California Creative Corps
About California Creative Corps
The 2021 State Budget included a $60 million one-time General Fund allocation for the California Arts Council to implement the California Creative Corps pilot program, a media, outreach, and engagement campaign designed to increase: (1) public health awareness messages to stop the spread of COVID-19; (2) public awareness related to water and energy conservation, climate mitigation, and emergency preparedness, relief, and recovery; (3) civic engagement, including election participation; and (4) social justice and community engagement.
The intention of the grant program was to provide as broad a geographic reach as possible and serve all 58 counties, while prioritizing communities that demonstrate the highest levels of need as indicated by the California Healthy Places Index, a data and policy platform created to advance health equity through open and accessible data. Funded Administering Organizations (AOs) and sub-grantee organizations, artists, and cultural practitioners were required to demonstrate strong, ongoing relationships with communities that fall within the lowest quartile of the California Healthy Places Index and would support meaningful engagements with those communities through this grant.
Grant guideline development began with the convening of California Creative Corps Community Development Panels, first by region and then with one statewide panel, including representatives from each region. The panels included artists, culture bearers, creative individuals, and arts administrators that represented the priority populations to be engaged, and who work in the intersectional focus areas of the Creative Corps program. The panels articulated their communities’ values, needs, and opportunities, and identified ways in which the Creative Corps program might address them. View the list of regional panelists here.
In the fall of 2022, fourteen organizations were approved by the Council body, following the adjudication process by a peer-review panel, to administer the process of regranting Creative Corps fundings in the regions identified in the organization application submissions. The grant activity period for the AOs took place from October 2022 to September 2024. For more information about the AOs and the recipients of the regranted Creative Corps funding in each region, visit the respective organization links below.
18th Street Arts Center logo
18th Street Arts Complex
Geographic Focus: Statewide
18th Street Arts Center’s California Creative Corps Fellows engaged with communities to provoke positive change in their cities and neighborhoods. Grant funding was re-allocated to artists to collaborate with communities to tackle systemic challenges: pollution, gentrification, healthcare, cultural identity, land management, and more.
18th Street Arts Center was awarded $3,306,599, including administrative costs, to regrant to artists throughout California.
Arts Collaborative of Nevada County/
Nevada County Arts Council logo
Arts Collaborative of Nevada County
Geographic Focus: Upstate
Nevada County Arts Council has wrapped up two years in service to 19 counties and 80 grantees, serving Northern California’s least represented communities in partnership with county arts agencies in each of these counties.
Nevada County Arts Council was awarded $4,230,216, including administrative costs, to regrant to artists within the region.
Community Partners logo
Community Partners
Geographic Focus: South
Community Partners awarded 33 California Arts Council’s CA Creative Corps Fellowship to artists and culture bearers based in Los Angeles and Orange Counties. The yearlong fellowship occurred from July 7, 2023 – July 31, 2024 and included a total grant of $100,000–$50,000 to support artists and culture bearers’ living expenses and $50,000 for project costs.
Community Partners was awarded $4,750,000, including administrative costs, to regrant to artists within the region.
Inland Empire Community Foundation logo
Inland Empire Community Foundation
Geographic Focus: Inland Empire
Creative Corps Inland SoCal, a state-funded initiative of the California Arts Council (CAC) in collaboration with the Inland Empire Community Foundation (IECF), Arts Connection – The Arts Council of San Bernardino County, Riverside Arts Council, and the California Desert Arts Council, regranted awards specifically designated for artists, community-based organizations, and public agencies, aimed to support creative initiatives that advanced awareness around public health, the environment, social justice, and civic participation.
Inland Empire Community Foundation was awarded $4,750,000, including administrative costs, to regrant to artists within the region.
Kern Dance Alliance logo
Kern Dance Alliance
Geographic Focus: Central Valley
The Kern Dance Alliance Creative Corps initiative made a meaningful impact across 14 counties and 154 zip codes, covering 46,217 square miles in underserved regions of California, supporting diverse projects across the Central Valley and Eastern Sierra, KDACC made a lasting impact across historically underfunded areas, including Kern, Kings, Tulare and Fresno counties.
Kern Dance Alliance was awarded $4,223,447, including administrative costs, to regrant to artists within the region.
Latino Community Foundation logo
Latino Community Foundation
Geographic Focus: Statewide
The PoderArte initiative uplifts Latino-led organizations and artists who are using art arts as a tool to strengthen community, reclaim narratives, and build civic power across California.
Latino Community Foundation was awarded $2,538,129, administrative costs, to regrant to artists throughout California.
Public Corporation for the Arts
of the City of Long Beach logo
Public Corporation for the Arts of the City of Long Beach
Geographic Focus: South
The Arts Council for Long Beach’s Creative Corps program sought to bring awareness to community health, environmental justice, social justice and uplifting specific communities, including people with disabilities and LGBTQIA2S+ populations.
The Arts Council for Long Beach was awarded $4,750,000, administrative costs, to regrant to artists within the region.
Sacramento Office of Arts and Culture logo
Sacramento Office of Arts and Culture
Geographic Focus: Capital Region
The Capitol Region Creative Corps selected organizations from Solano, Yolo, El Dorado, Alpine, and Sacramento counties. Working in the intersection of Community Engagement and the Arts, these organizations developed creative messaging using various art disciplines to reach underserved communities around the issues of climate change, public health, social justice, and the electoral process.
Sacramento Office of Arts and Culture was awarded $4,750,000, including administrative costs, to regrant to artists within the region.
San Francisco Foundation logo
San Francisco Foundation
Geographic Focus: Bay Area
Bay Area Creative Corps was aimed at advancing equity for artists and cultural practitioners by creating infrastructure development opportunities to increase and sustain the ways creative problem-solvers are engaged in public work. Arts and culture have the power to change minds, spark movements, and create a more just society for us all. We believe that with increased opportunities, resources, and collaboration, creative changemakers will lead the way to more equitable outcomes and a stronger workforce in the Bay Area, the State of California, and beyond.
San Francisco Foundation was awarded $4,750,000, including administrative costs, to regrant to artists within the region.
The Center for Cultural Power logo
The Center For Cultural Power
Geographic Focus: Statewide
The Center for Cultural Power provided two strands for their Creative Corps award opportunity for Culture Bearers and Artist Disruptors. Culture Bearers and Artists Disruptors were required to live and/or work in specific California zip codes (based on the California Healthy Places Index within the bottom 25th Quartile; HPI).
The Center for Cultural Power was awarded $2,871,393, including administrative costs, to regrant to artists throughout California
Santa Barbara County
Office of Arts and Culture logo
Santa Barbara County Office of Arts and Culture
Geographic Focus: Central Coast
The Central Coast Creative Corps, funded by the California Arts Council, facilitated a year-long program that connected local artists with community-based organizations across Monterey, Santa Cruz, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura counties.
The program invested in artists across various disciplines who collaboratively addressed civic engagement, public health, social justice, and climate resilience throughout the Central Coast. Through these partnerships, artists and community organizations developed impactful projects responding to pressing regional needs.
Santa Barbara County Office of Arts and Culture was awarded $4,750,000, including administrative costs, to regrant to artists within the region.
The City of San Diego
Commission for Arts and Culture logo
The City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture
Geographic Focus: Far South
Far South/Border North is a City of San Diego-led regional collaborative that supports artists and cultural practitioners working in service of the health and well-being of communities in San Diego and Imperial counties. Through Far South/Border North, artists and cultural practitioners connect with one another and the community. The program offers an essential platform for guiding public messaging campaigns to cultivate awareness, social cohesion, and connectivity, particularly in the region’s most impacted communities, contributing to health equity.
The City of San Diego Commission Arts and Culture was awarded $4,750,000, including administrative costs, to regrant to artists within the region.
United Way Merced County logo
United Way of Merced County Inc
Geographic Focus: Central Valley
The Heartland Creative Corps represents an unprecedented collaboration between County-designated arts agencies from all three counties. The arts agencies will work cooperatively to support program administration and serve as primary partners, service providers and communication conduits in their respective geographies.
The United Way of Merced County was awarded $4,230,216, including administrative costs, to regrant to artists within the region.
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts logo
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Geographic Focus: Bay Area
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts was one of the administering organizations in the Bay Area for the Creative Corps Initiative, providing artists with a living wage as they work with nonprofit institutions in their communities within one of the four key issue areas to create a project of their choice. These issue areas include civic engagement, climate justice, community health and wellness, and social justice.
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts was awarded $4,750,000, including administrative costs, to regrant to artists within the region.
