Festival for All Skid Row Artists

Since 2010, every year in October, Los Angeles Poverty Department produces the Festival for All Skid Row Artists in Gladys Park on Skid Row (corner 6th Street and Gladys Avenue). The Festival encourages known neighborhood artists and identifies and brings together arts makers who are unknown even in their own Skid Row neighborhood. LAPD collects information about the artists, documents their work and creates an artists’ registry.

This year’s festival is made possible by a grant from the City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Los Angeles County Arts Commission, the California Arts Council’s Local Impact grant, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council and the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks.

In memoriam Linda Harris, performing her favorite song “I Hope You Dance”.

Downloadable PDF's

Making the Case for Skid Row Culture
Festival Newsletters
- 2016
- 2015
- 2014
- 2013
- 2012
- 2011
- 2010

Making the Case for Skid Row Culture

In 2010, Animating Democracy, a program of Americans for the Arts, released “Making a Case for Skid Row Culture: Findings from a Collaborative Inquiry by the Los Angeles Poverty Department and the Urban Institute”. This study by John Malpede (Los Angeles Poverty Department) and Mario Rosario Jackson (Urban Institute) documents the role of arts and culture in Skid Row. This study found that culture comes from the ground up in Skid Row and is often initiated by residents and resident driven initiatives. This festival is undertaken to recognize these people and initiatives and to stimulate a new way of envisioning and talking about this neighborhood.

open 'Making the Case for Skid Row Culture'