Arts for LA is excited to unveil its 2023 Arts for LA’s Policy and Advocacy Agenda: Building a Thriving Creative Infrastructure, the roadmap for advancing Los Angeles’ artistic foundation. While Los Angeles holds stature as one of the premiere creative capitals of the world, the region has yet to fully develop a Creative Infrastructure that can adequately support its thriving creative communities, art institutions, and global impact. The agenda aims to inform, engage and mobilize individuals and organizations to advocate for improved Creative Infrastructure which includes more affordable space for artists and organizations, equitable implementation of Proposition 28, and living wages for arts workers.

“Despite being the top per capita provider of arts in the nation, Los Angeles ranks 259th in government funding allocation. This disparity disproportionately affects BIPOC and low-income communities as well as BIPOC-centered organizations,” said Gustavo Herrera, CEO, Arts for LA. “We must work together to dismantle these funding barriers and strengthen our creative infrastructure that will ultimately benefit all of Los Angeles.”

The agenda details our four priority policy areas of focus including Resources & Capital, Equitable Arts Education, Creative Jobs, and Affordable Space. These four areas are critical in Arts for LA’s mission to build a thriving creative infrastructure that supports arts providers in the Greater Los Angeles Region. The agenda dives into the pressing issues facing the arts community, a process that engaged hundreds of artists, arts workers, arts advocates, and civic leaders from across the region in conversations and surveys to establish the policy priorities for the creative sector.

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Our Process

Our Policy and Advocacy Agenda is the culmination of a months-long listening and engagement process, reflecting conversations with hundreds of artists, arts workers, and civic leaders from across the region. Below is a quick overview of the process.

1. Identifying Four Key Issue Areas
   In 2019, Arts for LA began to have conversations with our network of advocates about the most pressing challenges facing creative communities across the region. Four distinct issue areas emerged as a result of this process: 1) affordable space 2) equitable arts education 2) creative jobs, and 4) funding + capital. The pandemic has intensified the adverse effects on the creative sector, reinforcing the centrality of these challenges.
2. Laura Zucker Fellowship for Policy and Research
   Arts for LA selects a Laura Zucker Fellow to conduct research into an underexplored aspect of one of our four policy areas. Our 2023 platform builds on the research produced by Laura Zucker Fellows past and present.
3. Community Strategy Sessions
   This fall, Arts for LA hosted four strategy sessions, each focused on one of our issue areas. Hundreds of community members gathered to discuss our sector’s most urgent challenges and opportunities.
4. Policy Working Groups
   Each Community Strategy Session was followed by an issue-specific Policy Working Group, during which dozens of subject-area experts gathered to analyze the community conversations, identify common themes, and begin to articulate potential policy solutions and advocacy strategies.
5. State of the Arts Summit
   In October of 2022, Arts for LA hosted its annual State of the Arts Summit. This day-long digital conference served as an essential community touchpoint, updating stakeholders on proposed policy and advocacy directions, soliciting community feedback, and engaging cross-sector experts to lend a broader context to the policy development process.
6. 2023 Policy & Advocacy Agenda Release
   Through the end of 2022, the Arts for LA team worked to roll-up the concerns and ideas expressed during the Community Strategy Sessions, the Policy Working Groups, the State of the Arts Summit, and ongoing conversations with community members. The result is our Policy and Advocacy agenda.