The City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs Artist Residencies

Address:		201 N. Figueroa Street #1400
Zipcode:		90012
City:		Los Angeles, California
Country:		United States
Telephone:		213.202.5548
Fax:		213.202.5515
Homepage:		http://culturela.org
Email:		joe.smoke(at)lacity.org
Name:		Joe Smoke

The City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) provides financial support for creative professionals through its Cultural Exchange International (CEI) fellowship program. Grants of between $5000 and $20,000 are available for residency projects between 2 weeks and 3 months in duration. LA based institutions can apply to host international artists (1-3 persons); or LA-based artists (or groups of 2-3 persons) can travel abroad to perform a residency project and return to Los Angeles and provide a public presentation about their accomplishments.

Short description of program

CEI will provide fellowship support to creative professionals (artists, arts administrators, arts/cultural educators and scholars,curators, presenters, creative entrepreneurs, cultural innovators, and cultural experts) traveling abroad for intensive residencies (two weeks to three months), or creative professionals coming to Los Angeles for intensive residencies (two weeks to three months), who have planned collaborative relationships with Los Angeles organizations to host their residencies. The program has been designed to support individual professionals or small groups (limit three to four people). While CEI is not intended to support large touring groups or stand alone exhibitions, a proposal for a CEI residency may supplement a larger project, an extended tour, or a stand alone exhibition. If so, it is imperative that you clearly articulate the CEI residency based portion of the larger project with a smaller group of creative professionals both in the narrative and in the budget, as well as provide information about the larger project that you are undertaking.

CEI grants are intended to support residency-based projects between two weeks and three months that focus on:

• structured time for Los Angeles-based creative professional(s), paired with a host organization(s) abroad, to conduct
process or product oriented residencies and that may include cultural research
• structured time for international creative professional(s), paired with an LA-based host organization, to conduct process
or product oriented residencies and that may include cultural research
For brief descriptions of prior CEI Fellows, use the following link: http://www.culturela.org/grants/CEI_Winners.pdf The grants listed in this document provide a basic idea of the types of projects that have received funding support to date.

CEI is not a source of support for:
• touring only or exhibition only projects that are not substantively linked to residency activities in the host community,
• sabbaticals or study trips,
• travel for youth or youth projects,
• student projects being done for any degree program,
• residencies that focus on benefiting closed groups (e.g. tuitioned-students at one or more specific schools)

CEI projects must have a public component and/or involve artists from the host community. Public components may be lectures, exhibitions, performances, or workshops that are open to the general public. As such, application narratives must describe how a proposed project will accomplish this goal. Additionally, CEI can support internet-based projects that are created and launched as part of person-to-person exchanges.

LA-based creative professionals who plan to conduct residencies abroad are eligible to apply, and if chosen to receive a grant, will be representing the City of Los Angeles as a recipient of CEI funds. To benefit the City and its residents, creative professionals chosen to perform residencies abroad must return from their exchange and provide at least one public educational or creative presentation about their experience and project. These culmination activities should be free or low cost to the public and, whenever feasible, be provided at a City venue or project-appropriate, publicly-accessible site within the City of Los Angeles. Proposals should describe what public activity(ies) applicants are planning to conduct upon return from abroad.

CEI will also support international creative professionals wishing to undertake similar activities in LA by supporting their residency projects. In these cases the LA host organization must be the applicant to CEI. International artists are asked to do independent research and use professional networks to meet and develop project ideas with LA host institutions. The staff of the City of LA Department of Cultural Affairs cannot recommend or match artists/groups with host institutions.

Discipline(s) and media

• Visual arts
• Sculpture
• Ceramics
• Performing arts
• Architecture
• Textile art
• Music
• Literature
• Educational programmes
• New Media
• Glass
• Curators
• Critics

Duration of residencies

2 weeks to 3 months

Grants

generally from $5000 to $20,000 (US$)

Allowance granted to artists

Varies. The grant applicant (either LA host institution or LA artist) develops the proposed project budget, including fees.

Expenses paid by artists

Varies. The grant applicant (either LA host institution or LA artist) develops the proposed project budget, including expenses for materials and supplies.

Applications: who/how

Please use the following link to Cultural Exchange International (CEI) information: letter of introduction, application instructions and forms, press release, and list of past fellowship winners.

http://culturela.org/grants/initiatives.html

Selection procedure

5-25 fellowships are awarded per application period, judged by a peer panel of experts.

Presentation of artists' work

Samples of past, relevant work should be submitted with the grant application. See application instructions for details.