ACTA is a unique hybrid organization, serving as both a trusted statewide intermediary and a producer of programs, allowing us to distribute resources across the field while developing and implementing initiatives shaped by deep community relationships and cultural knowledge.

As an intermediary, our work is grounded in long-standing relationships, cultural knowledge, and a commitment to reaching artists who have historically been excluded from funding systems. Our Apprenticeship Program offers $5,000 contracts to mentor artists for one-on-one training with apprentices, and Living Cultures Grants Program distributes $7,500 to individual artists and $10,000 to nonprofits, fiscal sponsors, and Tribal Nations. Since our inception, ACTA has partnered with the CAC to support California’s folk & traditional artists, first as the CAC’s designated partner to receive the NEA Folk & Traditional Arts State Partnership grants through 2020, and since 2022 as the CAC’s Administering Organization for Folk & Traditional Arts. Through the Taproot Artists & Community Trust, ACTA has expanded its reach nationally, supporting accomplished traditional artists and culture bearers across the United States and Territories.

Public program engagement is central to our work. ACTA’s Traditional Arts Roundtable Series convenes artists for peer learning and exchange, while Sounds of California brings communities together through field research, storytelling, live performances, and media production. In Fall 2026, ACTA will launch its first annual festival in Fresno, “The Great Valley Gathering: Celebrating our Living Traditions,” a large-scale, place-based celebration of the region’s cultural life.

Our work also extends into spaces shaped by structural inequities. Through Building Healthy Communities and La Cultura Cura, traditional arts are integrated into community health and well-being efforts. Through Art Breaks In, we bring traditional arts to incarcerated individuals in 17 state prisons and to recently incarcerated participants in Los Angeles and the Antelope Valley—supporting cultural restoration in some of California’s most vulnerable communities.