Field Initiatives

We advocate for local initiatives that innovate national outcomes. We are fiercely committed to reallocating arts and culture capital to artists in Los Angeles, a city ranked number one in independent artists, where the majority don’t even earn a living wage from their practice. 

With an eye on retaining L.A.’s creative class, we began to look at the current ecosystem of contemporary performance-making, including geographic disparities in national awards. We interviewed program officers and gatekeepers.  A roster of artists in L.A., New York, and San Francisco served as our focus group.  We utilized this vital information to inform our programming and better understand fieldwide funding trends for L.A. artists. Funding provided by the California Arts Council.

Spearheaded by cultural strategist, Leslie Tamaribuchi, this gathering builds power for L.A. artists and culture bearers.  Selected participants place their gifts in service of equity, and social transformation.  They actively invest in communities who are most vulnerable to control their own assets and build a much needed restorative cultural economy.

We host two paid interns annually through Los Angeles County Arts & Culture Arts. Interns work closely with staff to produce our annual festival and learn about development initiatives.  They deepen their understanding of the possibilities within performance as an art form and viable career field.  We often carve out positions for interns once they have completed academic requirements.  Past interns have found gainful employment – one as a data scientist, another in mergers and acquisitions.

As a trusted colleague, we served as a critical review partner for Artist Relief during its national rollout, awarding $5,000 unrestricted grants to artists in need. During the pilot period, shortly after the pandemic’s onset, we reviewed thousands of proposals from artists across all disciplines. Reading artists’ stories and helping to steer the direction of the application process was one of the most meaningful activities we participated in during 2020. In 15 months and 13 cycles, the program allocated $23.4 million in disaster relief to 4,682 artists, 80% of which were BIPOC.

As CIPA founding members, we played a guiding role in the creation of the Rising Producer Fellowship. We selected three emerging creative producers of color from a national pool of candidates. We supplied fellows with unrestricted cash awards of $3,000, value-aligned mentors, and monthly cohort meetings focused on business modeling, and network development.

We are a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, equipped to receive support from private foundations and donor-advised funds. We greatly appreciate support from thoughtful and generous donors as we continue to strengthen our programs and services for artists through an ongoing pandemic and economic recession.