City of Los Angeles
DCA Grants Administrative Division
Request for Proposals (RFP)
CREATIVE CATALYST PROGRAM
REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS
The Department of Cultural Affairs Grants Administrative Division invites experienced and innovative artists, curators, architects or persons with a similar skill set in creative production and community organizing to submit proposals to the Creative Catalyst Program. This program is in its second year and is a collaboration between the Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) and the Department of Transportation (DOT) to place innovation-minded citizen in residence at DOT for contractual employment for two years, to develop ideas, spark culture change, and produce creative interventions related to Vision Zero, a city initiative to reduce and eliminate traffic fatalities by 2025.
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
The focus of the 2018-2020 residency will be to develop and produce creative interventions related to Vision Zero, a city initiative to reduce and eliminate traffic fatalities by 2025. The success of this endeavor depends on the city’s ability to shift public perception, attitudes, and behaviors towards our transportation system, which currently considers traffic deaths as acceptable outcomes of urban mobility. Within DOT’s Vision Zero platform, particular attention is concentrated on the most vulnerable members of our mobility context: people walking and biking; older adults; and school-age children.
CRITERIA
To serve in this position, applicants should have a desire to make three kinds of change: ideation (bringing outside-the-box ideas to department discussions), practice (conceive and coordinate creative productions), and incremental reform of the department’s internal culture and external policies (culture change).
The Creative Catalyst will; have a regular part-time schedule with mutually determined days of the week and daytime-hours and report to a DOT supervisor-mentor; attend mandatory DOT meetings as assigned; maintain professionalism while networking with LADOT staff, other City workers, residents/community groups, visitors/tourists, and elected officials; provide bi-weekly reports and updates on project development, concepts and status with the LADOT and DCA team who will oversee the contract; use social media or work with City staff to prepare social media channels to engage the public with Vision Zero and attain research goals; and write and submit a final report as a culminating assessment of how DOT might sustain creativity as an ongoing value.
ELIGIBILITY
Applicants for the position must be able to demonstrate via their professional resume:
- A residential address within Los Angeles County, and a live or work related to the City of Los Angeles; and,
- Five (5) years of experience (not including years as a student) in either community-organizing work, creative work or both.
- Current full-time and part-time employees of any Department of the City of LA, including Commissioners of any City Department are ineligible to apply.
BUDGET
The select applicant will be contracted by DCA and receive a $52,000 stipend over a 12-month period. If all parties are satisfied, the 12-month contract will be extended for another 12-months. The proposed time frame for the proposed job is December 2018 to December 2019.
SUBMISSION PROCESS & REQUIREMENTS
- A professional resume demonstrating no less than five years of professional work as an organizer, curator or driver of innovation.
- In narrative form describe your personal philosophy and how you intend to approach the position criteria.
- Provide two or three creative projects specifying with each the concept, site(s), collaborating agents or agencies and itemization of necessary expenses with a budget total.
- One or two letters of recommendation specifically addressing your strength as a creative motivator or worker.
- A certification form to be included with the mailed copy of the application.
- Recommended but not required; no more than two video clips (totaling no more than six minutes) documenting past projects.
HOW TO APPLY
The application process requires two (2) submissions, an online submission, and a mailed or hand-delivered hard copy.
Completed online submissions must be uploaded to culturela.slideroom.com no later than September 28, 2018, at 5:00 pm. All submissions received after 5:00 pm will be deemed ineligible.
A hard copy of the application if mailed, shall have a postmark of October 3, 2018, or be hand delivered by that same date to:
DCA Grants Administration Division
Attn: City of LA DOT Creative Catalyst 2018
201 North Figueroa Street, Suite 1400
Los Angeles, CA 90012
LINK TO GUIDELINES
2018 Creative Catalyst Guidelines
RIGHTS & RESPONSIBILITIES
DCA reserves the right to decline all submissions and/or cancel this RFP at any time. This RFP is subject to Minority/Women Business Enterprise, Equal Opportunity, Living Wage, Contractor Responsibility and Equal Benefits Ordinances, and other ordinances in effect.
ABOUT DCA
By funding and partnering with LA’s artistic and cultural communities, the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) supports local artists, invests in local creative capital, and increases access to diverse art experiences for our residents and visitors. DCA demonstrates the City’s commitment to LA’s thriving creative sector by providing arts programs in public facilities, awarding cultural grants to local nonprofit organizations and individual artists, marketing free and low-cost cultural experiences in our neighborhoods, and commissioning public art projects to activate Los Angeles with the work of professional artists. For more information about the DCA’s Public Art Division events please visit our Facebook Page at http://www.facebook.com/culturela.
