Los Angeles is sprawling geographically, demographically, and culturally. Governing culture here means weaving together 88 cities and thousands of neighborhoods. In 2025, that weaving is under strain.
According to the World Cities Culture Forum, L.A.’s Departments of Cultural Affairs and Arts & Culture are pushing new policies to support art, equity, and neighborhood access. But they face headwinds: skyrocketing real estate, warehouse-to-condo conversions, shrinking studio space, and displacement of grassroots arts organizations.
One of the core tensions: is culture a public good or a real estate asset? Artists need affordable workspaces, not luxury condos. Yet arts districts themselves lure investment, which can push out the very creatives who made them desirable.
The city is attempting grant programs like Artist-in-Residence placements, Arts Workforce Empowerment (AWE), and a Cultural Equity & Inclusion Initiative (CEII) to balance the strain. But such programs often require continual funding renewal and political goodwill.
Still, L.A. has an advantage: it boasts more working artists per capita than any major U.S. metro. Over 3,499 nonprofit arts organizations and a creative economy contributing over $164 billion in value make culture central, not marginal, to its identity.
The coming decade may be won or lost in how the city chooses to protect, invest in, and regulate this cultural infrastructure. Because identity, memory, and innovation all depend on space.
