The Department of Cultural Affairs Cultural Grants Program invests in free and low-cost, public cultural activities and presentations taking place in the City of Los Angeles.
Donor Name: City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs
State: California
City: Los Angeles
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: (mm/dd/yyyy) 08/29/2025
Size of the Grant: $10,000 to $100,000
Grant Duration: Grant Duration Not Mentioned
Details:
Projects may be proposed by the following types of vendors/applicants:
- A nonprofit arts organization may propose an Artistic Project in one primary art form or discipline. For 2026-27, DCA invites new Artistic Project proposals within the disciplines of Culture/History, Design-Visual Arts, Literary Arts, Media Arts, and Traditional-Folk Arts. Note there will be no “off-cycle” artistic category offered; applicants with Artistic Projects in dance, music, theatre, and trans-disciplinary arts should wait until the subsequent grant cycle in summer 2026 to apply for funding consideration. Please consult DCA staff if you are unclear which discipline is best for your proposal, rather than selecting an inaccurate artistic discipline, which can result in a disqualification or review by a panel with the wrong expertise.
- A partnership between a non-profit community-service organization (an organization whose mission and programs are not arts-exclusive but include cultural offerings) may ONLY propose to plan and present an outdoor festival or parade in partnership with a tribal elder, arts curator, or arts agency. For DCA’s Outdoor Festivals/Parades category, nonprofit organizations may request up to $40,000 for large outdoor festivals/parades (more than 2,000 attendees in the prior year), while producers of a small outdoor festival/parade (500 to 2,000 attendees from the prior year) may request $15,000. Outdoor festivals/parades that gather fewer than 500 in-person attendees may request up to $6,000. Outdoor festival/parade proposals are accepted each year, but it is best that outdoor performing-arts festivals be submitted in even-numbered calendar years, while outdoor craft fairs be submitted in odd-numbered calendar years.
Eligibility Criteria
Qualified applicants:
- Are nonprofit 501(c)3 organizations with a primary purpose to provide arts/cultural services, or arts-friendly charitable organizations (e.g. 501(c)3, 501(c)6, etc.) that will partner with an arts expert/agency to present an outdoor festival or parade, and
- Are headquartered in Los Angeles County and proposing projects that will specifically serve residents, visitors, and/or tourists within the City of Los Angeles boundaries, and
- Have a minimum of one year of prior experience with the project they propose to make “bigger, stronger, or faster” with City of LA support, and
- Have an arts/culture mission statement as well as specific metrics about the project-audiences they recently served within the City of LA, and
- Fulfill all of the additional qualifications for the category in which they apply.
For more information, visit DCA.
