Winners of WeHo’s 2021 Arts Grant Program Announced

The City of West Hollywood has announced $124,000 in grant awards for 22 artists and arts organizations for its 2021 Arts Grant Program.

The arts grants are for varying amounts include funding the creation of new arts projects, individual artists, and organizational development. For 2021, the city received 52 arts grant applications representing a variety of arts disciplines. The 22 awarded arts grantees for 2021 are as follows, by category:

Arts Project Grant ($40,000 available funds) – These grants support the production, performance, or presentation of new virtual art projects:

• Brockus Project Dance Company
• Celebration Productions Corporation
• Heidi Duckler Dance
• Grand Performances
• Invertigo Dance Theatre
• MashUp Contemporary
• Vox Femina Los Angeles

One City One Pride LGBTQ Arts Festival Grant ($35,000 available funds) – These grants support arts and culture projects that expand the celebration of June Pride Month through arts and culture, and document the richness of the city’s LGBTQ community and history. This year’s grantees were asked to respond to the festival theme “For The Record,” which explores how LGBTQ stories of the past have often been hidden or undocumented; one must read between the lines to find stories hidden behind beard marriages, coded language, and erased or destroyed evidence:  

• Betsy Kalin
• New Stages, a program of Oasis Theater Company
• Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights (ALAP)
• Brian Sonia-Wallace / Pride Poets
• Friends of Residential Treasures LA

Organizational Development Grant ($24,000 available funds) – These grants support both the organization’s mission to provide arts programming and the organization’s capacity by directly supporting technical assistance to improve its ability to fund raise, develop audiences, and build its administrative infrastructure:

• Arts Bridging the Gap
• No Easy Props
• Prism Comics
• Wordsville / QueerWise

Transgender Arts Initiative Grant ($25,000 available funds) – These grants support and enhance the presentation of artworks in West Hollywood by transgender artists, artist collectives or groups, and nonprofit organizations with a history of supporting transgender artists:

• Andre Keichian
• Natalie Nicole Dressel
• Flynn Namala
• Kase Peña
• Beth Morrison Projects, Inc.
• Yozmit Kwon

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, arts programs will be presented in a virtual environment for at least the next year. As a result, this is a chance for West Hollywood artists and nonprofit arts organizations funded through arts grants to be able to reach beyond the city’s geographic borders with online or virtual programming that “serves as a beacon of culture and creativity,” as the city phrased it.

The city’s Arts Grant Program was established in 1997 and is now considered a vital part of the West Hollywood community’s health and well-being. Funding provided to artists and arts organizations through the city’s Arts Grant Program undergoes a thorough review process and strives to reflect the diversity of the city.

To celebrate the accomplishments of 2020 Arts Grant Program artists, the city will host a virtual presentation on Thursday at 4 p.m. including a Q&A with artists Carolyn Campbell, Fletcher Crossman, Carolina Hoyos, Ryan McCann, Felice Picano, and Don Tinling. For more information, including an Eventbrite RSVP link, please visit the city’s online calendar:  www.weho.org/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/22729/15

The city offers an array of arts programs through its Arts Division including: Art on the Outside (temporary public art), Urban Art Program (permanent public art), Summer Sounds, Winter Sounds, WeHo Reads, Free Theatre in the Parks, Arts Grants for Artists and Nonprofit Arts Organizations, Library Exhibits and Programming, the City Poet Laureate Program, Human Rights Speakers Series, and the One City One Pride LGBTQ Arts Festival.