artworxLA Honors Kristin Sakoda at its 27th Annual Evening of Art.

Kristin Sakoda is the Executive Director of the Los Angeles County Arts Commission providing leadership in arts and culture countywide.

Kristin Sakoda photographed at artworxLA's Elevate website launch.

A creative professional with over 20 years of experience in the cultural field, Ms. Sakoda is an arts executive, attorney, and artist who most recently served as Deputy Commissioner & General Counsel of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA), the largest municipal arts funder in the U.S. providing grants and technical assistance to more than 900 cultural organizations each year with an annual expense budget of $180M. 

Kristin Sakoda at the Arts Datathon: Collections at the Bob Hope Patriotic Hall on April 27, 2018.

Kristin Sakoda (pictured center left) at a WOCA conference in Oakland, California.

In her role at DCLA, Ms. Sakoda advanced a wide range of strategic, programmatic, legislative, and policy initiatives. Her portfolio included capital projects at cultural facilities, public art, diversity and inclusion, and affordable workspace for artists. She simultaneously served as chief legal officer of the agency and with a diverse legal practice of intellectual property, nonprofit governance, contracts, real estate andregulation. She also served as chief executive officer of the city’s Theater Subdistrict Council awarding grants to cultivate diversity and inclusion on Broadway and beyond.

Ms. Sakoda is also a creative professional and lifelong arts practitioner whose work continues to be informed by her professional career in dance, music, theater and songwriting. Ms. Sakoda holds a J.D. from NYU School of Law, where she received the Jack J. Katz Memorial Award for Excellence in Entertainment Law, and a B.A. from Stanford University in American Studies, with a specialization in Race and Ethnicity, and a secondary major in Feminist Studies.