Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture

05/28/2026

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, a time to raise awareness of the importance of mental health in our overall sense of well-being. The County of Los Angeles understands that investing in wellness for its more than 100k public service employees leads to an increase in morale, productivity, and engagement.

Earlier this month, County employees had the opportunity to pause, reflect, and recharge through tours, performances and special activities created exclusively for them during the LA County Employee Wellness Through the Arts Week. This event is part of our Creative Strategist-Artist in Residence program and artist christy roberts berkowitz’s work during her residency with the LA County Department of Human Resources .

Thank you to for strategizing ways to use the arts to support County employee wellbeing, and to the many organizations that opened their doors and created special experiences for employees to access the arts and creativity, including , , Arts, , , , , , , , , at , , , , and Thank you for your partnership and generosity!

To learn more about mental health resources for everyone in LA County, visit LA County Department of Mental Health www.dmh.lacounty.gov/

Photo by Mayra Beltran for

05/20/2026

On April 29 our Arts Datathon brought together arts administrators, artists, educators, data scientists, students, community advocates, researchers, and civic technologists from all over LA County to explore how we can build, share, and sustain knowledge at a time when facts and reality are increasingly being challenged.
Centered around this year’s theme of knowledge, attendees participated in six dynamic breakout sessions that dove deeper into the powerful intersections of arts, data, storytelling, and community:

• Guerrilla Data Lab led by the Data Vandals, Jason Forrest and Jen Ray
• Arts at Work: Protecting Government Data Together led by Erin Meyer and Homeyra Banaeefar of the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research at the U of Michigan
• No Numbers Without a Story: Case-Making When Trust Is Fragile led by Randy Cohen and Genna Styles-Lyas of Americans for the Arts
• Data Embodied: Building Knowledge Through Hands-on Techniques led by artists Kim Ableles and Elly Dallas, and Amy Ben-Kiki (LACDAC)
• Filling Archival Silences led by Sarah Richardson, Christine Rank, and Kathryn Ung of the Wende Museum
• Connections as Data: Strengthening Your Social Networks led by artist Theresa Hyuna Hwang and Matthew Agustin (LACDAC)

Thank you to our incredible group of speakers and facilitators who led attendees through thoughtful conversations, hands-on activities, and collaborative learning experiences. It was a wonderful day of learning, creativity, networking and of course DATA!





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Special thanks to for our beautiful event space. And thank you to Ginny Song and the whole .eto team for making the event run smoothly.



📷: Malik Daniels

05/19/2026

Recently, Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture was invited to join the Independent Film Task Force with Supervisorial District 5 Supervisor Kathryn Barger and Supervisorial District 3 Lindsey Horvath's team and NewFilmmakers Los Angeles to discuss the Film and Television Industry in LA County and the vital role of independent filmmakers as part of our creative sector ecosystem.
Thank you to the filmmakers and industry partners that participated and thank you to OGP Grantee & .global for hosting us.

05/13/2026

This weekend only: join us for The Maroon Station, an inflatable installation by PAiD Artist Council Member that you can participle in!

May 16 - 17, 2026, 10am - 6pm, Watts Labor Community Action Committee
📍 10950 South Central Ave, Los Angeles, California 90059

The Maroon Station is a public art installation that draws from the history and practice of marronage, the sustained acts of escape, refusal, and world-building carried out by enslaved people who formed communities beyond plantation systems. The artwork approaches this history as an ongoing infrastructure that continues to appear across time and place wherever fugitivity, care, and collective survival are required. Participants enter the inflatable environment one at a time by climbing the structure and sliding into the dome’s interior, where they encounter a shared spatial experience centered on orientation and collective presence. The environment features soft forms that support sitting and gathering. The slide functions as a threshold into the station. Sliding activates the body’s kinetic memory of slipping between conditions and realities. The motion invites participants to move from one world into another, echoing how maroon communities emerged through acts of disappearance and reappearance beyond the reach of dominant systems. Marronage appears here as a collective and adaptive practice sustained through presence and the ongoing work of building alternative worlds together.

About the Artist
Autumn Breon is a Los Angeles-based artist whose work engages q***r Black feminist praxis, historical memory, and speculative futures. Her practice spans performance, installation, and public art that centers liberation and care. Inspired by ancestral technologies and maroon ecologies, she creates portals to other realities through ritual, research, and play. Breon studied Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University, and her work often explores spatial freedom beyond Earth. She’s exhibited at institutions including Hauser & Wirth, LACMA, and the Brooklyn Museum.

05/12/2026

05/12/2026

Don’t miss our last PAiD Professional Development workshop in this year’s series: “Working with Fabricators: Building Trust and Translating Vision.” This session focuses on how artists can collaborate successfully with professional fabricators. Topics include identifying the right fabricator, communicating design intent, reviewing drawings and prototypes, and understanding fabrication workflows and roles. Artists will leave with strategies to build strong partnerships that respect both artistic vision and production realities.

Register for FREE at our link in bio!
Working with Fabricators: Building Trust and Translating Vision
May 13 | 6-8pm | Virtual

Guest Speakers:

Nova Jiang is a Los Angeles-based artist, whose multidisciplinary practice encompasses painting, sculpture, conceptual art, installation, and public art. With an approach that blends new technology with traditional techniques, explores the forces that erase history and personal memory, which she counteracts in her public art practice with a commitment to community engagement and historical research, aiming to uncover hidden narratives and transform them into sculptural forms that resonate with a wide audience. Her public art projects span cities including San Diego, Redmond, Charlotte, Sacramento, Cambridge, and Los Angeles. Notable recent solo exhibitions include "Recorded Syllable" at Chapter NY", "Caretaker" at Union Pacific in London and "Lesson" at Simone Subal in New York.

Chris Dyson is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Dyson & Womack, a Los Angeles-based public-art consulting and fabrication firm. With over 20 years of experience co-owning and managing successful cultural consulting and public art fabrication and production companies, he leads projects that bridge artistic vision, community priorities, and lasting civic impact. Under his leadership, has become a recognized platform for commissioning, planning, and developing public artworks that shape inclusive cultural infrastructure statewide. Dyson & Womack is a key partner of in helping to shape and facilitate the Public Artists in Development (PAiD) program.

05/12/2026

LA County has officially proclaimed May 2026 as Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month and May 10 as AAPI Mental Health Day.

Home to the nation’s largest AAPI population, LA County recognizes the immense cultural, economic, and civic contributions of AAPI communities while also addressing the rise in hate crimes, immigration-related fear, and mental health disparities impacting residents.

The motion by Chair and highlights the importance of culturally competent care, language access, and celebrating the diverse communities that make LA County stronger.

For events across the county with and resources regarding AAPI Mental Health Day please visit our link or bio or visit here: https://lacounty.gov/2026/05/07/asian-american-and-pacific-islander-aapi-month/
Photo from the Lunar New Year Celebration at Whittier Narrows Nature Center in January 2026, Mayra Beltran

05/09/2026

You’re Invited! “If These Stalls Could Talk,” a public art installation by PAiD Artist Council Member, Brian Sonia-Wallace is opening on Friday, May 15, featuring a live poetry reading from 7-9pm.

The installation is comprised of poetry by trans and q***r writers engraved in metal that cover the doors of restroom stalls, transforming a politicized site into an archive of lived experience. Their words take on permanence, authority, and memorialization. In recent years, restrooms have become symbolic terrain in debates about gender and belonging. The engraved texts offer care, reflection, and quiet courage, reminding us that dignity is infrastructure -- something lived, practiced, and shared. These poems invite pause not as hesitation, but as comfort. They honor the ordinary passage through a public space, the small acts of survival, and the human capacity to witness and hold one another in safety.

“If These Stalls Could Talk” is on view May 15 – June 16, 2026 at The Music Center
📍 135 N. Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90012

About the Artist:
Brian Sonia-Wallace is a poet, educator, and public artist based in Los Angeles. Former Poet Laureate of West Hollywood, he is the author of The Poetry of Strangers (HarperCollins) and Maze Mouth. His work centers on creating art that bridges civic space, public memory, and lived experience, often collaborating with LGBTQ+ communities, youth, and elders to amplify voices that are rarely heard. Sonia-Wallace’s practice spans performance, writing, and participatory public projects that transform everyday spaces into sites of reflection, care, and dialogue. With a focus on intimacy and monumentality, he explores how poetry can function as infrastructure, shaping how we move through, inhabit, and witness the city. His projects have been presented in theaters, galleries, and public spaces across Los Angeles, always seeking to make the ordinary extraordinary, and to honor dignity as both a lived experience and a shared civic value.

Additional note of congratulations to Brian for being named Poet Laureate of the City of Los Angeles in April!

05/08/2026

Join us June 12, 2026 for the 5th Annual LA County Arts & Health Week Summit at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion! Featuring artist and advocate Renée Fleming, the Summit invites you to explore and experience the intersection of creativity and wellbeing. Register now: LAOpera.org/Summit or at our link in bio.

Hosted by in partnership with , world-renowned soprano and LA Opera's Special Projects Advisor; Chair and First District Supervisor , and us, . We hope to see you there!

Photo features LA County Arts and Culture Director Kristin Sakoda, Gabriella Reyes, Renée Fleming, and Shavonda Webber-Christmas, Director of Community Benefits for L.A. Care Health Plan. 📷 LA Opera Connects staff.

05/07/2026

Next week: join us for “Engineering for Artists: Collaborating with Structural Experts.” Learn how to communicate effectively with engineers and understand basic structural principles relevant to sculpture and site-specific artworks. Artists will explore materials, load-bearing concepts, and the documents typically required for public art approvals.

Register at our link in bio:
Engineering for Artists: Collaborating with Structural Experts
May 11, 2026 | 6-8pm | Virtual

Guest Speakers:

Omar L Garza is a partner of Nous Engineering based in Los Angeles. He is a licensed structural engineer with 18 years of professional experience in the structural engineering industry, focusing on advanced analysis, earthquake resilience, and seismic evaluation and rehabilitation of existing buildings. He is licensed in 15 states, and has worked on numerous improvements, renovations, and new structures throughout his career. Most notably, he’s evaluated and seismically retrofit dozens of historical and existing structures in California.

Chris Dyson is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Dyson & Womack, a Los Angeles–based public-art consulting and fabrication firm. With over 20 years of experience co-owning and managing successful cultural consulting and public art fabrication and production companies, he leads projects that bridge artistic vision, community priorities, and lasting civic impact. Under his leadership, has become a recognized platform for commissioning, planning, and developing public artworks that shape inclusive cultural infrastructure statewide.

PAiD is a program created by Civic Art Division and funded by . The Professional Development program is one component of the program, further developed and delivered by .