LA28 plans citywide Cultural Olympiad to spotlight local artists and communities

LA28 is betting that the Olympics can leave behind more than stadiums and medal counts. The organizing committee plans a citywide Cultural Olympiad built around local artists, immigrant communities and neighborhood venues, with programming that reaches film, food, fashion, music, performance and visual arts across Greater Los Angeles.

The effort is meant to run alongside the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, not as decoration but as part of the event itself. Nora Halpern, LA28’s executive director of the Cultural Olympiad, said the program would be built “from the community level up” after two years of meetings with more than 300 local arts organizations. She also described it as “a celebration of culture by and for Los Angeles,” a signal that the project is meant to feel owned by the city rather than merely staged in it. Organizers said they will try to reduce or eliminate admission fees for some events and highlight free programming already taking place across the region so that residents without tickets can still take part.

The city’s cultural affairs department has given the plan a formal policy frame. Its 2028 Cultural Program framework says the Games agreement requires coordination between the city and LA28 and calls for local events, festivals and cultural experiences that showcase Los Angeles-based artists, neighborhood organizations and cultural producers. The framework covers visual arts, exhibitions, music, dance, theater, film, literary arts, fashion, design, culinary arts and multidisciplinary work. It also says the program is intended to support creative-sector jobs, free community programming and youth arts and education opportunities, making cultural spending part of the wider legacy argument around the Games.

LA28 is also building the infrastructure to turn that promise into something measurable. The committee plans to launch a digital calendar and mapping tool in January 2028 to direct residents and visitors to cultural events before, during and after the Games, with the platform intended to remain as a legacy resource afterward. Organizations will be able to apply in 2027 for an official Cultural Olympiad mark at no cost, folding their events into LA28 marketing. The program will also commission 16 official posters, split evenly between the Olympics and Paralympics, with a planned unveiling in July 2027.

The cultural push sits inside LA28’s broader branding campaign, unveiled in March 2026 as “LA in full bloom.” The look of the Games uses 13 patterns called “blooms” and four typefaces inspired by Los Angeles street signage. LA28 named Maria Arena Bell chair of the Cultural Olympiad on June 13, 2024, saying she would serve as an unpaid volunteer reporting to Casey Wasserman while helping shape originated artistic content, performances, exhibitions and an education component. The City of Los Angeles says its own framework draws lessons from Paris 2024, while the International Olympic Committee has said host cities should deliver social, environmental and economic benefits that start long before the opening ceremony and continue long after the closing one.