Artist as Creative Strategist AIR - Cycle 2

CS-AIR Cycle 2 embeds an artist as a creative strategist and art maker into a Los Angeles County department for a year-long residency. The participating departments include Mental Health, Parks and Recreation, and Public Health. The selected artist will work alongside staff, project partners, community stakeholders and artists in a collaborative process to develop, strategize, promote and implement artist-driven solutions. The Creative Strategist will document the process, approach and lessons learned to help transform County practices and responsiveness.

Three opportunities are available: Department of Mental Health seeks an artist to provide community building activities and messaging around mental health issues, with required availability for part-time hours in May for the We Rise campaign and September for suicide prevention and recovery month. Department of Parks and Recreation seeks an artist to develop and integrate arts and cultural programming as a core program in parks and develop a framework for implementation. Department of Public Health and the Office of Violence Prevention seek an artist to serve as a thought partner in the creation of the OVP, help develop an environment that fosters innovative ideas and open dialogue on trauma and violence prevention, with mandatory availability during Public Health Week April 1-7, 2019 and mandatory participation on April 4 for the official launch of the Office of Violence Prevention.

This residency is open to professional artists who live or work in Los Angeles County. The Creative Strategist will receive an all-inclusive budget of $50,000 per year: $40,000 for artist fees and travel/mileage/parking, and $10,000 for community-specific engagement, activities and art making. Artists must be available for part-time flexible onsite work at designated locations (DMH/Korea Town; DPR/Alhambra; DPH/Alhambra) and throughout LA County for field work. Access to transportation is required. Up to five artists will be selected for interviews based on artistic merit, professional qualifications, creative skills applicable to social practice and community engagement, experience working collaboratively with diverse stakeholders, and ability to communicate effectively. Selected finalists will develop a short presentation for a committee of County staff, project partners, community stakeholders and local residents. The residency runs April 2019-May 2020.