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Home: Executive
of Office: Arts
Commission 
Arts Commission
This office provides staff support to the Arts
Commission which was founded in 1947 to provide excellence,
diversity, vitality and accessibility to the arts in the County
of Los Angeles. The Commission serves as a resource for public
information about cultural activities in the County, providing
information and resources to the community, artists, art organizations
and municipalities.
1997 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the Commission, the
second oldest local arts agency in the State. In order to reflect
service to the entire arts community, the Commission's name was
changed from "Music and Performing Arts" to simply "Arts Commission."
The Commission administers grant programs for small (budgets
under $100,000), mid-size (budgets $100,000-$800,000), and large
budget organizations (budgets over $800,000). More than 100 organizations
are funded and tracked annually. The Commission has been selected
to participate in an international project to evaluate grant programs
by the National Arts Stabilization project.
Since 1960, the Commission and staff have produced the annual
free Holiday Celebration at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion which
is broadcast live on KCET.
Community and professional choirs, orchestras, and dance companies
perform for more than 8,000 patrons in addition to a television
audience of several hundred thousand.
Since 1993 the Commission has produced a full season of multi-disciplinary
events, "Summer Nights at the Ford," at the John
Anson Ford Amphitheater. The Commission provides essential
production support, including technical and marketing assistance
to enable County-based arts organizations to have access to this
facility, a County Regional Park. Commission staff also oversees
capital projects at the facility.
Under the Commission's direction, the staff administers the Musician's
Trust Fund, a program that pays musicians to present free concerts
each year in County parks, libraries, probation camps, senior
centers and other community sites. More than 100 performances
are staged annually, including a spring lunchtime concert series
for County employees on the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration
mall.
Beginning in 1995, the Commission has coordinated an annual Los
Angeles Countywide Open House featuring more than 120 free arts
events held on the first Saturday in October.
The Commission helmed the California Cultural Tourism Initiative,
a cooperative program with San Francisco and San Diego to market
the arts of Los Angeles County domestically and internationally.
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