LA Commons, a project of Community Partners

Founded by Karen Mack based on her vision of deepening connections among Angelenos, LA Commons helps LA’s diverse neighborhoods give voice to unique stories through our innovative community-based arts program called Neighborhood Story Connection. Developed by artists in collaboration with local youth, these impactful projects create a genuine artistic expression illuminating important aspects of community culture or history. Since programming activities began, we have built our organizational infrastructure and successfully sustained work to develop grass-roots initiatives in 11 low-income neighborhoods: MacArthur Park, Koreatown, Expo Park, Chinatown, Mid-City, Sylmar, East Hollywood, Palms, Leimert Park, South Los Angeles and Highland Park. These programs implemented with a network of partners have brought together 350 artists and 900 youth, along with over 10,000 community members. We introduced Trekking LA to enable visitors to experience these arts and cultural projects, as well as the authentic food, music, festivals and rich cultural history of the communities.