Depending upon the City’s budget, COLA-IMAP awards of $10,000 are recommended to selected individual artists in May-June of the year following application.
Proposed COLA projects should be primarily solo in nature, although performing artists may include a small number of unaffiliated players on stage to fulfill their vision. Honoraria to compensate these players must be budgeted within the $10,000 grant. COLA is not a category for groups or ensembles.
The selected artist is legally contracted to create one or more new works to be premiered by DCA in one or more presentations in the Spring of 2027. COLA-IMAP grant payments are disbursed over four installments, based on the completion of project-specific contract-specified benchmarks.
All COLA-IMAP projects must culminate in a public premiere by DCA of next work (not previously created or released in any way) and finished in the last eight months. COLA-IMAP artists are encouraged to invest in producing tours, studio recordings and films of these same new works in the following years after the work is created and presented for a COLA stipend. Dancers applying for dance films should do so under the visual design category and prepare their film to compete against other media artists. Dance films are presented in the LA Municipal Art Gallery (as a video installation), and not at Grand Performances.