Empower & Elevate Emerging Cultural Workers.

Access to tech and creative industry employment

South LA East LA Central LA

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

Over 30% of CA’s creative economy jobs are in LA County. Of that workforce, Latinx & Black cultural workers, combined, comprise less than 9% of all employees in the arts sector, despite being 47.2% & 8.5% of LA’s population, respectively.
South & East LA, in particular, are 74% Latinx & 17% Black; ~51% are foreign-born. 36% of households are linguistically isolated, primarily Spanish-speaking, & ~40% of households live in poverty.
Our neighborhoods lack consistent access to affordable, culturally-relevant arts instruction that celebrates our diverse cultures & supports creative expression & professional development in the community’s predominant language.
Literary arts programs, especially, are rarely offered to bilingual or linguistically isolated communities in their “home language.” And there are even fewer workforce development opportunities for emerging cultural workers in our community, resulting in our lack of representation within the arts.
For that reason, DSTL Arts exists.

Since 2012, DSTL Arts has existed with the mission to inspire, teach, & hire emerging artists from underserved communities. Since then, we have provided authentic, long-term mentorships, culturally-relevant arts-instruction, publishing opportunities, & workforce development support to emerging poets, writers, & artists (ages 18 & older) from historically marginalized communities through our Poet/Artist Development Program.
Since 2018, our Mobile Art Lab has been our tool for expanding access to tech, such as WiFi, iPads, & a large-format printer/scanner, that has empowered our community of artists in the development of skills that have led to a variety of creative & professional opportunities, including the attainment of HS-equivalency certificates, postgraduate degrees, artist grants & fellowships, & most recently, the naming of Poet Laureate of Pomona.
We aim to expand on the successes of our P/AD Program & Mobile Art Lab by establishing a centralized, working gallery & bookstore in, or near, South Central LA that will economically empower & serve our community of emerging poet/artists, & other BIPOC-led micro-presses, through access to presenting & vending opportunities, computers, a digital printing press, & our mentorship & training opportunities leading to industry-recognized certification in Adobe-based graphic design & video editing software vis-a-vis our existing paid internship program that is an integral part of our P/AD Program & Creative Impact arts workshops.

As noted, Latinx & Black cultural workers, combined, comprise less than 9% of all employees in the creative economy, despite being 47.2% & 8.5% of LA’s population, respectively.
Our programs are structured to address this disparity by combining workforce development & entrepreneurship principles with accessible arts programming that leads to publishing & professional opportunities that “inspire, teach, & hire emerging artists” from our historically marginalized & underserved communities, as our mission mandates. Through ongoing arts mentorships, we purposefully support our community of emerging cultural workers as they Develop Skills & Transcend Limits through the Arts.
Expanding on our noted successes as an arts mentorship organization, this project will centralize our continued development of talent & skills in our community, thus creating a larger, industry-certified pool of experienced cultural workers who will represent the true diversity of our community within the arts.