LOS ANGELES — From keeping the lights on at a small theater to helping an organization hire artists and creative workers, Los Angeles County officials say public arts funding can have an impact far beyond the productions, exhibitions and programs audiences ultimately see.
The Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture awarded $5.6 million to 353 nonprofit organizations through its 2026-27 Organizational Grant Program and Community Impact Arts Grant, supporting arts, cultural and community programming throughout the county.
Among the recipients are organizations serving the Antelope Valley, including Palmdale Repertory Theatre and Ohana Center AV.
Arts and Culture Director Kristin Sakoda said grantmaking is one way the department carries out its mission of advancing arts, culture and creativity throughout the county.
The grants allow nonprofit organizations to provide cultural services, community programs and artistic activities ranging from performing and visual arts to literary arts, arts education, theater and dance, she said.
“We definitely know this helps expand access to the arts,” Sakoda said. “It really is part of quality of life, youth development and education, community vitality and our local economy.”
The two grant programs serve different purposes.
The Organizational Grant Program, or OGP, provides funding to nonprofit arts organizations. The Community Impact Arts Grant, or CIAG, supports arts programming provided by organizations whose primary missions are in areas such as social services and social justice rather than the arts.
Anji Gaspar-Milanovic, with the Department of Arts and Culture, said applications go through a public panel process. Panelists review and score applications and discuss them before recommendations move through the Arts Commission and ultimately to the county Board of Supervisors for approval.
Reviewers consider artistic merit and quality, organizational budgets, proposed activities and artistic documentation, she said.The result is a pool that includes organizations of vastly different sizes and disciplines.
“There are some very large organizations, of course, that folks are familiar with, but there’s a lot of community-based, neighborhood-based organizations that are providing programs and services to neighbors and residents,” Gaspar-Milanovic said.
County officials said the funding can be especially important for smaller nonprofit arts organizations operating with limited budgets.
For OGP recipients, the money is not restricted solely to producing an individual artistic project.
“It’s general operating funds, which means they can use this for rent, keeping the lights on, salaries,” Gaspar-Milanovic said.
That flexibility addresses a problem smaller organizations frequently encounter when funding is available for creating art but not necessarily for the administrative costs required to keep an organization functioning, she said.
“They need to be able to operate,” Gaspar-Milanovic said. “They need to be able to hire. They need to be able to have a space.”OGP funding is awarded over two years, providing recipients with more consistency and eliminating the need to reapply annually.
Gaspar-Milanovic said public funding can also help organizations leverage additional support from individual donors, private foundations, municipalities and the state.
Sakoda said 91% of the OGP funding allocation went to micro, small and mid-sized organizations.
Those dollars can also ripple through Los Angeles County’s creative economy.
“Many of these arts organizations, they use these dollars to hire artists, hire creative workers, put on their exhibits and so forth,” Sakoda said. “That really is part of our creative economy as well.”
Ensuring that arts funding reaches communities across a geographically and economically diverse county is another goal of the programs.
Sakoda said county officials recognize that cultural and artistic talent is not confined to communities that historically have received the greatest arts investment.
“We like to kind of believe that there’s culture everywhere. There’s talent everywhere,” Sakoda said. “But it is true historically, we haven’t always seen the same amount of resources going to smaller organizations or rural communities.”
The department has sought to keep grant guidelines open to organizations with a broad range of budget sizes, cultural forms and geographic locations, she said.
The reach of the program has also grown. Sakoda said approximately 200 more nonprofit arts organizations are receiving funding than a decade ago.
Gaspar-Milanovic said combining OGP with CIAG helps broaden that reach because communities without a large concentration of traditional arts nonprofits can still have substantial cultural and artistic activity taking place through social service and other community organizations.
The intent, she said, is for county residents to have access to free or low-cost programs within their own communities.
That issue has particular resonance in the Antelope Valley, where local organizations cite geography, transportation and the cost of traveling elsewhere for arts experiences as barriers for some residents.
The county also requires recipients to report back on their work.
Organizations submit final evaluations describing how funding was used, whether they accomplished what they proposed and what challenges they encountered. The department also gathers broader data, including the number of programs provided and people served. Sakoda said public investment in the arts contributes to more than cultural entertainment.
“For us, investing in the arts is the mission, of course, of our department, but I would say for the county, for other cities, for other governments, it really is an important and vital way to invest in our communities,” she said.
She pointed to connections between arts participation and quality of life, health and well-being, mental health and the local economy.For residents, Sakoda offered a simple suggestion: explore what the funded organizations are doing.
“Visit an arts organization near you, support the arts in your community, or go visit and explore a culture or an art organization that maybe is not near you,” she said.
The next application cycle will provide another opportunity for organizations seeking support.
According to information provided by the Department of Arts and Culture OGP and CIAG applications open Aug. 31 and close Oct. 5. The department also provides workshops, office hours and other assistance to help organizations prepare applications.
In the Antelope Valley, the countywide investment can be seen through organizations with markedly different approaches to the arts.
For Palmdale Repertory Theatre, funding helps put productions on stage, pay for theatrical rights and develop local talent. For Ohana Center AV, art is taken directly into schools, community events and families’ homes through free creative activities and art and wellness supplies.
Together, their work illustrates what millions of dollars in countywide grant funding can look like once it reaches a local community.
Coming in Part 2: Palmdale Repertory Theatre looks to county funding to help expand productions, develop local talent and make live theater more accessible close to home.