WEST HOLLYWOOD—The city announced the recipients for the 2023-2024 Arts Grant Program, totaling $211,000 for 21 new grantees and 16 multi-year grantees who are all Los Angeles County based non-profit arts organizations and artists.
West Hollywood, through its Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission maintained an Arts Grant Program since 1997. According to a press release from the city of West Hollywood, the Program provides funding support, through the Arts Grant Program, to eligible artists and nonprofit arts organizations for the production, performance or presentation of arts projects that take place in the city and that serve the West Hollywood community.
West Hollywood received a total of 49 applications, and $315,604 in funding requests, from artists and non-profit arts organizations proposing art projects to take place in West Hollywood in 2023. These applications represent a variety of arts disciplines and a wide array of excellent project proposals. Following peer panel review, Performing Arts and Cultural Affairs Subcommittee, and Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission funding recommendations, the West Hollywood City Council approved the below recommendations on September 19.
The Arts Project Grant category supports the production, performance or presentation of art projects that take place in the city and that serve the West Hollywood community. It is a two-year grant. The following non-profit arts organizations are grant recipients for 2023-2024: Brockus Project Dance Company, Grand Performances, International Eye Los Angeles, Mashup Contemporary Dance Company, Oasis Players, Pieter, Pride Poets, and Saturday Night Bath Concert Fund.
The Transgender Arts Initiative Grant category supports and enhances the presentation of artworks in West Hollywood by transgender artists, artist collectives or groups, and non-profit organizations with a history of supporting transgender artists. First initiated in 2013, this grant category is the first to support artwork by, for, and about the Transgender community. In 2021, West Hoywood received 4 eligible applications; in 2022, 16 applications were received. The 2023 grant recipients in this category are: Celebration Theatre, Cleveland Wright Lopez, Drian Juarez, Lauren Woods, and Marval A Rechsteiner.
The Community Arts Grant intends to support non-profit arts organizations with a history of supporting BIPOC and/or female artists and audiences. The grant recipients in this category include: Age Inclusion in Media, The Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights, Chicana Directors Initiative, and East West Players, Inc.
The WeHo Artist Grant aims to nurture and support the long-term development of an artist’s ideas by providing funds that increase the capacity for artists to realize work, advance the conditions of creation, and navigate the complexities of both making art and making a career. The West Hollywood resident artist grant recipients for 2023 are: Ignacio Darnaude, Sharmin Rahman, and Steven Reigns.
In addition to these new grant awardees, the city continues to support its multi-year grantees in their second or third year of programming. The multi-year grantees are: Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, Greenway Arts Alliance, Helix Collective, Kontrapunktus Neo-Baroque Chamber Orchestra, LAXART, Look What She Did, MAK Center for Art and Architecture, ONE Archives, Rogue Artists Ensemble, Suarez Dance Theater, The New Arts Foundation, War Toys, Prism Comics, No Easy Props, Arts Bridging the Gap, and Wordsville.
The Arts Grant Program is considered a central component to arts and cultural programs and services provided by West Hollywood. Arts grants offer subsidized funding to artists and organizations so that ticket prices are free or more affordable for the public. Art grants provide opportunities for artistic development, allowing space for stimulating creativity and deepening cross-cultural understanding, while contributing to the quality-of-life residents and visitors can enjoy in West Hollywood. The funding provided through the vehicle of a grant ensures a fair and equitable review process and results in the reflection of the diversity contained among our residents.
The West Hollywood’s Arts Division staff for the WeHo Artists Roundtable will be held on Thursday, September 22 at the West Hollywood Library Community Meeting Room. RSVP at https://bit.ly/WeHoArtistsRoundtable. The WeHo Artists Roundtable is a gathering of arts organizations, individual artists, arts and creative businesses, and community members committed to West Hollywood’s artistic and cultural vitality. This Roundtable will offer a presentation by Greg Victoroff, Esq. centering the topic of copyright issues for art makers.
For more details about West Hollywood’s Arts Grant Program visit www.weho.org/arts or contact Eva Angeloff, Grants Coordinator in the West Hollywood’s Arts Division, at (323) 848-6354 or at eangeloff@weho.org.
