Celebrate Pacoima

Arts establishments

Manufacturing activity

Employment in the creative industries

Federal research grant funding

Jobs per capita

San Fernando Valley

City of Los Angeles

In the community of Pacoima, there is a growing momentum for arts & artistic expression with the development of the Celebrate Pacoima arts initiative. This initiative will develop arts infrastructure, in the form of an arts incubator. Pacoima Beautiful (PB) is seeking funds to leverage an award of $100,000 that was provided by the National Endowment of the Arts to support the development of the incubator. The space is designed to connect, heal & inspire community members, local artists, students, businesses, civic leaders, & creative professionals while promoting creative environmental justice focused placemaking & economic development opportunities.

This project will make LA the best place to CREATE given the momentum & dire need for a safe creative space in the community. This space will play a role in ensuring that our community’s narrative continues to be told through the arts. LA can only be the best place to CREATE when all Angelenos have equitable access to arts resources.

For over 20 years PB has worked at the intersection of land-use & safety, & through grassroots community engagement witnessed how the built environment impacts the community’s health & well being. Pacoima, a generally young community, where 22% of the population is under 18 years old (U.S. Census, 2010) will have a new physical resource to ensure that the local youth have outlets for creative forms of self-expression and do not contribute to the intergenerational cycles of violence. Our youth are meaningful contributors in the social and economic aspects of community building, as are key adult stakeholders & civic leaders. By engaging both youth and adults in the arts simultaneously, we will promote intergenerational communal interaction and foster tradition. When youth are engaged in creative processes, they can be the change agent when it comes to promoting the power and preservation of spaces. Therefore, when our community is reminded that they have the right to resources, ownership and connection to space, they develop a sense of stewardship which can lead to sustainability.

To date, Pacoima does not have a formal art space that engages community at this level; despite the amazing talent, artistic momentum & support by stakeholders who have fallen in love with the colors & vibrant images that are present throughout our community. The incubator will be that space.

LA2050 support for this project will provide the community with multiple benefits. Tools, equipment and instructor stipends will be paid for with the LA2050 funds. By partnering with local organizations and artists, collectively we will inspire others to raise their voice and exercise a healthy form of self-expression while generating a creative outlet for economic advancement. To advocate for & serve our monolingual Spanish population, programming will also be provided in Spanish, promoting multi-generational cross cultural connections & access to a creative dialogue.

Some quantifiable measurements that will be used to measure success of the art incubator will include the number of artists and students participating in programs, public event attendance, artworks created, cultural tourism growth, economic revenue to businesses, and increased creative placemaking. These can be measured through qualitative surveys and interviews to students and local businesses assessing knowledge gained and capture economic data.

Metadata extraction from the Art Incubators social media accounts including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, will also provide sentiment analytics: number of likes, shares, and visual visitors. This real time community feedback and data from social media outlets is how success for our project will be measured.

Money

Volunteers

Advisors/board members

Publicity/awareness

Infrastructure (building/space/vehicles etc.)

Education/training

Technical infrastructure (computers etc.)

Community outreach

Network/relationship support

Quality improvement research