Hundreds of LA artists gather for annual summit after ‘unprecedented’ year of fires, raids and defunding

Leaders of L.A. County’s largest arts advocacy organization are set to rally hundreds of artists Wednesday at their yearly State of the Arts Summit in Little Tokyo.

“This year has challenged the [arts] in unprecedented ways,” said Gustavo Herrera, CEO of Arts for L.A., the nearly 20-year-old nonprofit that organizes the summit.

Those challenges include January’s devastating fires in Altadena and Pacific Palisades, cuts to federal arts funding and the effects of federal raids on many immigrant communities in the region.

This year’s event is titled “Roots, Recovery and Regeneration.” In his State of the Arts speech, Herrera wants to embolden artists to see their work as essential to the region’s recovery.

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“Many artists, particularly teaching artists or arts therapists, are very well versed on how to really utilize the arts as a means to process emotion and begin healing,” he said.

Herrera’s vision of how important artists’ work can be to the economic and emotional recovery of Southern California residents isn’t far-fetched. The intersection in L.A. of highly regarded arts schools and museums with the entertainment industry, tech and socially minded arts groups makes the region a hotbed for artists and creative ideas.

Nothing beats face time

By one count, there are 150,000 working artists in L.A. County and about 3,500 nonprofit arts organizations. But the region’s size often makes it difficult to meet new people in person who may share similar goals.

“Being in a place like L.A., we are so spread out. … You could be an hour apart from each other and both consider yourself to be in L.A.,” said Socks Whitmore, an artist who works in digital media and live performance.

Whitmore said attending the summit three years ago led them to meet another artist who advocates for disabled artists and accessibility efforts, and that led to a close working relationship.

Socks Whitmore is an artist who works in digital media and live performance and found a key collaborator at a previous State of the Arts summit.

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Courtesy Socks Whitmore

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“We've been working on a disability arts festival for the past year or so,” Whitmore said.

Summit organizers said they’ve received more than 400 replies to attend, and they expect a stronger turnout than previous years.

What artist-led healing looks like

The summit’s keynote speaker this year is Erin Harkey, CEO of Americans for the Arts. She grew up in L.A. In a video message ahead of the event, she encouraged artists to protect each other, protect cultural assets and strengthen arts and cultural communities.

Many of the artists involved with Arts for L.A. are driven by missions like Harkey’s.

“All young people deserve access to the arts,” said Kyle Denman, executive director of Arts Bridging the Gap, an 11-year-old nonprofit that creates youth-directed projects to paint murals, play orchestral music and tend urban farms, among other things.

“All young people have really experienced a lot of trauma over the past few years,” he said.

Denman’s helped Arts for L.A. create a mentorship program for artists and now is helping the group decide what arts policies to promote to elected officials. His mission is far from the idea that he’s creating art for art’s sake.

Arts Bridging the Gap created the San Gabriel Valley Symphony in 2025 as a tribute to the victims of the 2023 Monterey Park mass shooting.

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Courtesy Arts Bridging the Gap

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“Everything that we do … is rooted, at the end of the day, in healing and supporting young people's wellness but through the arts,” he said.

It’s a cliché, he said, but the young people his organization helps are the future artists, workers, parents and policymakers of this region and to strengthen them now is to improve the chances that Southern California will be a healthier place for the people who live here in the future.