The City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs is now accepting applications for its Public-Space Activation Fund (PAF).
Donor Name: City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs
State: California
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 07/31/2024
Size of the Grant: $600 to $45,000
Details:
Project Categories
- Neighborhood Expressions (NE)
- Micro-grants are available for independent artists (with individual practices performed outside of any arts-employee) who reside in the City of Los Angeles. The proposed project must be: a free public project (activity or presentation) hosted by the operator/manager of a venue in your geographic neighborhood (that is not a conventional arts space, such as a product-design gallery, cineplex, theater lobby, etc.). Neighborhood Expressions grants are given to Los Angeles artists who wish to start a new collaboration with a neighboring café, coffee shop, retailer, health clinic, community center, indoor/outdoor market, or other nearby businesses to engage community members and neighborhood audiences (indoor activities are allowed in this category but open-air activities are highly encouraged)
- Creative activities must be free and modestly marketed (to destination travelers, although DCA assumes that the host organization draws a natural audience). Eligible presentations should be either a live performance (e.g. dance, music, theatre, literary readings/spoken word), or a temporary visual display/exhibition. Host businesses should be near (5 miles maximum) from the artist-applicant’s residence in the City of LA. Grant amounts are determined by the council districts in which person+project is authentic:
- $1,200 – Activities within Arts-Underserved council districts 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12.
- $900 – Activities within Arts-Moderately Served council districts 1, 2, 4, 10, 15.
- $600 – Activities within Arts-Generously Served council districts 5, 13, 14.
- Any artist who is facing eviction or displacement for financial reasons may request two grants (from the amounts designated above) for two months of work in order to help them remain as a neighborhood asset.
- Arts and Social Wellness (ASW)
- “Seed funding” of $7,500 to $10,000 for community entrepreneurs who aim lead a collaborative effort to animate an outdoor public space with an activity such as: live performance(s), temporary banner(s)/mural(s), candlelight vigil, cultural picnic, or mini-festival. ASW projects are framed around community-relevant themes that bridge the arts with: science, nature, environmental goodness and justice, and/or community wellness and health.
- ASW projects that promote mental/physical/environmental/community wellness or promote art+science should be pitched under one of the two descriptions below:
- Pop-up projects (such as cultural presentations, creative engagements/workshops, temporary installations such as vinyl murals) proposed by a team of local players who live or work in the neighborhood of the proposed project. Pop-up proposals should draw attention to relevant themes or topics and be planned in alliance with one or more local neighborhood associations. All Pop-up projects must be able to garner an audience of at least 300 people. Up to $7,500 can be requested for a Pop-up project. Projects which pay fees to ten (10) or more artists/ensembles (with 50% living or working in the neighborhood-area) are most competitive.
- Festival-style projects (such as art walks or street fairs) which aim to enliven a corridor (a single street spanning a couple of blocks or more) while building collaboration and economic development among neighborhood businesses. All Festival-style projects must be able to garner an audience of more than 1,000 persons. Up to $10,000 can be requested for Festival-style projects. Projects which pay fees to ten (10) or more artists/ensembles (with 50% living or working in the neighborhood-area) are most competitive.
- Applicants planning events that have never been attempted before are encouraged to first propose a pop-up event as a proof of concept, before considering to apply for a festival-style project.
- ASW projects taking place in any LA City Council District are welcome, though priority consideration will be assigned to activities in neighborhoods where arts centers or arts businesses are few or small. Approximately ten grants of $10,000 or $7,500 per lead artist or community business are available for start-up cultural activities (which may be a singular concept to be repeated three times over three years, or a serial concept to be developed in three phases over three years). In this category it is expected that at least 5 local artists/acts will perform among the ten that are proposed to get paid.
- ASW grants for projects will generally range up to a maximum of $7,500 (pop-ups) or $10,000 (festival-style projects), but can double to $15,000 or $20,000 (pop-ups and festival-style projects, respectively) for events that take place in the City’s Arts-Underserved council districts 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, and 12.
- International Festivals & Intercultural Foods (IFIF)
- Grants generally ranging from $7,500 to $10,000 for activities that can also be categorized as either pop-ups or festival-style events (see public attendance requirements above), such as: community picnics, outdoor festivals, pop-up performance events, block parties, outdoor food/food-truck festivals, and creative enhancements to farmers markets with live performing arts and cultural activities. IFIF projects should embrace multicultural themes and promote opportunities for cross-cultural learning and feature entertainment that can take place at a range of street-adjacent, family-friendly spaces, such as: farmers markets, public parks, school yards, parking lots, and other publicly accessible outdoor spaces.
- International Participation And Promotion Projects (IPAPP)
- The Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) often receives inquiries from foreign governments (cities, regions, states, or countries), tribal nations/groups (ceremony or residency organizers), and/or international festival-producers who have pre-determined projects (to host and/or present) for which they wish to engage one or more Los Angeles artists. Likewise, the City of LA DCA and its like-minded government-agency partners have the desire to export and promote local treasures and build the capacity of small and mid-size nonprofit arts organizations to accomplish international presentations which can be documented on video and posted online back in LA to benefit both the performers and Los Angeles audiences. Moreover, local nonprofit arts organizations often belong to international associations or cultural diaspora, and therefore they have authentic needs to build international relationships. The IPAPP category aims to respond to these three complementary needs, all of which support LA talent in their development as “international ambassadors.”
- IPAPP grant-contracts will range between $10,000 to $45,000 per exchange, and are intended to primarily cover artist/creative fees (inclusive of artists’ travel, lodging, and meals) project materials, and shipping/crating expenses. Proposed projects should involve traveling 2-12 persons traveling internationally at any one time, with no person remaining overseas for more than 95 days. The cost of lodging will certainly be the limiting factor for the duration of most IPAPP projects. In the end, all IPAPP projects should result in installations or performances with documentary video-posting that are free to the community and appropriately sited in public places or within public view.
Funding Information
Funding levels and eligible requests range from $600 to $45,000 based on the category and complexity of proposed projects.
Eligibility Criteria
Eligible applicants will be Los Angeles-based Community Entrepreneurs (neighborhood business managers, independent artists, cultural activists, nonprofit organizations, and/or collaborative pairings of such partners under the stewardship of one lead-agent). If your nonprofit agency is currently a grantee of DCA in PAF or any other Grant Program, then you should define your PAF proposal as a new collaboration that bridges your agency with like-minded partners (note the only PAF category a current DCA grantee can serve as a lead applicant is under the International Participation And Promotion Projects category; current DCA grantees may also participate as named collaborators in Arts and Social Wellness and International Festivals & Intercultural Foods proposals).
For more information, visit CLADCA.
