Due to an overwhelming response to the Los Angeles County Creative Recovery LA Initiative, our review and awards timeline has been updated. Applicants can now expect to receive notifications about the status of their application in May 2023, with fund distribution for awarded applications taking place in June 2023. We appreciate the patience and understanding in this effort to support our field, preserve our creative economy, and the vibrant cultural identity and vitality of our regions.
Creative Recovery LA
The application period for Creative Recovery LA is now closed.
Calendar + Timeline
Application Period: January 18, 2023 – February 15, 2023
Application Review: March-May 2023
Notifications: May 2023
Award Disbursement: June 2023
What is Creative Recovery LA?
Creative Recovery LA is a new grant initiative to address pandemic impacts on the arts and the creative economy, one of the most economically significant and hardest-hit sectors, while leveraging the unique capacity of arts and culture to catalyze our region’s economic recovery, civic connectivity, and community wellbeing. Through this initiative the Department of Arts and Culture will award over $26 million in American Rescue Plan funds to deliver financial relief and recovery to the LA County nonprofit arts and culture sector.
- Creative Recovery LA includes five grant opportunities:
- Arts Relief and Recovery Grant
- Creative Works and Jobs for Artists Grant
- Reopening Culture, Tourism, and Marketing Grant
- Creative Career Pathways for Youth Grant
- Arts for Justice-Involved Youth Grant
Who is eligible?
LA County-based 501(c)3 nonprofit and Model A fiscally sponsored organizations that are arts focused, or have a demonstrated history of arts programming, may be eligible to apply for up to five grant opportunities through a single, streamlined application process. You do not need to be a current grantee of the Department of Arts and Culture.
While all eligible organizations may apply and be awarded, Creative Recovery LA will use an equity framework to prioritize applicant organizations based on their geographic location and budget size. More detail will be available in the program guidelines.
What can funding be used for?
Funding can support costs directly associated with:
- Financially sustaining operations (payroll, rent, technical assistance, safe reopening, etc.)
- Providing arts programs and cultural services to communities
- Hiring and retaining staff, artists, and creative workers
- Marketing and promoting arts and culture programs
- Creative career pathways and training programs for underrepresented youth
- Serving justice and systems impacted youth through the arts
Access the Creative Recovery LA Guidelines
Review the Sample Application
Watch the latest Creative Recovery LA Application Workshop
View the Workshop Presentation
Both in-person and online workshops as well as office hours available!
Technical Workshops for Creative Recovery LA will include information about the program, guidelines, eligibility requirements, and tips on submitting strong proposals. This workshop will cover everything nonprofit organizations will need to prepare in order to apply online when the application opens in January 2023.
Register for Technical Workshops and Office Hours Here
Watch the first Creative Recovery LA Overview Workshop
View the Workshop Presentation
Please contact Community Partners for any questions regarding Creative Recovery LA:
Email: creativerecovery@communitypartners.org
Phone: 213-346-3272
Application opens in January 2023.
Sign up to receive information about Creative Recovery LA through the Department of Arts and Culture’s monthly newsletter or email arpagrants@arts.lacounty.gov. Small businesses and other entities that are not 501(c)3 nonprofits with a focus on the arts may find out about other grant opportunities available through Los Angeles County at ceo.lacounty.gov.
The arts play an important role in the health, wellbeing, economy, civic engagement, and positive outcomes of our communities. Organizations providing arts and cultural services in Los Angeles County have been disproportionately negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and continue to face challenges to resume programming and operations. The pandemic also disproportionately negatively impacted communities of color and those who were already facing barriers, historic disinvestment, and systemic inequity.
Supporting the nonprofit arts and creative sector with an equity lens supports the recovery of our County—by preserving and stimulating our region’s creative economy, cultural identity, vitality, and the wellbeing of our residents and communities. In addressing key needs, this initiative seeks to advance cultural equity, strengthen the capacity of the cultural field for the future 2028 Olympics, and ensure a sustainable arts and creative sector for the long term.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the LA County Department of Arts and Culture has supported the relief and recovery of the arts and creative sector of the region. These efforts are in addition to ongoing programs of the Department of Arts and Culture.
Creative Recovery LA is an initiative of the LA County Department of Arts and Culture, administered through Community Partners, and funded by the LA County Board of Supervisors through the American Rescue Plan Act.
For information on all other American Rescue Plan Act programs of LA County, visit https://ceo.lacounty.gov/recovery/arp/