Reflecting on 20 years of Arts Advocacy
By: Michael Alexander, founding Board Chair and Vince Vicari, Communications Manager
Arts for LA (AFLA) began in 2006 with a group of arts leaders who had met informally for years to discuss and address the Los Angeles region’s most pressing arts issues. Back then, the advocacy effort was a small but stable volunteer-led group of arts activists from all over the region that organized lunch meetings with elected officials and gathered to discuss public arts policy. Recognizing that gap in support for the LA arts sector, AFLA officially established itself as a voice for the arts in Los Angeles County that informs, engages, and mobilizes individuals and organizations to advocate for access to the arts across all communities.
One of AFLA’s earliest shows of advocacy was successfully protecting $5M in arts education funding for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) from being cut. Since that time, AFLA has expanded its reach and deepened its roots in neighborhoods and school districts across Los Angeles County with influential arts leaders at the forefront.
Danielle Brazelle, current Executive Director of the California Arts Council, was the founding Executive Director of Arts for LA from 2006 to 2014. When things were just getting started, her first office was a small space provided by Grand Performances LA! Danielle effectively built off of the work happening by volunteers at the time, focusing on budget advocacy and protecting resources for schools and arts organizations. She was hired by the Board of Arts for LA and, with their considerable investment in her success, she was able to create an infrastructure that continues to serve AFLA to this day.
Our work has been built on the minds and ideas of many people and organizations whose guidance and insight shaped the work we do for the arts today, including (but not limited to) Jerry Yoshitomi, Jim Rosser, Charles Dillingham, Laura Zucker, Al Nodal, Leni Boorstein, Charmaine Jefferson, Irene Hirano, Jessica Cusick, Terrence McFarland, Deborah Padilla, Joanne Hale, and Michael Alexander.
During its second decade of existence – and then led by the second Executive Director, Sofia Klazker – AFLA began providing opportunities in leadership development. This initiative sparked growing networks of civically-engaged advocates, built deep relationships with elected officials, and worked in partnership across sectors to make Los Angeles a vibrant, prosperous, creative, and healthy society.
All that effort led to ACTIVATE – Arts for LA’s free, premier advocacy training and leadership development program in LA County. Started by Sofia and Cristina Pacheco in 2014, the ACTIVATE program has since trained over 700 individuals with the skills, knowledge, and resources to effect change in their communities as well as the greater Los Angeles arts and culture sector. In 2025 we celebrated 10 years of ACTIVATE with an alumni reunion consisting of past program participants, arts leaders, and visionaries who helped shape ACTIVATE’s successful curriculum.
Sofia then grew the ACTIVATE program with the support of Jennifer Fukutomi-Jones and Abril Iñiguez-Rivas, cultivating a generation of leaders. She was the visionary behind advocating that arts and culture centers serve as voting centers in the LA region, and her team led regionwide Get Out the Vote (GOTV) efforts. She also expanded Arts for LA’s Arts Day into Arts Month, which is now how the State of California, Arts for LA and regions across the state activate our advocacy communities – all month long.
Recognizing the continued need in the LA County arts, culture and entertainment ecosystem to convene artists, culture workers and advocates, Arts for LA launched its State of the Arts Summit (rebranding the Convergence convening) in 2019 as a way to gather LA’s creative community to reflect, connect, and rise to action on a yearly basis. Attendance to the Summit has grown by the hundreds over the years; this October 22, we’re anticipating over 500 attendees.
In 2021, AFLA launched the Creative Jobs Collective (CJC) to address a need for a just economic recovery plan for the arts and cultural sector. Significant pandemic job losses and existing inequities in the sector inspired CJC’s core values and goals. This cross-sectoral initiative works to build 10,000 living wage creative jobs for underrepresented communities in LA County by 2030. It is imperative that we invest in the creative workers who make LA the arts and cultural capital of the world. In 2026 we released our CJC Employer Toolkit which is a first-of-its kind resource in LA County that provides recommendations for living wages, hiring and employment practices in the creative economy.
No matter what the challenge, the arts and culture sector has maintained its footing in the region with creativity, adaptability, and unity. Arts for LA seeks to uphold all of those aspects with its mission of building a thriving and equitable arts, culture, and entertainment ecosystem in Los Angeles County through advocacy, direct services, connecting communities, and building power.
As Arts for LA celebrates its 20th anniversary, we have immense gratitude for the staff, Board Members, funders, members, and partners who continue to uplift our work. With the Olympic and Paralympic games two years away, we remain united in our fight for the arts to be seen as essential to LA’s DNA.
We continue into our next chapter, Building Power Where Creativity Lives.
