#thelafort

(Read the whole post on Grasstronaut here!)

While "Don't quit your dayjob" is still the favorite thing to say from dads everywhere to their kids starting DIY projects, grassroots arts funding will remain an issue. The cash sources are limited: Door money is awesome, but often is just enough to maintain what's already happening in a space rather than making room for growth. Grants are an option, but require a lot of people power. As we saw from Silent Barn and the Ché Café, crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter, Indiegogo and GoFundMe wind up being popular for spaces in a time crunch without a ton of resources. Which is more often than not.

Members of The LA Fort

LA 2050's Grants Challenge is a really interesting mix of these last two options. It works like a grant in that you fill out questions in an application. It works like a crowdfunding site in that a ton of people vote, so it involves public input in some way. Check out The LA Fort's voting page here. After spending some time with The LA Fort recently, it was awesome to hear their excitement around LA 2050's Grant Challenge, and how the mission of the Challenge tied in with theirs. The LA Fort is a two-year old, all-ages multi-use arts warehouse in Downtown LA. With a ton of renovations and legal work in development, they're perfectly poised to be a recipient of one of the $100,000 parcels LA 2050 is giving out. They offer a space to the community that's hard to find in the city, and even harder to find in Downtown Los Angeles. You can and should vote for them here.

Both The LA Fort and LA 2050 grew out of a community need. LA 2050 is a baby of the Goldhirsh Foundation, with a focus on what the ambitious title sounds like: What do we want Los Angeles to look like in 2050? What will it take to get there? By working with over 30,000 Angelenos through awesome block parties, youth-led interviews and more, the initiative developed a vision for five goals in LA's future. They envision LA in 2050 as a place to Play, Connect, Live, Create, and Learn. The LA Fort comes in as a major player in LA's reality of 'Create'; So do 62 other submissions who are now competing in the 'Create' section for $100,000 in LA 2050's Grant Challenge.