Independent Master Artist Projects Grant Program

Amount

$10,000

Granting Organization

City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs

Deadline

Status

Open

Contact

Email Grants Division

2027-29 City of Los Angeles (COLA) Independent Master Artists Projects (COLA-IMAP) Grant Program

The COLA-IMAP grant program allows accomplished artists to create a new, mid-career solo work with the freedom to re-focus on themselves and their core impulses. COLA-IMAP honors a spectrum of Los Angeles-based, mid-career graphic-design, literary, performing, and visual artists who are dedicated to an ongoing body of excellent work, exemplify a generation of core ideas in their field, and are recognized by their peers as role models for other artists because of their distinguished records.

Artists who are selected as COLA-IMAP grantees will have their career accomplishments promoted by the City via a printed and/or online catalog, with likely opportunities for selections from each artist’s new solo work to be premiered in an online expo, a gallery exhibition, and/or a performance showcase.

This cycle, artists whose practice bridges the visual arts and graphic design are especially encouraged to apply within COLA-IMAP’s new Graphic Design category, as DCA seeks to recognize three or more artists with 15 or more years of experience creating innovative books, typefaces, and/or logo-graphics (text-image mixtures). If DCA receives a sufficient number of eligible proposals, DCA would convene a special, separate panel to specifically jury this new category dedicated to artists whose work combines graphic-design talent and conceptual art skills.

ELIGIBILITY

Competitive applicants are:

  • Individual artists or independent duos, who are professional masters of self-evolved ideas (not curators, presenters, or interpreters of other artists’ works, and not artists who have primarily built their credentials within collaborative groups or within social practices). Proposed projects are deemed INELIGIBLE if they: are collaboratively made, and interactive with the audiences or other artists (but not including technicians or fabricators).
  • Current residents of Los Angeles County, who also demonstrate on their resumes that they either live in the City of Los Angeles or have a 3 or more-year history of presenting work in the City of Los Angeles.
  • Professionals who illustrate on their resume at least 15 years (8 years for choreographer/dancers) of a progressive, ongoing exhibition, publication, or performance record. This may include post-secondary student presentations and does not need to be 15 (or 8) consecutive years.

GRANT AMOUNT

Depending upon the City’s budget, COLA-IMAP awards of $10,000 are recommended to selected individual artists in June-July of the year following application. In difficult budget times the DCA may determine whether to fund fewer than 8 applicants, and/or wait-list selected artists to the following year.

Selected artists will be legally contracted to submit materials toward a catalog the City will produce to promote the career accomplishments of the artists. Grantees must use their COLA IMAP funding toward the creation of new solo works, which the City would also aim to premiere via an online expo, gallery exhibition, and/or a performance showcase.

If not selected by peer panel for a COLA-IMAP grant, outstanding applicants may also be recommended as DCA Cultural Trailblazers. Trailblazers are highlighted on DCA’s website and social media platforms and receive a stipend to work with DCA on a story about their next solo work in the LA region.

TIMELINE

  • Opens Friday, October 9, 2026
  • Deadline to submit online application is Friday, November 13, 2026
  • Postmark deadline for hard copy of proposal is Wednesday, November 18, 2026
  • Applicants will receive notification of results in June/July 2027
  • Grant activity/projects will take place between July 1, 2027 – June 30, 2029 (note as the City of LA considers changing from a one-year to a two-year budget cycle, COLA IMAP selections from this RFP may take the form of one- and/or two-year allocations).

COLA-IMAP WEBINARS

Sunday, October 18, 2026
Online Webinar (Zoom)
11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Wednesday, October 28, 2026
Online Webinar (Zoom)
5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Visit this page for webinar registration information; each webinar session will be recorded and posted to youtube.com/@culturela when available.

APPLICATION LINK:

For full program information, please review the program guidelines available at: dcaredesign.org/cola. After you have reviewed the guidelines, please proceed to prepare and submit an application at dca-la.smapply.org.