HomeGrown: Free Community Residencies and Performance Opportunities

Access to tech and creative industry employment

East LA Central LA South Bay West LA County of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a countywide benefit) South LA City of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a citywide benefit)

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

In Greater LA inflation, gentrification, the pandemic and the recent effects of the wildfires have made the quest to secure affordable, sustainable studio & workspace to create, practice, hold meetings, host events/classes and present work, even more dire for the professional creative to source. In recent years, arts & culture organizations faced detrimental funding cuts, totaling over 70M in cuts to CA arts funding since 2023. Many arts organization, especially small to mid-size, lost revenue, and/or access to presenting opportunities, and/or have closed their doors permanently. The current termination of grants & potential closure or downsizing of the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA), the largest arts & culture funder, will only increase the number of reductions in organizations, staff & projects.
Additionally, LA is well known for its costly parking and transport issues thus the program offers resident artists a travel stipend to assist covering transportation/parking expenses.

DRC’s HomeGrown will include multi-site locations across the County, with small to large partners providing 2-12 week-long residencies. DRC will compensate local studios for 2-3 blocks of time per week at subsidized rates ensuring partners are able to adequately cover costs while also harnessing more robust schedules. Larger partners will provide space free of charge for 3-6 weeks. The residency program at each site will be designed to best fit the capacity of that location, while acknowledging the diverse needs and culture of the different neighborhoods and areas across LA. Streamlined applications will be reviewed by a panel from the host sites, and members from the local dance community, with a focus on ensuring panelists represent those who are most historically marginalized in arts and dance spaces, specifically those economically disadvantaged, disabled, elder, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and others.
Tailored applications will be simple & streamlined, with no tedious paperwork, and open to the entire community, at no cost. Applicants will be reviewed by a panel of leaders & artists, reflective of their respective communities, based on, but not limited to, the following general criteria: Ability to maximize desired rehearsal space; Capacity to create/present work; Demonstrated potential to broaden access to resources for applicants of varying levels, ages, genres and cultural representation; Artistic quality; and Usefulness of space access for the dance creator & their ensembles.

By ensuring that residencies occur in a multitude of areas, DRC seeks to expand access, and highlight and uplift the rich, vibrant and diverse communities across Greater LA. Keeping a healthy flow of dance and arts in varied communities, HomeGrown invites local audiences to experience the program proving pivotal to the project impact.
In 2025-2026 DRC will expand to the Mid-City and South Bay, stretching reach and support to under resourced and generally marginalized artists and businesses. As the voice and hub for LA dance, DRC is poised to support economic growth for both artists and local studios, all of whom are essential to the health and well-being in LA's communities and of LA’s creative economy.
HomeGrown will foster the creation and/or the development of 20+ professional works, integrate two or more paid performance opportunities, provide travel stipends to participants, and meaningfully set the stage for future collaborative opportunities by and from within the community.