Grantee Database Results

ArtReach will lead a youth-driven mural project at Palomar Elementary School in Chula Vista, a community identified as high-priority on the California Healthy Places Index. Through after-school workshops, ArtReach Teaching Artists will guide students in exploring identity, culture, and community through visual storytelling and collaborative design. Youth will work alongside a lead mural artist and teen mural artist apprentices to co-create a large-scale mural that reflects their shared vision. The project will include a community paint day and culminate in a public dedication event.

CAC funds will support artist wages, stipends for teen mural artist apprentices, mural and workshop supplies, and event materials. This project will provide equitable access to high-quality arts learning while fostering transformation of space, collaboration, pride, self-expression, and creative leadership for youth who have historically lacked access to the arts.

ArtReach San Diego is a nonprofit organization committed to increasing access to visual arts education for youth, especially those from under-resourced schools and communities.

ArtReach offers the following programs:

In-School Programs: These programs utilize an inquiry-based, standards-aligned, and sequential curriculum designed to foster creativity, critical thinking, and self-expression. With a strong focus on supporting social-emotional learning goals, the lessons help students build confidence, resilience, and emotional awareness through artistic exploration.

Mural Programs: ArtReach engages youth in collaborative public art projects, where they design and create large-scale murals that promote teamwork, community pride, and artistic achievement. Additionally, ArtReach offers commercial mural projects that provide youth apprentices with real-world work experience, helping to support reduced-cost murals for Title I schools.

Community Programs: ArtReach hosts accessible art workshops and classes for families and individuals in a variety of settings, including our two in-house art studios, libraries, and community centers. These workshops focus on process-based techniques led by local artists, creating opportunities for authentic connection through the arts.

ArtReach employs local artists as teaching artists, ensuring that its programs not only deliver valuable arts education but also support the local creative economy. These programs are offered county-wide, providing free or low-cost services to Title I schools and underserved communities across San Diego County.

With support from the California Arts Council, Unscripted Learning will sustain and expand our Connections Program, an improvisational theatre initiative for youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) across San Diego County. Serving individuals up to age 24, the program fosters communication, teamwork, leadership, and creative expression in an inclusive, strengths-based setting. Each year, thousands of teens with ASD age out of school-based services, losing vital support. Connections fills this gap, currently serving 30 participants weekly—and demand is growing. Grant funding will sustain three weekly classes and help launch a fourth, reaching more youth on our waiting list. As arts funding faces cuts at all levels, CAC support is more critical than ever. Without it, Unscripted Learning may be forced to reduce services, limiting access to this proven, transformative program.

Developed in conjunction with the National Comedy Theatre in 2017, Unscripted Learning uses improvisational theatre to teach the concepts of teamwork, leadership, and creative problem solving as well as teaching improv skills and theory. Programs include:

Connections: An improvisational theatre program for teenagers and young adults on the autism spectrum.
Kids and Teens Programs: Unscripted Learning uses improv comedy to teach teamwork, sportsmanship and leadership in addition to performance skills, while providing a forum for students to have fun in a wholesome, supportive environment.
Active Minds: An educational program, designed exclusively for seniors, that teaches improvisational acting techniques and skills to improve cognitive ability, foster brain health, broaden creative expression and help increase social interaction.

With support from the California Arts Council, MOXIE Theatre will present a Season of three fully staged productions and a New Works Festival, all featuring work written by women+ playwrights, at least 50% of which being people of color, that tell stories that defy stereotypes and amplify the voices of historically under-represented communities.

MOXIE will also launch a new Heritage Month Series of one-day engagement events celebrating different cultural heritages through a variety of formats; and offer educational workshops in playwriting and devised theatre to middle and high-school students, with priority given to schools who serve marginalized populations, such as immigrant and justice-impacted youth.

MOXIE Theatre presents to San Diego audiences a season of mainstage productions every year. Each show runs for 5 weeks in their 99-seat theatre space located in the College Area of the city. All works produced by MOXIE are written by women+ identifying playwrights and directed by women+ directors. At least 50% of playwrights produced every year are people of color, as well as 50% of the artists hired each season on stage and behind the scenes. For every show, experts on the themes of the plays and community partners representative of the populations seen on stage are invited for pre or post-show conversations with the audience to offer additional insight. Student matinees are also organized for local high schools, particularly schools serving a low income student population.

The Balboa Art Conservation Center (BACC), California’s only publicly accessible nonprofit art conservation organization, submits this proposal in support of its mission to advance the study and preservation of cultural heritage for all communities. Funding will support BACC’s youth arts education programming. BACC is the only regional conservation center introducing art conservation as a field of study and career path to California youth. At the intersection of science, art, and technology, BACC engages youth through hands-on activities, lab tours, art imaging demos, and interactive learning experiences at schools, community fairs, and onsite visits. This proposal connects California-based indigenous artist collaborative, Meztli Project, with BACC conservators to enhance an existing science-based approach to youth arts education, highlighting indigenous knowledge and artistic practice with BACC’s work to democratize cultural heritage preservation practices.

The Balboa Art Conservation Center works closely with museums, libraries, cultural centers, and historical societies to provide collections surveys, conservation treatment, and educational programs. While there are more than 36,000 museums and historic houses in the nation, only 1% have a conservator on site. The rest of these institutions must rely on outside sources, like BACC, for their conservation. We offer programs for museums and culture centers focused on collections care including Emergency Preparedness Workshops, Art and Cultural Heritage Object Clinics, and lectures on conservation and preservation at community colleges, universities, and museums. We also provide education and outreach programs about conservation to the community.
For more than 45 years, BACC has been fulfilling its mission as a nonprofit art conservation and cultural preservation organization to provide conservation and preservation services for works of art, cultural objects, and historic artifacts. Its highly trained conservators offer a rigorous and scientific approach to the preservation, examination, and treatment of cultural heritage objects. As a nonprofit organization, BACC is committed to benefiting the public good by supporting training and education opportunities and partnering with stewards of community cultural collections. Programs include Collections Care Support; Capacity Building; Education & Creative Workforce Development; Artists Technical Assistance & Professional Development; and community led conservation projects. BACC is expanding access to the field of conservation to historically underrepresented communities by growing the existing knowledge base to include culturally conscious and responsive methods of conservation and preservation.

With support from the California Arts Council, Unscripted Learning will use improvisational theatre to teach teamwork, creative expression, leadership, and problem-solving, while also bringing the theory and practice of improv to underserved communities. Our programs foster creativity and connection across generations and abilities, including seniors and youth on the autism spectrum. At a time when funding for the arts is being cut at local, state, and national levels, support from the CAC is more critical than ever. Without it, Unscripted Learning will be forced to reduce or end low-cost classes, cutting off access to a proven resource for youth with ASD and other underserved communities that thrive through creativity, connection, and the power of improv.

Developed in conjunction with the National Comedy Theatre in 2017, Unscripted Learning uses improvisational theatre to teach the concepts of teamwork, leadership, and creative problem solving as well as teaching improv skills and theory. Programs include:

Connections: An improvisational theatre program for teenagers and young adults on the autism spectrum.
Kids and Teens Programs: Unscripted Learning uses improv comedy to teach teamwork, sportsmanship and leadership in addition to performance skills, while providing a forum for students to have fun in a wholesome, supportive environment.
Active Minds: An educational program, designed exclusively for seniors, that teaches improvisational acting techniques and skills to improve cognitive ability, foster brain health, broaden creative expression and help increase social interaction.

With support from the California Arts Council, Viet Voices will continue to strengthen our ongoing art program by curating and showcasing the work of Southeast Asian artists through quarterly exhibitions. CAC grant funds will be used to provide stipends to participating artists, cover exhibition costs (including venue rental, installation, and marketing), and support community engagement efforts. The program will offer a platform for artists to explore and express cultural narratives, amplify underrepresented voices, and foster meaningful dialogue between artists and the community. Funds will also be allocated for accessible programming, including language services and accommodations, ensuring that the exhibitions are inclusive to all community members. This support will allow Viet Voices to maintain and expand this vital program, further enriching the cultural landscape of our community.

We center our work on arts and culture as a way to bring attention to multiple issues in our community. We provide public education to the community on various issues such as affordable housing access, tenant protections, economic stability and support for small businesses, education on environmental alternatives, food justice, LGBTQ+ issues, and health equity. We center our work on arts and culture as a way to bring attention to multiple issues in our community.

With support from the California Arts Council, Art of Elan will strengthen its organizational capacity to deliver inclusive, high-impact programming that builds community through music. Funding will support year-round operations, including staff compensation, program development, artist fees, and strategic partnerships that expand access to classical music across San Diego County. Art of Elan presents adventurous concerts in traditional and non-traditional spaces, commissions new works by diverse composers, and provides transformative education residencies, such as Young Artists in Harmony, for underrepresented youth. General operating funds will ensure the sustainability of these efforts, enabling Art of Elan to deepen relationships, amplify the voices of marginalized individuals, and model a more equitable and community-rooted vision of the arts. CAC support is essential to growing the organization’s reach and resilience in a rapidly changing cultural and funding landscape.

Known for its collaborative spirit, Art of Elan has been pioneering unique events and bringing exciting classical music to diverse audiences for over 17 years through innovative partnerships and bi-national initiatives that have cultivated curious audiences on both sides of the border. Its consistent track record of sold-out performances stems from its commitment to commissioning new work, collaborating with world-class artists and composers, programming engaging and thought-provoking concerts, and expanding its impact in the region through thoughtful community engagement programs. By drawing inspiration from the word élan, which represents momentum, style, and spirit, Art of Elan continues to engage and energize audiences in new ways.

With support from the California Arts Council, T3 TRIPLE THREAT YOUTH MENTORS will expand access to free and low-cost performing arts programs for youth from historically marginalized communities across San Diego. Founded by a Black LGBTQ artist who grew up in poverty and foster care, T3 creates inclusive, trauma-informed spaces where young people can express themselves through voice, dance, and acting—regardless of income, identity, or ability. CAC funding will help T3 strengthen its teaching artist pipeline, deepen community partnerships, and build capacity around social-emotional learning, accessibility, and equity evaluation. Programs will be delivered in trusted public venues, including North Park Recreation Center, ALBA Community Day School, and local Title I schools. Through culturally relevant instruction, mentorship, and performance, T3 transforms the stage into a platform for healing, growth, and future opportunity.

Our core programs and services include:

Summer Camp:
In partnership with the City of San Diego Parks & Recreation Department, T3
provides a premium theatre-based training and development program. This 8-week theatre camp is a time of exploration, laughter,
and artistic discovery. The summer 2025 camp will immerse up to 25 students, allowing for more if demand is greater, in a production of Musical Theatre International’s (MTI) Broadway Junior Revue RAISE YOUR VOICE.

Year-round Camps:
Camps are offered in November (one week during Thanksgiving break), in December (two weeks, during the holiday break), and in April (one week, during spring break). Camps run from 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM each day for kids ages 6-12. These camps will serve up to 50 kids each and include a field trip to the San Diego Zoo, a local museum, or other cultural institution.

Adult Classes:
Classes are offered multiple days each week in the following disciplines: Commercial Dance, Tap Dance, Musical Theatre Dance, Adult Barre Fitness, and Adult Singing Lessons.

Youth and Adult Cooking Classes:
Students of all ages will discover the joys of culinary art—lessons for all ages. Classes cover knife skills, flavor pairings, and more with hands-on activities. Learn essential techniques and connect with fellow food enthusiasts.

Our camps and classes contribute to building healthy, vital neighborhoods by removing barriers to accessing the arts, education, and mentoring opportunities. Enabling every child to participate regardless of ability to pay serves to benefit historically oppressed communities and the entire community as a whole. We use creative and performing arts to empower young people through performance. This has an ongoing and often transformative positive impact by aiding students in developing a valuable skill set that enables them to become successful community members. This then serves to uplift and empower their families and communities over time.

With support from the California Arts Council, DIVERSIONARY THEATRE PRODUCTIONS, INC. will continue its mission to provide an inspiring, inclusive, and empowering space for community to celebrate and explore complex, provocative, and diverse LGBTQIA+ stories which contribute to the larger cultural discussion. We will do this in FY26, during our 40th Anniversary Season, through our Performing Arts Programs, including our mainstage season of LGBTQIA+ plays and musicals, as well as through our robust roster of vital, free Arts Education and Community Engagement Programs for at-risk LGBTQIA+ youth and seniors across San Diego County.

Diversionary Theatre produces plays and musicals and develops new works that explore the issues, characters, and stories of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+) community in all its complexity and diversity. By exploring stories of what sets our culture and history apart, as well as stories that focus on LGBTQIA+ people’s humanity rather than their sexuality, we are in a unique position in which we can help bridge the gaps of cultural understanding.

Diversionary specializes in uncovering new work by emerging LGBTQIA+ writers, developing their work, and producing World, West Coast, and San Diego Premiere productions on our Mainstage that are subsequently produced on stages across the country and around the world.

Additionally, Diversionary offers a total of nine Arts Education programs serving the entire range of San Diego’s population from Elementary School students to Senior Citizens. All of our Arts Education programs are offered 100% free of charge for our community. Activities are integrated throughout Diversionary’s mainstage productions, providing stand-alone programming in our historic site in University Heights, and in classrooms at participating schools, serving thousands of young people and senior citizens across San Diego County.

Diversionary is proud of the reputation that we have established by producing quality Mainstage productions and hundreds of other arts events in our Clark Cabaret throughout the year, nurturing new works of LGBTQIA+ theatre, providing a home to some of San Diego’s most talented established and up-and-coming artists, regularly collaborating with local arts and LGBTQIA+ organizations, providing contextualization to and fostering conversations sparked by our productions, and involving the wider community in our mission.

With support from the California Arts Council, Maraya Performing Arts Collective will produce and tour “Bayanihan: For Life, For Blood” a dance theatre performance and civic engagement project addressing the need for ethnically diverse blood donors. CAC funds will support artist compensation for Filipinx artists and creatives, production costs including choreography, technical production, dramaturgy, and community engagement workshops that inform the performance’s narrative. The project will activate parks, cultural hubs, schools, and public spaces. Each performance will be paired with an on-site blood drive in partnership with the San Diego Blood Bank. CAC funding will help transform community spaces into sites of cultural healing, civic action, and collective storytelling, led by and for historically underrepresented communities that include Filipino elders and youth with special needs.

Maraya Performing Arts (MARAYA) is a socially-engaged performing arts center in Chula Vista, California designed around core principles of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging. Maraya Performing Arts Center is a creative safe-haven, educational and artistic hub for dancers, actors, musicians and creators; students and teachers; and multigenerational audiences in South Bay San Diego and beyond. OUR SERVICES INCLUDE: Triple Threat Training in Singing, Dancing, and Acting for Youth and Adults, Youth Theatre Musical Productions, Adaptive Classes and Shows for Youth with Special Needs, Original Dance Theatre Community Based Shows/Productions, and Professional Development and Career Coaching for Emerging Artists and Nonprofit Arts Leaders.

With support from the California Arts Council, Maraya Performing Arts Collective will strengthen its organizational infrastructure by building staff and board capacity in resource development and fundraising. As a small but growing arts organization serving historically under-resourced communities in South Bay San Diego, we currently rely on short-term consultants and volunteers to manage critical administrative and development functions. CAC funding will allow us to hire part-time staff to support donor cultivation, grant tracking, and outreach. Additionally, we will invest in board recruitment and development to expand and strengthen our Board of Directors, prioritizing individuals with expertise in fundraising, finance, and community engagement. These investments are essential to sustaining our culturally responsive programming and expanding access to the arts youth, families, and intergenerational participants of all ages and abilites.

Maraya Performing Arts (MARAYA) is a socially-engaged performing arts center in Chula Vista, California designed around core principles of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging. Maraya Performing Arts Center is a creative safe-haven, educational and artistic hub for dancers, actors, musicians and creators; students and teachers; and multigenerational audiences in South Bay San Diego and beyond. OUR SERVICES INCLUDE: Triple Threat Training in Singing, Dancing, and Acting for Youth and Adults, Youth Theatre Musical Productions, Adaptive Classes and Shows for Youth with Special Needs, Original Dance Theatre Community Based Shows/Productions, and Professional Development and Career Coaching for Emerging Artists and Nonprofit Arts Leaders.

With support from the California Arts Council, the Institute of Contemporary Art, San Diego (ICA San Diego) will continue its residency program designed to support local artists in building and expanding their careers here in San Diego. Through a one year residency for an artist living in San Diego County, ICA San Diego will provide the artist-in-residence with studio space, a stipend, materials budget, and professional development guidance from ICA San Diego’s curatorial team. The artist-in-residence will be provided a solo exhibition at the ICA / North campus during our 2027 season of programming.

ICA San Diego is devoted to creating a thriving ecosystem of arts and culture across Southern California, presenting an array of art, ideas, and education from galleries in both Balboa Park and Encinitas; totaling more than 15,000 square feet and across six acres of coastal landscape overlooking the San Elijo Lagoon.

At ICA / North, the Linda Formo Brandes and the LEED-certified Artist Pavilion galleries provide exhibition spaces for individual exhibitions. The Education Pavilion also delivers contemporary art camps, classes, tours, and workshops for all ages. When visiting the six-acre campus, visitors will experience our growing Sculpture Trail featuring rare local flora amongst site-specific art installations.

At the ICA / Central campus, visitors are welcomed by an engaging mezzanine before being drawn into the open 6,000 square foot exhibition space for large scale individual and group exhibitions. ICA / Central hosts an annual graduating student exhibition highlighting emerging talent from colleges and universities.

The ICA provides complimentary admission to the gallery open hours and most events. Public programming includes C You Saturday! monthly events featuring family friendly art activities and community development based around each featured exhibition plus free weekend tours led by ICA Engagement Guides who utilize visual thinking strategies to understand our artists and their works.

The outreach program, The Valise Project, founded in 1999, was created to meet a growing need for arts education in schools. Each unique Valise, French for ‘suitcase’, is an Artist-designed portable sculpture that contains thought-provoking miniature artworks. These unique Valises are brought directly into classrooms to creatively connect to the current California Core curriculum. A trained Teaching Artist prepares a lesson plan that includes an interactive discussion of the themes followed by hands-on art-making activities that encourage students to respond and express their own interpretations in visual form to the material presented.

With support from the California Arts Council, Studio ACE will expand access to two Studio ACE program that are inclusive, culturally responsive arts programming for underserved youth in North County San Diego. One: Art spACE offers scholarship-based arts education to 4th–6th graders, connecting visual art lessons with gallery exhibits, artist statements, curating, and digital engagement—showing youth that art can be a viable career path. Two: Our Neurodivergent Art Classes provide free, sensory-integrated lessons tailored to the needs and interests of neurodivergent kids and teens. These programs foster creative expression, community connection, and equitable access to the arts, breaking down barriers related to disability, socio-economic status, and geographic isolation.

Studio ACE has four main areas of programming, all relating to Arts Education:

ArtsConnect: An Integrated Arts Curriculum Program ~ The signature program of Studio ACE, ArtsConnect is a K-8 elementary school program that integrates the arts with Common Core subjects. It employs Visual and Performing Arts Standards, the Elements and Principles of Art and the project’s connection to Art History. For more information, please click HERE.

Art Classes: ACE’s storefront location provides low-cost art lessons to children. Children’s classes are supplemented in part by a donor, enabling children to receive high-quality art lessons at an affordable price. Adult class fees also assist in supplementing children’s classes.

Community Festivals: ACE participate in art walks, fairs and festivals in and around the community, providing a free art project to complement the theme of the fair or festival.

Community Collaborations: ACE collaborates with community members on specific programming, working with organizations such as the Oceanside Library, Oceanside Cultural Arts Foundation, Oceanside Fire Fighters, City of Oceanside, Buena Vista Nature Center and the Museum of Making Music.

With support from the California Arts Council, The Rosin Box Project (TRBP) will continue to redefine how dance is created, experienced, and shared—placing accessibility, innovation, and community engagement at its core. General operating support will fund staff and teaching artist salaries, equitable artist compensation, choreographic commissions, and essential production and programmatic expenses. This investment will sustain TRBP’s bold programming, including three mainstage performance series featuring six new contemporary ballet works annually, immersive and site-specific experiences, and interdisciplinary collaborations. Funding will also expand TRBP’s education and outreach programs in underserved San Diego communities, and support inclusive studio classes, workshops, and intensives open to all. CAC support will be instrumental in advancing TRBP’s mission to create a more inclusive, forward-thinking, and impactful future for dance.

TRBP’s core pillars are artistic work in the field of contemporary ballet and arts education. In artistic, the company’s nine professional ballet dancers present works by local and international choreographers several times a year to audiences throughout San Diego and the greater US. In arts education, the company’s in-school outreach workshop, The Ballet Machine, reaches upwards of 30 classrooms a year with its arts integrated learning module. TRBP’s afterschool program, Dance Out Loud!, reaches hundreds of students in 10 week choreography workshops. TRBP’s open adult dance class program, The Rosin Box Studio, connects with roughly 500 adults training in dance across San Diego County in its homebase of Liberty Station.

With support from the California Arts Council, The Rosin Box Project (TRBP) will expand its immersive dance exposure and engagement program, Out of the Box, across San Diego Title 1 schools, creating meaningful connections between young aspiring artists and world-class professional dancers. The program offers students a multi-layered experience that grants unique access to the full arc of professional dance, from creation to performance. Components include free contemporary ballet performance featuring a new work by a rising TRBP resident choreographer, interactive artist talk-backs, movement workshops led by TRBP teaching artists and company dancers, and behind-the-scenes access to live company rehearsal. Tailored to partner schools’ community and curriculum, the program fosters creative self-expression, confidence, and artistic mentorship. CAC funding will support artist salaries, choreographic commission, teaching artist fees, production costs, and curriculum development, and accessibility expenses.

TRBP’s core pillars are artistic work in the field of contemporary ballet and arts education. In artistic, the company’s nine professional ballet dancers present works by local and international choreographers several times a year to audiences throughout San Diego and the greater US. In arts education, the company’s in-school outreach workshop, The Ballet Machine, reaches upwards of 30 classrooms a year with its arts integrated learning module. TRBP’s afterschool program, Dance Out Loud!, reaches hundreds of students in 10 week choreography workshops. TRBP’s open adult dance class program, The Rosin Box Studio, connects with roughly 500 adults training in dance across San Diego County in its homebase of Liberty Station.

The Balboa Art Conservation Center (BACC), California’s only publicly accessible nonprofit art conservation organization, submits this proposal in support of its mission to advance the study and preservation of cultural heritage for all communities. Funding will support BACC’s capacity building initiatives designed to increase collections care knowledge in California and develop a network of collections caretakers across the state. Such programs include the California Inclusive Preservation Program (CIPP), a key, cost-free initiative for BACC that reflects our commitment to inclusive, accessible, and sustainable conservation efforts. The outreach of BACC’s programs and content focuses on those tasked with collections that lack resources and access to services and training, particularly those serving underrepresented communities, including but not limited to BIPOC, rural, and veteran communities.

The Balboa Art Conservation Center works closely with museums, libraries, cultural centers, and historical societies to provide collections surveys, conservation treatment, and educational programs. While there are more than 36,000 museums and historic houses in the nation, only 1% have a conservator on site. The rest of these institutions must rely on outside sources, like BACC, for their conservation. We offer programs for museums and culture centers focused on collections care including Emergency Preparedness Workshops, Art and Cultural Heritage Object Clinics, and lectures on conservation and preservation at community colleges, universities, and museums. We also provide education and outreach programs about conservation to the community.
For more than 45 years, BACC has been fulfilling its mission as a nonprofit art conservation and cultural preservation organization to provide conservation and preservation services for works of art, cultural objects, and historic artifacts. Its highly trained conservators offer a rigorous and scientific approach to the preservation, examination, and treatment of cultural heritage objects. As a nonprofit organization, BACC is committed to benefiting the public good by supporting training and education opportunities and partnering with stewards of community cultural collections. Programs include Collections Care Support; Capacity Building; Education & Creative Workforce Development; Artists Technical Assistance & Professional Development; and community led conservation projects. BACC is expanding access to the field of conservation to historically underrepresented communities by growing the existing knowledge base to include culturally conscious and responsive methods of conservation and preservation.

With support from the California Arts Council, Tap Fever Studios will expand our Adaptive Dance Program to provide free, inclusive dance classes for children across San Diego, with a focus on students with physical and developmental disabilities. Grant funds will support teaching artists, program coordination, and outreach to underserved communities. Tap Fever is one of the few organizations in the region offering accessible dance instruction tailored to children with disabilities, and demand for the program continues to grow. CAC support will ensure that classes remain accessible to families of all income levels. Amid widespread funding cuts, support from the CAC to support this innovative program is critical. Without it, Tap Fever may be forced to reduce operations and eliminate free or low-cost classes, limiting access for those who benefit most from inclusive programming.

Tap Fever Studios offers an array of classes that teach San Diego residents from all walks of life how to mobilize the rhythm from their hearts. Tap Fever Studios provides students with the chance to participate in classes that span all of the major disciplines including tap, jazz, ballet, contemporary, hip-hop, acro, and even fitness. Program components include:

Performances: Tap Fever Studios holds multiple recitals and events that showcase the hard work that dancers have put into learning their craft.
Dancers With Disabilities: Tap Fever Studios provides dance opportunities to individuals of all physical abilities and makes all accommodations necessary to make classes accessible.
Community Outreach: Tap Fever Studios offers free performances at public libraries, senior living facilities, community events, and with the USO.
Military Discounts: To honor the sacrifices made by active-duty military and their families, Tap Fever Studios offers a 5% discount on class tuition fees to all military families.
Scholarships: Tap Fever Studios offers “Perfectly Abled” scholarships to dancers with disabilities who wish to share their inspiring stories. Additionally, “Community Outreach Service” scholarships are offered to those who wish to share the art of dance with the community through special projects.
Fee Waivers: When financial assistance is needed, either 50% or 100% of a qualifying student’s class tuition fees may be waived.
Work-Trade: Tap Fever Studios offers a Work-Trade program whereupon youth volunteer their time in exchange for the opportunity to participate in dance classes.
Assistant Teaching Mentoring: Students selected to assist with dance classes work alongside instructors that teach kids ages 2-6. The mentees learn how to set an example for the younger students, how to lead classes, and how to create appropriate choreography.
Internships: High school and college students have the opportunity to participate in internships including development, marketing and videography.

With support from the California Arts Council, RESOUNDING JOY INC will deliver free and reduced-cost music therapy and wellness programs to over 10,000 people across San Diego County. We use the power of music to reduce stress, support healing, and strengthen communities. Our four core programs—Sounds of Healing (children with disabilities and complex medical needs), Sounds of Service (Veterans and military families), Sounds of Legacy (older adults with dementia and hospice patients), and Sounds of Community (people in under-resourced communities)—offer group sessions, one-on-one therapy, and community music events.

Through these programs, we bring hope, connection, and joy to people often left out of traditional care. We envision a more inclusive world where everyone has equal access to the healing benefits of music therapy.

Our four core programs offer a continuum of music engagement from clinic to community, with Board-Certified Music Therapists providing services at clinical facilities, client homes, our Music Wellness Center, community partner sites, and virtually.

1. Sounds of Healing enhances the psychological, social-emotional, and physical well-being of medically resilient children managing long-term medical conditions and supporting families through hospice care.

2. Sounds of Service improves the emotional well-being of our Veterans, service members, and first responders. This music program supports their transition to civilian life; the management of PTSD, stress, and pain; and deeper connections to peers through participation in our community band.

3. Sounds of Legacy empowers and engages older adults affected by dementia, Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s through sessions that enrich their minds and overall quality of life. Music therapy improves speech and communication, lowers stress and anxiety, boosts immunity, and elevates mood.

4. Sounds of Community amplifies community welfare and resilience by partnering with local agencies to share music therapy and recreational music opportunities. Current and past partners include San Diego Rescue Mission, Father Joe’s Villages, South Bay Community Services, Imperial Beach Library, CalSAFE Escondido, and Alcott Elementary.

With support from the California Arts Council, Bach Collegium San Diego (BCSD) will be able to hire top-tier Baroque specialists for its 2025–2026 concert season. This investment will create approximately 175 paid opportunities for freelance musicians, many of whom are California-based artists. By enabling the engagement of these performers, the Council’s funding will ensure high-quality, diverse, culturally significant programming while directly supporting the state’s creative workforce. These musicians will also contribute to our education initiatives, supporting the music education of over 200 students. Our programming and outreach intentionally prioritize engagement with historically and systemically underserved communities located in San Diego’s “Promise Zone”, ensuring broad access to artistic excellence and cultural enrichment. This initiative fosters creative expressions at all levels of music-making and strengthens California’s arts ecosystem by enhancing access to world-class music across the region.

BACH COLLEGIUM SAN DIEGO was founded by Artistic Director Ruben Valenzuela in 2003 to bring dynamic programming and performances with historical considerations to performance practice. Over the last 20 seasons, BCSD has garnered national and international recognition through its exemplary talent, making it one of the most distinguished early music ensembles in the country today. In 2021, the ensemble gained national attention through its El Mesías: Messiah for a New World project, which commissioned an original Spanish libretto of Handel’s oratorio. BCSD made its European debut at Bachfest in Leipzig, Germany in June 2024, and also performed at other Bach sites in the German state of Thuringia.

With support from the California Arts Council, San Diego Made will fund the salary of our Program Director, Sarah Anderson, whose leadership is essential to the success and impact of our work. Located in San Diego’s Promise Zone, we serve historically under-resourced communities with affordable art spaces and culturally relevant creative programming. A local resident, disabled working mother, and practicing artist, Sarah brings lived experience and strong community ties to this vital role. She manages daily operations for 40+ creative tenants, mentors resident artists, and leads partnerships with community organizations. With this grant, we can continue delivering our impactful programming while reinvesting in the infrastructure that sustains our affordable space model and keeps our work viable. Supporting her role maintains our leadership team as one that is rooted in inclusion, equity, and community representation.

San Diego Made is an artist-led creative hub that drives social, cultural, and economic opportunities for artists, small businesses, and organizations throughout the region.

We’re building a creative ecosystem that equips community members with the resources, support, and connections they need in order to build thriving futures. At our headquarters at the Factory in Logan Heights, our community has access to 12,000 sq. ft. of inspiring studio spaces, event facilities, and exhibition areas where people can hone their craft and showcase their work in a bold, welcoming environment.

Through our public programming, artist residencies, and signature maker’s markets, we create immersive experiences that bring creatives and community together—fostering dialogue, sparking collaboration, and promoting meaningful engagement with the arts.

With support from the California Arts Council, San Diego Made will continue our My Creative Journey | Mi Viaje Creativo residency program. Successfully implemented in 2024 with support from the City of San Diego’s Impact Grant, additional funding will allow for a fifth session of this pivotal project and help us provide another artist from San Diego’s Promise Zone communities with dedicated studio space, a living-wage stipend, organizational support, and mentorship as they develop free, bilingual, accessible public programming—workshops, speaking events, student visits, and a culminating exhibition. The residency fosters storytelling and cultural exchange, supporting artists as they deepen their creative practice and grow their capacity to produce culturally responsive, engaging events within their communities. The initiative builds cultural pride and belonging while advancing equitable access to space, resources, and opportunity for artists in underserved communities.

San Diego Made is an artist-led creative hub that drives social, cultural, and economic opportunities for artists, small businesses, and organizations throughout the region.

We’re building a creative ecosystem that equips community members with the resources, support, and connections they need in order to build thriving futures. At our headquarters at the Factory in Logan Heights, our community has access to 12,000 sq. ft. of inspiring studio spaces, event facilities, and exhibition areas where people can hone their craft and showcase their work in a bold, welcoming environment.

Through our public programming, artist residencies, and signature maker’s markets, we create immersive experiences that bring creatives and community together—fostering dialogue, sparking collaboration, and promoting meaningful engagement with the arts.

The Imperial Arts Corridor project connects local artists with family-run businesses along Imperial Avenue (20th–30th Streets) to revitalize culturally significant storefronts with custom murals, new signage, and facade improvements. Each mural is co-designed by artists and business owners to reflect unique family and cultural stories. Our nonprofit, founded in 2023, anchors the corridor and leads this creative effort alongside a community-facing publicity campaign. Two storefront galleries—Tularoosa and Imperial Mundo—will host monthly public events and workshops in polytab mural-making and living wall creation, further transforming the corridor into a vibrant hub for art, culture, and small business support.

We offer professional services to help artists build sustainable careers. This includes opportunities to teach youth, lead workshops, and develop income-generating projects. We also assist artists in writing resumes, building online portfolios, and creating presentations and proposals for potential clients. Legal education is another core part of our work—we help artists understand contracts, copyright laws, and their rights under laws like the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA) and the California Art Preservation Act (CAPA).
In addition, BAP provides networking and educational opportunities for muralists, performers, and community artists to learn about the Chicano mural movement and connect with peers across the region. We highlight case studies and share best practices to strengthen the field of community-based public art.

Since 2018, Imperial Beach Arts Bureau has been the primary catalyst bringing public art to Imperial Beach, a majority-Hispanic, low-to-moderate-income city in San Diego. In 2024, IBAB hired its first employee: a part-time executive director to expand outreach, increase art installations and events, improve operational systems, & direct fundraising.
In 2025, IBAB created its first strategic plan, identifying a focus on growth & capacity building, beginning with a renaming to IB Arts. Funds will be used for:
• Launching a bilingual Public Art & Cultural Development Assessment to be used for future programming & advocacy
• Development of rebranding strategy, new logo, brand toolkit, website & social media/marketing plan
• Engage with 500 individuals
• Foster a minimum of 10 stimulating, culturally expressive experiences
• Systematize & improve internal operational systems & administrative practices.
• Increase funding from private donors, agencies, & foundations.

IB Arts is committed to supporting local artists and fostering a vibrant cultural landscape in Imperial Beach. A key initiative includes **twice-yearly gallery exhibitions at the public library**, providing a dynamic platform for both emerging and established artists to showcase their work and connect with the community.

As part of its core programming, IB Arts **commissions artists to create public installations**, many of which reflect Imperial Beach’s coastal identity and natural surroundings. These works celebrate the city’s proximity to the ocean and estuaries, fostering deeper appreciation for environmental themes through artistic expression.

Beyond installations, IB Arts actively **engages the community in the artmaking process**, ensuring that creativity is accessible to residents and visitors alike. This includes regular participation in **monthly Farmer’s Markets** and **citywide events** such as **Día de Los Niños** and **Art in the Park**, where hands-on art activities encourage public involvement.

To further connect people with local art, IB Arts has curated a **bilingual self-guided Mural Bike Tour**, offering an immersive experience that highlights **over 30 murals** and **34 decorated utility boxes** along a carefully designed route. By integrating public art with active transportation, this initiative allows participants to explore and appreciate the city’s creative landscape in an engaging and interactive way.

With these programs, IB Arts continues to enrich Imperial Beach’s cultural identity, making the arts accessible, participatory, and deeply connected to the local environment and community.

With support from the California Arts Council, Via International will expand our Somos La Voz (SLV) Cultural Heritage program to launch a four-week teen summer camp in 2026. “Somos La Voz Teen Camp: Community Art as a Tool for Resistance, Healing, and Identity” will offer free, culturally relevant art and music programming for Mexican, Chicano, and Latinx youth ages 12–20, creating a space for both new and returning participants to explore creative expression and cultural pride. Evaluations from our first two years of SLV show that youth feel empowered as community leaders and gain a sense of intergenerational belonging and healing. The 2026 camp will also provide paid opportunities for advanced youth participants to serve as mentors and camp counselors, deepening their leadership and peer facilitation skills.

Via works through the paradigm of asset-based community development (ABCD), which is a development practice that centers the community of focus, building on already-present strengths, leadership, and community assets. ABCD works to bring resources to communities of focus to invest in community-sourced and led solutions.
Through our ABCD paradigm, our community development work in San Diego county focuses on art and cultural heritage, youth leadership development, food security and sovereignty, and entrepreneurship, with a particular emphasis on Chicano and Mexican communities. Through all of our programs and interventions we seek to empower communities toward greater self-determination.

With support from the California Arts Council, A Reason To Survive (ARTS), a place-based Community ARTS after-school program will engage over 150+ young people of color from National City and South County San Diego who consistently experience disproportionate economic, environmental, and structural racial disparities.

Community ARTS encompasses the traditional and non-traditional art practices of sound experimentation, textile arts, visual, performing, and media arts. Through our program, we reinforce our community engagement with local artists, creatives, and cultural practitioners through culturally relevant equity-based programs, services, and events that cultivate young people’s artistic voice and vision.

Our programs are free for all young people, offering accessible arts-based projects that cultivate healing, develop leadership skills, and enrich academic experiences– setting up young people on a path toward success in life, school and career.

A Reason To Survive (ARTS) offers arts programming and creative workforce opportunities for youth and young adults (ages 8-24) living the south county region of San Diego. Through our program initiatives – Community ARTS, ARTS 4 Justice, ARTS On Campus, and ARTS @ Work — young people gain exposure to a range of artistic disciplines (visual arts, media arts, music, and industrial arts in our Maker Workshop), while deepening their social-emotional development through meaningful relationships and mentorship provided by teaching artists and ARTS staff. Through our innovative Community of Care model, we integrate social-emotional supports into our program / curricula design and into the overall design of learning spaces, exhibitions, and performances at the ARTS Center.

With support from the California Arts Council, Home of Guiding Hands will expand access to arts and music programming for youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Grant funds will be used to increase the frequency of visual arts workshops, led by a California-based teaching artist, and to support participation in weekly music sessions facilitated by Banding Together. Workshops will take place at licensed residential homes and community sites and will include adaptive materials, trained support staff, and ADA-compliant transportation. The project will also fund public culmination events where participants can share and, if they choose, sell their work. Direct Service Providers and Program Managers will support accessibility and coordination.

Core Programs and Services
Home of Guiding Hands (HGH) provides a wide range of services for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) across San Diego and Imperial Counties.

* Residential services: 29 community-based homes offering 24/7 care, daily living support, and community integration.
* Infant Development Program: Early intervention for infants and toddlers at risk of developmental delays, with home visits and parent coaching.
* Independent and Community Living: One-on-one support for adults with IDD to live independently, including help with budgeting, cooking, and accessing services.
* Tailored Day Services: Personalized, community-based day programs focused on social participation and skill-building.
* Respite services: In-home and out-of-home respite care to provide temporary relief for family caregivers.
* Transportation: Specialized transportation to ensure access to medical care, programs, and community activities.
* Clinical and behavioral support: Behavioral consultation and clinical services for individuals with complex needs.
* Arts and music programming: Visual art workshops with local artists and colleges, including gallery exhibitions. Music “Jam Sessions” in partnership with Banding Together San Diego, led by board-certified music therapists to promote communication, connection, and self-expression.

Grant funds will support Bocón’s general operations and programming, including arts education in schools and community programs in some of San Diego’s most diverse and socially impacted neighborhoods. Bocón produces bilingual, multicultural plays for family audiences that celebrate and reflect the cultures and languages of our communities. San Diego lacks professional theatre that centers family audiences and communities of color—Bocón fills this gap by offering culturally relevant, accessible performances and learning opportunities. Funds will be used to support administrative staff and program infrastructure, ensuring the sustainability of our mission and continued impact in the community.

In-school arts residencies with professional teaching artists.
Theatre for Youth productions and play development.
Youth Ensemble: after-school youth development programming.

With funding from the California Arts Council, a general operations grant will provide critical wages for formerly-incarcerated and system-impacted teaching artists who are trained in the Poetic Justice trauma-informed and gender-responsive program that serves 455 people annually incarcerated in women’s and girls jails and prisons throughout California. Unlike many rehabilitative arts programs, Poetic Justice is committed to using its operations funding to pay $100 per class for the expertise, historic resilience, and lived experience of a team that does not necessarily have the privilege to volunteer for 4-6 hours of facilitation and travel time, weekly. The CAC-supported stipend will be a lifeline for working artists who simultaneously balance multiple jobs and/or childcare despite the ongoing and harmful effects of the prison system in their lives. By supporting their work, PJ can better support incarcerated poets.

Poetic Justice offers gender responsive and trauma informed classes in the following California carceral settings:
– CIW: 2 RAC classes/wk
– CIW: Children’s Literature Project, ongoing study, production, and publication of children’s books about incarcerated motherhood
– CCWF: 2 RAC classes/wk (including the high security 503 unit)
– CIW & CCWF:
———- Distance Learning Program
———- Voices on the Inside – ongoing self-portrait poetry and photography program with community exhibitions
———- Reentry Journal Project – ongoing paid stipend for first 12 weeks on parole
– Las Colinas (SD Jail): 3 classes/wk (mainline, high security, and psychiatric units)
– SD Youth Transitional Center: 1 weekly class for girls 12-19 y/o

Other PJ Work in California
– East Mesa Rehabilitation Program: (men’s facility)
– California Model Working Group Leadership Team
– Transitional Programming Works (TPW) Women’s Subcommittee Leadership Team

A typical weekly class provides gender-diverse and sensitive access by incorporating mindful breathing, trauma-responsive programming, community support, creative writing, and therapeutic visual arts.

For example, participants might explore aspects of anxiety, worthlessness, shame, etc. through poetry’s grapho-motor process within a trusted community engaged in evidence-based healing because putting language to the unspeakable supports healing from root causes of trauma and PTSD, and provides pathways forward. Whereas abuse, depression, and addiction damage language centers, poetry reactivates them. In fact research indicates that poetry (rhythm, metaphor, rhyme) activates the right hemisphere. The left brain is responsible for acquisition and expression, but the right brain’s ability to integrate unrelated concepts into comprehensible metaphor with repetition and syncopation can access language pathways damaged by trauma. Research, including JW Pennebaker’s work, shows “writing about upsetting events improves physical and mental health,” but only by creating safe communities for interoception and embodied agency. The traumatized brain doesn’t remember in logical sequences; trauma memory returns in sensory experiences rooted in the limbic system rather than language centers – this is why poetry is consequential for healing.

With support from the California Arts Council, WRITE OUT LOUD will offer literature-based programs FREE to San Diego residents and visitors.
READ IMAGINE CREATE (RIC), provides middle/high school students with a copy of a specific book and offers writing and art workshops, inspiring their personal expression of the book. Their creations are then shared with the community.
LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD (LYVBH), K-12 poetry writing initiative, includes workshops, poetry readings, student poetry displayed in businesses/libraries.
RIPPLES FROM WALDEN POND, a one-man play about Thoreau, presents his views on civil liberties.
STORIES FOR SENIORS, stories & poetry readings are presented at senior residences and assisted living facilities.
SENIOR READERS THEATRE, provides opportunities for seniors to serve as readers.
KAMISHIBAI, a Japanese storytelling form, includes international folktales (children) & Japanese Incarceration stories (adults).

Write Out Loud offers nine core programs throughout San Diego County: 1)Story Concerts – actors read literature aloud in a variety of venues; 2) Stories for Seniors – short story presentations in independent and assisted living facilities and senior centers; 3) Kamishibai – introduces elementary students to a Japanese teaching tradition that combines storytelling with pictures and written words; 4) Read Imagine Create – challenges students in grades 6-12 to read a particular book, respond to the book’s themes, and create a personal expression (e.g. story, poem, visual art, film); 5) Poetry Out Loud – Regional coordinator for national poetry recitation competition for High School students; 6) Let Your Voice Be Heard – K-12 poetry initiative providing poetry writing workshops and public displays of student poems; 7)Ripples From Walden Pond – a one-man play about Henry David Thoreau; 8) PoeFest – a series of performances of literature of the macabre; 9) World Kamishibai Forum – Monthly on-line workshops for educators and Kamishibai (Japanese storytelling form) artists from across the globe.

Visions Museum of Textile Art (VMOTA) engages diverse communities through culturally responsive exhibitions, educational programs, and partnerships that celebrate heritage, identity, and innovation in textile art. Our curatorial team presents simultaneous exhibitions featuring 100+ local, national, and international artists annually, exploring themes such as immigration, sustainability, and social issues that impact underrepresented communities. Programs are shaped in collaboration with cultural organizations to reflect the lived experiences of those we serve. VMOTA provides hands-on textile art experiences for students from Title I schools (700 students to date), introducing self-expression and creative career pathways to arts to youth facing economic barriers. VMOTA uses textile art as a tool for dialogue, cultural exchange, and storytelling, ensuring our exhibitions and programs are not only accessible, but deeply relevant. CAC funds will support curatorial/programming staff salaries and gallery rent.

Provide art exhibitions and related educational programs to the general public with a focus on textile and fiber art.

Grant funds from the California Arts Council will support the Majdal Center’s “Homeland and Homemaking” Arts Program. Through this program, Arab refugee and immigrant youth in San Diego will engage various cultural and multimedia art forms as a way to cultivate both individual and community-wide narratives. Utilizing various media—including film, embroidery, theatre, and intergenerational oral histories—youth participants will have the opportunity to reflect on and develop their own stories relating to themes of displacement, migration, resettlement, and diaspora through the media of their choice. This program will serve an estimated 50 to 60 youth between the ages of 14 and 22. The workshop series will culminate in a community showcase.

The Majdal Center’s services, programs, and campaigns intersect across four programmatic areas: Youth Education and Leadership; Community Health and Wellbeing; Economic Empowerment; and Advocacy and Policy.

Outside The Lens (OTL) requests $25,000 to provide quality arts experiences and learning opportunities through NextGen Voices, an 10-week intensive media arts program serving at least 50 neurotypical and neurodivergent youth ages 13-25. CAC funds directly support Media Educator salaries, youth artist stipends, outreach, exhibitions, and assistance technology. Meeting 2 hours weekly, youth build confidence while artistically expressing their own stories through media arts. Using Hello Insight’s evidence-based tools, we track social-emotional development including self-management, positive identity, and creative confidence. The program centers youth voices through workshops driven by and adapted to participant needs and interests. Our trauma-informed approach creates safe spaces for priority population youth from juvenile justice facilities, alternative schools, and underserved communities. This culturally responsive program develops critical thinking, communication, and technical skills while transforming participants into skilled creators and arts advocates.

Outside the Lens engages the next generation of artists, storytellers, and innovators through media arts education. Through our programs, youth learn media arts skills, media literacy, socio-emotional development, vocational exploration, and civic engagement. Our Media Educators create a learning environment centered on trauma-informed practices, culturally responsive teaching, socio-emotional learning, and restorative practices.

K-8 Programs: Partnering with schools and districts, we enhance students’ learning by integrating media arts and technology into core curricula (Math, Science, Social Sciences, English Language Arts) for grades K-8. These projects deepen students’ understanding of core content, cultivate media arts skills, and foster a well-rounded educational experience. Our after-school programs and summer camps offer youth opportunities to explore their passions, develop new skills, and discover the transformative power of media arts.

Teens and Transitional Age Youth Programs: We provide specialized programming for teens and Transitional Age Youth (TAY) (18-25 years old) through community partnerships. Our projects enhance media literacy, promote social-emotional wellbeing, and foster intergenerational community connections. This programming develops creative pathways for career and college readiness, encourages self-discovery, and civic engagement, empowering teens to amplify their voices and effect positive change.
Media Makers inspires young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD)—facilitating independence and creative expression.

Educator Trainings: We offer arts-integration teacher training to help educators integrate art-based lessons into their curriculum. Available for individual educators, grade level teams, schools, or districts, these trainings provide innovative ideas, practical skills, and ready-to-use projects aligned with Media Arts and Common Core standards.

Summer Camps: Our Media Arts Summer Camps offer youth in grades K-8 to explore various artistic mediums, such as photography, filmmaking, graphic design, and animation.

Community Workshops: Our weekend and evening media arts workshops, open to families, teens, and adults, cater to both budding artists and experienced creators seeking further skill development.

With the CAC’s support, Playwrights Project will implement a play development and production campaign to destigmatize the experience of incarceration, shed light on imbalances in the justice system, and celebrate our shared humanity. Teaching Artists with lived experience in the carceral system will co-facilitate playwriting workshops, engaging individuals who have returned home after incarceration and students at local high schools to gather writing about the justice system from multiple perspectives. Professional actors will perform plays at each site. Selected writing, along with work from currently incarcerated writers, will be devised together and presented in public performances at San Diego State University. After each performance, audiences will be invited to pose questions, process emotions, and reflect on the issues with a panel of returned citizens and experts in the justice system.

Playwrights Project provides playwriting workshops in schools, communities, and correctional facilities, conducts the annual California Young Playwrights Contest for writers under the age of 19, and professionally produces community readings and full productions of Plays by Young Writers and The Mosaic Festival. Playwrights Project’s programs engage underserved populations in dramatizing stories drawn from imagination and life experiences, including reflections on the impact of poverty, incarceration, addiction, foster care, and military service. Recognizing that life presents difficult situations, forces beyond our control, and challenging decisions, the programs guide individuals to reflect on past experiences with compassion, create fictional plays that examine hardships, explore positive non-violent solutions, look forward to brighter futures, and celebrate the resilience gained by triumphing over difficulties.

With support from the California Arts Council, the Putnam Foundation (DBA Timken Museum of Art) will implement Creative Choices—a trauma-informed arts program for system-engaged youth incarcerated at the Youth Transition Campus (YTC). Designed for adolescent, teen, and young adult males and females, the program features weekly art classes, guest artists, two collaborative murals, a public art exhibition, arts and culture field trips to Balboa Park, and youth internship opportunities. Creative Choices fosters self-expression, nurtures confidence, and encourages healing through creative engagement. CAC funds will compensate a teaching artist, guest artists, cover art materials and supplies, and support transportation and exhibition expenses. This program provides system-engaged youth with a constructive, empowering outlet and new ways to imagine their futures through the transformative power of art.

The following describes our core programs, all provided free of charge:

Exhibitions and lecture series: 3 exhibitions annually that focus on a specific painting in our collection, positioning it in the larger context of works by a master or artistic movement. Each exhibition has a series of morning, afternoon and evening lectures, and daily docent-led tours.

School programs: school tours; teacher workshops for educators to learn how art can connect to their teaching; Outreach Español (Spanish docent-guided tours for Spanish-speaking students); Creative Choices (artist-in-residency program for at-risk students in Juvenile Hall).

Programs for adults, families and visitors with special needs include: tours by trained docents in 8 languages; Family Mural Making Project; Memories at the Museum (docent tours in partnership with USCD’s Shiley-Marcos Alzheimer’s Disease Center); and Creative Engagement (comprehensive art program for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder).

With support from the California Arts Council, ArtHatch will offer 50 creative workshops for at-risk youth, the majority of whom are currently on probation. Through these sessions, teens will have the opportunity to create, curate, and install a full-scale exhibition of their artwork, which will be featured for one month in our main gallery space. Workshops will include various forms of painting, 3D art, and creating mini graphic novels.
In addition, participants will be invited to take part in our annual 24-Hour Art-A-Thon—an artistic marathon that unites teen and adult artists for 24 continuous hours of art-making, collaboration, and pushing creative boundaries. The majority of the artists within our building serve as mentors to these teens, and working together and then showing together will be an exceptional experience.

ArtHatch provides free opening receptions for new exhibitions, Q and A artist sessions and talks, open studios, and live music free for the public 12 times per year.
We also provide 24/7 studio space for 20 local artists and exhibition space for an additional 21 artists. Additionally, we host regular monthly field trips for Escondido high schools and colleges. Lastly, we have a free in depth teen arts program for at risk teens with a focus on teens from single parent households, low income families, teens in the foster care system, and teens performing court ordered after school program hours.

With support from the California Arts Council, the Center for World Music (CWM) will strengthen its core operations and sustain culturally inclusive programs that foster global understanding through the performing arts. Grant funds will support general operating expenses, including rent and staff salaries, enabling CWM to continue serving historically underserved communities across San Diego County—particularly youth and families in the lower two quartiles of the Healthy Places Index. Through school programs, public concerts, and senior programs, the CWM engages participants in diverse music and dance traditions led by artists who are culture bearers. This funding will help ensure organizational stability, support a diverse arts workforce, and expand access to arts education and cultural experiences for those with the least opportunity.

Core organizational programs and services of the Center for World Music (CWM) consist of four initiatives serving San Diego County: a world music and dance concert series of 5 to 10 annual public events focused on the performing arts of Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe, and North America; workshops and performances in partnership with cultural communities and institutions; a unique World Music in the Schools program; and an Access to the Arts for Seniors program.

WORLD MUSIC CONCERTS
The CWM presents an annual series of concerts carefully curated to introduce audiences to underrepresented musical traditions. Reaching approximately 1,000 attendees per year, the concerts present distinguished California, national, and international artists of traditional world music and dance in small and medium-sized venues.

COMMUNITY WORKSHOPS AND PERFORMANCES
In partnership with San Diego institutions and cultural communities, the CWM presents community workshops and performances reaching over 2,000 children and adults annually.

SCHOOLS PROGRAM
The World Music in the Schools program features more than 25 highly skilled, culturally sophisticated teaching artists and 16 ensembles-in-residence, representing 20 music and dance traditions from around the world. Established in 1999, World Music in the Schools has grown to become the largest CWM program. It offers both 8- to 35-week artist residencies and one-time encounters such as workshops and school-wide assemblies, reaching over 10,000 students each year.

ACCESS TO THE ARTS FOR SENIORS
Access to the Arts for Seniors offers enriching experiences for seniors living in affordable housing communities. Due to socio-economic and physical barriers, residents have limited access to cultural enrichment. This program aims to meet residents’ needs by presenting the world’s music and dance in the comfort of their communities. The program presents 52 quarterly events in 13 communities, reaching over 2,000 seniors per year.

With support from the California Arts Council, the Center for World Music will promote awareness and understanding of the rich performing arts traditions of the world through school-wide, student-interactive assemblies in underserved UTK-12 San Diego area schools. Part of the CWM’s World Music in the Schools core program, our assemblies create opportunities for schools to maximize student exposure to traditional performing arts by bringing large numbers of students together at one time to engage with teaching artists who are also culture bearers. Students experience world music and dance in an exciting format, gaining beneficial knowledge about world geography, history, cultures, languages, and traditions.

Core organizational programs and services of the Center for World Music (CWM) consist of four initiatives serving San Diego County: a world music and dance concert series of 5 to 10 annual public events focused on the performing arts of Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe, and North America; workshops and performances in partnership with cultural communities and institutions; a unique World Music in the Schools program; and an Access to the Arts for Seniors program.

WORLD MUSIC CONCERTS
The CWM presents an annual series of concerts carefully curated to introduce audiences to underrepresented musical traditions. Reaching approximately 1,000 attendees per year, the concerts present distinguished California, national, and international artists of traditional world music and dance in small and medium-sized venues.

COMMUNITY WORKSHOPS AND PERFORMANCES
In partnership with San Diego institutions and cultural communities, the CWM presents community workshops and performances reaching over 2,000 children and adults annually.

SCHOOLS PROGRAM
The World Music in the Schools program features more than 25 highly skilled, culturally sophisticated teaching artists and 16 ensembles-in-residence, representing 20 music and dance traditions from around the world. Established in 1999, World Music in the Schools has grown to become the largest CWM program. It offers both 8- to 35-week artist residencies and one-time encounters such as workshops and school-wide assemblies, reaching over 10,000 students each year.

ACCESS TO THE ARTS FOR SENIORS
Access to the Arts for Seniors offers enriching experiences for seniors living in affordable housing communities. Due to socio-economic and physical barriers, residents have limited access to cultural enrichment. This program aims to meet residents’ needs by presenting the world’s music and dance in the comfort of their communities. The program presents 52 quarterly events in 13 communities, reaching over 2,000 seniors per year.

With support from the California Arts Council, Blindspot Collective will create, produce, and tour a brand new theatre production designed for early elementary schools in low-income, rural, or historically underserved communities in San Diego County. The production will center social-emotional skills, sustainability, and inclusive storytelling, using original characters and student participation to promote connection, joy, and imaginative play.

CAC grant funds will support the development, production, and delivery of performances at local schools, ensuring access to high-quality arts experiences at no cost to participating campuses. The project aims to uplift youth, strengthen school communities, and reduce barriers to arts engagement by bringing transformative, culturally responsive programming directly to students where they are.

Since its founding in 2017, Blindspot Collective has developed new works of theatre with and for historically marginalized communities in San Diego County. We believe storytelling is a valuable tool to build human connections and foster understanding between disparate communities, as evidenced by past projects that highlighted the experiences of refugees, immigrants, people of color, transgender youth, people with disabilities, military veterans, and other marginalized groups. In addition to in-school performances, workshops, and residences serving K-12 students, we develop original work that merges artistic excellence and culturally responsive community development. Blindspot Collective has received acclaim for both its innovative original work, much of which is site-responsive or tours locally to increase community accessibility, and its development processes, which prioritize authentic community engagement and participation toward sustainable cultural change.

Tipey Joa Native Warriors offers sustained, intergenerational arts and cultural programming that supports the creative and cultural survival of Indigenous communities along the California and Baja California border. We focus on the transmission of traditional knowledge and arts—such as basket weaving, storytelling, song, dance, and plant-based practices—as essential forms of cultural continuance. These practices are not only artistic expressions, but vital ways of sustaining language, kinship, and land-based knowledge in the face of ongoing disruption.

Tipey Joa Native Warriors is a grassroots, binational nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting health, cultural preservation, and social justice within Indigenous communities, particularly among Yuman groups such as the Kumeyaay. Operating across the U.S.-Mexico border, the organization addresses systemic inequalities by providing essential resources and services to underserved tribal communities in Baja California and Southern California. Key programs include:
Youth Empowerment and Education: We organize culturally rooted events like the Summer Matayuum and Indigenous youth camps, offering activities such as traditional games, basket weaving, and environmental education to foster cultural pride and leadership among Indigenous youth.
Cultural Preservation: The organization actively promotes Indigenous languages and traditions through community gatherings and educational initiatives, ensuring the transmission of cultural knowledge to future generations.
Health and Wellness Initiatives: By collaborating with partners like the Climate Science Alliance, our organization integrates environmental stewardship with health education, addressing issues such as climate resilience and sustainable living practices within Indigenous communities.
Community Support Services: Recognizing the lack of economic infrastructure and access to basic services in many tribal areas, we provide year-round support, including resource distribution and advocacy, to improve living conditions and promote equity.
Through these programs, we empower Indigenous communities by honoring their heritage, addressing contemporary challenges, and fostering cross-border collaborations for a more equitable future.

With support from the California Arts Council, Wheelchair Dancers Organization, now locally known as Dynamic Inclusive Dance (D.I.D), will create meaningful connections through dance by providing a creative and inclusive space where dance classes are accessible to all. CAC funds will help D.I.D grow its reach, strengthen partnerships, and deliver inclusive workshops and events throughout San Diego County—ensuring that all individuals can express themselves through dance.

Wheelchair Dancers Organization (WDO) offers 6 and 8-week dance classes for wheelchair users and standing partners. All classes are provided free of charge to participants. A professionally trained dance instructor teaches the dance moves, and over the course of the classes a dance routine is perfected. Wheelchair Dancers provides dance for individuals of all ages and abilities, including children as young as age four and as old as age 90. The dancers are provided several opportunities throughout the year to participate in performances for a variety of audiences, including the WDO Showcase that takes place in September of each year and attracts an audience of nearly 500 people. We have also expanded our classes to be virtual as well.

With support from the California Arts Council, Pacific Arts Movement will sustain its organizational infrastructure to continue delivering year-round public programming that centers Asian, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander stories. CAC support will help maintain staff roles essential to producing accessible cultural experiences like the San Diego Asian Film Festival, Spring Showcase, Cinemathek, and youth education programs, ensuring equitable access to media arts across San Diego.

Pacific Arts Movement (Pac Arts) is one of the largest media arts organizations in North America, specializing in Asian American and Asian international cinema. Our flagship event, the San Diego Asian Film Festival, has emerged as a leading showcase for Asian cinema in North America and a significant platform for Asian American media. This festival serves as a celebration of the diversity and breadth of the Asian and Pacific Islander diaspora, featuring everything from passionate independent voices and thought-provoking documentaries to major hits from Asia and work from cinema masters. In addition to the film festival, we operate Reel Voices, a program that has been empowering local high school students to master the art of documentary filmmaking since 2005. This program includes a comprehensive 10-week summer class and a year-round partnership with Monarch School. Through Reel Voices, we inspire and equip the next generation of storytellers, teaching them technical skills like video editing software and guiding them through all stages of production. The ultimate goal is to create socially-conscious storytellers who can authentically represent their experiences and perspectives, aligning with our mission to amplify underrepresented voices and reduce barriers to entry into the media arts.

With support from the California Arts Council, Pacific Arts Movement will strengthen its Reel Voices program, an eight-week documentary filmmaking course for high school students from historically underserved communities. CAC funds will support student stipends and expanded outreach to low-income schools and neighborhoods, ensuring access, mentorship, and public storytelling opportunities that foster cultural pride, healing, and civic engagement.

Pacific Arts Movement (Pac Arts) is one of the largest media arts organizations in North America, specializing in Asian American and Asian international cinema. Our flagship event, the San Diego Asian Film Festival, has emerged as a leading showcase for Asian cinema in North America and a significant platform for Asian American media. This festival serves as a celebration of the diversity and breadth of the Asian and Pacific Islander diaspora, featuring everything from passionate independent voices and thought-provoking documentaries to major hits from Asia and work from cinema masters. In addition to the film festival, we operate Reel Voices, a program that has been empowering local high school students to master the art of documentary filmmaking since 2005. This program includes a comprehensive 10-week summer class and a year-round partnership with Monarch School. Through Reel Voices, we inspire and equip the next generation of storytellers, teaching them technical skills like video editing software and guiding them through all stages of production. The ultimate goal is to create socially-conscious storytellers who can authentically represent their experiences and perspectives, aligning with our mission to amplify underrepresented voices and reduce barriers to entry into the media arts.

With support from the California Arts Council, DISCO RIOT will continue to support and produce a wide range of artists through our innovative programming. DISCO RIOT has developed a shared leadership model that includes a collaborative staff and board support system. Funds from CAC will supplement the compensation of key staff members, including our Operations Coordinator, Education & Outreach Coordinator and Producing Artists, as well as be used to continue fair wages for our teaching and tech staff. These funds help us support our team which in turn provides sustainability, increased impact, and professional development, particularly for BIPOC, 2SLGBTQIA+, and transitional youth artists in our community.

We achieve our mission through a combination of activities that create opportunities for movement-artists to develop their practice that also invite the general public to explore the impact of movement in their own lives. These activities include classes, artist residencies, networking events, performance opportunities, and online projects. Our key programs like Choreo & _____, S P A C E Alliance Studio Residencies, Queer Mvmnt Fest, Summer and Fall Workshops, and ongoing donation-based classes allow the larger arts community and the public to come together with socially conscious dance as the fulcrum.

With support from the California Arts Council, San Diego ART Matters will provide an annual schedule of free and low-cost programs and services to individual artists, cultural practitioners, nonprofit arts and culture organizations, and other members of San Diego County’s arts and culture sector to include, advocacy training and engagement, coalition building and networking, professional and career development, marketing and communications, research and intermediary services.

SDAM’s core programs and services support our mission through education, advocacy initiatives, strategy development, coordinated communications, research, convenings, coalition building, and public forums.

PROGRAM: Education and Advocacy – SDAM serves all county residents through education and advocacy in support of arts and culture in the following ways:
*Meet with elected officials to discuss critical issues affecting artists and arts and culture organizations throughout the region;
*Educate the public regarding candidate platforms during key elections by hosting moderated public forums;
*Vet ballot propositions impacting the arts and share information with constituents;
*Host briefings and forums to bring candidates running for office and elected officials together;
*Attend hearings, write letters and Op Eds, and organize public comment on issues of importance to the field;
*Work with local, state and national partners to conduct research that measures the economic and community impact of the arts; and
*Monitor government budget cycles to identify threats to funding and mobilize support as needed;
*Provide arts advocacy training.

PROGRAM: Member Services – SDAM serves coalition members through a variety of programs, including but not limited to the following:
*Communicate information to the field through quarterly newsletters, e-blasts, and Advocacy Alerts;
*Host quarterly convenings for the creative sector;
*Produce and present annual Arts, Culture and Creativity Month awareness building campaign;
*Conduct annual survey of Coalition members to create a unified advocacy agenda for increasing public funding for the arts;

PROGRAM: Intermediary Services- SDAM helps ensure grants and impact investments reach artists and other “hard-to-reach” communities:
*Grantmaking assistance to grant makers, including oversight of all phases of a regranting process
*Community outreach, needs assessment and cultural planning
*Research, reports, and data mining
*Other consulting services as needed.

With support from California Arts Council, City of San Diego Cultural Affairs and its advisory body, Commission for Arts and Culture (Commission) will serve as Region Administering Organization for the Region 8 Individual Artists Fellowship Program (IAFP), serving San Diego and Imperial counties.

In alignment with the recently adopted Creative City cultural plan vision, the initiative will elevate the visibility of artists and cultural bearers, affirming their vital role in our bi-county, border region’s culture, ecologies and traditions.

IAFP offers seldom-provided financial resources, applying our belief that artists build thriving practices and community-change impact through access to funding, networks, and support. By harnessing its regional network, Commission seeks to sustain and invest in Region 8’s dynamic arts ecosystem, amplifying the voices of its diverse and innovative artistic communities—an essential part of the region’s identity.

Through the Commission, the City invests in San Diego communities through grantmaking, placemaking, accessible arts and cultural experiences, global cultural initiatives, performance spaces, and individual artists/culture bearers. The goal is to enrich every neighborhood through arts, culture, and creativity through each community’s self-determination.

Over the last 37 years, this investment has been disseminated through two core programs, Public Art and Funding. The Public Art Program transforms the human experience of the city’s built environment through public art. The Commission stewards the Civic Art Collection of over 950 objects, integrates art into capital improvement projects, and ensures the inclusion of art or cultural space in private development projects.

The Commission is the largest arts grantmaker in the region and annually awards funds for general operating and project-specific support. These grants are fundamental to the sustainability of many organizations. This general operating support is often the most significant annual grant and the sole multi-year funding to organizations of all sizes. For project support, the City’s grant is routinely awarded over multiple years, also providing continuity for festivals and events such as Pride San Diego and many of San Diego’s film festivals.

Initiatives focus on data collection and field assessments, cultural planning, cultural tourism, creative youth, cultural space, technical assistance for organizations, and training and support for artists, and poet laureateship and municipal photography fellowship programs.

Historically recognized for supporting arts and culture organizations, Commission now focuses on the broader creative sector – including creative industries and individual artists- and community-wide issues where the arts can play an essential role, such as civic engagement and social justice. In 2025, through the Commission the City adopted the Creative City cultural plan, a long-term plan to advance arts, culture and creativity for the benefit of San Diegans as well as the the greater Cali-Baja megaregion.

Uprise & Grind cultivates the power of community by centering locally-owned neighborhood coffee shops as the venue for our groundbreaking theatre and arts program. A special Uprise Theatre project, Uprise & Grind collaborates with five coffee shops around San Diego, to bring the artistic and innovative teaching of legal rights to the people.

Uprise Theatre’s Core programs are:

Theatre/Art Program: Our flagship program is a 16-week legal course that teaches topics including domestic violence (DV), sexual assault (SA), LGBTQ+ rights, 4th and 5th Amendment rights, and gang and conspiracy charges. Participants, turned peer-educators, re-teach the information they have learned to the community through live performances.

Equal Access to Justice Legal Program: Uprise has grown from its flagship program to include pro-bono legal services for criminally impacted families. As a founding member of San Diego’s Participatory Defense group (based on the pioneering work of Raj Jayadev and Silicon Valley De-Bug in San Jose), Uprise founder, Annie Rios, has provided legal consultations and coaching for individuals and loved ones affected by the criminal justice system.

Cultural Advocacy Response/Ability (CARA) Training Series: In addition to direct-service programs, Uprise provides a series of trainings to other community organizations/legal-aid programs that work with vulnerable clients. A five-part training, with topics that include (1) implicit bias, (2) cultural humility, (3) client centered services and trauma informed care, (4) grounding and motivational interviewing, and (5) self-care, is given free to organizations that provide pro bono services to people experiencing trauma.

African American Writers & Artists (AAW&A) seeks funding for “Poems from Within the Teenage Soul,” also known as the S.O.S. (Saving Our Stories) project. This program offers FREE creative writing workshops for foster youth, youth in the juvenile justice system and alternative schools, and those in San Diego’s Promise Zones.

Led by culturally responsive teaching artists and supported by mental health professionals, youth will explore healing through self-expression. The program culminates in a professionally designed anthology featuring participants’ original work.

Focusing on marginalized voices—especially African American youth—the project promotes empowerment, literacy, and mental wellness. Grant funds will support teaching artists, mental health staff, interns, program materials, and accessibility needs. Funding will also provide youth incentives and help host a ceremony to recognize and celebrate the creative achievements of participating youth.

Yearly artist exhibitions
Quarterly Artist workshops
Creative Development program-

“Counter Surveillance” will collaborate with emerging artists and cultural bearers, specifically those of immigrant/refugee backgrounds, in a 6-month fellowship to creatively tackle the racialized impacts of San Diego’s rapidly advancing surveillance technologies, such as the newly installed “smart” streetlight cameras. These cameras disproportionately impact San Diego’s most vulnerable communities, equipped with facial recognition and artificial intelligence that turn people into searchable data. We will engage fellows and our community in educational workshops dissecting key components of surveillance. Under the lead artist’s guidance, fellows will create media arts projects based on their learnings. The project will then become a traveling pop-up exhibit shown throughout San Diego to unite and educate different neighborhoods while inviting them in for further dialogue.

The AjA Project has a strong reputation of delivering high-quality, high-impact programs to young people from diverse cultural, ethnic, and socio-economic backgrounds. This includes in-school and after-school programs as well as participatory workshops in collaboration with cross-sector partner organizations. AjA’s programs support young people to process experiences, understand their social and political landscapes and use the arts as a tool for creative self expression and social change. This year we have provided programming to newly arrived refugees, teen mothers, youth in detention, young people in military families, and youth across San Diego. The work at AjA remains grounded in the power of photography and visual arts as a tool for all youth, regardless of background, to see themselves as agents of change. AjA remains committed to igniting individual and social change from a grassroots, creative approach.

With support from the California Arts Council, ArtReach will provide free and low-cost visual arts programs for over 7,000 young people annually, focusing on those with limited access to creative opportunities, including youth from low-income families, newcomer and refugee communities, Native youth, and LGBTQIA+ youth and families. General Operating Support will help sustain ArtReach’s in-school and community-based programs and strengthen the team’s capacity to meet growing demand across San Diego County. Funding will support staffing, artist wages, and the continued activation of ArtReach’s new community arts center in Hillcrest, an inclusive and intergenerational space that welcomes diverse communities, especially those living in the lowest quartiles of California’s Healthy Places Index. This support is vital to ensure long-term sustainability and equitable access to arts engagement for historically marginalized populations.

ArtReach San Diego is a nonprofit organization committed to increasing access to visual arts education for youth, especially those from under-resourced schools and communities.

ArtReach offers the following programs:

In-School Programs: These programs utilize an inquiry-based, standards-aligned, and sequential curriculum designed to foster creativity, critical thinking, and self-expression. With a strong focus on supporting social-emotional learning goals, the lessons help students build confidence, resilience, and emotional awareness through artistic exploration.

Mural Programs: ArtReach engages youth in collaborative public art projects, where they design and create large-scale murals that promote teamwork, community pride, and artistic achievement. Additionally, ArtReach offers commercial mural projects that provide youth apprentices with real-world work experience, helping to support reduced-cost murals for Title I schools.

Community Programs: ArtReach hosts accessible art workshops and classes for families and individuals in a variety of settings, including our two in-house art studios, libraries, and community centers. These workshops focus on process-based techniques led by local artists, creating opportunities for authentic connection through the arts.

ArtReach employs local artists as teaching artists, ensuring that its programs not only deliver valuable arts education but also support the local creative economy. These programs are offered county-wide, providing free or low-cost services to Title I schools and underserved communities across San Diego County.

With support from the California Arts Council, San Diego Opera will implement its flagship Words & Music program, a dynamic in-school arts residency that empowers youth in grades 3–12 to create and perform original operas and songs inspired by their personal stories. Grant funds will support professional teaching artists, curriculum development, and supplies needed for student performances in eight partner schools. The program enhances arts access for students from under-resourced communities, cultivates cultural literacy, and nurtures creativity, confidence, and collaboration through songwriting, storytelling, and musical performance.

San Diego Opera (SDO) is a widely respected member of the international opera community and an invaluable cultural resource to the San Diego region. San Diego Opera Association was incorporated in 1965 as a producing company and presented its first staging of La Bohème in the newly opened San Diego Civic Theatre. Led since 2015 by General Director David Bennett, the Company has embarked on a series of community-based initiatives, free public performances, and family-friendly operas with world-renowned opera stars to better serve the diverse San Diego region. In 2016, the Company premiered its wildly popular dētour Series, which explores the expressive nature of opera with the potency of intimate theater.

SDO’s commitment to providing a valuable artistic service to our community extends to our offstage work including: Words and Music, an artist residency program that serves hundreds of San Diego youth with in-school, after-school, and summer arts instruction; Opera Hack, a hackathon that brings together leaders in the arts and technology to improve the production and performance of opera; an Artist-in-Residence program where residents of City Heights and San Ysidro create artistic works together that tell their stories, and; an Opera en Español initiative dedicated to building partnerships with arts organizations and artists in Mexico and the U.S. and commissioning, producing, and presenting Spanish-language opera.

San Diego Museum Council would use CAC funds to present three major regional programs that remove economic barriers for families throughout the San Diego region:

– Museum Month in February (half-off admission for all)

– The Big Exchange in May (free reciprocal member admission)

– Kids Free San Diego in October (free admission for ages 12 and under).

We are small yet have a big impact. Last year, we served more 220,000 people including more than 40,000 people in historically and systemically underserved communities and rural and inland areas of San Diego County (lower two quartiles of CA Healthy Places Index), plus more in the Tijuana cross-border region.

Funding will also help provide professional development, marketing support, networking, free artist housing/event space, and advocacy for more than 80 museums and cultural sites in the San Diego region.

San Diego Museum Council is comprised of more than 80 member museums, aquariums, gardens, historic sites, gardens, parks, and more across San Diego County. We connect hundreds of thousands of residents and tourists each year to a range of arts, culture, history, and science offerings that is diverse, vibrant and unique to the region. Each year, San Diego Museum Council delivers three promotional programs including “Museum Month” in February, “The Big Exchange” in May and “Kids Free San Diego” in October. These signature programs are designed make our museums more accessible by reducing financial barriers for families. The programs include educational, professional development and outreach events and are supported by integrated marketing campaigns. All year round, San Diego Museum Council provides its members with collaborative marketing, professional development, and networking opportunities.

With support from California Arts Council, The AjA Project will urgently expand our mission of collective empowerment through participatory storytelling, focusing on youth, emerging artists, and cultural bearers from refugee and immigrant backgrounds in San Diego. In a time of rising stigma and hateful rhetoric against these communities, our work is more critical than ever. Funding will be used to deliver accessible media arts workshops, fellowships, and community exhibitions that challenge exclusion, uplift lived experiences, and foster resilience and belonging. By offering a safe, creative space, we empower underrepresented youth to share their stories, preserve cultural heritage, and strengthen intercultural understanding through artistic expression.

The AjA Project has a strong reputation of delivering high-quality, high-impact programs to young people from diverse cultural, ethnic, and socio-economic backgrounds. This includes in-school and after-school programs as well as participatory workshops in collaboration with cross-sector partner organizations. AjA’s programs support young people to process experiences, understand their social and political landscapes and use the arts as a tool for creative self expression and social change. This year we have provided programming to newly arrived refugees, teen mothers, youth in detention, young people in military families, and youth across San Diego. The work at AjA remains grounded in the power of photography and visual arts as a tool for all youth, regardless of background, to see themselves as agents of change. AjA remains committed to igniting individual and social change from a grassroots, creative approach.

With support from the California Arts Council, POETIC JUSTICE will use poetry, a simple technology, to restore and save lives. By writing and sharing poetry, people impacted by juvenile incarceration in youth facilities create communities rooted in mental health, physical safety, and rehabilitation. Through poetry, multimodal therapeutic art, and somatic mindfulness activities, Poetic Justice artists support young artists incarcerated in San Diego’s Youth Transitional Center (YTC) as they learn to access the root causes of trauma and harm in their lives and become participants in their personal and community transformation. CAC funding will make it possible for PJ to implement the “Free Verse” poetry project to girls and gender-diverse youth, ages 13-24. YTC has already requested that PJ scale the program for the boys’ cottages and high security East Mesa in 2026.

Poetic Justice offers gender responsive and trauma informed classes in the following California carceral settings:
– CIW: 2 RAC classes/wk
– CIW: Children’s Literature Project, ongoing study, production, and publication of children’s books about incarcerated motherhood
– CCWF: 2 RAC classes/wk (including the high security 503 unit)
– CIW & CCWF:
———- Distance Learning Program
———- Voices on the Inside – ongoing self-portrait poetry and photography program with community exhibitions
———- Reentry Journal Project – ongoing paid stipend for first 12 weeks on parole
– Las Colinas (SD Jail): 3 classes/wk (mainline, high security, and psychiatric units)
– SD Youth Transitional Center: 1 weekly class for girls 12-19 y/o

Other PJ Work in California
– East Mesa Rehabilitation Program: (men’s facility)
– California Model Working Group Leadership Team
– Transitional Programming Works (TPW) Women’s Subcommittee Leadership Team

A typical weekly class provides gender-diverse and sensitive access by incorporating mindful breathing, trauma-responsive programming, community support, creative writing, and therapeutic visual arts.

For example, participants might explore aspects of anxiety, worthlessness, shame, etc. through poetry’s grapho-motor process within a trusted community engaged in evidence-based healing because putting language to the unspeakable supports healing from root causes of trauma and PTSD, and provides pathways forward. Whereas abuse, depression, and addiction damage language centers, poetry reactivates them. In fact research indicates that poetry (rhythm, metaphor, rhyme) activates the right hemisphere. The left brain is responsible for acquisition and expression, but the right brain’s ability to integrate unrelated concepts into comprehensible metaphor with repetition and syncopation can access language pathways damaged by trauma. Research, including JW Pennebaker’s work, shows “writing about upsetting events improves physical and mental health,” but only by creating safe communities for interoception and embodied agency. The traumatized brain doesn’t remember in logical sequences; trauma memory returns in sensory experiences rooted in the limbic system rather than language centers – this is why poetry is consequential for healing.

With support from the California Arts Council, the San Diego Children’s Choir will strengthen operations and expand access to choral music education for more than 1,500 children, ages 1–18, primarily from historically and systemically underserved communities across San Diego County, including inland neighborhoods and areas ranked in the lower two quartiles of the Healthy Places Index. CAC funds will support salaries for diverse teaching artists and staff, facility costs, and delivery of inclusive, community-centered programs. Over 70% of participants receive free, culturally responsive, singing-based music education through school and community-based programming. The Choir’s weekly Kodály-based instruction and performances foster musical growth, self-expression, and belonging. This investment will sustain a vital arts workforce, deepen cross-sector partnerships, and ensure that children from all backgrounds can access transformative arts experiences—strengthening the region’s cultural vitality and future.

SDCC was founded in 1990 to give children access to music education that had been diminished or removed from public schools. SDCC has met this need by providing accessible, comprehensive music education and performance experiences to San Diego County children. Each year, 1,500+ children participate in a progressive ensemble program (grades 1-12), an early years introductory music program (ages 1-6), and a school outreach program (PreK-5th grade). SDCC believes no child should be denied access to music education. To this end, we place sites across the county in neighborhoods of varying ethnic and socio-economic composition, and provide free programming for underserved children. Over 70% of SDCC’s participants either participate in our outreach program at their Title 1 school or qualify as low-income based on Federal Poverty Guidelines.
SDCC is an advocate for choral music and engages a broad cross-section of our community to provide a unique music education to choristers. From community performance collaborations to partnering with UCSD on music education and early childhood development research, SDCC actively engages with the community to make it better. Choristers perform for many diverse audiences including elderly residents in memory care, symphony and ballet lovers and even sports fans at Padres games.

With support from the California Arts Council, Izcalli will empower youth to create and perform original live theater centered on the theme of freedom at the Chicano Park Museum and Cultural Center in the heart of San Diego’s Barrio Logan Cultural District. The Museum and Chicano Park—home to an Izcalli organization mural and a site with a powerful history of successful resistance—will serve as relevant and meaningful rehearsal and performance venues for amplifying youth voices and demonstrating effective strategies for community empowerment.

Teatro Izcalli, a Chicanx comedy troupe, has been performing throughout the United States at various conferences, theater venues and community spaces for over 25 years. Teatro Izcalli follows in the tradition of el Teatro Campesino and Culture Clash and presents the traditions, opportunities, and issues related to the Chicanx/Latinx community. Our actos (sketches) and plays address issues such as racism, identity, higher education, and immigration. Additionally, for the past five years Teatro Izcalli had a residency teaching teatro to the next generation of social justice storytellers in San Diego middle schools.

Beyond Teatro Izcalli, Izcalli provides deeper intervention services and assistance for middle and high school students through Circulo de Hombres (Circle of Men), an on-campus after school program that support Latino youth with making positive choices and becoming more engaged in school by providing them with male role models and enriching cultural programming. The organization also offers Circulo de Mujeres (Circle of Women) that connects girls to women mentors and a community of support within their schools. In addition to art making activities both programs use a “talking circle” format to engage youth in dialogue and reflection about their issues, such as sexuality, teen pregnancy, and the violence that impacts their communities.

Program Goals:
1. To establish positive communication with current high risk students based on suspensions, grades, homelessness, gangs and other issues that can lead to the pipeline to prison.
2. Recruit mentors from the community to assist as presenters and added support for students in the community.
3. Create enriching art and cultural activities which deepen students self-awareness and promote community involvement
5. Continue to build healthy rites of passage programs, retreats, and events, for young people of color.
6. Help youth to create a deeper connection to the land and with Mother Earth.

With funding from California Arts Council, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego will deliver the Teen Art Collective (TAC), a 75+ hour after-school program that brings together diverse high school students for a transformative experience in contemporary art, identity, cultural preservation. In partnership with the Balboa Art Conservation Center, TAC fosters youth voices through hands-on workshops, mentorship with California artists, and field trips to artists’ studios and cultural institutions. Students engage with professionals—many reflecting their own backgrounds—and explore museum collections, conservation science, and creative careers. The program is free to all participants and emphasizes culturally responsive learning, emotional growth, and collaborative artmaking. TAC culminates in a student-curated exhibition at MCASD, activating youth narratives and cultivating critical thinking, leadership, and respect for diverse cultures in a safe, supportive environment.

MCASD provides an unprecedented variety of exhibition spaces and experiences for the community, showcasing an internationally recognized collection and a dynamic schedule of exhibitions and public programs. The Museum presents a rotating schedule of exhibitions annually and has a strong history of touring exhibitions to prestigious national and international venues. Youth are a key audience and, since 2007, MCASD has offered free admission to all visitors ages 25 and under. Programs for young people include the Extended School Partnership, Teen Art Collective, Family Art Labs, and monthly Family Free Days, as well as interactive night time event series. The Museum’s Reflections creative aging program serves older adults. On Free Third Thursdays the Museum offers extended hours with a changing roster of films, talks and perfromances. Play Days take place on the second Sunday of the month are also free for all and offer dedicated family programming and artmaking. The Museum’s La Jolla campus reopened to the public in April 2022 after a significant expansion which quadrupled the gallery space.

With support from the California Arts Council, MEDIA ARTS CENTER SAN DIEGO (MACSD) will serve underrepresented youth (ages 6-25) in San Diego County through the Young Producers Project (YPP), a visual storytelling and media literacy initiative.

YPP programs include the Teen Producers Project, Emerging Makers, City Heights IdeaLab, Youth Creators Media Camp, student outreach screenings, Teen Filmmaking Bootcamps, In-School and Library Workshops, and Workforce Development Initiative. During the past thirty-two years, our programs have experienced remarkable growth, paralleled by an increasing demand from our community. Funds from this grant will help MACSD improve its capacity to best serve youth who lack access to culturally resonant media stories and digital tools. Through hands-on programs, filmmaking, screenings, free field trips, and mentorship, we teach participants how to transform their communities through the power of media arts.

MACSD programs, events, and film festivals are inclusionary—designed with audiences, participants, and community collaboration in mind. A summary of core organizational programs and services can be broken down into three categories:

WATCH—San Diego Latino Film Festival (SDLFF) celebrates its 32nd anniversary in March 2025 introducing viewers to contemporary US-Latino and Latin American cinema. Additional programming includes the Que Viva Outdoor Cine Latino Series, and daily screenings of at our Digital Gym Cinema.

LEARN—Media education programs for youth include: Teen Producers Project, Youth Media & Tech Camps, ¡Tu Cine! Student Film Showcase, the iVIE Awards & Student Film Festival and in-school media programs.

CREATE—Tools for community-based media production and collaboration include: Frontera Filmmakers, a grassroots training course for independent filmmakers; and Video Production Services, helping community groups make digital media presence accessible and affordable.

With support from the California Arts Council, Izcalli Escuela de la Raza will expand its staff and programs. General operating support will allow the organization to continue its mission of promoting cultural consciousness through the arts, education, and community dialogue, specifically by supporting culturally relevant theater education, professional performances by Teatro Izcalli, restorative arts trainings for educators, and Indigenous Restorative Circles that foster rehumanization and cultural reconnection.

Teatro Izcalli, a Chicanx comedy troupe, has been performing throughout the United States at various conferences, theater venues and community spaces for over 25 years. Teatro Izcalli follows in the tradition of el Teatro Campesino and Culture Clash and presents the traditions, opportunities, and issues related to the Chicanx/Latinx community. Our actos (sketches) and plays address issues such as racism, identity, higher education, and immigration. Additionally, for the past five years Teatro Izcalli had a residency teaching teatro to the next generation of social justice storytellers in San Diego middle schools.

Beyond Teatro Izcalli, Izcalli provides deeper intervention services and assistance for middle and high school students through Circulo de Hombres (Circle of Men), an on-campus after school program that support Latino youth with making positive choices and becoming more engaged in school by providing them with male role models and enriching cultural programming. The organization also offers Circulo de Mujeres (Circle of Women) that connects girls to women mentors and a community of support within their schools. In addition to art making activities both programs use a “talking circle” format to engage youth in dialogue and reflection about their issues, such as sexuality, teen pregnancy, and the violence that impacts their communities.

Program Goals:
1. To establish positive communication with current high risk students based on suspensions, grades, homelessness, gangs and other issues that can lead to the pipeline to prison.
2. Recruit mentors from the community to assist as presenters and added support for students in the community.
3. Create enriching art and cultural activities which deepen students self-awareness and promote community involvement
5. Continue to build healthy rites of passage programs, retreats, and events, for young people of color.
6. Help youth to create a deeper connection to the land and with Mother Earth.

With support from California Arts Council, Voices of Our City Choir (Voices) will advance our mission to amplify the voices of people impacted by homelessness through music and the arts. Funds will be used to enhance and expand the capacity of our program service model, which integrates welcoming, healing music/artistic programs into person-centered, culturally responsive outreach and case management to foster empowerment and respect, help unsheltered artists meet basic needs, and transform cultural narratives about homelessness. A grant from CAC will 1) increase the number of unsheltered San Diego artists we engage in musical programming that is incorporated into case management/wraparound support; 2) increase the visibility of San Diego artists experiencing homelessness to public audiences; and 3) elevate lived experiences of our Choir Members during performances to reframe public perceptions/stigmas around homelessness and catalyze change.

San Diego-based musician Steph Johnson co-founded Voices as a Performance Choir in 2017, in collaboration with local musicians and people experiencing homelessness. Our Choir has performed in more than 150 events, including San Diego Symphony Orchestra, San Diego Master Chorale, and America’s Got Talent (AGT), where Members received the Golden Buzzer award and inspired San Diego’s Board of Supervisors to declare June 2nd “Voices of Our City Day.”

To build upon the success of our choir, Voices expanded our arts and creative offerings to include songwriting and music production workshops and wraparound services that link Members to housing/social supports. We offer songwriting workshops to engage Members in creating new, original productions for our Choir to perform in community events. We also provide Members access to our in-house studio to learn music recording, engineering, video, and production skills.

In 2022, we formalized the structure of our case management, wraparound service referrals, and basic needs services into a Choir Member Services program. Through our musical programs, Members develop trusting, authentic relationships with our Member Services staff; these connections provide a critical avenue for staff to identify Members’ housing, food, and mental health needs and provide a symphony of resources to meet them. In this way, Voices uses the rhythm of musical programs to move Members through the hierarchy of basic needs and help them realize their full potential. In the process, Voices evolved from a performance ensemble to a nonprofit using musical programming to help unsheltered neighbors meet basic needs.

Voices has received excellence awards from Mayor Todd Gloria and the San Diego Psychological Association. Voices also received the 2022 Peacemaker award from the National Conflict Resolution Center.

With support from the California Arts Council, Rock n’ Roll Camp for Girls San Diego will hire a seasoned non-profit Executive Director, who will intentionally grow and activate our organization in innovative ways. We will branch out beyond our signature Gxrls Rock! Summer Camp and hold year-round workshops to activate multiple community venues across San Diego. And, we will aim to triple our scholarships so that girls and non-binary youth, who are most disconnected from engagement with the arts, are able to have access to and participate in quality music programming.

Currently, our signature program/activity of Rock n’ Roll Camp for Girls San Diego is to produce our annual week-long Gxrls Rock! Summer Camp for 50-55 girls and non-binary youth ages 8-17 during the month of June. In one week, we provide over 40 hours of direct programming. Campers receive fun and engaging music education, they form bands, write original songs, and learn an instrument. We also hold unique workshops during camp, working on a community impact project with other nonprofits. Campers are mentored by 15 inspirational professional artists, and participate in a live showcase performance at a professional venue, in front of over 250 audience members. As of 2024, Gxrls Rock! Summer Camp has created 65 youth bands, and 65 original songs have been written by our camp attendees, and we have served over 350 youth, and performed to over 2,000 family and community members. With additional capacity, we hope to provide quarterly year-round workshops (e.g., vocals, songwriting, ukulele).

With support from the California Arts Council, TRANSCENDANCE YOUTH ARTS PROJECT will engage up to 70 youth from underserved communities in our CREATE Performance Group program from October 2025 – August 2026.

In accordance with our ongoing, successful program model, students ages 9-19 years will experience a holistic and culturally affirming creative process with professional Teaching Artists through a robust Creative Youth Development program. The students and artists will co-create an original dance theatre production that will be presented at a culminating performance on a professional San Diego Stage in Spring 2026, and we will offer additional community outreach performances during Summer 2026.

Through this programming we will address community-identified needs including youth mentorship, access to youth-tailored creative spaces, making art with an equity lens, and providing a platform to amplify youth voice and vision.

transcenDANCE programs provide youth development opportunities through a unique three-tiered program model: CONNECT, CREATE, CONTRIBUTE. transcenDANCE CONNECTS to youth and communities through in-school and out-of-school time dance classes, artist-in-residency programs, outreach performances, and summer camps. CREATE is the heart of the transcenDANCE programs. Youth explore dance and the performing arts through rigorous dance training and immersion in a social change and social emotional learning curriculum over 9 months, which culminates in an annual performance on a professional San Diego stage. transcenDANCE alumni CONTRIBUTE to transcenDANCE through performances, teaching and choreography assistantships and paid roles, and mentoring of incoming students. All students have access to mental health services, mentorship, and leadership development opportunties. Our students’ transformative experience develops their leadership skills, social and emotional resilience, and confidence to change the trajectories of their lives and positively impact the communities they live in.

With support from the California Arts Council, KeyNote will provide music education programs in Chula Vista, reaching early childhood (0-5) through the Chula Vista Elementary School District Office of Early Childhood Development, Opus Project after-school music ensembles in four Elementary Schools, and music enrichment for students up to age 18 through a special pathway to join the San Diego Youth Orchestra.

Celebrating 80 years in 2024-25, KeyNote/SDYS is San Diego’s comprehensive provider of cradle-to-college music education opportunities through: Our flagship ensemble program, housed in San Diego’s historic Balboa Park, features thirteen orchestras and bands for musicians of all levels and provides additional depth through chamber music, theory, composition, second instrument camps, and summer opportunities. KeyNote’s Community Opus Project has partnered with Chula Vista Elementary School District for more than ten years to restore music education programs to more than forty schools and is a national model for community engagement through music education. Lastly, KeyNote’s early childhood program, Chimes, works with infants, toddlers, and their families to promote creative youth development, pre-literacy, and school readiness through music education and pre-ensemble training.

With support from the California Arts Council, SACRA/PROFANA will produce its 17th artistic season. Since its inception, SACRA/PROFANA has worked to bring contemporary and innovative choral repertoire to the greater San Diego area through concerts and educational programs. We’re dedicated to providing experiences that create and celebrate the power of choral music and strive to ensure that these choral experiences are accessible to artists, patrons and students. Season 17 will feature five concerts and provide workshops and mentoring for hundreds of middle and high school students. One of the most impactful educational outreach programs is the Summer Choral Intensive week-long choral camp, in its 12th season. Funds would be used specifically for artistic and education staff, singers, accompanists, teaching artists and choral artistic leadership. Funds would also support important operational activities underlying those programs.

San Diego’s only year-round professional chorus, SACRA/PROFANA was founded in 2009 by New York native Krishan Oberoi, quickly rose to become “San Diego’s go-to choral ensemble” (U-T San Diego). Described by KPBS as “choral music for the iPod generation”, the dynamic choral group has collaborated with the Chieftains, Producer Carlton Cuse (of ABC’s hit show Lost), Japanese composer Nobou Uematsu, and many other prominent creative minds.

The SACRA/PROFANA Education Outreach programs strive to aid teachers and students in the pursuit of knowledge in music, discipline, focus, language skills and community. We do this through:
* Residencies and workshops for middle and high school choruses,
* Seminars for the high school level coupled with concerts side-by-side with our core professional chamber choir,
* Middle and high school presentations on the voice, music and singing, and
* The Summer Choral Intensive, one of San Diego’s most sought after summer vocal programs for high school and middle school singers.

With support from the California Arts Council, Fern Street Community Arts (FSCA) will enhance its organizational infrastructure to meet community demand for its core programs. Grant funds will support salaries of key staff (Program Director, Operations Manager, and Social Work Educator) who ensure FSCA’s effectiveness, sustainability, and impact.

These leaders are vital to program delivery as well as responsible financial stewards who uphold strong governance, operational accountability, and people-centered practices. Their work reflects FSCA’s core values: investing in human potential, nurturing a cooperative community culture, and maintaining responsible, mission-driven operations.

FSCA’s initiative, Fern Street Circus (FSC)—offers free, year-round circus arts education and public performances, primarily in City Heights. This funding will support the essential infrastructure that enables artists to bring accessible, high-quality arts directly into the community, using circus for connection, learning, and joy.

Founded in 1990, Fern Street Circus (FSC) has built a legacy of circus in San Diego through a series of annual shows in Balboa Park, Golden Hill, City Heights, and in neighborhoods across San Diego County.

EDUCATION. FSC’s education programs focus on serving communities mostly through City recreation centers. At Mid-City Gym in City Heights, we teach low-income youth free-of-charge, emphasizing skill building, conditioning, team work and cultural understanding.

PERFORMANCE. Known for creating performances with a playful sense of place, the Circus mixes adult professionals with after-school students. Anchor elements include live music; sets conceived and built by locally known visual artists; and a bi-lingual, non-linear narrative.

FSC’s Neighborhood Tour takes place each spring, with free shows in Mid-City San Diego neighborhood parks.

COMMUNITY. The Circus is resident in City Heights, interacting daily with and supporting activists and their constituents from around the world. In September 2023, FSCA moved into a recently vacated elementary school in City Heights, Central. At the former Central campus, FSCA has a 2,500 square foot gym with wood floors,, 20′ ceiling, natural light and a stage, as well as 4 classrooms for training, storage and an office. This is FSCA’s first-ever dedicated indoor space.

Fern Street Community Arts was named Live Well San Diego’s Central Region “Public Health Champion” of 2025.

With support from the California Arts Council, FERN STREET COMMUNITY ARTS will provide free-of-charge opportunities for circus education and performance to historically underserved youth in City Heights, San Diego. Programming includes our year-round After-School Circus Program, Central Elementary Minimum Day Program, and Fern Street Family Services. Youth performance opportunities include the annual month-long Neighborhood Tour to parks in underserved neighborhoods and community-driven performances throughout the year. Through teaching and performing of circus arts, we seek to build vibrant, visible community, and enliven public spaces, with a primary focus on Creative Youth Development.

Founded in 1990, Fern Street Circus (FSC) has built a legacy of circus in San Diego through a series of annual shows in Balboa Park, Golden Hill, City Heights, and in neighborhoods across San Diego County.

EDUCATION. FSC’s education programs focus on serving communities mostly through City recreation centers. At Mid-City Gym in City Heights, we teach low-income youth free-of-charge, emphasizing skill building, conditioning, team work and cultural understanding.

PERFORMANCE. Known for creating performances with a playful sense of place, the Circus mixes adult professionals with after-school students. Anchor elements include live music; sets conceived and built by locally known visual artists; and a bi-lingual, non-linear narrative.

FSC’s Neighborhood Tour takes place each spring, with free shows in Mid-City San Diego neighborhood parks.

COMMUNITY. The Circus is resident in City Heights, interacting daily with and supporting activists and their constituents from around the world. In September 2023, FSCA moved into a recently vacated elementary school in City Heights, Central. At the former Central campus, FSCA has a 2,500 square foot gym with wood floors,, 20′ ceiling, natural light and a stage, as well as 4 classrooms for training, storage and an office. This is FSCA’s first-ever dedicated indoor space.

Fern Street Community Arts was named Live Well San Diego’s Central Region “Public Health Champion” of 2025.

With support from the California Arts Council, The High Steppers Drill Team, Inc. will provide social-emotional creative experiences in safe and nurturing environments through our proposed project and core program, The High Steppers Drill Team. The High Steppers Drill Team empowers youth through the preservation, revitalization, and reclamation of the cultural practice of Step, a traditional artistic and cultural practice that dates to the aftermath of the slave rebellion of 1739 and is shaped out of the African American college movements at the turn of the 20th century. In addition, The High Steppers integrate Drill and Dance into their movement-based programs, with wraparound services such as mental health and wellness and academic support.

Our organization supports 3 core programs with wraparound services including, but not limited to, academic awareness and mental health support. Six staff members and 4 teaching artist alumni — all members of the Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) community — oversee and manage The High Steppers programs and day-to-day operations within the organization.

In service of our mission, our organization directly serves approximately 75 young people per year. One of our core programs is our Drill Team, which utilizes the art of military drill technique, dance, and step routines as an access point for creative youth development. Our team of 10-30 participants per semester, ranging from 3 to 17 years old, engages in 2-hour practice sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays each week during our 16 week-long spring semesters, 4 week summer boot camps, and 12 week fall semesters. Co-Founder and Executive/Artistic Director Charolette Patton-Logan leads the Drill Team program.

Grounded and rooted within their community, The High Steppers have a long-standing tradition of cultivating relationships with community members and service providers working across sectors. Student alumni and graduates from the organization’s programs work alongside The High Steppers Co-Founder and Executive/Artistic Director, Charolette Patton-Logan, as Junior Step Instructors and Step Masters in training.

With support from the California Arts Council, Media Arts Center San Diego (MACSD) will continue to accomplish its mission of providing new media tools and channels to create equitable and engaged communities where underserved voices are heard. MACSD serves populations in the lower two quartiles of the Healthy Places Index in the San Diego region through our Education, Exhibitions, and Community Production programs. Funds from this grant will support our general operating costs (staff salaries, program costs, admin expenses, overhead fees, facility rentals), and support the professional development of media artists; thereby sustaining transformative community-oriented artistic programs and a creative workforce in San Diego and beyond.

MACSD programs, events, and film festivals are inclusionary—designed with audiences, participants, and community collaboration in mind. A summary of core organizational programs and services can be broken down into three categories:

WATCH—San Diego Latino Film Festival (SDLFF) celebrates its 32nd anniversary in March 2025 introducing viewers to contemporary US-Latino and Latin American cinema. Additional programming includes the Que Viva Outdoor Cine Latino Series, and daily screenings of at our Digital Gym Cinema.

LEARN—Media education programs for youth include: Teen Producers Project, Youth Media & Tech Camps, ¡Tu Cine! Student Film Showcase, the iVIE Awards & Student Film Festival and in-school media programs.

CREATE—Tools for community-based media production and collaboration include: Frontera Filmmakers, a grassroots training course for independent filmmakers; and Video Production Services, helping community groups make digital media presence accessible and affordable.

With support from the California Arts Council, TUYO THEATRE INC will produce Everything You Need to Know About Abortion in One Hour or Less and tour it in San Diego’r South Bay Communities.

The core programming of TuYo Theatre is a community and professional theatre company. TuYo Theatre produces plays, staged-readings, theatrical developmental workshops, and educational theatre programs.

With support from the California Arts Council, Arms Wide Open (AWO) will pay operating expenses that include studio rent, teaching artists, and production expenses, including those for productions by Rising Stars (exclusively for people with disabilities) and the Inspire program that offers individuals who are especially talented more challenging performance experiences. While the majority of AWO’s programs are designed solely for people with disabilities, INSPIRE is designed for people both with and without disabilities, giving each participant the chance to learn from others who share the same love of performance and who can offer valuable life lessons. Grant funding will also support AWO’s first satellite site in North San Diego County that expands its geographic reach by making it possible for people from other parts of the region to participate…a long-time vision realized!

Arms Wide Open provides a wide range of classes (e.g. Hip-Hop; Jazz; Health & Fitness; Tap; Voice; Percussion) designed specifically for individuals with disabilities to provide them opportunities for engagement in activities that improve their health and can lead to a positive and busy social life.

AWO serves 200+ individuals with autism, Down Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, brittle bone disease, and other developmental delays and physical challenges. They are from many cultural/socio-economic backgrounds and live in a variety of settings (e.g. group/foster homes, with families). They come to East County from throughout San Diego, and now North County residents can take classes at AWO’s new site at the California Center for the Arts.

A team of master teaching professional artist/choreographer, musician/vocal coach director/drama instructors teach classes six days a week at the main studio and one day a week at the new North County site..

For many years, a highlight of AWO’s programming was its annual theatrical productions at the Lyceum Theatre. Due to Covid-19, performances at a professional theatre could not take place, but AWO transformed a dance studio into a theatre seating 80 people. Over the past several years, AWO presented four musicals – most recently, Wizard of Oz (Fall 2023).

AWO now offers two large scale production programs: Rising Stars serves people with special needs or disabilities by producing and creating annual musicals. Most productions feature a cast of 80+ actors. Because these productions are so popular there are several casts so that everyone who is interested can participate. Unlike Rising Stars, INSPIRE is designed for people with and without disabilities, giving each participant the chance to learn from others who share the same love of performance and who can offer valuable life lessons. In May 2024 AWO returned to a large stage with performances of Newsies: The Musical.

With support from the California Arts Council, CIVIC YOUTH ORCHESTRA (CYO) will collaborate with the Escondido Union School District to provide “Allegro” an after-school strings program providing no cost, professional instruction to Title 1 elementary school students, grades 3-5. This CAC grant will make it possible for 1,250 underserved students to be enrolled in the Allegro program and grow within a structured performing arts program.

Since 1956 the Civic Youth Orchestra has enriched the lives of aspiring musicians, from those who are just beginning their musical experience to the most advanced, through a stair-step program designed to inspire and cultivate excellence through music and an appreciation for the arts.
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Our program offers both small and large ensemble training for musicians aged 5 to 22, led by professional staff, as well as master classes, workshops, intensive orchestral retreats and tours.
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Our students have gone on to pursue successful careers as solo performers, symphony orchestra members, composers, music educators and members of the music entertainment industry.

With support from the California Arts Council, the San Diego Creative Youth Development Network will deliver a Restorative Practices Training Program for Creative Youth Development organizations and practitioners, led by Macedonio Arteaga, Jr., Lead Artist & Restorative Practitioner/Trainer. This training program is specifically designed to strengthen the relational and cultural foundations of organizations serving young people through the arts, especially those navigating systemic inequities, trauma, and structural harm.

Creative Youth Development (CYD) is a holistic approach to deeply engaging young people through the arts and creativity to promote personal well-being and support them in reaching their full potential. SDCYD Network is a coalition of providers, partners, and young people dedicated to harnessing their collective strength to build the field of creative youth development to maximize impact for youth. We achieve this by:

Building public awareness of the impact of youth arts programs as drivers of personal and community change.

• Initiate and conduct field research & evaluation
• Create content, communications, and campaigns
• Produce youth-focused and data-driven storytelling

Sharing expertise and best practices with youth arts programs.

• Provide leadership & professional development
• Provide networking & peer learning opportunities
• Offer technical assistance

Cultivating new pathways of support that benefit all local youth arts programs.

• Advocate for policy & systems change
• Grow diversity in funding
• Pursue collective funding opportunities

With support from the California Arts Council, the San Diego Creative Youth Development Network will provide direct programming and services, including but not limited to, convening & networking opportunities, arts advocacy, information and research, professional development opportunities, and marketing, promotion, audience development services to our Network of community-based artists, creators, tradition bearers, educators, and arts/culture organizations who are direct providers of creative youth development programming. These include the organizations and the people who lead, support and provide artistic (e.g., in dance, music, theatre, playwriting, photography/film) and cultural programming.

Creative Youth Development (CYD) is a holistic approach to deeply engaging young people through the arts and creativity to promote personal well-being and support them in reaching their full potential. SDCYD Network is a coalition of providers, partners, and young people dedicated to harnessing their collective strength to build the field of creative youth development to maximize impact for youth. We achieve this by:

Building public awareness of the impact of youth arts programs as drivers of personal and community change.

• Initiate and conduct field research & evaluation
• Create content, communications, and campaigns
• Produce youth-focused and data-driven storytelling

Sharing expertise and best practices with youth arts programs.

• Provide leadership & professional development
• Provide networking & peer learning opportunities
• Offer technical assistance

Cultivating new pathways of support that benefit all local youth arts programs.

• Advocate for policy & systems change
• Grow diversity in funding
• Pursue collective funding opportunities

With support from the California Arts Council, Westwind Brass seeks General Operating Support to sustain our vital role in San Diego’s cultural ecosystem. Aligned with the CAC’s commitment to broad reach and equity, we provide diverse musical experiences, enriching our community. This funding will directly support our ongoing operations, including essential expenses like staffing and facilities, ensuring our capacity to deliver high-quality performances and educational programs. As a dedicated arts organization, this support is crucial for maintaining our organizational strength and continuing to contribute to California’s vibrant arts landscape, fostering accessibility and engagement for all.

Through our outreach programs, our goal is to not only help provide a well-rounded education for children and create a healthier community, but also, by offering students the chance to participate in this learning process, we help build the future arts audience.

WWB strives to achieve its mission by building and satisfying a worldwide following of dedicated individual and organizational supporters, professional peers, music educators, and public audiences that: (a) organize, stage and attend concerts of outstanding classical and contemporary brass chamber music; (b) encourage instructional presentations and discussions of brass chamber music; (c) stimulate and foster creation, research and presentation- both live and recorded- of brass chamber music of the highest artistic and professional quality.