From taking ballet classes as a young girl in Chicago, Kristin Sakoda learned the importance of the arts in a person’s life. Her passion for dance and musical theater eventually led her to the stage in New York, where she performed in the musicals “Mamma Mia” and “Rent.”
It was that same passion that also led her to earn a law degree from NYU School of Law, later combining that with her arts background to become the deputy commissioner and general counsel at the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
In 2018, Kristin Sakoda switched coasts to assume as the first Director of the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, where she continues her work today to make the arts more equitable, diverse and inclusive through education, civic arts, funding and grants provided to over 350 arts nonprofits.
“Arts help us impact and advance equity across policy areas,” said Sakoda, who notes that “arts and culture are vital to creating a healthy community.
“Communities that have access to the arts have better outcomes in everything from educational attainment to public health to public safety.”
But arts equality in Los Angeles is still a work in progress and requires investment to help local artists and art programs thrive.
“Arts help us impact and advance equity across policy areas,” said kristin Sakoda, who notes that “arts and culture are vital to creating a healthy community.
Recently, Sakoda’s department received $5 million from the state to bring arts funding to Southeast Los Angeles, an area that for years has lacked those investments.
“Everything will be returned to the community,” pledges Kristin Sakoda when speaking of those dollars. “This funding is to really help invest in the culture and cultural activities happening in the community.”
She added that they are reviewing which agencies will receive those funds and how to best use them.
“The final program design has not been decided because we just got the funding. That’s what we’re going to be looking at in the next several months and then it will be delivered and announced sometime later.”
But arts equality in Los Angeles is still a work in progress and requires investment to help local artists and art programs thrive.
It’s also towards providing a funding base to advance the realization of the (SELA) Cultural Center, a multipurpose arts facility to be built along the Los Angeles River in South Gate.
“There’s already been, for years, an incredible history of artists, festivals, activities happening on the ground that we want to nurture and support and continue to build the capacity of the cultural community,” Sakoda said, adding that those cultural investments “help generate momentum toward the SELA Cultural Center.”
She admitted that arts funding has been unequal in the County, something she’s trying to correct. And she added that the SELA Cultural Center is also an example of the County taking advantage of underutilized areas to bring art to the masses. While the Center will be built with state funds, it will be constructed on the site of a storm yard and parking lot owned by the County.
“Sometimes, prior generations weren’t thinking of this spot as a place to build. They were thinking of this spot only as a parking lot,” Sakoda said. “Now we know that we need to utilize all of our civic spaces and culture is an important way to build infrastructure in communities because we’re talking about reaching young people for art education, we’re talking about artists who are able to come and make work, we’re talking about communities coming to experience performances, but also connecting them to nature and recreation.”
She admitted that arts funding has been unequal in the County, something she’s trying to correct. And she added that the SELA Cultural Center is also an example of the County taking advantage of underutilized areas to bring art to the masses.
It’s a different way of thinking and a new approach to reaching communities through the arts, something that in the end transforms into real dollars.
The Otis College of Arts and Design 2021 Report on the Creative Economy found the creative industries is a major driver of economic prosperity accounting for $227 billion of the $828 billion Los Angeles County economy.
“Investing in arts is a very smart way to repurpose civic infrastructure and to show the value of arts and culture as part of a thriving community,” said Sakoda, who adds that ultimately is about exposing and inspiring people of all backgrounds to see arts not as a second thought, but as something essential to our daily lives that help us grow and unite us for better outcomes.
“We want to invest in the arts because culture is a human right,” Kristin Sakoda said.
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