CREATELA Photo Hub
Over the past two decades, the Los Angeles Center for Photography (LACP) has supported photographers from beginners to professionals. Adults and kids from a broad spectrum of backgrounds have learned foundational and cutting edge photography techniques that have empowered them to tell compelling stories and reach their fullest potential of self-expression. My LA2050 will allow LACP to continue to advance our programs and to grow and fulfill our mission by offering more free events and exhibitions, as well as scholarships for underserved kids.
In which areas of Los Angeles will you be directly working?
Central LA
East LA
South LA
Westside
South Bay
County of Los Angeles
City of Los Angeles
In what stage of innovation is this project?
Expand existing program
What is the need you’re responding to?
Photography as a way of communication is now more important than ever. The Los Angeles Center of Photography (LACP) wants to respond to this by becoming the photo hub in LA and offering more exhibitions, classes, scholarships and free community events. In 2019, LACP moved to a huge center with a dedicated gallery/event space, darkroom, library, classrooms and a print lab. As a community hub, LACP can provide anyone interested in photography the ability to take a class, print their work, see an exhibition of local and world-class photographers, hear speakers, use our library and meet fellow photographers. LACP also provides over $250,000 in jobs for artists who are employed as instructors and staff members, and offers the ability to earn credits for classes through our work-study program. Lastly, LACP provides free weekly classes to underserved kids through LA County Boys & Girls Clubs. LACP wants to provide a place for anyone who wants to express their creativity through photography.
Why is this project important to the work of your organization?
Over the past two decades, (formerly as the Julia Dean Photo Workshops and then as the non-profit, the Los Angeles Center for Photography), LACP has become the largest photo center in California, supporting thousands of beginners through professional artists in this influential practice. Adults and children from a broad spectrum of backgrounds have learned foundational and cutting edge photography techniques that have empowered them to create compelling stories and reach their fullest potential of self-expression. Each year LACP offers over 150 workshops and classes and teaches over 1,000 beginning, emerging, and professional photo enthusiasts, exhibits over 300 photographers, creates over $250,000 in jobs for working artists, and teaches free classes to 100 underserved children. Additionally, LACP connects with over 10,000 photographers through our social media channels and online. With our new center, we are now uniquely suited to increase creativity in LA.
Approximately how many people will be impacted by this proposal?
Direct Impact: 65
Indirect Impact: 6,000
Please describe the broader impact of your proposal.
LACP will impact the city of Los Angeles by adding more creativity to this vibrant city, as well as by inspiring, connecting, training, and employing creative people. Photo-enthusiasts of all ages and from all areas of the city will be impacted. LACP also now has online programs, so those who live at a distance from the center can still enjoy many of these same programs.
Our project will directly impact the web design firm hired, the six new instructors, the four part-time staff members and the 46 students who receive scholarships for the youth classes. It will indirectly impact all who attend our events, exhibitions, classes and programming at LACP, as well as those reached online and via social media.
Please explain how you will define and measure success for your project.
This grant would permit LACP to expand our community reach tremendously by becoming a central hub. LACP would create new teaching opportunities, train new photographers with skills, offer scholarships to teens, and increase the number of exhibitions and free community events in our galleries.
We now have a huge center, but we need the resources to increase our workforce and an increased presence online to reach our goals.
Our vision for success for this project is to -
1) Create a new website. This is the first thing most people see before they even set foot in the center and it needs updating. A new website, with speed and more capability will reach more people in Los Angeles to discover our community, learn, teach, enjoy talks, lectures and and meet fellow photographers. This website is crucial for showing who we are and all that we have to offer, as well as displaying the work of our Members, Teachers and Students to the world.
2) Increase our free lectures, artist talks, programs and exhibitions throughout the year. These events would offer hundreds of people the opportunity to exhibit and view work, as well as meet fellow artists and network.
3) Offer scholarships for summer and weekend classes for local and under-served youth. There is a great need in Los Angeles for children to find creative outlets and we would like to expand our free offerings to meet that need. With new teachers and more staff hours, we can offer monthly classes for local and underserved youth, as well as offered scholarships to participate in our weekly summer youth programs.
4) Increase staff hours. We currently have 2 full time and 4 part-time staff who manage 150 classes, 6-8 exhibitions a year, bi-monthly evening events, membership, fundraising, and much more. Increasing staff hours will help facilitate new classes, events, train new teachers and work-study staff, write grants and plan fundraisers to ensure the success of LACP for years to come.
5) Hire new teachers to teach classes to underserved youth as well as to adults. There are many artists in LA looking for teaching jobs and we could employ more of them to teach our classes or online. And we can reach underserved youth, like we have been doing at the Boys & Girls Clubs throughout LA County and offer scholarships to our classes.
We would measure the success by
1)The development of a new website within a year.
2) Increase in classes and student enrollment over the 1 year period by 10% or more (currently we teach approximately 1,000 students a year)
3) Increased events and the attendance at our events by 20% (currently our events reach approximately 1500 people annually)
4) Increase Social Media reach by 15% (currently we reach approximately 10000 people on 4 platforms).
5) Increase Membership by 10% (currently we have 910 Members)
6) Offer 2 scholarships in each of our weekly summer teen programs (16 places) and free monthly classes in fall and spring for 15 students per semester.
7) Increase staff hours by 15% (currently the p/t staff collectively works 100 hours a week)
8 ) Hire 6 new Instructors to teach new teen and adult classes.
Which of the CREATE metrics will your submission impact?
Arts establishments, instillations, and exhibitions
Employment in the creative industries
Global cultural and economic influence (“soft power”)
Public arts and cultural events
Are there any other LA2050 goal categories that your proposal will impact?
LA is the best place to CONNECT
Which of LA2050’s resources will be of the most value to you?
Access to the LA2050 community