Arts Emergency Relief Fund

• California
• Los Angeles
• Miscellaneous

The Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) has launched the Arts Emergency Relief Fund, which provides emergency relief grants to dance, music, and theatre artists and small ensembles who reside in the City of Los Angeles and have had their public performances, shows, or concerts cancelled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Solo artists are eligible for up to $400 and ensembles up to $1,200 to cover losses in time and materials that were committed to events which were scheduled to take place between March 16, 2020 and August 2, 2020 at a venue within the City of Los Angeles or County of Los Angeles and were to be open to the general public.

DCA is currently accepting applications for Round Three of the program until approximately 450 eligible applications are received or until 11:59 PM, Friday, July 31, 2020, whichever comes first. (Rounds One and Two of the program are closed.) Applicants who are found to fulfill all program eligibility requirements (described below) will be placed in an eligible pool from which proposed grantees will be selected by lottery until all Round Three funding is exhausted. Any eligible applicants not selected for funding in Rounds One or Two will automatically be rolled-over for consideration in additional rounds of this relief program as the Relief Fund is replenished. All applications received after the first 450 eligible proposals will also be rolled-over into any future rounds.

A list of the names and allocated amount will be presented to the City of LA’s Cultural Affairs Commission for review and final approval. All applicants will be notified of their funding status before the end of August 2020. These processes of consideration and approval will continue monthly based upon the ability to replenish the Relief Fund.

Applicants selected for funding will be connected with DCA’s collaborating agency, Community Partners, which will collect W-9 forms and process payments in approximately 30 days.

Government or Lead Agency

City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs

Dates Available

Applications for Round Three funding are currently open. Rounds One and Two have closed.

Eligibility Requirements/Restrictions

The program is available to anyone falling within one of the below six categories:

• Category 1: Solo artists or 2 to 4-member ensemble groups in dance, music, or theater with canceled public presentations.

• Category 2: Independent small-budget (under $300,000) filmmakers and videographers with canceled public screenings.

• Category 3: Creative writers or spoken-word artists with canceled public readings or book-signings.

• Category 4: Solo craft artists or 2 to 4-member ensemble folk groups with canceled public presentations.

• Category 5: Teaching artists in any art form with canceled group classes or workshop series. In this category, workshops must have been open to the general public (and workshops inside a school setting for tuition-paying-students are not eligible). Applications in this category may be ranked according to the price and capacity of the canceled enrollment.

• Category 6: Design or visual artists with a canceled public exhibition in any type of museum, gallery, showroom, coffee house, or public business location.

• All applicants must:

• • Reside within the City of Los Angeles (you may visit http://neighborhoodinfo.lacity.org/ to verify your home address is within the boundaries of the City of Los Angeles. Addresses falling outside of the City of Los Angeles will yield a ‘Nothing Found’ result via this online tool);

• • Demonstrate professional presenting experience over at least the past 3 years on an attached resume for the applying performing artist or group; and

• Demonstrate that their event was publicly advertised and scheduled to take place between March 16, 2020 and August 2, 2020 at an address within the City or County of Los Angeles, and the event was canceled or postponed until after September 7, 2020.

Applicants cannot be high school or college students performing projects for school accreditation. Additionally, applicants must have suffered a loss in time or materials of approximately $400 (solo artists) or $1,200 (ensembles) as a result of the cancelled event, and applicants must not be receiving assistance from the Actors Fund, Behind the Scenes, Dance Resource Center, Los Angeles County Federation of Labor Community Services AFL-CIO, Motion Picture & Television Fund, the Relief Fund for LA County Visual Artists (California Community Foundation, Center for Cultural Innovation, J. Paul Getty Trust, the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, the Sam Francis Foundation, and the Shepard and Amanda Fairey Foundation); SAG/AFTRA; or the Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation

To verify that each applicant had a public presentation that has been cancelled due to COVID-19, two additional attachments are required:

• A signed letter (or verifiable email) from the original scheduled venue that confirms date, time, and location of the event. This attachment should provide the same address, date and time as written in the application, as well as contact information for the venue owner or manager. The body of the letter should indicate two brief facts: (A) Event was scheduled to take place between March 16, 2020 and August 2, 2020; and (B) event was cancelled or postponed to take place after September 7, 2020.

• Sample of published marketing materials that demonstrate that: (1) the event was advertised and open to the general public; (2) the name of the advertised artist or ensemble matches the legal or professional name of the applicant; (3) the applicant was to headline the canceled event (or lead/facilitate cancelled workshops); and (4) the event was scheduled on an eligible date and at a venue within the City of Los Angeles. The submitted marketing materials must clearly indicate the exact date, time, and location that the applicant was due on stage. Acceptable examples include press releases, social media posts, website screenshots, and flyers.

Application Deadlines (If Applicable)

July 31, 2020 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific time.

Contact for More Information

Please contact the DCA Grants Staff via email at dca.grants@lacity.org with questions.

List of Additional Information

Link to Application

Arts Emergency Relief Fund Guidelines

City of Los Angeles COVID-19 Updates