Culver City, CA. Each year, on the third Saturday of September, the Ballona Creek Renaissance contributes to Coastal Cleanup Day. The Culver City community, along with thousands of other communities around the world, do their part to reduce pollution in their neighborhoods. Volunteers for the Ballona Creek Renaissance focus on designated areas of the creek, removing trash on the banks, from the water, and the bike path or fencing.
Organizers say, “We discover lots of other items which somehow make their way into the creek. Previous cleanups have yielded toys, balls, shopping carts, carpeting, signs, mattresses, dead animals, and drugs and medical equipment. We ask the City to remove dangerous items. After the cleanup is complete, the City or County will dispose of all the trash collected. In truth, the cleanup is symbolic, representing just a tiny fraction of the trash in the creek, but it raises awareness.”
Below is a video about the program:
Ballona Creek is a flood-controlled channel that is approximately nine miles long. During the dry heat, the creek flows with urban runoff, which contains pollutants from the city. Coastal Cleanup Day is hosted just before Southern California’s rainy season. The volunteers, made up of adults, students, and young children alike, typically spend two to three hours at the creek during the Ballona Creek Renaissance’s advertised cleanups.
For more information on Coastal Cleanup Day, and Coastal Cleanup Month, visit its founding organization Heal The Bay. To learn more about the Ballona Creek Renaissance and its upcoming projects, click here.
Los Angeles, CA. The City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) recently announced its Cultural Grants Program for non-profit organizations in Los Angeles. The grant aims to benefit those organizations planning to hold arts events, activities, and/or projects for the public between July 1, 2022 and June 20, 2023. These events are selected based on whether they uphold the DCA’s community values as they provide to or perform for the LA public.
The application process is rigorous. The DCA has four eligibility criteria for the non-profits, along with the criteria of specific categories. This year, the DCA encourages applicants to enter events for these particular categories: culture/history presentations, literature or publishing projects, media activities or presentations, design/visual art exhibitions or museum projects, or traditional/folk arts activities/presentations. The DCA has provided an educational introduction and online instructions for applicants, and actively encourage them to attend webinars or workshops that will allow to them to better prepare for the application.
DCA Cultural Grants Program guideline poster.
The announced deadline for applications for this up to $80,000 grant is August 27th, 2021 at 11:59pm.
“DCA advances the social and economic impact of arts and culture through grantmaking, public art, community arts, performing arts, and strategic marketing, development, design, and digital research. DCA creates and supports arts programming, maximizing relationships with other city agencies, artists, and arts and cultural nonprofit organizations to provide excellent service in neighborhoods throughout Los Angeles.”
Los Angeles, CA. The Los Angeles LGBT Center is one of the primary support systems for LGBT individuals and families; it offers programs, services, and advocacy for the LGBTQ+ community within Los Angeles and beyond. Last Saturday, the Center partnered with KTLA to host a virtual telethon called Love in Action. The show collected donations for the nonprofit’s most vital programs and services.
The two-hour event, presented by The Ariadne Getty Foundation and Glamazon L.A., featured appearances from many household names, including Jane Lynch, Adam Lambert, Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, RuPaul, among others. For those of you who were not able to attend the event live, KTLA uploaded it to YouTube.
From the Los Angeles LGBT Center:
Since 1969 the Los Angeles LGBT Center has cared for, championed, and celebrated LGBT individuals and families in Los Angeles and beyond. Today the Center’s nearly 800 employees provide services for more LGBT people than any other organization in the world, offering programs, services, and global advocacy that span four broad categories: Health, Social Services and Housing, Culture and Education, Leadership and Advocacy. We are an unstoppable force in the fight against bigotry and the struggle to build a better world; a world in which LGBT people thrive as healthy, equal, and complete members of society.
To find out more about the Los Angeles LGBT Center, including future events, programs, and services, learn more here.
Los Angeles, CA. Free Arts LA was founded with the goal of helping children in the foster system who had suffered from trauma or abuse by teaching them to express themselves and rebuild their self-esteem through art and craft. Today, the organization helps over 22,000 children across Los Angeles by pairing children with adult mentors and volunteers who guide the children through the artistic process of painting, drawing, writing, or other arts, serving as positive influences while the children find and improve themselves after their difficult experiences. Due to the pandemic, however, volunteers who wish to work directly with children must undergo their two-day training course over Zoom.
Free Arts LA volunteers taking a fun break while undergoing their online training course.
Free Arts LA offers several programs through its partners, namely an 8-week long Mentorship program, their Court program where children are encouraged to engage in arts to provide them with a safe space before appearing and testifying at the Edmund D. Edelman Children’s Courthouse, and Free Arts Day, a fun one-day event held across LA county that helps children have fun and builds their sense of community.
Art Swagger LA, an art and design fundraiser held annually, has partnered with Free Arts this year and all proceeds from the event will go directly to the organization, helping to further develop its programs. The fundraiser will include a virtual panel, a silent auction, and – if Covid-19 conditions improve – an in person event on September 30th, 2021.
Free Arts programs inspire hope in the lives of children from ages 5-18 who have experienced abuse, neglect, poverty and homelessness through innovative creative arts programs and positive interactions with caring adult volunteers. Free Arts LA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
Los Angeles, CA. AIDS Walk Los Angeles will observe the halfway mark of its fundraising on August 16. Recognized as one of the world’s first walks to take up the cause against HIV and AIDS, AWLA has raised nearly $90 million for APLA Health’s various programs that focus on care and advocacy for over 18,000 affected individuals in the Los Angeles County. Due to Covid-19, there is no official in-person walking event and most of the AIDS Walk will be held online, with three outdoor challenges that take place during checkpoint dates of the Walk.
To keep supporters motivated and updated on the progress of fundraising, The Walk Show began on July 7 – the same time as the AIDS Walk fundraising began. The show releases new episodes every week, with each week focusing on a particular location in Los Angeles County helped by the work of APLA Health. The Walk Show is hosted by popular drag queen Ongina who walks viewers through fundraising tips and fun challenges. A big highlight of the show is the weekly story of a patient from one of APLA Health’s programs or clinics. Episodes of The Walk Show can be found here: https://aidswalkla.org/the-walk-show/.
The Trans Connections program, featured in Episode 2 of The Walk Show.
“APLA Health was founded in 1983 as AIDS Project Los Angeles with the goal of ending the AIDS epidemic in Los Angeles County. Today, we provide services in four key areas: 1) primary medical care, dental, behavioral health and HIV specialty care, 2) Critical HIV Support Services, 3) HIV Prevention, and 4) Advocacy.” APLA Health & Wellness is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization doing business as APLA Health.
Los Angeles, CA. The Broad, a contemporary art museum in Downtown Los Angeles, is known for being one of the world’s largest modern art collections. The museum has hosted many family oriented events; most recently, it partnered with the Los Angeles Public Library to host summer art school classes. The online format not only allowed for promoting social distancing, but made the classes more accessible for children and their families.
From The Broad:
In July, families with kids are invited for four live one-hour virtual drawing sessions. Facilitated by The Broad’s Visitor Experience Lead David Candelaria, participants will create a drawing inspired by works on view in the museum, while learning words used in contemporary art.
Each workshop includes a live in-gallery segment showcasing the artwork that inspired the activity. Families will have time to share their creations at the end of the session.
All sessions are free to attend and held over Zoom. Sessions will be translated live into Spanish.
The four pieces of artwork used as inspiration: Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Untitled (1981), Roy Lichtenstein’s Still Life with Green Vase (1972), Julie Mehretu’s Six Bardos: Transmigration (2018), and Nathaniel Mary Quinn’s C’mo’ and Walk With Me (2019).
The classes were hosted every week throughout the month of July, each one having a different theme based off of a piece at the Broad. The themes were Portraiture, Still Life, Color and Abstraction, and Collage respectively. At the end of the session, participants get the opportunity to share their creations with each other.
For more information on future events, or to learn more about museum visitation, make sure to visit The Broad.
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