With support from the California Arts Council, AMADOR COUNTY ARTS COUNCIL (“Amador Arts”) will catalyze broad arts, cultural, and creative engagement for all people throughout our rural region, especially those who are historically disinvested and in the bottom quartile of Healthy Places Index. Amador Arts will leverage longtime partnerships, public data sources, community surveys, and the collective vision of rural creatives and cultural practitioners to direct funds and services toward rural youth, First Peoples, disabled, BIPOC, 2SLGBTQAI+ folx, public art, and intercultural community-building. Grant-making will support local youth, adults, collectives, and organizations. Technical assistance will include concierge services for arts, cultural, and humanities grants, individualized grant application support, an online directory/calendar, and STUDIO, which provides professional development for creative teens and young adults. Amador Poetry Out Loud will amplify youth voices and activate emerging advocates.
The Amador County Arts Council (Amador Arts) keeps the arts central to Amador’s life through programs, services, and initiatives.
(1) PUBLIC OFFICE: Our accessible public office is open to the public and is located in a historic building on Jackson Gate Road in Jackson, CA. Open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 to 4 PM and staffed by volunteers and employees from the Mother Lode Land Trust, our partner.
(2) TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE: Our team provides free Technical Assistance on California Arts Council grants.
(3) PRODUCING PERFORMANCES: Since its establishment, Amador Arts has played a central role in performing arts throughout Amador County. Most notably, since 1998, our “TGIF Free Summer Concerts” have brought live music to thousands of people in outdoor venues where it would otherwise not be available. Producing Poetry Out Loud since 2016, with multi-generational poetry engagement opportunities in addition to the traditional competition.
(4) ARTS EDUCATION ADVOCACY: Amador Arts has been a trusted consultant to Amador County Unified School District, providing support and administration for the district’s Arts Plan and the rollout of Prop 28. Additionally, since 2012, Amador Arts has been an Arts Now community, surveying the state of arts education annually and teaching advocacy tools and skills to youth so they can impact their own arts education.
(5) PROMOTING THE ARTS: Weekly newspaper article “Heart of Art” in the Ledger Dispatch, which covers all types of impacts of the arts and leans heavily on the research from Americans for the Arts and their Arts Impact Explorer. The articles are also published on our blog.