To do this, Arts for LA brings together a broad spectrum of arts and policy leaders to focus on local, regional, state and federal issues that affect the arts.

 

For more than ten years an informal collaborative of arts leaders has met in both small and large groups around key issues, most notably advocacy, marketing and arts education. As ad hoc groups coalesced around issues of particular interest to its group, significant progress was made on a number of fronts: cultural tourism, the creation of regional cooperative marking tool- the Big List, the regional plan for arts education and most recently the continued funding of the City of Los Angeles’

 

Department of Cultural Affairs. Activities included monthly roundtable breakfast meetings, annual luncheons with political leaders and convening’s of broad cross-sections of the arts community to discuss critical issues.

 

In 2005, it became clear that Arts for LA could become significantly more effective as an organization with real structure and staff. Arts for LA incorporated.  The executive steering committee morphed into the founding board and began a strategic planning process to refine activities and hire staff to implement those key strategies.  During this process, more than 70 interviews were conducted with those providing leadership in the arts in the region: funders, policy makers, arts administrators, and individual artists.  The overarching finding of these interviews was the need for an inter-art, cross-disciplinary organization that would bring everyone into the tent.