LOS ANGELES – The Music Center Plaza just got a $41-million makeover and the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians performed a traditional ceremony to bless the site along with LA Arts Commissioner Tim Dang.

It is a fitting day for Dang. He served as the Producing Artistic Director of the East West Players, the longest running theater of color for 23 years, but his new appointment as LA Arts Commissioner reveals greater challenges for the arts leader.

“One of the challenges is that we need to build our pipeline,” said Dang. “We have a great internship program that the Los Angeles Department of Arts and Culture has instituted many years ago and we’ve just expanded to 200 interns this past summer. We have a history of employing those interns so creating the pipeline and expanding that pipeline is very important.”

A price tag of $41 million is a lot of money, so why did L.A. County invest so much to upgrade the Music Center Plaza?

“One in seven jobs in Los Angeles County exists in the creative economy or is related to the creative economy,” said Dang. “That is the film and television industry, the music industry, the performing arts, visual arts, fashion design, architecture, literary. There is so much that exist in Los Angeles County.”  

Appointed by County Supervisor Hilda Solis, Dang is working to provide access to arts and opportunities for artists as well.

“So good you guys are on time,” joked Dang to a group of actors arriving to the theatre.

Dang is still directing for the stage. His latest play, a stage adaptation of The Joy Luck Club is open now at the Sierra Madre Playhouse, which gives actors or color the chance to perform.

“Through telling our stories and this county has a lot of stories to tell because we are such a diverse county with so many cultures, so many languages, that through the telling of these stories, we understand our neighbors so much better,” said Dang.