Downtown Los Angeles’ Cultural Renaissance Draws Global Recognition

Internationally recognized as center stage for the world of film and entertainment, Los Angeles has greatly expanded its cultural repertoire, becoming a world-class destination for art, music, fashion and food. And nowhere is that dramatic shift more apparent than in downtown Los Angeles, aka DTLA. Los Angeles is now home to more than 1,0000 annual theatrical productions, over 800 museums and art galleries, and some of the nation’s leading institutions for art, design, creative media, and architecture.

According to Nick Griffin, Vice President of Economic Development for the Downtown Center Business Improvement District (DCBID), “There are more actors, artists, dancers, filmmakers, musicians, and writers working in Los Angeles than in any other city, at any other time in history. In fact, one in every six people are employed in the creative industries, generating more than $190 billion a year in economic output.”

Griffin continued, “The arts and culture scene in DTLA’s Bunker Hill district is akin to Lincoln Center in New York, with a collection of major venues concentrated in a four-block area, that together account for more than 2.5 million visitors annually. When you include the cultural offerings in the surrounding areas of DTLA, it is like Lincoln Center, Times Square, the Chelsea Gallery district, and the Brooklyn hipster scene all rolled into one.”

The Downtown Center Business Improvement District (DCBID) has cataloged and quantified this abundance of culture and its economic impact in their Arts & Culture Report, available for download: https://www.downtownla.com/images/DCBID.Arts-and-Culture-report.pdf

The highly acclaimed venues on Bunker Hill include the famed Walt Disney Concert Hall, including REDCAT theater; The Music Center, comprised of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the Ahmanson Theatre and Mark Taper Forum; MOCA, Los Angeles, one of the world’s defining museums of contemporary art; the Colburn School for performing arts; and the newest major addition: The Broad museum which attracted more than 820,000 visitors in its first year alone.

Downtown’s expanding array of cultural institutions includes the A+D Architecture and Design Museum, Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles, Institute of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, Southern California Institute of Architecture, The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, the Main Museum of Los Angeles, The Grammy Museum, among many others.

Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) recently released a statement calculating that about 20.4 million people a year visit DTLA’s LA Live and Staples Center complex, surpassing the estimated attendance for Disneyland last year (18.3).

One of the world’s most eagerly anticipated new cultural experiences is coming to Los Angeles – the $1 billion Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. When it opens in 2021, it will join the California Science Center, the Natural History Museum, the California African American Museum, USC Fisher Museum of Art, the Space Shuttle Endeavor exhibit, and the Exposition Rose Garden.

Add in the dynamic mix of independent galleries, historic theaters, murals, monuments, cultural centers, and public art and performance programming, and it is time to acknowledge that DTLA has come into its own as an international powerhouse for art and culture.

About Downtown Center Business Improvement District

ABOUT THE DOWNTOWN CENTER BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT (DCBID)
The Downtown Center Business Improvement District (DCBID) has been the catalyst in Downtown Los Angeles’ transformation into a vibrant 24/7 neighborhood. A coalition of nearly 1,700 property owners in the central business district, the DCBID members are united in their commitment to enhance the quality of life in Downtown Los Angeles. Bounded by the Harbor Freeway to the west, First Street to the north, Main and Hill streets to the east, and Olympic Boulevard to the south, the organization helps the 65-block central business district achieve its full potential as a great place to live, work, and play. For 20 years, the DCBID’s programs and initiatives have been the driving force behind the Downtown Los Angeles Renaissance.

Now universally recognized as one of the nation’s most dynamic urban centers, downtown Los Angeles has been heralded as ‘The Next Great American City’ by GQ Magazine; listed as number 5 in The New York Times’ ‘52 Places to Go in 2014’; and named ‘The Hottest Neighborhood to Know in LA Right Now’ by the New York Post. For more information, visit DowntownLA.com/about