Funders Unite to Support Los Angeles Arts Nonprofits
February 17, 2021
A group of funders led by the J. Paul Getty Trust have banded together to support small- and medium-sized arts organizations. Under the heading The LA Arts Recover Fund, a dozen initial funders have raised $38.5 million. The fund’s grants will provide a minimum of two years’ operating support to Los Angeles County arts organizations that had annual operating budgets of less than $10 million prior to March 2020.
The fund is administered by the California Community Foundation. In addition to financial resources, the fund will aid organizations’ efforts in gaining capacity-building support and technical assistance. The fund is open and the administrators hope to increase it to $50 million. As part of the fund, the Ford Foundation issued a challenge grant aimed at supporting Asian, Black, Indigenous and Latinx arts organizations.
Indigenous futurism. Narrative medicine. Cyberpunk and digital dystopias. Soil contamination. Environmentally sustainable mega-cities.
These and other topics will be explored in “Pacific Standard Time: Art x Science x L.A.” in 2024. The Getty Foundation announced Wednesday the 45 Southern California cultural and educational institutions that will collectively receive more than $5 million in exhibition research grants. “Pacific Standard Time: Art x Science x L.A.” will include dozens of concurrent exhibitions as well as performances, publications and other programming, all exploring the intersection of art and science.
The funding comes at a critical time when most of these cultural institutions have been closed for 10 months, resulting in unprecedented financial challenges. In November, the American Alliance of Museums released a survey reporting that nearly a third of museums in the U.S. were concerned about permanent closure within 12 months should they not receive addit