Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture announced Thursday the opening of the 2020 Arts Internship Program, the 20th anniversary of the nation’s largest paid arts internship program. In response to the COVID-19 public health crisis, adjustments have been made to create more flexibility for students and host organizations, including Canyon Theatre Guild and Santa Clarita Shakespeare Festival, while retaining the values of the program.

The 2020 Arts Internship Program will provide nearly 200 university and community college students of diverse backgrounds with paid experience at more than 140 nonprofit organizations across Los Angeles County. The program provides students the opportunity to build their professional skills and connections while completing projects related to education, marketing, graphic design, fundraising, programming, production, and more. Host organizations range in budget size and include nonprofits in a range of artistic disciplines such as theater, dance, multimedia, and film. With a budget of $1.3M, the 2020 Arts Internship Program marks the County’s largest investment in creative career pathways and work-based learning for young adults.

In order to meet the County of Los Angeles’ Safer at Work and in the Community reopening guidelines, the 2020 Arts Internship Program has made several adjustments including a longer timeline, part-time internships, and the ability for students to work remotely. A typical Arts Internship is 400 hours of work, 40-hours per week over 10 weeks. Although students must still complete 400 hours, internships can range from 10 weeks (a full-time schedule) to 27 weeks (a part-time schedule of 15 hours per week). To accommodate the new schedule and to provide host organizations the necessary time to comply with Los Angeles County Public Health guidelines around reopening, the end date for internships funded by the 2020 grant has been extended to March 1, 2021. Arts internship opportunities will be posted on July 15, 2020, with more added as they become available.

“For 20 years, the LA County Arts Internship Program has provided meaningful career pathways into the region’s creative economy. These internships develop the arts leaders of tomorrow, as students gain valuable work experience, develop job skills, and make connections,” said Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture Director Kristin Sakoda. “The recent expansion of the program is a key component of the County’s Cultural Equity and Inclusion Initiative—opening up channels for young people that reflect the diversity of our County to learn about and gain skills in the arts and creative sector. And with people ages 16 – 34 experiencing some of the highest unemployment rates due to the effects of the pandemic, this program provides salary support at a crucial time.”

“Over the past 20 years, the Arts Internship Program has provided more than 2,489 interns, who have worked more than 995,000 hours, supporting hundreds of nonprofit arts organizations,” added Director of Grants and Professional Development Anji Gaspar-Milanovic. “The adjustments we’ve made to the program this year will allow students the flexibility to attend school and work remotely, while providing host organizations time to recalibrate and stabilize.”

In addition to work experience, interns typically take part in educational and networking activities and meet in peer groups to explore themes such as arts education, entering the job market, artist careers, and the intersection of arts and social justice. These educational components, which are generously supported by the Getty Foundation, will be virtual and will take place between August 2020 and February 2021. The Getty Foundation supports internships at LA County museums and visual arts organizations through its Getty Marrow Undergraduate Internship Program, a companion to the Department of Arts and Culture’s Arts Internship Program.

One of the five initial recommendations of the Cultural Equity and Inclusion Initiative funded by the Board of Supervisors in 2017 was an expansion of the Arts Internship Program, which led to an increase in the number of internships and greater inclusion of community college students. In the last three years, the participation of community college students has more than quadrupled from a few each year to 48 students in 2019, nearly a fourth of the total internship pool. This year, grantees of the Department of Arts and Culture’s Community Impact Arts Grant (CIAG) program were eligible to apply to host interns for the first time for projects rooted in arts programming that support their social service and social justice missions. With the continued expansion of the number of positions and new internship projects exploring cross-sector applications of the arts, the Arts Internship Program continues to advance values of equity and inclusion while increasing access to arts careers.

Applications for the program open July 15, 2020. Any current undergraduate students, as well as students graduating between May 1 – September 1, are eligible to apply. All applicants must be currently enrolled in a community college or four-year college or university. Applicants must also be residents of or attending schools that are located in Los Angeles County, and they cannot be previous participants of the Program. Eligible students of diverse backgrounds are encouraged to apply.

Students who wish to apply may do so by identifying the opportunities they are interested in at lacountyarts.org/internships, and applying directly to the host organizations. These positions will be posted online beginning July 15, 2020, so students are encouraged to apply early and to visit the page regularly as positions become available on a rolling basis.

The mission of the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture is to advance arts, culture, and creativity throughout L.A. County. We fulfill our mission by providing services and support in areas including grants and technical assistance for nonprofit organizations; professional development opportunities; commissioning civic artworks and managing the County’s civic art collection; implementing countywide arts education initiatives; research and evaluation; career pathways in the creative economy; free community programs; and cross sector creative strategies that address civic issues. This work is framed by the County’s Cultural Equity and Inclusion Initiative and a longstanding commitment to fostering access to the arts.