City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs

01 Jun City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs

Since 1993, Melissa Richardson Banks has worked or partnered with the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) in a variety of ways. For example, she has served – multiple times – as a reviewer of submissions to the DCA’s Cultural Grants Program. DCA has awarded numerous grants and provided promotional support to a large number of clients and projects represented by CauseConnect. DCA has also hired CauseConnect to work with community projects. For DCA’s “Festival Encouragement Project” (FEP), a program co-created by the department with the Center for Cultural Innovation, CauseConnect was hired to work with community organizers of the annual Cuban Music Festival. During 2005-2010, CauseConnect partnered with DCA on a multi-year, multi-venue series of public programs about noted Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros that later resulted in a groundbreaking exhibition at the Autry Museum of Western Heritage. Over the years, Melissa has supported the annual Latino Heritage Month festival guide by providing written promotional materials and artwork submissions.