The Civic Arts Program (Civic Arts) is housed within the City’s Office of Economic Development and implemented by the City’s Civic Arts staff. The organizational structure and work flow of the Civic Arts creates an interrelationship between elected officials, City staff, Civic Arts Commissioners and the various arts programs, activities, and policies.

Civic Arts currently has three core programmatic areas:
1. Grants
2. Public Art
3. Strategic Initiatives and Partnerships

1. Civic Arts manages a transparent and equitable grants process to distribute City funds to artists, arts organizations, and festivals in the City of Berkeley.

2. Civic Arts works with artists to produce permanent and temporary public art projects throughout Berkeley in accordance with two city ordinances; Berkeley Municipal Code Section 6.14 (which provides opportunities for the placement of site-specific public art projects in public spaces), and the Public Art on Private Development Ordinance.

3. Some of the recent strategic initiatives and partnerships Civic Arts has engaged in include:
Codifying a Poet Laureate program in partnership with the Berkeley Public Library; Advocating for artist housing to be included in the City’s Housing Element policy; Partnering with local arts organizations for arts education programming in Berkeley Unified School District’s summer programs