LOS ANGELES, CA.- To support local arts nonprofits and the communities they serve, the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture (Arts and Culture) has announced $5.59M in grants to 349 nonprofit organizations through its 2025-2026 Organizational Grant Program (OGP) and Community Impact Arts Grant (CIAG) awards.
The OGP program is designed to support and sustain the LA County region’s nonprofit arts sector with grants to a wide array of organizations, large and small, working across a myriad of arts and cultural disciplines including visual arts, performing arts, film and media, literary arts, arts education, and arts service organizations. The funding ensures access to the arts and program investments that reflect and serve diverse Los Angeles communities, with funding shown to reach 95% of the zip codes in LA County. OGP grants will go to 261 organizations, 38 of which are first time applicants to the program. The total allocation for grantees this year is $5,059,000, reduced from last year’s allocation of $5,668,000 because of LA County budget cuts.
OGP also addresses systemic inequity in arts funding; 93% of the organizations that were awarded have budgets under $5M and 39% of those have budgets under $200K. These organizations are often underfunded and include those that reflect and serve communities of color, historically marginalized, and rural communities.
Grantees can use funds to support their critical needs, from staffing and organizational infrastructure to public arts programming for the communities they engage. Grantees can also access Arts and Culture’s professional development opportunities—programs designed in-house, as well as scholarships for trainings and conferences.
These organizations range greatly in budget size, service area, and mission. Grantee Arts for Healing and Justice Network, for example, coordinates the collaborative work of community-based arts education organizations serving system-impacted youth throughout LA County to provide alternatives to incarceration, build resiliency and wellness, and center arts as a change strategy for young people, communities, and systems. Altadena Music Theatre enriches its community through live musical theatre, arts advocacy, and developmental youth programs. The Crow, a new grantee in Santa Monica, offers stand-up comedy and storytelling classes for students of all levels, live performances, and community-based comedy festivals. A complete list of OGP grantees, and the programs and events this funding will support, can be found here.
Different than Arts and Culture’s longstanding funding for nonprofits with a primary focus on the arts, the Community Impact Arts Grant (CIAG) supports arts-based programs of social justice and service organizations. CIAG was designed to address two priorities: making arts services available to LA County residents who might not experience them through traditional arts venues and outlets, and encouraging integration of the arts in cross-sector work at local nonprofits. Grantee programs span art forms and communities reached, from therapeutic visual arts, to social justice filmmaking, music education for youth, dance empowerment, and memory programs for dementia.
There were 88 awarded organizations in CIAG this year, 19 of which were new awardees—making this year’s grantee pool the largest in the program’s history. The total CIAG allocation is $500,000, and awards range from $1,200 to $7,100. The Valley Intercommunity Council, for example, expands arts and inclusion classes and shows at three Senior Centers. The Little Tokyo Service Center will support Umeya Project residents, neighbors, and stakeholders by hosting mutual aid pop-ups that culminate in a chalk mural bridging Skid Row and Little Tokyo. Tierra del Sol Foundation will fund a fashion show featuring artists with lifelong developmental disabilities, which advances people with disabilities into the world of design and fashion. A complete list of CIAG grantees, and the programs and events this funding will support, can be found here.
To assist new and understaffed applicants, Arts and Culture provides application workshops and technical assistance. After applications are submitted, a peer panel review process ensues, and this year, applications for both programs are reviewed and scored by a combined 101 diverse expert panelists from LA’s community of cultural workers, artists, curators, nonprofit arts administrators, arts funders, and arts educators. Award recommendations were reviewed by the Arts Commission, an advisory body appointed by the Board of Supervisors.
"The Department of Arts and Culture’s grant programs support an incredible range of nonprofit organizations, which in turn bring the arts to communities all over the County," said Board Chair Kathryn Barger. "The arts contribute to our creative economy, our communities, and overall wellbeing. We know not just from research, but also by hearing directly from our constituents, that their lives, mental health, and connection with others is strengthened when they engage in the arts. All of our Los Angeles County residents deserve these resources. I’m proud to support access to the arts for everyone through our Department of Arts and Culture’s nonprofit grants."
"Our grant programs are a vital investment in LA County’s cultural and creative infrastructure, supporting the cultural organizations and programs that bring meaningful engagement to people across neighborhoods, generations, and lived experiences. In the face of so many challenges this year, sustaining support for arts organizations—large and small, emerging and established—is a matter of equity and vision. With our support, this year’s awardees will engage artists, cultural workers, communities, and visitors. Together, they reflect and serve the vibrancy, diversity, and richness of LA County," said Kristin Sakoda, Director of the Department of Arts and Culture.
"The Department of Arts and Culture’s grant support means we can provide communities with equitable access to the programs and resources that LA County has to offer. Especially now, the power that the arts possess to humanize, heal, and foster cross-cultural dialogue is crucial," said Randi Tahara, Arts Commission President.
