Cultural Grants Program

Amount

Up to $80,000, depending on organization's eligibility, project type, and panel score

Granting Organization

City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs

Deadline

Aug 28, 2026 - 11:59 pm

Overview

DCA’s Cultural Grants Program invests in free and low-cost, public cultural activities and presentations taking place in the City of Los Angeles. Projects may be proposed by the following types of vendors/applicants:

• A nonprofit arts organization may propose an Artistic Project in one primary art form or discipline. For 2027-28, DCA invites new Artistic Project proposals within the disciplines of Dance, Music, Theatre, and Transdisciplinary Arts. Note for the current cycle, DCA will not be convening discipline-specific review panels in Culture/History, Design-Visual Arts, Literary Arts, Media Arts, and Traditional-Folk Arts. However, there will be very limited funding set aside (no more than five awards ranging between $3,000 to $5,000) for applicants who choose to apply within these disciplines with an “off-cycle” artistic project. Such applicants might also consider waiting until next year’s application cycle to apply if the proposed artistic project requires a larger grant for production.
  
  In the special case of multi-week youth-education projects utilizing in-school lesson plans within the eligible artistic disciplines listed above, an applicant may propose a SAIL-CAPE project -- Sequential Arts in-school learning Culminating in Afterschool Public Events. This category specifically supports youth-learning projects that begin within enrollment-only classrooms yet culminate in one or more presentations which are after-school and marketed to the general public. 
   
• A partnership between a non-profit community-service organization (an organization whose mission and programs are not arts-exclusive but include cultural offerings) may ONLY propose to plan and present an outdoor festival or parade in partnership with a tribal elder, arts curator, or arts agency. For DCA’s Outdoor Cultural Presentations -- Festivals/Parades category, nonprofit organizations may request up to $40,000 for large outdoor festivals/parades (more than 2,000 attendees in the prior year), while producers of a small outdoor festival/parade (500 to 2,000 attendees from the prior year) may request $15,000. Outdoor festivals/parades that gather fewer than 500 in-person attendees may request up to $6,000. Outdoor festival/parade proposals are accepted each year, but it is best that outdoor performing-arts festivals be submitted in even-numbered calendar years, while outdoor craft fairs be submitted in odd-numbered calendar years.

DCA’s Grants Program Office provides panel scores that can be held for two consecutive years (two one-year contracts), so applicants are encouraged to propose a project which can be repeated (in general or with a related theme) for a second year/term.