Each year the City of Los Angeles awards roughly a dozen substantial grants to individual mid-career visual, performing, and literary artists whose work does the city proud. The exhibition opens mid-May at the LA Municipal Art Gallery, and there are performance dates throughout the summer at off-site locations; by all accounts, the artists are currently working around the clock to prepare the new works supported by the grants. Tonight they come out of their studios for a much-needed break at an early cocktail party in their honor, hosted by the Department of Cultural Affairs.