepared to looking outside traditional training for leadership positions, the equivalent does programs for people and investing in them. not exist for people of color. Also in 2015 Traditionally, entry into the arts and culture the Jerome Foundation in St. Paul, MN, and workforce begins with unpaid internships or the McKnight Foundation in Minneapolis, volunteer work, and this serves as a financial MN, were the first two foundations to pilot barrier to individuals from disadvantaged DataArts’ new demographics module for communities. Personal networks are often staff and boards with their arts grantees key to getting ahead in the creative sector, Artists play a unique role in the arts workforce. which can serve as another barrier. In LA County, analysis of data reported in The literature recommends that organizations 2012 by 469 nonprofit arts organizations to seeking to improve diversity, cultural the CDP finds that artists made up 40 percent equity and inclusion in their workforce of the total workforce and worked 25 percent need a clearly written diversity policy. of the total labor hours. Artists make up about Recruiting a pool of candidates that is more two percent of the workforce in California representative of the workforce at large (363,430 artists), and the Los Angeles area should follow. Partnering with culturally is home to a particularly high concentration of specific community, affinity and membership independent artists, writers and performers. organizations, as well as hiring minority Among all US artists, while only 13 percent search firms, can help achieve this. Partnering of writers and authors are from a minority with organizations serving disadvantaged race or ethnicity, fully 41 percent of dancers or at-risk youth such as gang intervention and choreographers are. Women make up 46 groups or others is another approach.
101 Appendix K
Examples of successful early recruitment redefining merit to include new factors. At programs include the New York Hall of Science the Detroit Institute of Art, for example, the in Queens’ “Explainers” program for high traditional chief curator or registrar position school and college students, the LA County has been replaced with a team-oriented Arts Internship Program to support college approach, where the most experienced undergraduates working in arts nonprofits registrar is a team leader. “Front line” staff, and the Multicultural Undergraduate who often are younger and more diverse Internship program funded by the Getty than managers, can be brought into decision Foundation. When the Berkeley Repertory making teams to provide a new perspective. Theatre set out to diversify their staff, they Leadership development should be provided started by recruiting from historically black to help grow diverse staff from within. colleges and universities (HBCUs) with active Mentors can be assigned to new staff from theatre programs to fill their twelve month, diverse backgrounds to help them settle stipended professional fellowship program. into their new jobs and new organizations. Professional associations and support PIPELINES TO EMPLOYMENT Overreliance mechanisms specifically for diverse staff on academic degree programs to fill arts also exist, such as the SPARK Leadership management positions may be reducing Program at Theatre Communications Group diversity in terms of social class, race and (TCG), task forces at both the American ethnicity, and disability. Multiple studies Alliance of Museums and the Association have found students studying in arts of Art Museum Curators, and the Writers management programs to be predominantly Guild of America East diversity coalition. White, heterosexual, able-bodied women from upper-middle class backgrounds. The pipeline to employment in arts and culture Diversifying this student body could help should begin at the earliest stages, and its build a more diverse pipeline. Changes benefits go beyond arts careers. Arts education to the structure of the pipeline itself can is especially beneficial to students from also help, such as developing entry routes disadvantaged communities. Low income into the field outside of academics that students who have intensive coursework in include apprenticeships and traineeships. the arts tend to have better grades and are more likely to attend college than low income Redefining or restructuring jobs can play students who have little or no coursework in a role in diversifying the workforce, as can
102 Appendix K
the arts. As students get older there are other NY” Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting tools that can help them prepare for arts career. has developed two job training programs These include activities and opportunities that specifically designed to help unemployed combine classroom education with work-based and low income residents of New York experience include Career Technical Education City qualify for entry level positions in the (see the California standards for Arts, Media entertainment industry, both administered and Entertainment, for example) and work- by Brooklyn Workforce Innovations. based learning such as internships offered by Each of the four major television networks the LA County Arts Commission, City of New (CBS, Disney-ABC, Fox, and NBCUniversal) has York, Steppenwolf Theatre and others. Youth some kind of program focused on training or apprenticeship has been used in the UK, where mentoring diverse writers, combining teaching, an apprenticeship framework has been created mentoring and networking assistance. The that offers an alternative entry route to working networks also have created the “diversity in the arts and culture sector. Apprentices hire,” an entry-level staff writing position that receive college training, soft skills employment is subsidized by the network. This model is training, skills-specific training and on-the- not without its critics. A new movement with job training. In the US, apprenticeships have the literary community, “We Need Diverse been used successfully in other industries Books,” has called for greater diversity in to help employees to move from working children’s books as well as more diverse in less-skilled front-of-house positions agents, editors, book buyers, illustrators into higher-skill back-of-house careers. and executives at publishing houses. SECTOR APPROACHES Sector initiatives PUBLIC POLICY Public policy can play a role targeting under-represented or in increasing diversity in arts and culture disadvantaged communities by helping employment. The New York City Mayor’s Task them prepare for jobs in a particular Force on Diversity in Film, Television and industry could play a role in the arts Commercial Production launched the “Made in and culture sector. These programs NY” job training programs. Governance rules could combine soft skills, job-specific at the Detroit Institute of Art require that at skills, and the skills needed to manage least one-third of board members and two- a “portfolio career” made up of contingent thirds of employees must be residents of the assignments. For example, the “Made in City of Detroit. The New Jersey Performing
103 Appendix K
Arts Center in Newark has a union agreement by the Irvine Foundation that focuses on that ensures 47 percent of stage hand informal arts participation suggests that jobs at the facility are held by minorities. participation in the arts is not only robust but is, in fact, expanding among Californians. FUNDING AND FUNDERS Foundations have Their research finds that many more provided some support to diversifying the Californians make art than attend traditional arts workforce. The New York State Council arts activities as a passive recipient. on the Arts offers Special Arts Services grants to culturally specific arts organizations for AUDIENCE VERSUS PARTICIPANT While professional training for underserved artists. the idea of “audience” connotes the The Joyce Foundation recently announced a passive consumption of benchmark arts grant program to help artists of color achieve in the European tradition, the expanded viable careers, strengthen the pipeline of notion of “arts participation” accounts for diverse arts administrators and enhance many forms of engagement and multiple grantees’ long-term financial stability. levels of involvement, from performing, appreciating and managing the arts to Improving diversity, cultural equity and teaching, learning and supporting them. inclusion in the arts and culture workforce Participatory arts activities are often requires changes within organizations. It informal, taking place in a variety of spaces also requires changes to the systems that outside the theatre, concert hall, and prepare young people for the workforce, gallery. Programming geared towards a and the pipelines that lead to arts careers. wider participatory public shows promise of AUDIENCES AND PROGRAMMING building greater cultural equity and inclusion Evolving ideas about the relationship in arts audiences and programming. By between art and audiences have changed loosening the conceptual boundaries the way artists and arts administrators think between audience and public, and by about diversity, cultural equity and inclusion employing cultural equity as a motivating for both audiences and programming. The principle, arts organizations can learn to see National Endowment for the Arts’ Survey themselves as part of a larger community, of Public Participation in the Arts has MEASUREMENT Measuring and found a declining audience for the arts understanding diversity in arts participation nationally since 2003. In contrast, research can be extremely challenging. In the
104 Appendix K
literature, how it is measured varies by Methods for collecting data matter, and type of organizations, programs and adherence to best practices is needed for partnerships involved, as well as by funder an organization to get accurate data about mandates and the socioeconomic makeup its audiences. Staff at the John Anson Ford of target populations. Data on audiences and Amphitheatre have collected audience data programming might best be disaggregated for several years, primarily through the by income, education, age, race/ethnicity use of intercept paper surveys combined and sex/gender to determine if access to an with email surveys administered at select organization’s programs is distributed across shows. Data from their 2014 summer socioeconomic categories in a manner season showed their audience to be 36 representative of the larger population. percent Hispanic or Latino, 29 percent White, 19 percent Asian or Pacific Islander, Theatre Bay Area (TBA) has measured eight percent Black or African American, local theatres using an Arts Diversity seven percent of mixed ethnicity and one Index, a mathematical tool for assessing percent Native American. Data from their the diversity of an organization relative to survey administered to people who had the larger population in which it exists. Six bought tickets online showed a less diverse different types of diversity – household audience, which demonstrated an important income, education level, age, marital difference between audience members status, gender, race, and political affiliation who purchase tickets online compared to – were measured at each organization and those who purchase them elsewhere. compared against the general population. Their study found Bay Area theatergoers were Measuring demographic characteristics significantly less diverse than the general alone, the literature states, is not enough. population. They also found that among Understanding audiences and participants theatergoers increased household income requires understanding a complex of factors diversity was correlated with increased that include psychographic traits such as race/ethnicity, gender, marital status preferences for challenging experiences, and educational diversity. They further active participation, and learning new things; found that the oldest and largest theatre personal history of arts attendance, or lack companies demonstrated the most racial/ thereof, with one’s family; and environmental ethnic diversity in audience composition. factors like exhibit and membership costs,
105 Appendix K
as well as the presence of active word-of- created cultural advisory committees, mouth networks, which account for more dedicated staffing to reaching a diverse visits than does marketing. Moreover, audience, co-curated exhibits with the ethnic groups are not homogenous and public, transitioned an English-only western- should not be treated as such in terms of oriented internal culture to create a fully audiences or programming. Education and bicultural museum, and collaborated with income levels can vary within ethnic/racial community members to preserve intangible groups. Within ethnic groups as well, and heritage. Performing arts organizations within immigrant and refugee populations, that have made notable efforts in these the length of time lived in the US makes areas have participated in a citywide equity for differing perspectives and values. plan, developed deep partnerships with a particular community they sought to reach, RELATIONSHIPS The Bonfils-Stanton and partnered with non-arts organizations. Foundation, an arts funder in Denver, conducted an audience diversity study to Moreover, the literature finds that examine audience diversification efforts diversity and equity should be considered at several area large arts presenters. They both within individual programs and concluded that building diverse audiences across an organization’s programmatic at large mainstream institutions requires roster. Isolated “one-shot” programs and arts presenters to strategize in multiple pilots without follow-up plans tend to areas simultaneously including marketing fail at meaningful, long-term change. to target audiences, establishing one-to- FUNDING AND FUNDERS Arts and culture one relationships with patrons, developing funders can play critical roles in changing programming content that is “authentic” and the arts ecology by supporting research “relevant,” forming meaningful connections on diversity and equitable practice. Two with community members, and investing leaders in this regard have been the National in organizational and institutional change. Endowment for the Arts and the James PROGRAMMING Museums that have Irvine Foundation. The NEA’s Expansion made notable efforts toward diversity, Arts Program (EAP) was founded in 1971 cultural equity and inclusion among their to “assist professionally directed arts audiences and programming have focused organizations of high artistic quality that are on community engagement initiatives, deeply rooted in and reflective of the culture
106 Appendix K
of a minority, inner city, rural, or tribal More recently, in 2016 the California Arts community.” EAP sought to reach people Council launched the Cultural Pathways of color, poor rural White communities, and grant program specifically for “small otherwise marginalized and underserved and emerging organizations rooted in artists and arts organizations. Though it communities of color, recent immigrant and ended in 1995, EAP led to several innovative refugee communities, or tribal groups.” national projects, including the Community In the arts, audiences and programming are Foundation Initiative, which ran from intertwined. Efforts to increase diversity, 1985-1994 and had a lasting impact on cultural equity and inclusion in one can the communities in which it granted seed improve the other. To do this organizations money to local philanthropic foundations. must look beyond benchmark arts disciplines, For a decade the James Irvine Foundation passive audiences and formal arts venues. took the lead in sponsoring innovative Studies that investigate arts participation research on arts engagement in California beyond those measures find engagement and supporting organizations committed and participation in the arts is flourishing. to making the state’s arts ecology more CULTURALLY SPECIFIC diverse and equitable. Through their Exploring ARTS ORGANIZATIONS Engagement Fund (EEF) Irvine encouraged While the arts and culture ecology in the US is grantees to invest time in building trust with dominated economically by large institutions their constituents, partnering strategically primarily working in benchmark arts in the with community organizations, making European tradition, the landscape is replete the arts more appealing and accessible to with organizations both formal and informal “nontraditional” audiences, and to program that draw upon ethnic, folk and religious for community spaces rather than traditional traditions in their work. The leadership, venues. Through their New California Arts staff, audiences and programming of these Fund (NCAF) the James Irvine Foundation organizations is often filled by people who has provided support for organization have been marginalized in mainstream capacity building and for arts engagement arts and culture organizations. When programming designed to encourage and considering the role and function of arts expand participation in the arts among organizations staffed by and primarily California’s growing and diverse communities. serving non-European Americans in the
107 Appendix K
larger arts ecology, it is worth noting they organizations of color and some local analysis are often subject to larger structural forces of new immigrant and refugee arts activity like racism and poverty that impede success can inform the field. There is widespread for both organizations and individuals. acknowledgment that communities of color engage in arts activities not captured in ROLE IN THE ARTS ECOLOGY In the literature traditional statistics on arts engagement. on arts organizations outside of the European Many people of color and immigrants tradition and benchmark art forms, several participate in the arts in community different terms are used to refer to it and organizations like churches and community recent attempts to quantify how many centers and more informal settings like at organizations make up this sector have home. Additionally, looking at the arts activity used significantly different definitions. of organizations alone fails to capture the For example, the report Cultural Centers work of folk artists and other individual artists. of Color from the National Endowment for the Arts uses the term “ethnically specific Data to measure the size, scope and arts organizations of color” to designate contribution of culturally specific arts organizations that included more than 51 organization is incomplete. IRS Form 990 percent of one ethnic group among their filings have been used as one measure. This staffs, boards, artists, and audiences and approach includes White ethnocultural uses “multi-ethnic” to designate organizations organizations (for example, the Alliance with approximately equal groups of at least Française) but this may be the best way to two communities of color totaling 51 or capture cultural organizations outside of more of the organization’s participants. benchmark artistic disciplines. Data collected This literature review utilizes a term that by DataArts (formerly the Cultural Data is also commonly found in the literature, Project) suggests that many organizations “culturally specific arts organization.” rooted in, staffed by and with programming focused on specific communities may still This literature review did not identify report themselves as having a “general” any research on strategies for drawing audience. Some artists of color may wish to upon traditional, folk, and religious arts be evaluated on their general artistic merit communities in order to increase diversity, and not their cultural origins. Nonetheless, cultural equity and inclusion in the larger arts DataArts data suggest LA County may be ecology. However, national research on arts
108 Appendix K
home to a larger share of these organizations consistently supported over long periods of compared to the rest of the US. time. Long-standing culturally specific arts organizations may need to focus on more MODELS OF SUPPORT Research suggests support for advocacy and pipelines for staff that the tools, methods and practices used to and leadership. At this stage they need less strengthen arts organizations in general may specific administrative and programming not be as effective for culturally specific arts resources and more attention to leadership organizations. One evaluation of the Canadian in their own organizations and in the field. Council for the Arts’ programs for Aboriginal art reported that there was significant Similarly, it has been argued that if barriers support from artists for dedicated programs to success, such as the lack of resources and for Aboriginal artists and organizations but opportunity, are removed, arts organizations also that these groups were not well served of color would be as successful as their by a discipline based approach. Customary mainstream counterparts. Others counter disciplinary boundaries in the arts and culture that traditional measures of organizational sector may not apply to these organizations, health are not relevant to these organizations. and efforts to pigeonhole those organizations “Health” may look different for culturally into those customary boundaries may specific arts organizations, and therefore they limit the support that flows to them. need different supports than mainstream arts organizations to be successful. A standard nonprofit life-cycle approach to capacity building for nonprofit arts Other practices and recommendations have organizations may not match the needs of been made to support culturally specific arts culturally specific arts organizations. Some organizations. Direct funding for folk artists organizations may have significant maturity and informal folk art associations that exist in artistic programming while remaining outside the scope of nonprofit organizations small organizationally, making them look like is one approach to supporting their work. “emerging” organizations but making capacity Multidisciplinary folk art organizations in building support for emerging organizations particular can play an important role. State inappropriate. Many of these organizations level apprenticeships have been a popular have been chronically under-resourced and approach to funding folk arts and these may cannot be expected to operate similarly to be especially effective in diversifying the mainstream organizations that have been arts and culture sector since a majority of
109 Appendix K
those funded have been people of color. For In immigrant communities, arts activities example, the Alliance for California Traditional often happen in multi-service and non- Arts funds apprenticeships with master arts sector organizations. Many of the folk artists in California, as well as grants to recommendations and analyses of immigrant nonprofit and community organizations for arts activity found in the literature focus California-based community programs in on the twin needs for bonding or building the traditional arts. Some art forms benefit community within immigrant groups and from support for occasional meetings, for bridging to outside or native populations. instance mariachi conferences and festivals Communities must have ethnic-specific where students go to workshops and perform. spaces for nurturing identity as well as Developing and encouraging the growth of spaces that are permeable to outsiders. locally focused but nationally networked FUNDING AND FUNDERS There is evidence ethnocultural arts service organizations that arts organizations of color are is another potential model of support. significantly underserved by the philanthropic CROSS SECTOR APPROACHES Partnerships community. Funding available for culturally with non-arts organizations may be a fruitful specific art forms in the traditional or folk strategy for nurturing arts activities in categories is often much smaller than for community organizations that fall outside the the benchmark European disciplines. For nonprofit arts and culture sector. Educational, foundations seeking to work with new religious, youth development, human services immigrant and refugee arts communities, and community development organizations several recommendations have been have been shown to help with the production made. First, ensure grant panelists are of programs or events, arranging group culturally informed in order to properly attendance, developing programs and provid- evaluate new immigrant communities. ing spaces where exhibits or performances Second, be flexible about art forms, funding could take place. Given that arts activity models, and application processes. Third, in communities of color often happens in be conscious of the extra burden placed religious communities, research into arts on new communities in asking them to activity in religious communities would appear serve on review panels and in other roles. to be helpful in developing strategies for Culturally specific arts organizations play a nurturing the arts in communities of color. unique and important role in the larger arts
110 Appendix K
ecology. Support for these organizations learned from earlier eras should be investigated may require new models and development before being implemented to determine of new resources. These organizations, their whether they answer today’s questions. boards and workforce often face challenges That said, the lessons of successful diversity of underfunding as well as systemic issues efforts at mainstream American museums of racism and marginalization. Leaders in have been summarized by Kamegai-Cocita these organizations can play an important in three key processes that can apply to all role in the effort to increase diversity, arts organizations and are relevant across cultural equity and inclusion in the arts all four areas identified by the Board of in LA County. However, their participation Supervisors. First is communication, which must be authentic and integrated. Care involves the museum getting to know should be taken not to ask a small number its surrounding communities as well as of individuals or organizations to represent inviting local leadership to get involved in an entire communities, which can overburden advisory capacity. Second is collaboration, and marginalize them in the larger discussion. which may include co-producing programs CONCLUSION with the community to cross-promoting The current status of the literature on how to events with local nonprofits and businesses. increase diversity, cultural equity and inclusion Third is consistency, meaning that in the arts and culture ecology is emerging. relationships must be built to be durable Much has been written in recent years that and programs designed to be sustainable. identifies and measures the problem; solutions In the arts, the concept of “audiences” and – especially ones that are proven to have a “programming” have changed over time and measurable impact – are less manifest. Looking today include not only passive observation of back to previous eras when diversity was raised art but also active participation in art-making. as a concern in the arts, most recently the mid- There is an increasing acknowledgement 1990s, may provide some evidence of what of the role of informal art-making outside works. However, the concept of “diversity” has of nonprofit structures. These new ways evolved into the terms “cultural equity” and of looking at the arts and culture ecology “inclusion,” reflecting the ways in which both suggests new ways of thinking about how the nature of the challenge and tools to address to increase cultural equity and inclusion for it have changed over time. As a result, lessons boards, staff, audiences and programming:
111 Appendix K
ACROSS THE FOUR AREAS ANALYZED IN THIS LITERATURE REVIEW, THE FOLLOWING KEY LESSONS APPEAR TO BE UNIVERSAL:
BE EXPLICIT ABOUT GOALS FOR CULTURAL this information publicly, as part of being EQUITY AND INCLUSION in all of the explicit about what you want to achieve. organization’s materials, including its To achieve full CULTURAL EQUITY AND mission statement, job descriptions, INCLUSION WILL TAKE A LONG TIME. Plan for board recruitment materials, grant the long haul, and be prepared for hard work. requirements, casting and programming. If participation and engagement with INCLUDE CULTURALLY SPECIFIC a particular community is desired, ORGANIZATIONS and understand their state explicitly who that community place in the larger arts and culture ecology is and how they will be engaged. of the region. This includes recognizing their leadership and role in serving the The meaning of diversity, cultural equity communities you also wish to serve. and inclusion goes BEYOND RACE AND ETHNICITY, AND MUST BE DEFINED YOUR INSTITUTION MAY CHANGE as a FOR EACH ORGANIZATION. Depending result of all this work. In fact, it must. on the context, this may include the These changes may challenge staff, homeless, the incarcerated, the disabled, board members, audiences and other the poor, veterans, the elderly and the stakeholders, so plans will be needed to LGBTQ community. It may also include manage change. There is a robust body psychographic traits related to personal of literature on this from practitioners opinions, fears and aspirations. from both the nonprofits and business sectors which may be useful. PARTNER WITH ORGANIZATIONS SERVING THE COMMUNITIES you ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL, and this must wish to serve. This includes both arts be considered in board recruitment, hiring, organizations and non-arts organizations, grantmaking and building partnerships. and even non-organizations. Organizations and artists differ by discipline, size, life cycle placement, DEFINE TERMS, SET CLEAR GOALS AND community served, type of programming MEASURE PROGRESS, then celebrate and mission, and those differences should victories while also identifying the barriers be recognized in organizational processes. that are preventing success. Share all of
Full report at artsequityla.org
112 APPENDIX L
LA ARTS FUNDERS MEETING ATTENDEES
The following individuals attended an LA Arts Funders meeting on February 3, 2017 to discuss the CEII recommendations.
The Ahmanson Foundation, Carrie Harlow First 5 LA, Jennifer Cowan The Ahmanson Foundation, Sara Straubel Flora L. Thornton Foundation, Kay Tornborg Annenberg Foundation, Stephanie Levin Greenberg Foundation, Susan Steinhauser Artadia, Lexi Brown The Herb Alpert Foundation, Matty Wilder California Humanities, Erin Menne Long Beach Arts Council, Griselda Suarez California Community Foundation, Louis L. Borick Foundation, Lauren Johnson Andrea Abeleda Ovation TV/Ovation Foundation, California Community Foundation,Karla Salazar Jessica Yas Barker Center for Cultural Innovation, Angie Kim The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, Zahirah Mann City of Culver City, Mari Sullivan The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, Jennifer Price-Letscher City of Los Angeles Dept. of Cultural Affairs, Danielle Brazell Salser Family Foundation, Cathy Salser City of Santa Monica Cultural Affairs, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Janice Pober Nathan Birnbaum Southern California Grantmakers, Community Partners, Mari Riddle Morgan Bennett Craig H. Neilsen Foundation, Kym Eisner Southern California Grantmakers, Seyron Foo Draper Consulting Group, Lee Draper Southern California Grantmakers, Dave Sheldon Durfee Foundation, Claire Peeps WHH Foundation, Lydia Glenn Murray Exploring the Arts, Faith Childs- Davis
113 APPENDIX M
THE THIRTEEN CEII RECOMMENDATIONS IN COST ORDER
The figures shown here are rough estimates would be required. Final estimates may vary based on preliminary staff analysis. If and from what is presented here depending on both when any of these recommendations are a fuller analysis and on the scope of the LA adopted, a more thorough analysis of costs County Board of Supervisors’ desired results.
RECOMMENDATION NAME SOLUTION ESTIMATED COST
Provide new cultural opportunities and funds particularly for 8. Increasing Diverse, Inclusive and residents of unincorporated areas of the County by extending LA Equitable Cultural Opportunities and Revenue generating County’s civic art requirement to private developers and enacting Programming in Unincorporated Areas ordinances that encourage the creation of cultural assets.
Establish a cultural policy for LA County with concrete elements focused on equity, diversity, inclusion and access that would solidify the gains made through the CEII process and recommendations, 1. Los Angeles County Cultural Policy and will serve as a road map for how all LA County departments $50,000 One-time expense can contribute to cultural life. This cultural policy would position LA County as a national arts leader in advancing cultural equity and inclusion in every sector of our civic lives.
2. Inclusive Language, Policies and Initiate a requirement that all cultural organizations receiving Infrastructure to Recruit and Retain LA County funds have written, board-adopted statements, $50,000 annually Diverse Staff and Boards in LA County policies or plans that outline their commitment to diversity, Arts and Cultural Organizations equity, inclusion and access, and monitor progress.
Develop an LA County initiative creating access to work-based learning and leadership opportunities for all high school students, particularly 4. Teen Arts Pathways: Employment students of color, low-income students, LGBTQ students, disabled and Learning Opportunities in the Arts $230,000 annually students, current and former foster youth, and youth on probation, and Culture for High School Students and as well as others who experience barriers to participation, to prepare youth for careers in the arts and creative industries.
Establish center(s) that link students and mature workers, especially those from communities of color, low-income, LGBTQ and 5. Creative Workforce disabled communities, and other communities that are under- $490,000 annually Development Center(s) represented in the arts, to educational, training and networking opportunities to help them gain skills to work in creative jobs.
Establish LA County planning and implementation grants to small and mid-sized arts organizations to build their capacity to reach new 12. Connecting Organizations to $750,000 annually audiences and participants including those in communities of color, New Audiences and participants for 3 years low-income communities, LGBTQ and disabled communities and other communities that experience barriers to arts participation.
114 Appendix M
RECOMMENDATION NAME SOLUTION ESTIMATED COST
Establish a five year LA Countywide communications initiative that shares information about the arts with 11. Connecting Audiences all LA County residents through both traditional and $1M annually for 5 years to Cultural Information nontraditional methods, taking into account language barriers, geographical concerns, and economic divides that require different forms of outreach.
Double the existing LA County Internship Program to increase the number of paid arts internships with the additional 3. College Arts Pathways: Scale up over 5 years positions set aside for community college students, Paid Arts Internships for from $433,000 to emphasizing inclusivity of those from communities of color, Community College Students $1.28M annually low-income neighborhoods, the disabled community, and other communities that experience barriers to arts access.
Place artists, arts administrators or other creative workers Scale up over 5 years 7. Artists Working Cross-Sector who are representative of diverse constituencies in LA from $100,000 to to Address Social Problems County departments in paid positions as creative strategists $1.6M annually to develop innovative solutions to social challenges.
Expand LA County’s Organizational Grants Program, which supports arts and culture organizations that have been 9. Grants to Organizations historically or are currently underfunded and under-resourced $4.518M annually Serving Diverse Communities , including those that represent communities of color, low-income LGBTQ and disabled communities and other communities experiencing barriers to participation in the arts.
Establish grants and professional development services to parks and libraries in areas of LA County with the least arts programming, to support production Scale up over 3 years 10. Parks and Libraries and marketing costs of arts events with a focus on from $1.5M to Arts Partnership communities of color, low-income communities, LGBTQ $6M annually and disabled communities, and other communities that experience barriers to participation in the arts.
Implement an LA County grant program to provide funds to municipal funders that includes diversity, equity, inclusion 6. Neighborhood Bridges: and access requirements, for re-granting to fiscally sponsored Municipal Grants to Expand Arts Scale up over multiple organizations, collectives, traditional and folk artists, and and Cultural Programming to All years to $8.8M annually individual artists, especially those from communities of Neighborhoods and Communities color, low-income, LGBTQ and disabled communities, and other communities that are under-represented in the arts.
Grants to fund dedicated arts coordinators who both reflect and promote the diversity of the student $12.9M one-time population, to serve every school district in LA County over 3-5 years 13. Equitable Access to Arts Education: A Three Part Strategy Grants to school districts in support $3.8M annually for All Students in Public Schools of their arts education plans $385,000 one-time Alignment of in-school and out-of-school over 18 months arts learning opportunities
115 BOARD OF SUPERVISORS Hilda L. Solis Mark Ridley-Thomas Sheila Kuehl Janice Hahn Kathryn Barger
ARTS COMMISSIONERS Bettina Korek PRESIDENT Pamela Bright-Moon VICE PRESIDENT Helen Hernandez EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Claire Peeps IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT Eric Eisenberg Darnella Davidson Eric Hanks Constance Jolcuvar Claudia Margolis Alis Clausen Odenthal Norma Provencio Pichardo Elizabeth (Liz) Schindler-Johnson David Valdez Hope Warschaw Rosalind Wyman Laura Zucker EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Designed by Studio Fuse.
116