The City of Los Angeles Individual Master Artist Project (COLA-IMAP) Grant Program

AMOUNT

$10,000

GRANTING ORGANIZATION

Department of Cultural Affairs

DEADLINE

Nov 5, 2021 - 11:59 pm

STATUS

Open

CONTACT

Email Grants Division
213-202-5566

AMOUNT
$10,000

GRANTING ORGANIZATION
Department of Cultural Affairs

DEADLINE
November 5, 2021

STATUS
Open

CONTACT
dca.grants@lacity.org
213-202-5566

OVERVIEW

The City of Los Angeles Individual Master Artist Project (COLA-IMAP) Grant Program allows accomplished artists to create a new “mid-career” solo work with freedom to re-focus on themselves and their core impulses. The COLA-IMAP grant category honors a spectrum of the City’s avant-garde artists who:

Are dedicated to an ongoing body of excellent work.
Represent a relevant progression through their pieces or series over the past 15 years (or 8 years for a dancer-choreographer).
Exemplify a generation of core ideas in their field.
Are respected by their peers and are role models for other artists because of their distinguished record.

Approximately 6-12 COLA-IMAP grant-contracts will be offered for designers/visual artists (including architects, graphic designers, and product designers including fashion designers), literary artists (poets or fiction writers) and performing artists (including choreographers who wish to make and perform individual dance works, musicians who wish to compose and perform individual music works, and multi-disciplinary theater artists who wish to invent and perform solo works).

The Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) will organize an online and/or printed catalog to promote the entire set of COLA-IMAP grantees as “creative treasures” and document/market the group as one cross-section of the exciting Los Angeles art scene. DCA and community partners will also attempt to showcase a curated selection of each master-artist’s new work in either a gallery exhibition or performing arts showcase.

ELIGIBILITY

Competitive applicants are:

Individual artists or an independent duos, who are professional masters of self-evolved ideas (not curators, presenters, or interpreters of other artists’ works, and not artists who have primarily built their credentials within collaborative groups or within social practices – “group-process” artists are only eligible to apply in DCA’s NEAR category since COLA is not a category for group-projects)
Current residents of Los Angeles County, who also demonstrate on their resumes that they either live in the City of Los Angeles or have a 3 or more year history of presenting work in the City of Los Angeles.
Professionals who illustrate on their resume at least 15 years (8 years for choreographer-dancers) of a progressive, ongoing exhibition, publication, or performance record. This may include post-secondary student presentations and does not need to be 15 (or 8) consecutive years.

COLA-IMAP GRANT PROGRAM WORKSHOPS

A series of online webinar workshops will be available in October. Webinar space is limited to 30 participants per webinar, and RSVPs are required at least two business days in advance.
Workshops/webinars link: https://dcaredesign.org/cola/workshop-schedule

APPLICATION TIMELINE

Opens Monday, September 27, 2021
Deadline to apply is Friday, November 5, 2021
Grant activity/projects will place between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023
June/July 2022: Applicants will receive notification of results

APPLICATION LINK:

For full program information, please review the program guidelines available at: https://dcaredesign.org/cola/. After you have reviewed the guidelines, please proceed to prepare and submit an application at https://dca-la.smapply.org/.

Neel Agrawal
Still from performance of Interscapes
performed for video-broadcast on site at the
Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, CA.
Photo:
Josh Caffrey.
2021
Sarah Elgart
Still images from the new work titled A Near Distance
performed for video-broadcast on site at the Skirball Cultural Center,
Los Angeles, CA.
Photo: Josh Caffrey
2021
Ruben Ochoa
Las Tortillas, 2021 featuring Arturo
“The Van Guard” cutout and CLASS: C
mobile gallery. Courtesy of the Artist and
CLASS: C. Photo: Pete Galindo
2021

Frequently Asked Questions

What grant opportunities are available for organizations through the DCA Grants Program?

A non-profit arts organization may apply for one artistic project or one operating project grant, and may also apply for an outdoor festival/parade grant.

What is the timeline for the organizational grant program? When can proposals be submitted and what is the submission deadline?

The guidelines and forms for the organizational grants and outdoor festival/parade grants program are posted onto the DCA website in the first week of July each year. The deadline for submitting a proposal for either grants program is the third Friday in August of each year.

What is the typical grant award amount?

Historically, the average grant amount has been approximately $7,000.

What organizations are eligible to apply for a DCA grant?

Eligible organizations must:

be a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization, or a charitable organization [such as a 501(c)6] that will partner with one or more arts partners to present an outdoor festival or parade
have an emphasis on arts/culture in its mission statement (unless it is a 501(c)6 that partners with arts organizations for an outdoor festival or parade)
be headquartered in Los Angeles County
have a minimum of one year of prior arts programming within the City of L.A.
have a prior annual revenue of at least $10,000

What if my organization's annual budget is currently less than $20,000 per year?

Newly formed or very small nonprofit arts organizations with annual operating budgets of less than $20,000 per year are eligible for the Emerging Arts Organization (EMG) grant program. EMG grants generally range from $500 to $3,000 each. Interested applicants should submit a letter of intent to DCA’s Grant Director, who will in turn call for additional information. Eligible organizations will be scheduled for appointment so that DCA staff can guide the applicant toward making the most competitive written proposal. EMG is not open to organizations that have applied unsuccessfully in other DCA grant categories.

Can my organization apply for a grant if it does not have 501(c)3 status but has a fiscal receiver that does?

Generally speaking, DCA is unable to provide grant contracts with an organization that uses another organization as a 501(c)3 fiscal receiver. There is one exception to this rule, and that is if the fiscal receiver organization is Community Partners. Information about Community Partners can be found at www.communitypartners.org.

What grant opportunities are available for individual artists through the DCA Grants Program?

Individual artists can apply to either the Artist-in-Residence (AIR) grant program or the City of LA master artist fellowship program (COLA). AIR provides grants of up to $8,000 for an artist to provide a series of arts workshops to an underserved population within the City of LA, along with a culminating event open for the public to attend. The COLA program provides grants of $10,000 to individual artists (or duos) to create new work at an exhibition or performance that will be curated by DCA.

What is the timeline for the individual artist grant programs? When can proposals be submitted and what is the submission deadline?

The guidelines and forms for the AIR and COLA grants programs are posted on the DCA website in the first week of September each year. The deadline for submitting a proposal for either grants program is the fourth Friday in October of each year.

Are there any limitations for an individual to apply for an Artist-in-Residence (AIR) grant if that person runs or works with a non-profit arts organization?

An individual artist who applies for an Artist-in-Residence (AIR) grant should be unaffiliated with non-profit organizations that provide the same or similar services; as the mission of this grant program is to support independent artists and ensembles whose community-based practices have been largely self-developed and remain primarily self-directed.

Are the submission deadlines for all DCA grants programs postmark deadlines?

Yes.

Why are surveys part of the applications for both organizations and individuals? Isn't a proposal judged on the quality of work, not on the demographics of the applicant?

The estimated metrics survey form and the DCA grant process evaluation form are used by DCA as tools in evaluating the efficacy of its grants programs. These survey forms are not given to the Peer Panelists who review and score the proposals.

Who reviews the grant proposals? That is, who decides which proposals get funded?

DCA convenes discipline-specific Peer Panels of artists, arts administrators, educators, art enthusiasts and other experts. Consideration is given to creating teams with demographics appropriate for each category and reflective of the City including such factors as: artistic expertise, gender, geographic knowledge and cultural understanding. Peer panels are charged with reviewing all eligible proposals, discussing project worthiness, making comments and assigning numerical scores. Individually, each panelist considers the applications in relation to Cultural Affairs’ goals and criteria and in comparison to other proposals. Panelists use DCA’s score-sheets for consistency and score each application up to 100 points. After individual review and consideration, the panelists gather for collegial discussion at one or more group meetings, wherein average scores are computed and final rankings determined.

How can someone become a Peer Panelist?

Peer Panelists are selected from a pool of submitted questionnaires and resumes. If you would like be considered as a potential peer panelist, send an email with your resume to dca.grants@lacity.org requesting the Potential Peer Panelist Form.

Can I get feedback on my grant proposal after it has been reviewed by a Peer Panel?

Yes. DCA staff sets aside time each year to provide Peer Panel feedback to grant applicants. Panel feedback is provided through phone meetings, which are generally scheduled to take place in July of each year for organizations and in September for individuals. DCA staff will notify all applicants by email when it is ready to schedule such phone meetings.

Do I need to attend a workshop?

Yes, we strongly recommend you attend a workshop, even if you have received a Cultural Grant in the prior year. Guidelines change each year.

Is the number of awards in each DCA grant category the same each year?