The Los Angeles County Arts Commission and the city of Los Angeles' Department of Cultural Affairs will get a total of $420,084 in grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, it was announced Monday.
The organizations plan to distribute the money to 16 local arts organizations to help pay the salaries of 21 administrative staffers whose jobs face the budgetary axe.
The Arts Commission grants will fund positions in the Angeles Gate Cultural Center, Eagle Rock Community Cultural Association, H.E.Art Project, Hollywood Entertainment Museum, Jazz Bakery Performance Space, Ryman/Carroll Foundation, and the Southwest Chamber Music Society.
The Cultural Affairs Department grants will be handed out to Contra- Tiempo, East Los Angeles Classic Theater, Friends of Chinese American Museum, Greenways Arts Alliance, L.A. Stage Alliance, Latino Theater Company, Pan African Film and Arts Festival, Unusual Suspects Theater Company and We Tell Stories.
The Arts Commission administers about $4.4 million in grants to more than 300 nonprofit arts organizations every year. The Cultural Affairs Department, on the other hand, gives $3.2 million in grants annually to more than 280 artists and nonprofit arts organizations.
The federal stimulus grants were awarded through a competitive process. Applicants had to demonstrate that the positions were critical to an organization's mission and were in jeopardy -- or had already been eliminated -- because of the economic recession.
