For 2017, Arts for LA has decided to expand our advocacy efforts focusing on arts and culture advocacy to cover the entire month of April.
Introducing the inaugural ArtsMonth 2017. Each week will have a different focus, and ArtsMonth 2017 will launch April 3 with a focus on the regional impact of arts and culture, starting with a Town Hall meeting. The Town Hall will be moderated by Bill Davis, President & CEO of KPCC, with distinguished panelists from the ACLU, the Actors Fund, The LGBT Center of Los Angeles, the National Immigration Law Center, and the California Women's Law Center.
The first week will continue with the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors declaring April to be ArtsMonth and honoring the leadership of the Cultural Equity and Inclusion Initiative. The first week will also include our TWEET OUT (April 6), a day of direct, digital communication with elected officials.
In the second week, Arts for LA will convene arts leaders to focus on the policy priorities for the region, revisiting and updating our policy framework to guide our advocacy in the coming years.
Week 3 will focus on the role of data for arts advocacy, and includes the rescheduled ArtsDay LA on April 19, with the LA City Council Chamber presentation and delegate visits with council members. The week will culminate with the Arts Access Datathon on April 22, a one-day event exploring how data can be used to improve access to the arts for everyone. The Arts Access Datathon is presented by the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs and the Los Angeles County Arts Commission. Register for ArtsDay here, and RSVP for the Datathon here.
Week 4 of ArtsMonth concludes with a focus on Arts Education culminating with the annual Student Voices Summit and Screening on April 29, in collaboration with the California Alliance for Arts Education, Arts for All, Cal Arts Community Arts Partnership, and Plaza de la Raza. This free event is open to all California public school students in grades 7-12 and their teachers and families. Register for the Student Voices Summit here.
Especially in the midst of the national movement to save the NEA, we are grateful to be able to take the time to focus on our region's cultural infrastructure and assets, our local policy framework, the best way to use data to advocate for the arts, the power of youth leadership and arts education, and how the arts are part of and impact other social justice movements and all parts of our civic life.
April is our moment to show up, be counted, and be heard. We look forward to standing with you for the Arts in LA.
Become a Friend of ArtsMonth & promote these events to your network!
April 3: Town Hall Meeting
Join Arts for LA for a Town Hall Meeting on Monday, April 3, at the Aratani Theatre at the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center in Little Tokyo.
The focus of the Arts Town Hall is the political moment we’re facing and what’s happening at the local level. Featuring a range of speakers representing different sectors (immigration, health care, LGBTQ rights), the goal is to engage artists and arts professionals in local opportunities and coalitions in which to demonstrate their civic engagement and cross-sector collaboration on the issues and challenges we face.
Moderated by Bill Davis, President & CEO of KPCC.
Featured panelists include:
Ahilan Arulanantham, Director of Advocacy/Legal Director at the ACLU of Southern California
Betsy Butler, Executive Director, California Women's Law Center
Mayra Joachin, National Immigration Law Center
Daniel Kitowski, Director of Health Services, the Actors Fund
Terra Slavin, Deputy Director of Policy & Community Building, the Los Angeles LGBT Center
ArtsWeek: Town Hall Meeting is sponsored in part by the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA), the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, and the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center.
Attendance is FREE but RSVP Today!
April 4: County Supervisors Declare ArtsMonth
On April 4, the LA County Board of Supervisors made history and voted unanimously to approve all 13 recommendations to address Cultural Equity and Inclusion in the Arts. See the full report with recommendations here.
During the week leading up to the vote, we were able to send 55 letters to all five supervisors to encourage their support of the recommendations, and it was truly a historic moment, with 45 advocates offering public testimony in favor of passage of the recommendations. In addition, Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas stepped up to make sure all 13 of the CEII recommendations were included in the motion, not just the preliminary four.
At the same meeting, the Board declared April to be ArtsMonth in the county of Los Angeles and presented Arts for LA with a beautiful scroll to launch the month.
April 5: Regional Mayors Summit
The second annual Regional Mayor’s Summit is back. Organized by the City of Walnut and Councilman Pacheco, the Regional Mayor’s Summit brings together city, school and water agency staff and elected officials to consider innovations that may shape the futures of our public agencies and service delivery models. Arts for LA executive director will lead the panel on the arts, featuring:
- Danielle Brazell, General Manager, Department of Cultural Affairs, Los Angeles
- Craig Watson, Executive Director, California Arts Council
- Laura Zucker, Executive Director, Los Angeles County Arts Commission
Location: Pacific Palms Resort, 1 Industry Hills Pkwy, City of Industry, CA 91744
April 6: TWEET OUT
Join an all-day social media campaign to reach out to your located elected officials through social media to thank them for their continued public investment in arts and culture, to urge them to increase the resources to neighborhood arts centers, to remind them of the value of arts education in workforce development and of the need for a robust cultural infrastructure for the continued health and prosperity of Greater Los Angeles. The goal is to have every elected official - whether city council member or school board member - to hear from #ArtsVote advocates in all 81 school districts and 88 cities in Los Angeles County.
April 19: ArtsDay LA
Schedule
8:30 am to 9:45 am Coffee & Networking, Public Works Session Room, 3rd floor
9:15 am Performance Viver Brasil
9:45 am Line up to enter the John Ferraro City Council Chambers, 3rd floor, Room 340
10:00 am Enter the City Council Chambers
10:15 am Councilmember Mitch O'Farrell begins the ArtsDay proclamation & presentation.
Featured speakers:
- Rory Pullens, Executive Director of Arts Education, LAUSD
- Yosi Sergant, Activitst | Founder of Manifest Events
- Mason Williams, Director of Digital Product Development, Mattel Inc.
11:00 am Join other arts advocates for a group photograph on the Spring Street Steps of City Hall.
1:00 pm - 3:00 pm Delegate visits in City Councilmember offices.
Attendance is FREE but RSVP today!
Arts for LA has identified the following Arts & Culture Priorities for the City of Los Angeles for its Policy Agenda:
- To fully resource the Department of Cultural Affairs
- To support the mural ordinance, and
- To create and fund a racial equity policy, using the arts to build safer communities.
Read the complete Policy Agenda here.
NOTE: Wear RED to visually amplify how the arts community is politically engaged and remind elected officials that we are a powerful voting bloc. The first 300 attendees will receive a free, red Arts Advocate T-shirt.
April 22: Arts Access Datathon
The Arts Access Datathon is a one-day event exploring how data can be used to improve access to the arts for everyone. It will take place on Saturday, April 22, 2017, at the downtown LA campus of CGU, located at The Reef. The Arts Access Datathon will bring together local arts agencies with artists, arts administrators, educators, students, community advocates and researchers as well as other professionals in culture, museums and urban planning to
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Explore the data that already exist on arts and culture - Engage a wide range of people in thinking deeply about how to improve access to the arts
- Inspire new projects, proposals and policies that would utilize data to improve access to the arts
- Identify ways to improve arts data collection, organization and coordination
- Spark community curiosity and conversations about arts access and equity
Tickets range from $10 - $80. Complete details available at Arts Access Datathon.
April 24: LA Theatre Town Hall
Join Los Angeles area theatre professionals, presenters, art directors, and funders to get engaged about the LA Theater scene and its future. Greg Reiner, NEA Director of Theater and Musical Theater, will be in Los Angeles to discuss the current state of affairs at the National Endowment for the Arts and take questions. A town hall discussion will follow about theater-making in Los Angeles, asking the questions: What do we need? What are our opportunities? What is our vision for the future? More details and RSVP here.
Featuring:
- Elizabeth Cline, Executive Director, The Industry
- Leslie Ishii, Stage Director, Arts Educator, and Founder/Co-Director of the National Cultural Navigation Theater Project
- Nancy Keystone, Artistic Director of Critical Mass Performance Group
- Cole Rosner, Artistic Director of Play Collaborative Arts and UglyRhino Productions
- Michael Shepperd, Artistic Director, Celebration Theater
- Marikke Splint, Theater Director; UCLA Theater, Film and Television
- Jose Luis Valenzuela, Artistic Director, Latino Theater Company
- Hattie Winston-Wheeler, VP of Artistic Development, Bonnie Franklin Classic & Contemporary American Plays
Moderated by Ben Johnson, Performing Arts Division Director, Department of Cultural Affairs. Welcome by Danielle Brazell, General Manager, Department of Cultural Affairs. Opening Remarks by Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell, Chairman – Arts, Parks, and River Committee.
Presented by Dept of Cultural Affairs City of Los Angeles, LA Stage Alliance, and Arts for LA.
April 28: Deadline to Submit Arts Education Profile
On March 1, Arts for All launched the Arts Education Profile, a Countywide survey that will tell us more than we've ever known about the quality, quantity and equity of arts education in LA County's public schools. All LA County school districts are encouraged to participate to help capture an accurate snapshot of K-12 arts instruction, including arts integration and contributions by teaching artists and community arts partners. The Arts Ed Profile will:
- Reveal the distribution of dance, music, theatre, visual and media arts instruction across all grades, schools and districts
- Enable districts to make data-based decisions for arts education when updating school site plans and LCAPs
- Supplement data reported in the California Arts Education Data Project
By completing the Arts Ed Profile school districts will have a fresh roadmap for making strategic, data-driven decisions and have a tool to help advocate for arts education with local community members, decision makers and funders. More information including sample surveys and handouts are available on Arts for All's website.
April 29: Student Voices Summit & Screening
Students from all over California are invited to the Student Voices Summit & Screening, the culmination of the 2017 Student Voices Campaign, in Los Angeles on Saturday, April 29th.
Presented in collaboration with the California Alliance for Arts Education, Arts for All, Cal Arts Community Arts Partnership, and Plaza de la Raza, the Summit will feature student-led advocacy workshops, opportunities to learn about careers in the state’s creative industries, and the chance to see student videos on the big screen.
This free event is open to all California public school students in grades 7-12 and their teachers and families. There will be separate learning opportunities for adults who accompany students to the event. Further details including workshop and panel descriptions to be announced.
Space is limited and registration is required. Register at Student Voices Summit here.
