Located in Pomona, AMOCA is one of the few museums in the country dedicated solely to ceramic art and the only one of its kind on the West Coast. The museum champions the art, history, creation, and technology of ceramics through exhibitions, collections, outreach, and studio programming.

The PAA is funding the exhibition Fractured Foundations which marks the nation’s 250th anniversary with ceramic art reflecting on overlooked events that demonstrate resilience amid injustice caused by federal, state, or local policies. This exhibition reexamines key U.S. historical moments to challenge dominant narratives and reveal overlooked perspectives, encouraging critical dialogue on how history is retold. The show will run June 27, 2026 through November 29, 2026.

Established in 1930, ArtCenter College of Design is a global leader in art and design education. ArtCenter’s visionary approach to education is based on the college’s conservatory-like method of teaching and learning; a desire for rich, intercultural and transdisciplinary dialogue; and a mandate to provide students innovative learning and making spaces.

The PAA is funding the exhibition Dorr Bothwell: In Her Mind’s Eye which will generate exposure and create new scholarship on the life and work of Dorr Bothwell (1902-2000), a California-born artist underrecognized for her role in shaping West Coast Surrealism. The first full survey exhibition of Bothwell’s work, this project will present approximately 50 highly distinctive paintings and works on paper drawn from several different periods of her career.

The Benton Art Museum at Pomona College serves as museum and gallery, overseeing the college’s permanent art collections and mounting a variety of temporary contemporary exhibitions during the academic year. The museum originates innovative art experiences that foster creative and critical thinking.

The PAA grant will support the exhibition Sound and Vision, a site-specific installation featuring the signature bell sculptures of contemporary artist Davina Semo. Works will be installed in multiple interior and exterior galleries and the related yet distinct experiences of these installations will chart an itinerary around the museum parallel to the recursive experiences associated with bells. The installation will be on view August 21, 2026 through January 4, 2027.

The CSU Dominguez Hills University Art Gallery serves the campus and broader community as a laboratory for contemporary art and design practices, presenting exhibitions and programming. The University Art Gallery is deeply committed to building a creative and innovative art and design culture that celebrates artists and engages audiences.

me and you… let’s get away… is an exhibition of Los Angeles–based artists Juan Capistrán and Hazel Mandujano which will present individual works from both artists, collaborative pieces, and a reconstruction of mandujano/cell, the gallery space they operated together. The exhibition will highlight their bold, interdisciplinary exploration of race, politics, class, memory, mortality, and popular culture through painting, sculpture, installation, and video. Together, Capistrán and Mandujano often collaborate to fuse their conceptual practices, with Capistrán’s sharp political commentary and Mandujano’s explorations of memory and transcendence generating resonant, multifaceted works. This exhibition is scheduled to run August 19 through December 19, 2026.

The Claremont Lewis Museum of Art is dedicated to celebrating the community’s rich artistic legacy and promoting the cultural vitality of Claremont and the San Gabriel Valley region. Through exhibitions, events, and programs, CLMA presents critical explorations of the past, present, and future of artistic production. CLMA also strives to establish a balance between highlighting the local community and engaging with broader global themes, including issues of representation in American society.

PAA funds will support Julian Lucas: Happiness Pursued. Paradise Lost., a solo exhibition by artist Julian Lucas, centering around the 250th Anniversary of the USA and the role of home/dislocation in the American Dream. It is based on the assertion that home is a state of mind and the American Dream is stratified in relationship to race and access to power. The exhibition will focus on multiple photographic series by Lucas, all of which center around the concept of home and the contrasting forces of displacement and loss. So much of this pursuit and the American Dream of equality and opportunity is tied to home, not just the dream of home ownership, but the idea of home as a connection to place and a feeling of belonging. The show will be on view April 4 though July 26, 2026.

Founded in 2015, Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles (Carla) is a Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization and publishing platform that is dedicated to providing inclusive perspectives on contemporary art. Publishing in both print and online, Carla is an active source of critical dialogue on LA’s art community; the magazine serves as a centralized space for art writing that is bold, honest, approachable, and focused on the here and now.

The PAA grant will support the production of two issues of Carla magazine and the accompanying public events: Los Angeles History and New Approaches to Making. Each issue will look to the past of LA’s art production in order to reframe the present. Keeping language accessible, Carla omits elitism that dominates art world conversations with a mission to change what gets written about, who does that writing, and who that writing reaches. Every article gives voice to visual art in Los Angeles while advancing professional support for artists and writers. Carla platforms artists, connecting them to a broader audience of collectors and readers.

Founded as a museum in 1973, Craft Contemporary reveals the potential of craft to educate, captivate, provoke, and empower. With a focus on contemporary art made from craft media and processes, Craft Contemporary presents dynamic exhibitions by established and emerging artists and designers who are often underrepresented in larger art institutions, and also cultivates an environment for people in Los Angeles to deepen their relationship to art, creativity, and one another.

In support of tierra, an innovative thematic group exhibition featuring Indigenous, Latinx, and immigrant artists that explore material and identity-based politics through clay and earth-based media. The exhibition will be the first museum show for many emerging and underrepresented artists thereby exposing visitors to contemporary visual art from diverse and new voices about land politics and identity and will include craft-based, visual artworks that explore the connections between craft, soil, and earth, creating an immersive experience. The exhibition will open May 31, 2026 through October 25, 2026.

Craft in America is a Los Angeles-based nonprofit arts organization founded in 2004 with the mission to promote and advance original handcrafted work through programs in all media. These programs are filled with artists, techniques, and stories from diverse cultures, blending history with living practice. The Craft in America Center is a learning and art space open to the public with exhibitions, a permanent collection, research library, talks by artists and scholars, and workshops.

In support of the exhibition Laura Andreson and Her Legacy which highlights the long-term impact Andreson had on the SoCal clay movement, contemporary sculpture, and design, as a UCLA educator and overall innovator in ceramic forms and surfaces. Andreson—like many of her peers who defied artistic hierarchies—straddled the worlds of craft, art and design. The project will seek to highlight Andreson’s unwavering and profound interest in form, surface, texture and glaze, and relate these to the birth of studio ceramics as a contemporary art medium. The show will run September 26, 2026 through January 9, 2027.

Descanso Gardens is a 150-acre botanical garden located in La Cañada Flintridge. Open to the public in 1950, it is an urban retreat known for its significant botanical collections, nestled under groves of more than a thousand twisting Coast Live Oaks. Descanso Gardens focuses on exhibitions and programs that engage artists and the visiting public in conversation about the evolving human relationship with the natural world, how gardens and plants are part of people’s lives today, and how a diversity of voices reveals surprising connections to nature.

PAA funds will support Sound of Water, an exhibition commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Japanese Garden at Descanso Gardens. This all-female contemporary artist exhibition will explore the significant role of water, a fundamental and vital element in Japanese gardens, symbolizing renewal, life, and purity. The exhibition will explore this element as a source of beauty, softness, and calm, as well as a powerful, threatening force in our lives, especially as we face an increasingly extreme climate throughout the world. The exhibition will be on view at Sturt Haaga Gallery beginning June 20, 2026 and run through January 3, 2027.

The Fowler Museum at UCLA explores global arts and culture with an emphasis on Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and the Indigenous Americas—past and present. The Fowler enhances understanding and appreciation of the diverse peoples, cultures, and religions of the world through exhibitions, publications, and public programs deeply informed by the perspectives of the cultures represented.

Textiles as Monument is an exhibition featuring three contemporary artists who transform textiles into monuments that remember and reimagine marginalized histories. The artists utilize textiles—both in material and meaning—to create large-scale sculptural works. Textiles as Monument will center new artist commissions made in collaboration with, and in many ways made for, communities that have been rendered invisible by systemic oppressions and the biases of history-making. These works, therefore, function as “counter-monuments” that honor and embody the historical memories of those who have not received adequate recognition in the past. This exhibition will open August 9, 2026 and run through November 2026.

Located in Pasadena, Fulcrum Arts empowers artists to invent, inspire and provoke, and also provides resources and opportunities for artists, collectives and independent arts organizations to advance their visions and contribute to a vibrant, challenging and inclusive community.

The PAA grant will support Julie Tolentino: Candela/Chandelier, an immersive sculptural installation, where the artist explores the radical eros of collectivity and embodied memory through a monumental new kinetic work and video installation. The room-sized piece engages with time-based movement to construct a monolithic, crystal amalgamate sculpture, forming over donated human hair of loved ones, which grows each day through routine submersion into a mineral solution tank. The exhibition will be on view October 2026 through January 2027.

The Hammer Museum at UCLA believes in the promise of art and ideas to illuminate our lives and build a more just world. It champions the art and artists who challenge us to see the world in a new light, to experience the unexpected, to ignite our imaginations, and inspire change. A vibrant intellectual and creative nexus, the Hammer is fueled by dynamic exhibitions and programs—including lectures, symposia, film series, readings, and musical performances—that spark meaningful encounters with art and ideas.

In support of Space is the Place, an exhibition of contemporary artwork that considers “space” as a conceptual framework and a mode of being. Derived from the Hammer Contemporary Collection, Mohn Art Collective, UCLA Grunwald Collection, and with the addition of 1-2 newly created works, this exhibition will be guided by three main themes: placemaking and belonging, taking up space as an act or gesture, and Afrofuturism. These works are vital examples of contemporary practice, collected by the museum for their cultural resonance and their power to reflect on the urgent questions and experiences of our time. The show may be seen April 4 through September 6, 2026.

Based in San Marino, The Huntington shares its world-renowned collections to support scholarship, foster learning, inspire creativity, and offer transformative experiences for diverse audiences.

In support of The Laura Aguilar Exhibition Series which will celebrate the recent acquisition of a large and significant collection of photographs by Los Angeles-born, Chicana photographer Laura Aguilar (1959–2018). The series will feature two sequential exhibitions: Body and Landscape and Day of the Dead. These presentations will explore a variety of themes and subject matter within Aguilar’s photography—from Lesbian and Chicana identity to interventions with the Western landscape to the politics and culture of marginalized communities in Los Angeles. The exhibition will be on view March 22, 2026 through February 28, 2027.

The Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA-LA) is a non-collecting museum considered an epicenter of artistic experimentation and incubator of new ideas. Founded in 1984, the current ICA-LA builds upon a distinguished history of exhibitions, education, and public programs.

PAA will provide support for the exhibition Speaking in Tongues, a timely thematic exhibition that brings together an intergenerational and international group of artists who embrace the role of art as a conduit to the spiritual. Varied in religious expressions, beliefs, and socio-political contexts, the artists explore and expand notions of the sacred, the mystical, and the divine. This exhibition will take place April 4 through August 23, 2026.

JOAN is a Los Angeles-based nonprofit art space for exhibitions, performances, screenings, and discursive events. Founded in 2015 by three female curators, and inspired by the history of feminist performance spaces, JOAN supports experimental practices that exist outside of commercial contexts and aims to enrich the communities it serves with free, public programming that is intellectually stimulating and that has creative, cultural, and educational value.

The PAA grant will support Ali Eyal: Where Does a Thought Go When It’s Forgotten?, a solo exhibition by Los Angeles and Baghdad-based artist Ali Eyal. Eyal’s practice spans painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, and performance, and is deeply shaped by his experience growing up during the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. His work channels fragmented memories of displacement, loss, and cultural destruction into poetic, multidisciplinary forms that reflect on both personal and collective histories. The show will run September 18 through December 19, 2026.

The Library Foundation of Los Angeles provides critical support to the Los Angeles Public Library resulting in free programs, resources, and services available to the millions of adults, children, and youth in Los Angeles. Through fundraising, advocacy, and innovative programs, the Library Foundation strengthens the Los Angeles Public Library and promotes greater awareness of its valuable resources.

PAA funds will support the World’s Largest Pop-Up Book created by local artist and printmaker Daniel González as part of LA Central Library’s yearlong centennial celebration. Far from a novelty, this project highlights the rich history of bookmaking and book arts, its relevance to the public library and Los Angeles, and its significance as a cultural milestone and will be a staggering work of contemporary art. The installation is scheduled to be on view July 11 through November 29, 2026.

Founded in 1950, the LBMA is a nationally recognized, community-focused art institution that owns and maintains a permanent collection of over 4,300 art objects spanning all media and cultures and covering three centuries of American, European, and international art. Along with a lively schedule of rotating exhibitions, the Museum specializes in California art, California modernism, art created by Southern California women since the 1950s, early 20th-century European art, decorative arts, and fine crafts.

Holding Time: Works of Elyse Pignolet and MyungJin Kim is an exhibition featuring the bold and innovative practices of Los Angeles-based master ceramicists Elyse Pignolet and MyungJin Kim. This two-person exhibition features contemporary women artists who blend ancient ceramic techniques with modern themes, offering fresh and thought-provoking views on cultural history and today’s societal issues. It will showcase up to 40 recent and/or new sculptural works, along with a curated selection of paper pieces, tapestries, and tile-based works. The exhibition runs March 20 through June 7, 2026.

Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE) both champions and challenges the art of our time by fostering artists who innovate, explore and risk. By moving within and beyond its four walls, LACE seeks to provide opportunities for diverse audiences to engage deeply with contemporary art. Uniquely positioned among commercial galleries and major art establishments in the heart of Hollywood, LACE has nurtured not only several generations of young artists, but also emerging art forms such as performance art, video art, digital art, and installations.

Poetics of Possibility presents new artist commissions addressing interconnectedness, radical kinship, collective care, and LACE’s neighborhood of Hollywood. The participating artists have multidisciplinary practices that intersect with research, activism, community engagement, pedagogy and commitment to social justice and were selected due to their community engagement and advocacy embedded in their practice. This will be the inaugural exhibition at LACE’s newly-renovated building. The show will be on view August 1, 2026 through February 28, 2027.

LACMA is the largest encyclopedic museum in the western United States with a collection that includes more than 139,000 objects from ancient times to the present from all corners of the globe. LACMA’s mission is to serve the public through the collection, conservation, exhibition, and interpretation of significant works of art from a broad range of cultures and historical periods.

The PAA grant will help fund the exhibition Textile Alchemy: The Art of Reiko Sudo & NUNO which will highlight collections that have spanned Sudō’s prolific career as creative director of NUNO, an innovative textile design collective based in Tokyo. It will trace her artistic journey to become an internationally renowned textile designer which has been one of determination, ingenuity, diplomacy, and socio-ecological activism. The exhibition will consider Sudō’s diverse collaborations with architects, artisans, and designers, and examine how her innovative textiles, made exclusively in Japan, are helping to preserve regional crafts and historic production centers while considering sustainability issues. The exhibition will be on view in the Resnick Pavilion September 20, 2026 through March 7, 2027.

Materials & Applications (M&A) is a Los Angeles-based non-profit cultural organization dedicated to building a public culture of experimental architecture. With a focus on architectural ideas and processes, M&A curates critical exhibitions and commissions new work by under-recognized architects, designers, and artists. Since 2002, M&A has produced more than 20 temporary site-specific installations and over 100 programs presenting new ideas in art, architecture, and design.

To support the site-specific installation Earthen Comforts: Airing Earth at the Craft Contemporary courtyard which stages mass and fiber as shared infrastructures for collective comfort in the Los Angeles summer. Earthen columns are paired with a lightweight, collectively woven canopy to create layered microclimates, offering visitors differentiated experiences of light, atmosphere, temperature, and texture. Thermal design is reframed as a civic concern, cultivated through shared practices rather than individualized air-conditioning. Together, these efforts foreground shared learning and experimental craft practice as urgent responses to increasing heat insecurity. The installation will be on view May 31 through October 25, 2026.

Middle Ear Project is a Pasadena-based, artist-run, multidisciplinary arts presenter founded in 2020. Its mission is to support and fairly compensate artists for creating new work; provide innovative ways for the public to meaningfully engage with contemporary art, including audiences who struggle to access traditional gallery spaces due to disability, caregiving, or geographic; and to connect local audiences with artists in their communities. Its programming includes the Library Arts Program, local screenings of art films, and a monthly virtual series exploring visual, film, and sound art.

PAA funding will support the Library Arts Program which provides free access to contemporary visual art in collaboration with three public library districts: Los Angeles Public Libraries, Pasadena Public Libraries, and Altadena Library District. Every two months, Middle Ear Project will supply each library with 100 high-quality 4”x6” prints of contemporary art for patrons to take home and keep. The prints are displayed alongside librarian-selected books that highlight themes from the artwork.

The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) was founded in 1979 by artists, philanthropists, and civic leaders with the mission of building the defining museum of contemporary art. By providing a dynamic, interactive forum, the museum is able to introduce contemporary art to a large audience. MOCA serves over 300,000 visitors annually at two unique locations that make contemporary art readily accessible to the diverse communities of Los Angeles.

In support of an exhibition Michael Asher, a focused, tightly argued survey that presents twenty projects via their material elements, documentation, and an accompanying exhibition guide. Produced for a specific time and place, Asher’s work intrinsically questions both the possibility and value of retrospective display. This survey of the influential, LA-based conceptual artist was organized by Artists Space in New York, and will travel to Los Angeles, where it will be on view at MOCA for six months, from February 24 through August 2, 2026.

The mission of The Galleries at PCC is to present high-caliber exhibitions of local contemporary visual artists and to provide an opportunity for students to view and discuss challenging works, interact with artists and arts professionals, and have their art exhibited to professional standards.

PAA funds will support two Artist-in-Residence exhibitions by artists Mark Steven Greenfield and Devon Tsuno. Greenfield is a luminary in African-American art and his work reframes historical representations of black people and the African-Diaspora in graphics, photography and painting into new works that challenge viewers to confront societal realities and celebrate cultural heritage. Tsuno’s art is rooted in the landscape and waterways of Los Angeles, where he explores the intersections of ecology, community, and representation. His practice spans painting, printmaking, and social engagement, often drawing attention to the overlooked rivers, invasive plants, and contested green spaces of Southern California.

Founded in 1983, the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery at Scripps College presents exhibitions spanning a wide range of art. Whether historical or contemporary, exhibitions enrich the teaching of art and humanities at Scripps as well as the cultural community of Claremont and environs. Since 1996, the Williamson Gallery has invited guest curators to organize the annual ceramics exhibition.

The PAA grant will help fund the 82nd Scripps College Ceramic Annual—the latest iteration of the nation’s longest-running ceramics exhibition. This year’s Annual will explore the work of Japanese American artist Jun Kaneko, a pivotal figure in contemporary ceramics whose practice spans sculpture, painting, drawing, installation, and performance. Coinciding with Scripps College’s centennial, the exhibition celebrates an artist with deep ties to the College whose work has transformed the possibilities of the medium. The exhibit will run from February 6 through April 11, 2027.

The Skirball Cultural Center is a place of meeting guided by the Jewish tradition of welcoming the stranger and inspired by the American democratic ideals of freedom and equality. The Skirball welcomes people of all communities and generations to participate in cultural experiences that celebrate discovery and hope, foster human connections, and call upon us to help build a more just society. Open to the public since 1996, the Skirball is one of the world’s most dynamic Jewish cultural institutions and among the leading cultural venues in Los Angeles.

What We Carry begins with a simple gesture: bring a small heirloom and the story that travels with it. From that invitation, artist Jenny Yurshansky builds an exhibition where light, material, and memory meet—asking what we hold onto, what we pass along, and how contemporary art can make those questions visible. This exhibition is composed of newly created installations—3D‑printed replicas, backlit photograms, and a suite of fragile, playable X‑ray “bone records.” Drawn from community workshops led by Yurshansky, these works transform participant‑shared heirlooms and stories into a living archive that audiences encounter through image and object rather than didactic display. This show will run from October 2026 to March 2027.

The mission of the Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College is to serve as a unique educational resource for the diverse audiences of the college and the community through the exhibition, interpretation, collection, and preservation of works in all media of the visual arts. VPAM provides an environment to encounter a range of aesthetic expressions that illuminate the depth and diversity of artwork produced by people of the world, both contemporary and past.

In support of the installation Anida Yoeu Ali: The Buddhist Bug which will showcase the interdisciplinary artist Anida Yoeu Ali, whose interest in transcendence, humor, and spiritual turmoil results in complex works spanning performance, installation, new media, public encounters, and political agitation. The Buddhist Bug is a surreal and multi-layered artwork and project created by this Tacoma-based interdisciplinary artist and will inhabit multiple spaces throughout the museum. This show is scheduled to run June through October 2026.