Teaching Life Skills Through the Arts

Who We Are

ACLA (a.k.a. ArtsCorpsLA) is a public art and land collective that focuses on transforming unused urban land into dynamic art parks with localized, community-directed programing. La Tierra de la Culebra was the first of these parks, established over 20 years ago by artist Tricia Ward and 35 youth volunteers in the neighborhood of Highland Park. While we continue our work with the visual arts, dance, landscape design, and academia as an example of community-directed public space, we are also engaged in the creation of our fifth art park, the Spiraling Orchard.

Many of the young people who built our parks and learned these skills in our program come back and work with the next generation. The majority of our staff, volunteers and board members are people who grew up in ACLA.

What We Need & What You Get

The County of Los Angeles has offered to reward our efforts with a grant of $19,000. Our task is to raise a matching amount so that we can expand music and arts programming, create permaculture demonstration gardens, and further develop on-site internships for local youth.

Donate now and claim one of the truly unique perks on the right side of this page. Over a span of twenty years we’ve been able to create a lot of amazing art and we would like to share some of it with you.

Tricia Ward-designed Spiraling Culebra screen prints.

Intriguing, hand poured, one-of-a-kind 4x4 iron and aluminum tiles that will beautifully accent any tile patio or staircase.

Have your name--or someone else's--engraved on a brick in our new "John Maroney Pavilion" at Spiraling Orchard Art Park.

These are gifts you’ll be proud to display simply because of their beauty, but through your support of ACLA you can be extra proud that your aesthetic taste will result in the continuation of teaching youth life skills through the arts.

The Impact

Our program works with young people to

• Support their ability to think critically about themselves and the world around them

• Develop leadership and life skills

• Create greater autonomy and independence in their passage to adulthood

• Increase locally focused civic engagement by community members of all ages

• Create cleaner, healthier local environments

We do this through

• The visual arts

• Music and performance

• Project management

Other Ways You Can Help

Please spread the word about us to your family and friends who support art as a way of teaching young people valuable life skills.

Post our campaign on your Facebook wall and Twitter with a personal endorsement of the work we do.

Come on out to our parks and volunteer!