LA Cultural Centers: Arts for LA

Increasing support for the arts in Los Angeles County

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Watts Towers Arts Center; photo from wattstowers.us

LA Cultural Centers

Last Updated: January 24, 2010

After a status report on December 14th, the item has been continued until January 25, 2011.

From the CAO's Report of November 23, 2010 (available for download here): "On June 30, 2010, Council instructed the City Administrative Officer (CAO) and the Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) to form a working group to facilitate the drafting of a Request for Proposals (RFP) to transition 14 cultural art facilities to public-private partnerships. Six months funding in the amount of $365,000 was provided in the 2010-2011 adopted budget to ensure the facilities stayed open during the RFP process. The facilities were scheduled to be partnered on January 1, 2011. The working group met several times to discuss the partnering of the facilities and make recommendations concerning specifics of the RFP. During this time, an additional facility was added to the list of facilities for inclusion in proposed RFP, increasing .the number of facilities targeted for partnering to 15. Three public hearings have been held and the arts community has provided input to the proposal. The DCA issued its report on September 20, 2011 which incorporated comments from the various stakeholders. On September 28, 2010, DCA presented recommendations for issuing the RFP to the Arts Parks, Health and Aging Committee." Read the full CAO's report (PDF format).

Hundreds of supporters of each of the Centers have written to City Council, requesting that the Centers remain open and functional during this process.

During the Tuesday, May 11th meeting of the Los Angeles City Council's Arts, Parks & Aging Committee, the CAO's office reported that nonprofit organizations would have the opportunity to submit proposals to manage arts centers throughout the city that are currently city-controlled. The Committee agreed to a 120-day period to construct the Request For Proposals, with the CAO and Cultural Affairs offices reporting on the issue to the Committee every 30 days.

The members of Arts, Parks & Aging expressed their support for all of the Cultural Centers and acknowledged their importance to communities throughout the city: "All arts centers are tremendous assets. We just need to enhance them to make them better," said Committee Chair LaBonge.

Councilman LaBonge expressed concern at the fact that some employees at the Cultural Centers had not been paid in several months. A representative from the Cultural Affairs department responded, "We have the funding to continue the financial support to these operations as recommended for next year. The contract amendment is currently going through review by the office of the Mayor and the CAO's office. Our recommendation is to extend the contracts through the end of the calendar year."

The Los Angeles City Council voted on March 27th, 2010 to consider the motion to amend the Public Works Improvement Arts Program (known as "1% for Art") to provide temporary, emergency funding for city Arts Centers. This 24-month measure is intended to be a bridge solution to keep the Centers open during the current fiscal crisis.

Read the Council Action here: http://clkrep.lacity.org/onlinedocs/2010/10-0494_ca_03-26-2010.pdf

Arts for LA will provide additional information as we receive it. To view all City Council files & information or receive up-to-the-minute updates on this issue, visit cityclerk.lacity.org and search for Council File 10-0773.

The Councilmembers voted unanimously to temporarily allocate some funding from 1% developer fees for public art to ensure the Cultural Centers originally slated for closure remain open to continue serving communities throughout the city.

Responding to concern from Coucilmembers without arts centers in their districts, the Council decided to follow up this measure with alterations to fit the needs of districts currently without their own centers.

Barnsdall Gallery Theatre

(Silver Lake/Hollywood)

Barnsdall Gallery Theatre