Grantee Database Results

With support from the California Arts Council, CELEBRATION PRODUCTIONS CORPORATION d/b/a “Celebration Theatre” will fund the production phase for Trans Lineage, an annual program dedicated to uplifting original stories by transgender, nonbinary, and gender-expansive artists. Now entering its fourth year, Trans Lineage commissions new short plays, pairs playwrights with professional directors and dramaturgs, and culminates in a fully produced showcase that centers TGNC narratives and people. Funding will support artist salaries, production costs, accessibility services, and community engagement efforts. This program provides vital creative opportunities for a community disproportionately underrepresented and underemployed in the arts, while fostering cultural visibility, healing, and joy through live performance.

Celebration Theatre is Southern California’s longest-running LGBTQIA+ theatre. Founded in December 1982 in a Silver Lake storefront by Mattachine Society co-founding member Chuck Rowland, the nonprofit was organized as a community theatre “of, by, and for gay and lesbian people and their friends.” Expanding over the decades, the Los Angeles-based company has mounted theatrical productions representative and in support of the queer community: with a sharp focus on inclusion, visibility, and pride.

In addition to its main stage productions from the queer literary canon and reimagined “queerings” from the theatre canon, Celebration Theatre has developed new works for the community for decades through readings, workshops, and world premiere productions. Since 2021, the theatre has committed itself through its Trans Lineage program to the development of new stories for the stage that illuminate transgender and gender-expansive narratives across time and cultures.

GLAAD, NAACP, Los Angeles theatre awards, and many other benchmarks for excellence have recognized the theatre and its artists—performers, writers, directors, designers, musicians, and producers. Scores of LGBTQIA+ luminaries have graced Celebration’s stages over the years as it continues to provide an inspiring and empowering forum for professional and emerging artists, giving voice to the evolving experience of queer culture.

This project will fund the design and installation of a large-scale tile mural at Freedom Plaza in Twentynine Palms, a rural desert city with significant economic, geographic, and cultural access challenges. Led by artist Rhonda Lane Coleman, the mural will be created through a deeply inclusive, intergenerational process involving hundreds of handmade tiles crafted by local students and residents. Building on the success of Signs of Courage, a youth-driven public art initiative, this project offers free workshops, fair artist pay, and broad community engagement over a ten-month period. Installed at Freedom Plaza–the city’s civic heart, the mural will reflect not just who Twentynine Palms has been—but who it is becoming.

The City of Twentynine Palms Parks and Recreation Department offers a broad spectrum of community programs, with a growing emphasis on arts, culture, and youth development. Through seasonal and year-round initiatives, the department aims to enhance community well-being and connection by providing accessible recreational and educational opportunities for all ages.

In recent years, the department has expanded its focus on arts and culture, incorporating music, visual arts, and performance-based activities into community events and youth programs. Seasonal events such as Paint Night, the International Festival, the Holiday Festival, and Pioneer Days regularly feature local performers, student showcases, and interactive art components. Other core programming youth and adult sports leagues, swim lessons, summer camps, and fitness classes.

The department actively partners with artists, schools, and nonprofit organizations to introduce youth to creative expression, including special projects during citywide celebrations.

The Parks and Recreation Department is committed to expanding its arts programming as a tool for inclusion, enrichment, and youth empowerment, aligning with its mission to create community through people, parks, and programs.

With support from CAC, PBDT will provide therapeutic dance classes, at the Downtown Women’s Center, a shelter for unhoused, and GEMS Uncovered, a nonprofit serving individuals that have experienced trafficking. Choreographer/Childhood Abuse Survivor Jamie Carabetta will lead “my/story” workshops, reframing traumatic events through dance.

1. Pony Box Dance Theatre, Professional Repertory Company
A male identifying troupe of exceptional dancers, providing Performances, Master Classes and Residencies and Lecture/Demonstrations in a wide array of settings, including galleries, schools, theaters and parks.

2. Best Foot Forward, Cultural Enrichment Program
Serving over 5000 individuals annually
Providing In and After School Classes in San Pedro, Long Beach, downtown Los Angeles, South Central Los Angeles, East Los Angeles in an array of genres

3.The Dance Renewal Project
Providing healing centered dance classes, mentorship and counseling in juvenile halls and camps for teens, using dance as a form of therapy.

Because of Black Music IAM (BOBM) is a summer-long cultural sanctuary from Valerie Troutt Projects that responds to urgent community needs in Oakland’s Black music scene. Black musicians in the East Bay—especially womyn and non-binary artists—face systemic displacement, economic exclusion, and misogyny within the music industry. BOBM meets this need by creating free, intergenerational spaces where Black artists are celebrated, paid, and protected. From June to September 2026, four monthly events at Wyldflowr Arts will feature jam sessions, game nights, and a culminating poetry slam—spotlighting local Black artists and creating opportunities for young artists to be inspired and receive mentorship. CAC funds will support artist pay, event production, and community outreach. BOBM builds healing and belonging through music, offering cultural visibility and economic justice where it’s needed most.

VTP’s events and productions are spaces where queer, transgender, and non-binary Black folks can have their authentic selves be seen and celebrated. By using the art of SongCare, VTP celebrates the connective power of music, live performance, and musical education – their ability to create intergenerational, cross-cultural connections and shared empathy and joy. The philosophy of SongCare is woven through all our programs including Because of Black Music, Find Your Light, MoonCandy Live House Music Ensemble, and the Valerie Troutt JazzSoul Project & Trio.

VTP’s greatest recent accomplishments are the 2023 Because of Black Music IAM festival and our Find Your Light series. The Find Your Light series is a free musical program centering Black Womyn Artists and the need for an oasis where Black Womyn are centered and valued in real time. VTP leads groups of Black Womyn through Soulful uplifting songs, dance, and yoga movements encouraging Unity, Wholeness, Freedom, Justice and Love. Find Your Light encourages Black Womyn ourselves to create our own futures of Black Womyn-hood by developing new systems and frameworks to better support a healthier tomorrow. VTP has now hosted seven Find Your Light arts and cultural wellness events serving Black Womyn, ranging from an in person event held at Zoo Labs called Black Girl Church to a community SongCare gathering at Oakland’s Regina’s Door that took place before the pandemic. All seven of these events created intergenerational conversation and showcased a number of Black Womyn artists, craft persons, and community members.

With support from the California Arts Council DELL-ARTE INC will continue a Healthcare Clowning Program piloted last year in Humboldt County, California. Dell’Arte’s goal is to return to the assisted living/memory care facilities at Timber Ridge (McKinleyville and Eureka) as well as grow its programming to St. Joe’s Hospital (Eureka), including pediatrics. Dell’Arte aims to begin collaborating with residents at Bayview Heights (Eureka), a veteran and formerly unhoused residence. This funding would cover initial meetings with service providers and a trial run of engagements in order to discover how best to serve the Bayview Heights community.

Healthcare Clowning is not just entertainment, it offers connection, support and uplifts its participants. By listening, responding and following the lead of the participant, Healthcare Clowns support physical and mental wellbeing through play, humor and care.

Dell’Arte sustains and produces a series of community based arts engagement programs through partnerships with local agencies and non-profit organizations. These engagements include our Healthcare Clowning program that partners with Timber Ridge retirement community and we partner with Blue Lake Elementary School to provide theatre space for their performances. Dell’Arte’s Arts in Corrections program at Pelican Bay continues working with the incarcerated and is in its 10th year. Participants at PBSP work in ensemble to explore the creative act of generating theatre through the study of storytelling, character, improvisation, and original play development. It is through this healing-centered facilitation that participants focus on self-awareness through a creative lens and body-based artistic exploration in writing, movement, performance, and collaboration.

Dell’Arte continues to offer professional training in physical theatre and clowning to enhance the artists ability to relate to themselves and the world around them. The basis of the work is in daily training emphasizing the development of awareness through movement. We seek to develop an embodied actor who regards the space of the stage as a dynamic, poetic realm.

We continue our advisory partnerships with the Wiyot, Yurok, and Hoopa Tribes to advance learning and cultural exchange programs and projects which aim to amplify and uplift Native and Indigenous stories, experiences, language, and knowledges of the land.

Since 1990, we have produced the annual Mad River Festival, now named Baduwa’t Festival, in rural Blue Lake. Situated on the ancestral lands of the Wiyot Tribe, this five week festival offers a multitude of performances including an original Dell’Arte Company work in our amphitheater inspired by our region—which we call “theatre of place.” It also includes alumni performances, an experimental theatrical laboratory, a week of local music with the Humboldt Folklife Festival and more.

With support from the California Arts Council, INVERTIGO DANCE THEATRE will produce The Shape of Us, a public dance and spoken word performance co-created with its Dancing Through Parkinson’s (DTP) community. DTP provides storytelling through movement classes to people with Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative, mobility, or age-related conditions, with a focus on increasing flexibility, balance, stability, creativity and joy. The Shape of Us will uplift and center the experiences and artistic expression of people with Parkinson’s and will feature an intergenerational cast, with participation from local school-aged students as well as children and grandchildren of the performers.

Invertigo’s core programming is focused on offering dance theatre as a catalyst for racial equity and public engagement with and between communities that are systemically marginalized and less resourced. All programs activate dance as a transformational mode of storytelling and community-building as part of a movement practice. Invertigo pursues its mission through its professional dance repertory and production company, and a series of community engagement programs, including Dancing Through Parkinson’s. In 2018, Invertigo was awarded the National Dance Project Production Award – one of the highest national honors in dance – for its new dance production, FORMULAE & FAIRY TALES, hailed as “dance theatre at its finest” by the LA Dance Chronicle and declared “a breakthrough show” by the LA Times.

CAC Impact Project funds will support the 2026 Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirit (BAAITS) Powwow—the world’s largest public Two-Spirit Powwow and a cornerstone cultural event for Indigenous LGBTQIA+ communities. Held annually at the Fort Mason Pavilion in San Francisco, this free intertribal gathering brings together over 5,000 people for a day of traditional dance, music, ceremony, and celebration led by Two-Spirit and IndigeQueer artists and culture bearers. The Powwow honors ancestral traditions while creating space for contemporary cultural expression, community connection, and intergenerational healing. CAC support will help fund Powwow production, accessibility, and artist participation, ensuring this sacred space remains free and community-led. The event is the culmination of a week of arts and cultural programming produced by BAAITS that gathers and uplifts Two-Spirit people from across Turtle Island.

BAAITS largest program is our annual Two-Spirit Powwow. At this Powwow all Two-Spirit identified Native American, American Indian, and T-SLGBTQI people and their allies get a chance to come together to celebrate culture, build community, and express themselves. The BAAITS Powwow was the world’s first public Two-Spirit Powwow and we are now the world’s largest. The BAAITs Two Spirit Powwow is modeled after a traditional Oklahoma style Powwow and is an intertribal event that also invites non-Native guests to experience Native cultures. On the day of and the months leading up to the event, we have contact with thousands of people who identify as Two-Spirit, American Indian, Indigenous and allies. We reach them, spread our mission, and gather people from all over the US and Canada to celebrate and heal. Powwow participants feel “ohno cochico”, community love or the way that one feels when they are amongst their tribe. It is a place where we can truly restore and reclaim the role of Two-Spirit people. We do this through cultural expression, getting back in touch with our culture, and ceremony.

Our oldest program, the BAAITS Drum is an all-gender big drum group that meets once a month. BAAITS Drum participates in drumming and community events throughout the year, and drums at our annual Powwow.

BAAITS organizes social gatherings, Two Spirit Artist & Cultural Bearer’s workshops and TS Talking Circles throughout the year and marches in the annual San Francisco Pride Parade.

In addition to the social gatherings, BAAITS organizes and participates in panels, cultural and artistic performances, and offers classes and workshops leading up to our annual Powwow, such as bead working, regalia making, protocol, and cultural dances for American Indian and non-Two-Spirit allies. BAAITS also participates in national and international meetings with other Two-Spirit societies and Native American organizations.

With support from the California Arts Council, Nava Dance Theatre will produce our fifth iteration of Unrehearsed: Artist Residency and Commissioning Program (URP) which uplifts and supports critical dialogue across South Asian traditional, contemporary, and experimental dance genres, while also confronting systemic structural prejudices in the Indian performing arts community. Through this program, we curate art-centered interactive work in progress showings, performances, and discussions to make dialogue around these issues more accessible.

Unrehearsed will center in-person presentations in San Francisco, along with public workshops by the residents for community members/dancers and non-dancers. CAC funds will support three California based resident artists and their production expenses, project personnel and project venue costs for presenting their work in San Francisco.

Nava Dance Theatre (NDT), led by Artistic Director Nadhi Thekkek, is a Bharatanatyam company using South Indian dance as a medium for reflection and discovery. We focus on two main programs: original dance works and our Unrehearsed: Artist Residency and Commissioning program. We also offer subsidized workshops, co-produce the Varnam Salon, and organize classes as part of our community engagement.

Highlights include residencies at CounterPulse and A.C.T., two commissions from Oakland Ballet, and support from the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project. Our work has also been funded by the MAP Fund, National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, San Francisco Arts Commission, and more. Since 2013, we’ve performed nationally at venues such as La Mama (NYC), National Steinbeck Center, SF Ethnic Dance Festival, Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, UC Davis Mondavi Center, and UMass Amherst Fine Arts Center.

NDT creates immersive, community-centered performances rooted in South Asian storytelling through Bharatanatyam and experimental movement. Our blend of dance, music, and narrative reflects the lived experiences of Indian and South Asian communities. Drawing from oral histories and interviews, we explore themes like migration, identity, and justice. Through responsible, culturally responsive storytelling, we center underrepresented voices and invite audiences to reflect, connect, and take pride in our shared histories.

Flockworks seeks support from the California Arts Council’s Impact Projects grant to expand inclusive, community-centered programming at the Cobalt Gallery in Fort Bragg, which Flockworks began managing in March 2025. The gallery is being transformed into a hub for creative engagement, cultural inclusion, and artistic visibility for underserved populations. Grant funds will support project costs including staffing, artist stipends, rent, workshop supplies, and utilities to carry out a year of exhibitions, hands-on workshops, and public events. Programming will prioritize Mendocino County’s rural population, where poverty rates exceed 20% and access to arts and enrichment opportunities is limited. Bilingual outreach, intergenerational classes, and a pay-what-you-can model ensure broad access regardless of income or background. By supporting local artists and fostering participation across ages and abilities, this project builds inclusion and cultural resilience along California’s North Coast.

Flockworks delivers a range of arts-based programs that promote creativity, community engagement, and equitable access to the arts, particularly in underserved rural areas. Our core programs include:

In-School Art Education: We partner with local school districts to provide hands-on visual arts instruction during the school day, integrating creativity into core learning and expanding access to arts education for all students.

Kudos and ASSETs After-School Programs: Serving over 500 students daily in Fort Bragg, we operate high-quality, grant-funded after-school programs across elementary, middle, and high school campuses. These programs provide academic support, diverse enrichment activities (including arts, STEM, music, and wellness), and a safe, engaging space for youth. Flockworks manages both state and federal grants to ensure compliance, sustainability, and alignment with expanded learning priorities.

Camp Flockworks: A full-day summer program that combines art, nature, physical activity, and project-based learning in an affordable, inclusive environment for local youth.

Cobalt Art Gallery: Flockworks manages the Cobalt Art Gallery in downtown Fort Bragg, offering a vibrant space for community engagement through art. The gallery hosts single-artist shows, collaborative exhibits, and provides free or affordable public programming—creating opportunities for local artists while ensuring accessibility for all members of the community.

Community Arts & Public Projects: We coordinate mural projects, community art events, and collaborative workshops that bring people together, celebrate local culture, and promote civic engagement through creative expression.

Support for Artists & Educators: Flockworks offers professional development, partnership opportunities, and creative space for local artists and educators, helping to grow the region’s cultural capacity and build sustainable creative careers.

These programs work together to ensure that creativity is a vibrant and accessible part of daily life in our community.

With support from the California Arts Council, Urban Jazz Dance Company will produce the 14th Annual Bay Area International Deaf Dance Festival (BAIDDF) in August 2026. BAIDDF is the first and only festival of its kind in the Bay Area, celebrating Deaf and Hard of Hearing (HoH) artists through dance, music, poetry, and education. The 2026 Festival will feature three performances, three workshops, and an Artist Q&A panel, reaching over 500 audience members and 300 students. CAC funds will support artist fees, access services including ASL interpretation and audio description, and administrative staffing. By centering Deaf leadership, artistry, and community, BAIDDF uplifts historically excluded artists and provides accessible, inclusive experiences that bridge Deaf, Disabled, and hearing communities through the power of performance and cultural connection.

UJDC educates audiences about current events, empowering minorities, lack of early access to language for Deaf children and social justice. We provide educational workshops/performances at Deaf schools, mainstream programs, Universities, state colleges and seniors homes in the process, creating a healing space for many who have experienced domestic abuse. UJDC passionately visits over 70 schools per year, local to International, working with both hearing and Deaf people of all ages and abilities.

The Queer Cultural Center (QCC) will use CAC Impact Project funds to expand its LGBTQ+ Artist Development Pipeline—a community-rooted program designed to equip BIPOC LGBTQ+ artists with the skills, funding, and visibility needed to build sustainable cultural careers. This pipeline has two halves: Creating Queer Communities (CQC), which provides technical, creative, and vocational training plus financial support to 10–20 artists annually, and the National Queer Arts Festival (NQAF), a high-profile annual festival that showcases dozens of LGBTQ+ artists and projects each year. Accessible professional pathways for queer and trans artists (especially those who are BIPOC or otherwise additionally marginalized) are severely lacking, and this pipeline fills a critical gap. CAC funds will support artist stipends, training expenses, and production costs, ensuring California LGBTQ+ artists are well trained and deeply resourced to create vibrant arts careers.

Since 1998, QCC has curated and produced 26 month-long National Queer Arts Festivals that have featured over 2500 LGBTQ2S+ artists in 1150+ different arts events. QCC’s arts services comprise artistic program planning, fiscal sponsorship, free/low-cost grant-proposal and report writing, marketing strategies, capacity-building workshops, and free/low-cost strategic/development planning services to emerging queer and trans arts organizations with a focus on organizations led by BIPOC, trans and gender non-conforming people, and lesbians, who are all marginalized in LGBTQ2S+ arts funding. To date, our arts services program has enabled over 46+ Bay Area LGBTQ2S+ arts organizations to raise over $8,600,000. QCC’s arts services support the next generation of emerging Queer and Trans artists to acquire the skills to develop, finance, and stage work addressing LGBTQ2S+ Civil rights and social justice issues.

With support from the California Arts Council, the San Francisco Transgender Film Festival (SFTFF) will respond to this TIME OF EMERGENCY FOR TRANS COMMUNITIES by producing our 28th annual transgender film festival at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco. Our annual Festival will run November 13-16, 2025 with 5 in-person and 5 online programs.

We will offer ASL interpretation at all of our in-person screenings, and all films (in-person AND online) will be open/close-captioned for Deaf and Hard-of-hearing audiences.

All our programs and events will be offered at $0+ sliding scale, to maximize access since our communities experience economic marginalization, employment discrimination, and continued Bay Area gentrification and displacement.

We build community by providing opportunities for TGNC artists and audiences, fighting for intersectional justice in media arts, and supporting trans filmmakers.

Transgender communities across California are experiencing a STATE OF EMERGENCY: Hate crimes against our communities are up 20% in California alone.

Since a Day One Executive Order banned federal funds from supporting Trans services of ANY kind, our communities’ fundamental civil liberties, freedom of expression, healthcare and freedom of movement have been under constant, violent attack.

The San Francisco Transgender Film Festival (SFTFF) presents an annual film festival, awards commissions to BIPOC transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) filmmakers, supports and mentors emerging TGNC film festivals, and co-presents other local TGNC arts programs.

Our annual festival takes place at the historic Roxie Theater in San Francisco. To maximize access, our festival offers both in-person and online/on-demand programs. We feature ASL interpretation and open captions at all in-person screenings, and all online films are closed-captioned. All programs are on a $0+ sliding scale with no-one-turned-away-for-lack-of-funds.

Our DREAM Commissions annually award funds to Bay Area TGNC BIPOC filmmakers to support the creation of new work. We stay connected with these filmmakers to support and screen their new works in the months and years that follow.

SFTFF screens and commissions films that offer empowered visions for movement building and social justice, prioritizing our community’s most underrepresented and marginalized artists: BIPOC trans folks, Black trans women/femmes, transgender migrants, disabled TGNC people, youth, and elders.

We support both emerging and established artists, prioritizing grassroots, experimental, or DIY films, since these are the films often made by our community’s most under-resourced. SFTFF only screens work directed by TGNC filmmakers, starring TGNC actors portraying TGNC characters.

Throughout the year, SFTFF provides guest curation for TGNC film programs across the US. SFTFF staff provide curatorial and programmatic mentorship for emerging artists and festivals around the world. SFTFF also supports and co-presents other local TGNC arts programming.

Art With Elders will:
– Engage roughly 250+ unduplicated low income BIPOC older adults participants across 46+ weekly classes
– Provide 1.5-2 hours of programming with participants on a weekly basis
– Coordinate and complete at least 1 large scale in-person public exhibitions and 1 public event featuring the work or works of low income BIPOC individual participants, as well as the individual participants themselves.
– Review how our programs can be more inclusive and culturally responsive, as well as create more opportunities for social interaction, generating ideas for changes in curriculum and pedagogy.

History: Fighting elder isolation since 1991, AWE has brought community to 12,500 older adults in 84 senior centers across every Bay Area county through free/low-cost fine arts classes. A dozen exhibits a year, seen by as many as 100,000 people, engage elder artists and audiences through the power of creativity, deepening connection between cultures and generations. AWE programs provide older adults from all walks of life with a vehicle for self-expression, social connection, and a presence in the community.

Our Programs
Generative Classes – Currently, each week, Art With Elders reaches 450 older adults in 39 long-term care facilities and day programs across 7 Bay Area counties via 47 in-person and online classes. Each fine arts class gathers 10 to 12 seniors and is led by a paid professional artist. AWE conducts classes in Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Russian to accommodate our large immigrant, ESL community.

For trained, experienced artists, AWE workshops provide access to free work space and materials, and mentorship. For those with little visual art experience, classes provide a life-long learning opportunity and assist artistic development. Those with severe disabilities receive physical and cognitive benefits as well as the opportunity to create in adaptive ways, and every student gains a key opportunity for social interaction and connection.

For in-person classes, Artist Instructors bring all materials to class, replenishing the stock as needed. For Zoom, AWE staff sends materials via mail and via home drop offs.

Exhibitions – Each year, AWE produces a dozen exhibitions featuring 400-1000 elder artworks for up to 100,000+ viewers. Exhibitions are hosted by major Bay Area venues such as the De Young Museum, San Francisco City Hall, the San Francisco War Memorial, the UC San Francisco, and San Francisco International Airport.

With support from the California Arts Council, Highways Performance Space will showcase the voices and visions of LGBTQIA+ artists at the 20th Behold! LGBTQIA+ Performance Festival, a two-week multidisciplinary series. The 2026 Festival will feature 12 events (performances, workshops, residencies, and community dialogues) that explore intersectional social justice issues through dance, theater, spoken word, and media art. Curated by a diverse team of LGBTQIA+ artists, the project will highlight a broad range of identities, disciplines, and lived experiences. Free components include master classes, artist talks, and a “no one turned away” ticket policy. CAC funds will support artist and curator compensation, production costs, and accessibility services. Behold! reflects Highways’ mission to support new work from underrepresented communities and foster cultural dialogue through art that challenges stereotypes, engages the public, and celebrates LGBTQIA+ life across generations.

Highways presents over 100 annual performances by culturally diverse dramatic soloists, small theater groups, dance companies and spoken word artists. We also curate an average of 10 annual contemporary exhibitions exploring the boundaries between the performing and visual arts and sponsor residencies that provide emerging artists access to professionally directed training in the performing arts. Our presentations and promotional campaigns financially support hundreds of culturally diverse and cutting-edge artists and nurture their artistic development. To date, Highways has presented over 1000 original works, and has produced over 2400 different arts programs that have attracted over 285,000 people.

With support from the California Arts Council, PUSH Dance Company intends to offer its wellness and health initiatives with a residency for teaching artists and culture bearers in the San Francisco Bay Area, fostering engagement with local dance community and broader audiences. This project will integrate physical and mental wellness practices with the expertise of cultural practitioners to benefit the surrounding community. The outcomes will include complimentary performance workshops culminating in outdoor public performances.

COMPANY Founded in 2005 by Artistic Director Raissa Simpson, PUSH maintains a philosophy that bold movement and intellect can coexist. PUSH is best known for integrating cross-cultural issues and exploring dances that contextualize the African diaspora.

FESTIVAL Since its inception, PUSHfestfest has presented works by distinct choreographers representing diverse genres of dance. PUSHfest is a cross-genre dance festival launched in 2014 by PUSH Dance Company. The Festival grew out of a critical need to provide a platform for dance to be appreciated as a diverse and culturally relevant entity within the San Francisco Bay Area.

EDUCATION The Youth Company is a pre-professional training program for students pursuing advance technique and performance opportunities. The Youth Company provides added structure in the form of cultivating responsible and civic-minded individuals. The Company also hosts annual PUSHLab Performance Workshops, and educational component of PUSHfest.

With the support from the California Arts Council, North Oxnard United Methodist Church’s ministry, Community Roots Garden will provide a community mural and cultural workshops. The mural will reflect the strong heritage the Oxnard community has and it will foster a stronger sense of belonging and identity. Along with our mural we will provide an accessible space, to celebrate diverse traditions, intergenerational learning, and skill building. The workshops will will range from storytelling to traditional practices. These workshops are valuable to community to preserve, retain, and remember cultural traditions and also raise awareness. Our mural and workshops will address vital needs for the community and will allow community members, including marginalized groups, to express their creativity, tell their stories, and highlight important social issues.

We are an organic community garden located in Oxnard, Ca. We are deeply rooted in learning, knowledge sharing, growing and providing fresh wholesome foods in efforts to help co-create a healthier and ecologically sustainable food system in relation to the land and all its living creations. The harvest from this garden goes to volunteers, local food pantries, shelters and other outlets to help those in need. The garden also serves as an educational site where volunteers and visiting groups learn how to grow food sustainably through experiential learning. We are a BIPOC focused space that is constantly learning to create more inclusivity and ability in and within the garden/farm.

Our Programs include:

Educational programs for 2 and 3 hour visits include educational field trips for children and youth with hands on learning.

Seasonal workshops lead by garden volunteers or local ”master gardeners”, gardeners, artists, chefs that are free and open to the community.

Our volunteer chef program uses fresh produce from the garden to feed 10- 20 people every Saturday.

Collaborating with Cal State Channel Islands, we facilitate service learning projects for more than 30 college students every semester.

We also host week long summer camps with YMCA and the Abundant Table in the summer time amongst other community groups.

With support from the California Arts Council, Asociación Nacional de Grupos Folklóricos (ANGF) will present our 2026 Conference and Festival in Los Angeles, California– a week-long gathering of hundreds of practitioners and students exploring the traditional indigenous and mestizo music, dance, and culture of Mexico and Latin America.

The Asociación Nacional de Grupos Folklóricos (ANGF) is an organization dedicated to the research, preservation, presentation, and education of indigenous and mestizo culture as well as other related folklore within the realm of dance, music, and the visual arts. We formed 50 years ago as an international association to serve as a voice for the promotion and preservation of Mexican folklore traditions.

We aim to actively pursue the research, education, and artistic representation of the rich dance, music, and folk art traditions of Mexico. We are here to serve our communities through our distinct culture, educational goals, and outreach endeavors.

Our core programs and services include:

Our annual conference, where hundreds of participants from all over the world gather to learn and exchange ideas about the rich cultural forms of Mexico and Central America; The 2026 ANGF conference will be held in Los Angeles, bringing thousands of attendees from across the US and Mexico to LA and generating significant revenue and cultural activity.

Supporting numerous dance companies, including Los Danzantes de Aztlán, an acclaimed undergraduate dance company based at Fresno State University led by ANGF Vice-President Victor Torres

Research, scholarship, advocacy around the cultural and health issues most important to our community.

ANGF serves the regional, national, and international community of artists and scholars dedicated to the practice and preservation of the rich dance, music, and folk art traditions of Mexico. Our core audiences, participants, and collaborators come from the historically marginalized Latinx community in California and beyond, with a focus on Fresno/Central Valley, where our dance company Los Danzantes de Aztlán is based. This is a region characterized by high poverty levels, unemployment, and low educational achievement.

With support from the California Arts Council, TwoPoint4 Dance Theatre will expand and enhance its acclaimed educational program, the TwoPoint4 Dance Experience, in Twin Rivers Unified School District (TRUSD) in Sacramento County. Building on a successful two-year collaboration that has reached over 2,200 5th-grade students annually, this project will increase in-person residencies, eliminate digital-only offerings, and significantly enhance the culminating student performance through improved production quality and ADA accessibility. Funding will also support the creation of new, high-quality educational and promotional videos to deepen program impact and share outcomes with the wider community. The program offers year-round, standards-aligned dance education focused on social-emotional learning, self-expression, and community engagement—all at no cost to schools or families.

Connection lies at the heart of TwoPoint4 Dance Theatre. It unites our ensemble, strengthens bonds with our audience, and builds bridges with the broader community. Dance becomes our universal language, transcending cultural and linguistic barriers to create shared experiences of unity and understanding. Through performances and outreach initiatives, we foster emotional and intellectual connections that resonate deeply and promote a sense of belonging for all.

Curiosity drives our creative spirit and fuels our exploration of artistic boundaries. It inspires us to embrace new forms of movement, challenge conventions, and take bold risks in our pursuit of innovation. By nurturing curiosity, we ignite artistic evolution and encourage our dancers and audiences alike to approach the world with open minds, discovering the beauty and infinite possibilities within the art of dance.

With unrelenting creativity, dedication, and a steadfast commitment to diversity, accessibility, connection, and curiosity, TwoPoint4 Dance Theatre aspires to be a beacon of artistic excellence. We aim to ignite curiosity, transcend boundaries, and unite communities through the universal language of movement, creating lasting connections that enrich lives both locally and beyond. We support these through arts education, free community classes, and performances.

Artyhood Foundation will continue to produce a series of free, monthly outdoor art markets and pop-up events through the Castro Art Mart program, creating accessible platforms for LGBTQ+, BIPOC, immigrant, disabled, low-income, elder, and youth artists to showcase and sell their work. CAC grant funds will support artist stipends, low-cost vendor spaces, accessibility services, event production, youth engagement activities, and staffing for artist support, marketing, coordination, and onsite safety. Through these events, Artyhood will reduce financial and logistical barriers, provide economic opportunities for underrepresented artists, foster intergenerational engagement, and strengthen cultural visibility and community connection in San Francisco.

ArtyHood is a community-centered organization dedicated to uplifting San Francisco’s vibrant artistic and cultural ecosystem. Through a wide range of public-facing programs, ArtyHood creates joyful, inclusive spaces where artists, performers, small businesses, and communities intersect. Our core programs include art markets, cultural festivals, and community-driven events that celebrate San Francisco’s rich creative diversity while actively contributing to the economic revitalization of the city’s commercial corridors.

Each event serves as a dynamic platform where underrepresented artists and creatives—including LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and emerging talent—can showcase their work, engage new audiences, and build meaningful connections. In addition to providing income-generating opportunities for artists and small businesses, these events also activate local neighborhoods, drawing foot traffic to nearby shops, restaurants, and cultural venues, helping to strengthen the economic fabric of the community.

ArtyHood’s work goes beyond event production—it is about fostering a sustainable, creative ecosystem where the arts can flourish and where communities feel empowered, seen, and connected. By centering accessibility, equity, and collaboration, we ensure that San Francisco’s creative economy remains inclusive and resilient. Through art, we continue to build bridges across communities and contribute to a more vibrant, connected city.

The 2026 Sounds and Storytelling Drive-in Concert Series will produce eight free, culturally diverse performances in California’s rural Morongo Basin, where residents face barriers to accessing live, culturally relevant art. Over 80% of the shows will feature local and regional artists who identify as Black, Indigenous, People of Color, LGBTQ, or disabled. Artists will share their musical journey and background through oral storytelling and live musical performance. The series will also include accompanying live painting or dance, spotlighting diverse artistic expressions. Space for local vendors and culturally specific food pop-ups will provide economic opportunities for local entrepreneurs and community engagement. CAC funds will support artist fees, production costs, and accessibility infrastructure to ensure all residents, regardless of ability or income, can participate in meaningful cultural experiences that reflect and uplift the region’s heritage and voices.

Community Drive-in Concert series: We began our drive-in concerts as a safe way to gather and listen to live music during the 2020 Pandemic. Guests were able to attend a free show and listen from inside or outside their vehicles, as we had a stage set up while also streamed the event through the radio and social media. As the pandemic eased, the community asked for continuation of these shows because they enjoyed the diverse programming, as well as the unique nature of a drive-in theater. Persons with disabilities can be seated closer or further away from the stage depending on their needs. Immunocompromised individuals can sit farther away in their cars and enjoy a show without worry, yet still feel in community. Families who cannot normally afford multiple tickets to attend concerts can bring their entire family to a show to experience live music without financial constraints. All of the shows are set in a beautiful outdoor setting that promotes healing and community cohesion.

Pop-up series: This program intends to meet our communities where they are by “popping up” and bringing culturally rich shows to various locations. Examples include a pop up at Morongo Valley Elementary School, where we hosted a concert that showcased various instruments, their history, and sounds to schoolchildren. Another example is a pop up concert at High Desert Continuing Care, for elder individuals who cannot leave their care center. Finally, “Mon Petit Salon” is our partnership with the Palm Springs Cultural Center (a 501©3 non-profit), where we host a weekly “salon” in Palm Springs to bring culturally-diverse music to the local community.

“With support from the California Arts Council, Alyse Marie Presents will support Echoes of Us, a multimedia arts project that brings together Black artists to co-create original short films and music rooted in their lived experiences. Through workshops, story circles, and public showcases, the project fosters intergenerational healing and cultural expression. CAC grant funds will support artist stipends, community engagement, accessibility services, production equipment, and public events—ensuring equitable access, professional-quality outcomes, and meaningful impact within historically under-resourced Black communities.

AMP aims to recruit and mentor a new generation who represents the world because, for us, inclusion is a strategic imperative.
AMP is a company you can depend on to help craft stories into a bold vision. We are interested in a new way into narrative point of view. Let’s share ideas and breed creativity.
We defy preconceived expectations by continuing to set the bar for quality. We disrupt the idea of impossible and reconstruct it with proof of what is possible.
Building a new and safe ecosystem that embraces all points of view as equals so that the artists can create paradigm shift in the industry.
We want to be a safe place to let emerging voices grow and shine… a home for a creative renaissance.
AMP is a place where established artists are embraced and protected as they pivot and find a new side of their creative voice.
Identifying raw, provocative and authentic stories taken from real life and bringing those stories to a global audience looking for connection.
Subverting classic storytelling with fresh takes on characters and concepts and by promising and delivering an undeniable thrill ride.
Nothing is more important than the integrity of an artist’s vision; AMP aims to protect and platform that unique point of view in hopes of sparking conversations and creating change.

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, Lyrical Opposition will fuse poetry and choreography in a short film about the generational trauma faced by young BIPOC boys growing up in 1990s East Palo Alto. Collaborative partners Antonio Lopez, 2025 Poet Laureate of San Mateo County, and Nathan Cottam, director of Mannakin Theater & Dance will work with Lyrical Opposition to transform Antonio’s book “The Right to Remain Violets” into a short film that draws from Lopez’s award-winning poetry to interrogate what voice and body can express together that neither can alone. CAC funds will support production, post-production, and screenings in jails, reentry spaces, and local venues. This project uses arts as a tool for healing, cultural memory, and narrative power, including facilitated dialogues by system-impacted individuals—offering testimony and movement as vehicles for justice, imagination, and repair.

Lyrical Opposition develops lyrical artists, activists and educators through personal and professional development. Lyrical Opposition also partners with communities of color in order to curate events centered around joy, liberation, and healing.

Lyrical Originals are curated artistic spaces, where Lyrical Opposition organizes events and platforms where artists, musicians, poets, and filmmakers can showcase their work and share messages of hope, empowerment, and social justice. These events are often admission-free, making them accessible to a wider audience.

Lyrical Studios is our physical space where we offer artists and filmmakers equipment and software use to create new works. We encourage and support artists who use their creative talents to raise awareness about social issues, challenge systemic oppression, and inspire positive change in their communities. Lyrical Opposition provides resources needed to thrive as a professional artist in the marketplace.

Lyrical Academy leads and engages in educational programs and workshops aimed at empowering individuals, particularly youth, to use creative expression as a tool for personal growth, self-expression, and advocacy.

Lyrical Open is a monthly open space for creatives to connect, collaborate and network with other artists and community members. Lyrical Opposition aims to create these spaces where people can come together, celebrate their creativity, and find solace and inspiration in the midst of challenging societal issues.

Lyrical Vinyl is a nonprofit record store that exists to serve as space for artists to work for supplemental income in between gigs and performances. As well as being a space in the community with the intent of preserving the arts and physical mediums.

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, Barcid Foundation will bring together a collection of experienced indigenous artists and community members to foster a new and genuine approach to depicting indigenous representation in the arts. This innovative project will be designed with workshops, mentorship opportunities, and access to cutting-edge resources. The program will nurture artistic growth and provide tools to express unique voices through a wide range of literary techniques that focus on the global climate’s effect on the migration of indigenous communities.

The Barcid Foundation offers genuine career building programs, workshops and additional opportunities that advance Native American artists and youth. We have developed successful relationships with tribes, art foundations, studios and networks to offer career building art initiatives for Native Americans.
Our programs have proven to offer a genuine return on investment for our partners by developing Native American artists who have the creative capacity to compete and join the professionals ranks in the film, television and new media arenas. In 2020, our programs provided numerous new employment opportunities for the Native American community. This included writing positions on several current television series for studios and networks that include Netflix, Amazon, Sony and several more.
The Barcid Foundation forged a strong relationship with tribes, Native American organizations and Native American leaders. This gives our organization credible standing in indigenous communities and the opportunity to lead on its behalf.
Our goal is to have Native Americans be a part of the ever changing and burgeoning artist landscape. This will offer the opportunity to find new, diverse and original voices. At the same time, the Native American community will be able to grow, learn and develop as a genuine part of the artistic world.

With support from the California Arts Council, Casa Círculo Cultural will present the 2025 Día de los Muertos Festival: Tonantzintla: El Paraíso de los Niños, a free, inclusive, and bilingual celebration inspired by the sacred fusion of indigenous and Catholic traditions found in the Church of Santa María Tonantzintla in Puebla, Mexico. This year’s festival centers children as living symbols of cultural continuity and innocence, drawing on the church’s imagery of dark-skinned angels. CAC funds will support community-built altars, youth-led performances, visual arts workshops, and accessible educational activities that promote cultural pride, healing, and ancestral memory for Latinx immigrant families.

CCC provides Spanish language programs for families that instill multicultural competencies. Activities show students the beauty of their Hispanic roots. CCC doors are open 45 hours each week offering 25 classes averaging 32 students in each. Individual lessons are also offered on guitar or piano.
A theater class prepares students for 5 yearly performances. Painting, arts and crafts have Hispanic themes. Dance classes include Latin Rythms, Folkloric, Zumba, and Ballet. Music includes choir, piano, and guitar; the musicians and choir perform along with the dancers. Other classes include multimedia technology, broadcasting, coding, chess, taekwondo, yoga, puppets, and nutrition. Spanish literacy includes reading and writing for all ages. English literacy is offered to adults. Each month CCC participates in at least one public event. Currently, 110 families are CCC members; more than 10 staff members and 30 volunteers teach and work with them. CCC is a community center where all are welcome to create, learn, help, share, and grow.

The Children’s Art Studio Richmond / Taller de Arte Para Niños Richmond seeks Impact Project Grant funding to expand its impactful arts programming for young learners (ages 2-5) and their families. This expansion will nurture children’s creativity and social-emotional development by providing safer spaces for artistic exploration, fostering critical thinking and collaboration, and integrating diverse artistic practices with bilingual instruction. Specifically, this funding will support inter-related key initiatives: significantly expanding our workshop offerings to reach more families, developing and piloting crucial trauma-informed art workshops, and bolstering our professional development program for early childhood educators. These initiatives directly address our core service areas, forming the foundation of our expanded plan of action.

The Children’s Art Studio Richmond / Taller de Arte Para Niños Richmond provides free art classes in both English and Spanish to children aged 2 – 5 in the Richmond, CA community, regardless of their background or resources. This program is designed to support each individual child to achieve their highest creative potential, while teaching children basic art-making techniques. We emphasize the importance of cooperation and self-help, self- discipline, and assuming responsibility for the use of these materials. Through this approach, we foster a sense of exploration, creativity, and self- expression in each child.

With support from the California Arts Council, the San Jose Multicultural Artists Guild (SJMAG) will produce their 28th annual Dia de los Muertos events over a six week period in October/November 2025, including a comparsa (parade) culminating in cross-cultural performances, including food vendors, an exhibit of altars honoring departed ancestors, and free children’s art workshops teaching crafts and music will be conducted during the 5 week period. SJMAG will partner with San Jose State and the Dr. MLK Library to curate and produce this large and culturally dynamic event/program. SJMAG’s DOD festival is one of the longest running programs in the southbay that brings together communities. Funds will partially underwrite artists’ fees, production, marketing, and administrative costs.

SJMAG offers Performing Arts Programs including annual presentations of performances of work created and performed by women, people of color, including solo performances, performances by ensembles, and plays written and acted by black artists; and an annual Girlfriends Day attended by women and their female relatives, colleagues and friends that includes performances by female-identified musicians, dancers and performers; community programs including Day of the Dead celebrations serving more than 20,000 community members annually; and educational programs in school and community settings, run by contracted local artists.

The California Arts Commission funding will support the African-American Shakespeare Company’s touring program, “Shaxespeare Reimagined”, which uses Shakespeare stories and poetry retold in a way that fosters community connection and dialogue while addressing recent political divisions. The tour will reach Central California and rural areas, focusing on communities most impacted by social and political challenges.

Season Performances
The African-American Shakespeare provides mainstage performances in the Bay Area any time between October through May. The four production season combines a variety of European classical stories from Shakespeare, Checkhov, Ibsen, and Moliere; and contemporary American classics such as Tennesse Williams, August Wilson, and Lorraine Hansberry. With a new program to support developing playwrights which will begin in 2020-21 Season.

“Shake-It-Up” Arts Education Program
Shake-It-Up provides life-long learning and creativity while simultaneously building and strengthening reading and comprehension skills. The Shake-It-Up program enhances literacy skills to students using theater games and drama techniques. This program focuses on addressing the educational needs of students in fun and creative ways, helping students develop a positive relationship with complex reading materials through free student matinee performances, classroom workshops & afterschool drama programs.

With support from the California Arts Council, Yeah, Art! will continue to provide vital, tuition-free in-class arts education programming at Roosevelt Middle School in East Oakland. Our program focuses on empowering students through culturally relevant arts like Music Production, Songwriting, Poetry and Vocal Performance. This initiative, led by local professional artists of color, aims to create artistic career pathways for disadvantaged youth. Due to recent budget adjustments affecting Oakland Culture Affairs funding, the continuation of this impactful program is at risk. CAC funds will ensure students at Roosevelt Middle School continue to benefit from this successful partnership, which has already yielded significant outcomes, including the student-produced “The Miseducation of Yeah, Art!” mixtape and the collaborative “Forgiveness Project” with the Oakland Symphony. We have media examples highlighting the positive impact and student achievement from these projects.

Arts Education for a New Generation™. Yeah, Art! seeks to empower Bay Area youth with premium arts education that emphasizes technology, creativity and equitable access.

The problem: With school budget cuts, arts programs are often the first thing to get dropped, leading the most vulnerable students to miss out on essential creative skills.

The solution: Yeah, Art! provides accessible, innovative arts programs to underserved communities, equipping students with skills in Music Production, Animation, 3D Modeling and more.

Yeah, Art! offers technology-driven arts education programs tailored for underserved schools, with a focus on students of color in low-income Bay Area districts. Services are delivered by professional, local artists of color who bring their expertise directly to classrooms, creating an engaging and culturally relevant learning environment. Yeah, Art! equips students with in-demand creative skills, fostering both artistic growth and future career opportunities in the arts.

Elder Project’s goal is to fight isolation by bringing community to Bay Area Elders (aged 65+) through writing classes and public events. The project consists of weekly or biweekly writing sessions combined with hands-on creative exercises to stimulate the senses and memory and to provide an outlet for Elders to preserve and share their stories through creative writing, as well as roughly 12 public events featuring Elder Project writers reading their work.

2025/2026 Service Objectives:
– ~150 classes held
– ~46 community-led workshops
– ~100 students served, ~800 public event attendees
– 2 anthologies of student work (1 site-specific anthology, 1 program-wide anthology)
At least 12 public events featuring elder writers and their writing

History & Key Accomplishments:
Founded in 1999, Litquake has produced thousands of public events, featuring 11,500 authors and dance/theater/musical performers for 315,000 attendees.

Programs:
1) Litquake Festival – The crown jewel of our annual programs is our 16-day-long festival that includes a planned total of 150 events featuring 600-plus authors. 90+% of events are free. Expected attendance: 20,000 in person, 5,000 virtual.

a. Litquake Out Loud – An annual curatorial program highlighting the Bay Area’s BIPOC & LGBTQ+ writers. 6 curators produce a vibrant, impactful two days of events at a large outdoor stage. 100% free. Expected attendance: 2,500.

b. Lit Crawl San Francisco – A one-night ‘pub’ crawl of 60 events that creates collaborations with local arts organizations and writing groups with an emphasis on those who hail and serve BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities. 100% free. Expected attendance: 6,000.

d. Kidquake – Two days assemblies and meet-and-greets with a diverse array of children’s authors (100% BIPOC) paired with activities run by the Bay’s best interactive educators. Serving the Bay Area’s K-5 public schools students (80% BIPOC, 65% on free/reduced lunch). 100% free. Expected attendance: 1,000 in person, 4,000 virtual.

2) Elder Project – Community-building classes that stimulate the senses and memory and provide an outlet for Elders to preserve and share their stories through creative writing. At 4-5 locations this year with 100+ Elders served. 100% free.

3) Litquake Year Round – A series of 30+ in-person events spanning the winter to early summer, focused on partnering with diverse local arts organizations to increase engagement with literature and storytelling. 80% free. Expected Attendance: 8,000

With support from the California Arts Council, Decentered Arts will expand “Gen Blend,” a monthly intergenerational writers program that addresses social isolation and ageism by nurturing connections between seniors and youth through literary arts. Grant funds will directly support artist honoraria for featured writers and musicians, increasing accessibility by providing ASL interpretation and promoting engagement with diverse, historically under-resourced communities. In partnership with Litquake’s Elder Project, and Community Living Campaign, Gen Blend is hosted every first Thursday of each month at Ruth’s Table, a wheelchair-accessible venue in an affordable senior housing complex. The project uses storytelling, poetry, and shared meals to create vital community spaces, amplifying underrepresented voices and strengthening intergenerational bonds. This funding will sustain and enhance a vital program that cultivates empathy and preserves cultural narratives.

Decentered Arts cultivates an inclusive arts community, empowering underrepresented voices through innovative programs. We host weekly Open Mics, monthly Poolside Poets, writers’ groups fostering craft, hands-on workshops, quarterly art shows, literary salons in unique spaces, vibrant fashion shows, and the immersive Western Wind Course.

Recent successes include compensating 100+ diverse Poolside Poets artists (60% BIPOC/LGBTQ+), sustaining Open Mic for 3.5 years, launching the intergenerational Gen Blend initiative, and initiating record/small press publishing for our dedicated writers.

Through these efforts, Decentered Arts fosters belonging, collaboration, and equity, supporting marginalized voices to enrich San Francisco’s cultural landscape.

With support from the California Arts Council, the San Benito County Arts Council will host the inaugural Calle Mural Fest, a community mural festival designed to honor, reflect and elevate the lived experiences, cultural traditions and histories of Latinx community members in San Benito County. Local and regional artists will be selected to create vibrant murals that depict the themes and imagery from migrants, farmworkers, elders, and youth. Through the power of public art, collective storytelling and intergenerational learning, this festival will be a community celebration of culture, social justice and transformation.

The San Benito County Arts Council’s signature programs and services include:
Arts in Education
Exhibiting and Presenting
Grantmaking
Public Art
Professional Development and Capacity Building
Arts Advocacy

With support from the California Arts Council, Indivisible Arts will expand its Creative Wisdom Tools program at Da Vinci RISE High, delivering trauma-informed, arts-based mental wellness education to foster and system-involved youth through weekly sessions led by trained peer mentors.

Indivisible Arts operates through: 2 youth arts programs – Creative Wisdom Tools and the Visual Arts Program; a professional artist collective (South Bay Artist Collective); and its gallery + event space, Resin.

With support from the California Arts Council, Arts and Culture El Dorado will administer the Veterans’ Voices Writing Workshop, a free, ongoing creative writing program that is open to all veterans from any branch of service. It offers a supportive environment and the tools needed for the writing of fiction and nonfiction stories, service-related or not, as well as memoir, poetry and drama. Newcomers are always welcome. We have engaged two remarkable facilitators – both women, a first for us. Writer Sue Norman, herself a vet, will oversee the South Lake Tahoe program, and poet Lara Gularte will oversee the Placerville program, enabling the Writing Workshop to flourish countywide. In addition, we will publish two anthologies of writing from the program.

Switchboard Gallery Exhibition Series
El Dorado County Lead for ArtsNow/Create California
El Dorado County Lead for California County Superintendents Arts Initiative
Veterans Voices Writing Workshop
Historic Building Renovation Project
Arts Incubator
Poet Laureate and Laureate Trail
Poetry Out Loud
Young Artist Awards
Other targeted programs and services as identified to serve arts and culture in El Dorado County

“Lovely Bouquet of Flowers: An Exploration of Non-Traditional Gender Voices” is a fiscally sponsored, performance-based storytelling project amplifying trans and nonbinary voices through live theatre, documentary film, and community-led workshops. With recent grant funding secured from RESIST for programming at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility, CAC support would allow us to deepen and expand our work – reaching additional sites across California, including Folsom State Prison and local universities. Funds will support artist stipends, travel, creative materials, and facilitation of trauma-informed workshops rooted in storytelling and symbolic resistance. Though our project has existed since 2012, we relaunched our national tour this year and are operating with new revenue under fiscal sponsorship. CAC funding will be catalytic – allowing us to scale an already-proven model of creative, inclusive community engagement during a moment of urgent cultural need.

Lovely Bouquet of Flowers offers a multifaceted approach to uplifting trans and gender-nonconforming voices through the arts:

• Theatrical Performances: We produce original plays that weave together monologues, dialogues, poetry, and movement, showcasing real-life experiences of trans individuals. These performances have been staged at venues like the Renberg Theatre and are designed to resonate with diverse audiences.

• Documentary Film: Our feature-length documentary, In Full Bloom…transcending gender, captures the essence of our theatrical work and extends our reach to broader audiences, including screenings at film festivals and educational institutions. We will be continuing to document this next exciting chapter in our work.

• Educational Workshops: We conduct interactive workshops in prisons, colleges, and community centers, facilitating discussions on identity, resilience, and social justice. Participants engage in creative exercises, such as crafting their own symbolic “flowers,” fostering personal expression and community building.

• Community Engagement: Our programs are designed to be inclusive and accessible, often offered free of charge to participants. We prioritize collaboration with local artists and organizations to ensure our work reflects and serves the communities we engage with.

Through these core services, Lovely Bouquet of Flowers not only provides artistic expression but also serves as a catalyst for dialogue, healing, and social change. Our commitment to authenticity, inclusivity, and empowerment drives our mission to create a more understanding and equitable world.

Life I Love requests $25,000 to implement Healing Through Art: Community Wellness Initiative, a year-long project addressing mental health disparities among Black and Brown girls in Oakland. In partnership with Madison Park Academy, the initiative will engage 3rd-5th grade girls in arts-based wellness circles that build emotional intelligence and self-expression.

Led by Sunshine Leaders (local artists and wellness coaches) each session will integrate storytelling and visual art to explore themes such as identity, emotional regulation, and healing.

Grant funds will support facilitator compensation, materials, and coordination.

This initiative aligns with CAC priorities by centering youth voice, creative practice, and community collaboration to address systemic inequities in mental health and education. Expected outcomes include stronger emotional well-being for participants, increased community capacity to use the arts for healing, and a sustainable model for creative social change.

Life I Love Wellness Program
This school-based program supports Black and Brown girls in grades 3-8 with a culturally rooted, arts-integrated curriculum focused on emotional intelligence. Over the course of the program, girls explore topics like self-awareness, confidence, decision-making, and healthy relationships. Each session includes creative activities, reflective discussion, and real-life applications. The program concludes with a community showcase where girls share their ideas for improving collective well-being. Delivered during or after school in partnership with school leaders, the program reduces barriers to access and builds trusted ecosystems of support.

Sunshine Leader Training Program
This leadership pathway prepares individuals to become wellness coaches who support the emotional well-being of girls in schools and community spaces. Sunshine Leaders are trained to facilitate small group wellness circles, offer one-on-one coaching, and model emotional intelligence and relational care. The program builds facilitation skills, deepens self-awareness, and strengthens the ability to lead with joy, cultural connection, and empathy. Sunshine Leaders play a vital role in helping girls feel seen, supported, and confident in who they are.

Together, these two programs create a full-circle approach to healing and growth. From early intervention to leadership development, Life I Love offers Black and Brown girls consistent spaces to build self-worth, manage stress, and grow into powerful advocates for their own well-being.

Tonality respectfully requests support from the California Arts Council’s Impact Projects program to fund the “Just Me” concert, a collaborative performance that amplifies the lived experiences of transgender and non-binary individuals through music and storytelling, fostering empathy, visibility and social change through artistic expression. Grant funds will support collaborations with Los Angeles County High Schools to conduct Tonality Scholars workshops in fall 2025 led by Tonality’s BIPOC and LGBTQ+ artists. These workshops will culminate at Tonality’s “Just Me” concert which will be presented at The Wallis in January 2026. The concert will celebrate resilience, honor truths, and confront ongoing injustices faced by transgender and non-binary people. All workshops and performances will be offered free of charge to participating students and select underrepresented schools, increasing accessibility and cultural participation in classical music.

Tonality was established in 2016 to serve as a professional choral environment where racial and ethnic diversity would be represented both in the vocal performers and in the genres of music presented. In its second year, Tonality added an extra focus of presenting topics of social justice, particularly issues that affect the most marginalized within our community. Currently, Tonality is proving to be one of the most racially diverse professional choral ensembles in the country. Our commitment to present diverse composers and perspectives to issues of social justice increases every year. Furthermore, our endeavors to expand diversity extends to our Board of Directors, who also strive to maintain a strong sense of diversity in both racial and gender identities. Lastly, Tonality work’s to reflect diversity within the artists and composers is also reflected in the collective mission to serve a diverse audience. Tonality’s core programs include its seasonal concerts, Tonality Youth Scholars Choral Education Program, Systems change in classical music Speaker Series and increasing diverse voices in Music, Film, Tv Special Projects.

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.

Girls Make Beats proposes a free, year-long after-school music and audio arts program serving girls of color in under-resourced Los Angeles communities. Held at the GMB Academy in North Hollywood, CA, the program offers weekly workshops in music production, DJing, and audio storytelling, led by professional women artists of color. Youth will create original works that reflect their lived experiences, culminating in public showcases and a digital sound archive.

CAC grant funds will support artist compensation, youth stipends, equipment, software, and accessibility accommodations, including ASL interpretation and adaptive materials. This program centers community voice and uses music as a tool for healing, empowerment, and cultural pride — providing girls with the skills, space, and support to tell their stories and build creative futures.

Girls Make Beats offers in-school and after-school courses on industry-leading hardware and software, along with summer camps, industry panels, and networking events. We provide scholarships, internships, live performance opportunities, and portfolio development to empower girls in music production, DJing, and audio engineering.

Funding from CAC will support our free Digital Promotoras photojournalism workshop series which aims to achieve the following outcomes:
1. Increased awareness of social disparities, particularly substance abuse, affecting Los Angeles residents, especially BIPOC youth
2. Enhanced photojournalism skills, enabling visual storytelling as an advocacy tool
3. Improved self-confidence and positive perceptions of leadership potential among participants
Each series concludes with a community exhibition at our studio, fostering dialogue around issues important to the youth participants. Student projects are also distributed via printed zines and social media platforms to community members across Los Angeles, aiming to create a positive ripple effect.

Founded in 2010, Las Fotos Project (a Community Partners project) is a non-profit community-based photography program located in Los Angeles, whose primary goal is to advance positive change for adolescent girls and gender-expansive youth through one-on-one mentoring, photography trainings, and assigned field projects. Our programs and services also foster the creativity, communication, critical thinking, and collaboration skills needed to compete in a 21st century workforce. We annually serve more than 300 female and gender-expansive students between the ages of 13-18 from communities of color, who do not have access to photography equipment or arts-based programs.

With the support from the California Arts Council, Bay Area Girls Rock Camp will serve 750 girls, trans, and gender-nonconforming youth in programs: Girls Rock Summer Camp and Girls Rock After School Program. Both programs take place in Oakland at OUSD campuses, and allow at-promise youth (ages 8-18) to receive instrument instruction, attend transformative skill-building workshops, collaborate with peers and write original songs, and present their work at a live concert. Outcomes are to: shift gender norms that exclude and isolate girls/TGNC youth in the arts; build life skills (conflict resolution, leadership, resiliency); provide alternative learning pathways with affinity-based, multigenerational mentorships and representation.

Bay Area Girls Rock Camp’s core programs are the 10-week Girls Rock After School Program (GRASP), and the month long Girls Rock Summer Camp, each serving girls and gender expansive youth ages 8-18. In both programs, youth receive intensive instrument instruction, form bands with peers, attend transformative workshops, and perform in a culminating showcase for the local community.

With support from the California Arts Council, Jess Curtis/Gravity, will present “Duetrospective,” a month-long festival to celebrate the legacy and memory of the late American choreographer, Jess Curtis (1962-2024). From May-June 2026, “Duetrospective” will feature interdisciplinary, multicultural, and intergenerational artists who interacted with Curtis during his lifetime to present six revisioned works and two weeks of classes and workshops hosted in partnership with ROT (formerly the Kathleen Hermesdorf FRESH Festival). The activities will take place across San Francisco, including at CounterPulse, and will feature at least ten teachers including Miguel Gutierrez, Sherwood Chen, Maria Scaroni, Stephanie Maher, Rachael Dichter, Gabriele Christian, and more. “Duetrospective” will close with the remounted “Ice/Car/Cage” reimagined by the local, queer, Black artist collective RUPTURE in partnership with Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture.

Jess Curtis/Gravity: creates, produces, and tours original works of body-based performance that physically explore and address issues and ideas of substance and relevance to anyone with a body; educates professionals, students, and members of the public with physically accessible workshops presented in cities throughout the US and Europe; nurtures emerging artists through our BEYOND GRAVITY incubation program that provides artistic mentorship, professional guidance, and fiscal sponsorship; fosters international exchange through co-productions that mobilize our international network to bring international artists to San Francisco and help San Francisco artists present work abroad; supports the presentation of free performances in public spaces through our POP UP PERFORMANCES PROJECT program, which commissions Bay Area artists to present site-specific work on city streets; and provides access services and consultations to make performing arts more inclusive of people with disabilities through the GRAVITY ACCESS SERVICES program.

CreaTV Presents will provide bi-monthly opportunities to elevate conversation and creativity through local media arts. The series will invite different guest lead artists and organizations to co-curate events that focus on issues that are relevant to San Jose. CreaTV Presents Events will help demonstrate the relation of creative arts to history, power, culture, local issues. These events are intentionally participatory in nature to afford community members the chance to actively engage with local issues through creative expression and the arts. CreaTV Presents will focus on uplifting local voices, stories, and histories that are often silenced, marginalized, and forgotten.

CreaTV exists to provide opportunities for the people of San José to receive media technology training, hands-on media creation experience, and access to broadcast/streaming platforms. Our focus in helping the community tell stories is always rooted in equity. We directly address the issue of marginalized communities not having access to media technology learning opportunities/equipment/experts/distribution platforms/multiple participation points (virtual/in-person).

Our programs offer comprehensive media education, documentary filmmaking/storytelling, and community engagement opportunities that provides spaces for youth/adults to learn the art and technical aspects of storytelling, to share their unique stories, gather and discuss local media, and to use arts and culture to bring attention to issues in their communities that are important to them. It includes:
1) Low-cost, and free media and technology training classes.
2) Multi-week documentary training/mentoring through programs for low-income, diverse youth/adults.
We seek to create a more equitable media ecosystem bydeveloping impactful programs for communities who do not have access to or representation in media and technology.

Our programs provide avenues for artistic self-expression and storytelling, exploration of media/art centric careers, and equitable access to media and technology tools and training for all ages. Our 18,000 sq. ft. facility, Open San José will be the first of its kind. 7 nonprofits (Chopsticks Alley Art, Latina Coalition of SV, LEAD Filipino, Mosaic America, Northern California Public Media, San José Spotlight, and Works/San José) share our values to co-curate the space with us, the community, and other partners.

Open San José is a unique community resource for creating, convening, learning, sharing, expressing, archiving, and disseminating. The facility features a large studio, gallery space, and multi-purpose rooms that are technology equipped and designed for live/hybrid meetings, rehearsal space, podcast recording, trainings, and more. The space provides free/below market, tech heavy spaces for cultural/civic events with a focus on equity/social change.

The 31st Annual Collage des Cultures Africaines – an affordable four-day music and dance festival celebrating the African Diaspora – held in Oakland, CA from March 12-15, 2026. Collage promotes cultural literacy, maintains Oakland’s vibrant and culturally rich community, establishes positive role models for youth, and provides opportunities for professional artists and artisans to share and celebrate their cultural traditions. This intergenerational event makes folkloric performing arts accessible to the diverse Bay Area and California community by offering: a free school-time and site-specific performance and workshop to East Bay elementary, middle, and high school students, affordable dance and music workshops, a gala concert that showcases California folk and traditional performing arts companies, and a free Collage plenary discussion focusing on themes in the African diasporic aesthetics and current issues.

Diamano Coura offers weekly public classes in music and dance, arts advocacy and information sessions and serves as a community hub for youth-initiated arts education projects. We motivate artists to maximize their potential and encourage youth to explore and express their cultural and ethnic heritage through our arts-in-education programs. Collage des Cultures Africaines Annual Festival and its repertory concert is Diamano Coura’s shown commitment to partnering with other artists and community members to use the inherent power of the arts in breaking barriers that stagnate, to open up corridors that encourage social and economic development, while simultaneously fostering health and well-being.

With support from the California Arts Council, AfroSolo Theatre Company will offer “Black Women: Resilient,” a Black women-led multi-disciplined theatre-based project based on the five principles of Trauma-Informed Care – safety, choice, collaboration, trustworthiness, and empowerment – to create and perform solo performances based on their life experiences.

The program includes four 8-week sessions—two in the fall and two in winter/spring—offered both online and in-person at the Dr. George Davis Senior Center. Participants will create original solo pieces based on their lived experiences, building confidence, writing, and public speaking skills. The project will culminate in a public performance at the AfroSolo Theatre Festival in September 2026.

AfroSolo Theatre Company’s core programming is anchored by the annual AfroSolo Arts Festival, a year-long, multidisciplinary celebration of Black arts and culture. Each year’s programming is united by a central theme and structured around three primary components:

AfroSolo in the Gardens – A free, outdoor jazz concert held at Yerba Buena Gardens featuring acclaimed Black vocalists and instrumentalists. This accessible event invites intergenerational and multicultural audiences to experience the richness of Black musical traditions in a communal setting.

AfroSolo in the Gallery – A curated visual arts exhibition showcasing up to five Black artists at the African American Center of San Francisco’s Main Public Library. This public-facing exhibit creates opportunities for emerging and mid-career artists to present socially engaged work in a civic space.

Black Voices Performance Series – The centerpiece of the festival, this series features solo theatre, spoken word, and dance performances by African American and Diasporic artists. Presented at culturally significant venues such as the African American Art and Culture Complex, these performances elevate personal narratives that speak to collective histories, resilience, and transformation.

AfroSolo also runs year-round community engagement initiatives. These include:
1) STOP! SHOW! & CONTROL!: The Art Of Surviving Police Stops, a series of theater and community based workshops designed to decrease the number of law enforcement deaths in underserved communities;
2) Resilient Black Women, a writing workshop for Black Women in the Bayview Hunters Point of San Francisco; and
3) A Senior’s writing workshop at Dr. George Davis Senior Center in SF’s Bayview Hunters Point.

Through accessible programming, strategic partnerships, and culturally responsive practice, AfroSolo provides visibility and support for Black artists while fostering healing, dialogue, and joy in the communities it serves.

With support from the California Arts Council, LOS ANGELES POVERTY DEPARTMENT will promote cultural equity for the Skid Row community by producing LAPD’s annual Festival for All Skid Row Artists, (FASRA). The free 2-day event held annually (since 2010) in a public park in the heart of the underserved Skid Row neighborhood will showcase the work of roughly 150 artists and arts organizations, and give 1,500 attendees opportunities to make and enjoy art, build social cohesion and celebrate the cultural vitality of their community.

Founded by director, performer and activist John Malpede, LAPD was the first performance group in the country made up of homeless and formerly homeless people and the first sustained arts initiative in Skid Row. For 38 years, LAPD has been one of the foremost cultural and artistic resources of the community. LAPD presents live theatrical productions, organizes public discussions and presentations, public art programs, parades and festivals, curates and creates installations and exhibitions, all addressing the lives of the neighborhood residents and the issues they face. LAPD’s performances and theater pieces are developed and realized through an extensive and inclusive process that employs research and engagement strategies and activities designed to enlist and disseminate community wisdom, and which typically take place over the course of more than a year. LAPD makes work to change the narrative about people living in poverty. LAPD’s actively maintained (by professional archive staff) Skid Row History Archive documents the history of the Skid Row neighborhood and its achievements and is utilized by scholars, journalists, filmmakers, and community members. The archive is a bulwark against community displacement.

With support from the California Arts Council, North American Guqin Association(NAGA) will present “Passing the Torch Across Four Generations,” commemorating the 130th birthday of Zha Fuxi, the most influential Guqin master of the twentieth century. In 1945–46, Zha visited California and introduced the 3,000-year-old Guqin to the U.S., giving lectures and performances and making the first Guqin recordings at the Library of Congress. Today, under the direction of guqin master Wang Fei, Zha’s third-generation direct disciple, this project brings concerts, master classes, exhibitions, lectures, and Yaji gatherings to communities across California. Grant funds will support artists, venues, educational materials, outreach, and documentation—bringing a UNESCO-recognized intangible heritage to take root and grow on California’s diverse cultural soil, and honoring master Zha’s enduring legacy.

NAGA was founded in 1997. In the last ten years NAGA has grown in membership and has increased the number of programs it offers to the public. NAGA activities include guqin presentations, workshops, concerts, lectures, cultural gatherings, conferences etc. NAGA invites guest presenters and performers to its events to expand its mission to bring China’s cultural heritage to local communities.

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.

With support from the California Arts Council, Presidio Performing Arts Foundation will expand its community outreach program, DANCEOUT! in partnership with the Bayview YMCA, providing underserved students in the Bayview community a positive creative outlet through the arts. DANCEOUT! promotes youth development, cultural literacy and mentorship through dance. Students will additionally have opportunities to participate in community workshops focusing on health & wellness, as well as performing alongside professional artists, as part of Presidio Dance Theatre’s multi-generational dance company.

Presidio Performing Arts Foundation (PPAF) has a 27 year history of advancing justice through dance. Since its inception, PPAF has continuously engaged and uplifted historically and systemically excluded and erased artists, cultural practitioners, and arts and cultural practices.

In partnership with SFUSD and the YMCA, 280,000 students have benefitted from our free public performances, lectures, workforce development opportunities, and community classes.

PPAF annually presents Children’s Day at the SF War Memorial Opera House, providing an opportunity for 6,200 Bay Area students and families to enjoy free multicultural dance presentations, highlighting the diversity and inclusive spirit of California.

DANCEOUT!’s nationally recognized youth development program, provides culturally informed and responsive arts education, resulting in positive life paths. 85% of our DANCEOUT! students are the first in their families to attend a university; 99% of our graduates pursue a college education.

PPAF partnerships include a broad range of local, national and international arts, cultural, and educational entities, including: the United Nations; International Red Cross; UNESCO’s International Dance Council; European Parliament; U.S. Department of State; City of San Francisco; SF Symphony; SFMOMA; SF Opera; SF Unified School District; YMCA; Smithsonian Institute.

Presidio Dance Theatre, widely recognized for its signature style of Ethno-Classical Ballet, has received numerous accolades, including the U.S. State Department’s award for “Excellence in Cultural Diplomacy & Dance.” PDT employs and highlights native artists and those from underrepresented cultures, celebrating the rich tapestry of human heritage. PDT’s New Works Series focuses on women’s empowerment and putting women’s stories back into history, while examining gender roles through the ages.

PDT has engaged in 13 international tours, representing the U.S. and 5 official SF Sister City Exchanges, supporting global humanitarian causes, while promoting social justice. Global audiences have exceeded 12 million.

With support from the California Arts Council, Street Spirit will increase the number of unhoused writers published in our paper, promote equity in our community through compassionate storytelling, and act as a bridge between unhoused people and the local arts scene.

Street Spirit eliminates barriers between unhoused people and the arts. Your support will allow us to nurture the voices of emerging unhoused writers. The poetry created in this workshop will chip away at the stigma around homelessness in the Bay Area—a heavy burden marginalized people often carry alone. We will evaluate the impact of your support by tracking the number of new artists published in our newspaper, and participation at open mic events.

We have helped unhoused residents change the narrative around homelessness for more than 30 years. Your support will strengthen this work.

Writing and Arts program – We mentor and publish unhoused writers, artists and journalists using a collaborative editorial process.
Newspaper program – We offer a vocational training program to the unhoused people in the East Bay who sell our newspaper.

With support from the California Arts Council, Alternative Music Foundation will present Give The Drummer Some, a series of eight free masterclasses led by master Black drummers rooted in the Bay Area. Centering the Black cultural traditions of blues, jazz, gospel, and R&B, this program addresses a community-identified need to celebrate, preserve, and pass down Black musical heritage. Developed in collaboration with local artists and community leaders, the series will uplift the voices of under recognized master musicians and create accessible learning opportunities for participants of all ages. This project affirms the cultural contributions of Black communities whose culture is threatened by gentrification and fosters an environment for accessible, intergenerational learning through culturally responsive arts education.

Alternative Music Foundation provides an all ages, substance free, collectively run music and arts space for the community. Colloquially known as ‘924 Gilman’, or even just ‘Gilman’, our organization has been around in one form or another since 1986. We started off as a punk collective focused on providing a safe and inclusive space, and have maintained that attitude well into today.
As a music venue and arts space, our programming is focused mainly on centering and uplifting independent musicians and artists that specialize in alternative arts and music. We feature a wide variety of genres, and are lucky to have been able to support musicians from our neighborhood, from around the country, and even from around the world.
Our organization has been a cornerstone of the punk do-it-yourself, or ‘DIY’, ideology in the Bay Area and beyond, believing that anyone and everyone should have the opportunity to participate in our collective, no matter their background or experience. Due to this, we have an open arms policy, and provide training to anyone who is interested in learning skills that can help them build a career in the music industry, or in nonprofit operation. We provide training and skill sharing in Live Sound Engineering, Event and Venue Coordination, Venue Management, Event Booking, Social Media promotion, Volunteer Outreach and Coordination, and more.

With support from the California Arts Council, AMADOR COUNTY ARTS COUNCIL (Amador Arts) will work as a collective with service agencies, historically disinvested communities, and local artists impacted by suicide, self-harm, the justice system, addiction, homophobia, violence, homelessness, and disabilities, to facilitate social practice arts and devised theatre techniques in collaboration with so-called “non-artist” communities at Sierra Wind Wellness & Recovery Center to compose and produce an album of original songs (including video ASL renditions) and a short documentary about the lifesaving place of music and the arts in suicide and self-harm prevention.

The Amador County Arts Council (Amador Arts) keeps the arts central to Amador’s life through programs, services, and initiatives.

(1) PUBLIC OFFICE: Our accessible public office is open to the public and is located at registered historic site #456, the Sutter Creek Grammar School, where anyone is welcome to visit with staff, use free art supplies, and enjoy some creative time in a beautiful historic setting, perhaps while visiting the ghost girl who lives on site. Our “STUDIO” programming offers targeted open hours for families (Wednesdays from 12-2 when they have “early release”) and for teens (Tuesdays from 3-5).

(2) TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE: One full-time employee equipped to provide a suite of technical assistance to artists and arts organizations needing support on California Arts Council grants or arts business matters.

(3) PRODUCING PERFORMANCES: Since its establishment, Amador Arts has played a central role in performing arts throughout Amador County. Most notably, since 1998, our “TGIF Free Summer Concerts” have brought live music to thousands of people in outdoor places where it is otherwise not available, including Pioneer California—9th percentile on the Healthy Places Index. Producing Poetry Out Loud since 2016 with multi-generational poetry opportunities in addition to the traditional competition. Free performances of historically significant literary arts and music for local events and fundraisers.

(4) ARTS CLASSES AND ARTS EDUCATION PLANNING: Amador Arts is a trusted consultant to Amador County Unified School District providing support and administration for the district Arts Plan and the rollout of Prop 28. Additionally, since 2012, Amador Arts has been teaching visual arts classes to 100% of the public school students at the 6 public elementary schools within Amador County, including Chinese cultural arts education and the principles of art.

(5) PROMOTING THE ARTS: Weekly newsprint, monthly radio, social media, blog covering impacts of the arts.

With support from the California Arts Council, Eye Discover will lead a collaborative art project that empowers students at Alliance Judy Ivie Burton Technology High School and Alliance Cindy & Bill Simon Technology High School to design and create large-scale murals composed of individual artwork. Rooted in our mission to blend artivism (art + activism) with culturally relevant youth programming, this project addresses the lack of culturally responsive curricula, limited access to arts education, and the need for supportive, creative spaces for youth in under-resourced communities. Co-created by students and artists from historically excluded backgrounds, the murals will amplify diverse voices and lived experiences, celebrating identity, creativity, and civic engagement. This art project will transform school walls into lasting symbols of pride and resilience, giving students an empowering space for expression, connection, and a sense of belonging.

Eye Discover provides after school programming and summer camps aligned with curriculum standards, and fosters critical thinking, creativity, and active citizenship among elementary school students. Our programs offersa unique combination of STEM, artivism, technology for social change, culturally responsive curriculum, and creative expression that empowers students to become active, engaged, and socially aware members of their communities.

With support from the California Arts Council, Au Co Vietnamese Cultural Center will realize a suite of 2026 events that will empower and connect San Francisco’s underserved Tenderloin district and Southeast Asian communities through preservation and revitalization of traditional arts and culture alongside integration of contemporary approaches.

These events are:

Thi Ca Su Viet 13: Annual concert of Vietnamese traditional and contemporary arts attracting intergenerational audiences. Featured performers will be Vanessa Van Anh Vo’s Blood Moon Orchestra and Johnny Huy Nguyen with the Asian Improv aRts Special Unit

6th Annual Multicultural Spring Festival and 17 Annual Mid-Autumn Harvest Festival: Co-produced with the Southeast Asian Arts and Culture Coalition, these free all-day events serve the Tenderloin Community with cultural exhibitions, demonstrations, and performances from Vietnamese, Lao, Cambodian, Thai, Chinese, Burmese, Filipino communities.

Au Co realizes its mission and purpose through a multifaceted suite of programs and services that foster intercultural bonds, cultural preservation, and artistic innovation to uplift the community. Our core programs and services include:

– The Vietnamese Language Program offering classes for students, ranging from young children to young adults, to learn the Vietnamese language while engaging with culture and the arts
– The Youth Leadership Development Program cultivating leadership skills in young adults through participation in community activities, both in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco and the wider Vietnamese community
– The Senior Program providing activities to help seniors maintain good health and promote cultural togetherness between the older and younger generations
– Public events that integrate culture and unite traditional and contemporary artistic practices of the Vietnamese diaspora. Our annual flagship events are Tet – Vietnamese New Year, the Mid-Autumn Festival, and Thi Ca Su Viet; all of which bring live performance to the community and expand the space of what it means to be Vietnamese
– Educational Programs and Workshops in partnership with other Asian communities through our involvement in the Southeast Asian Art and Culture Coalition (SEAACC), which includes an annual summit

With support from the California Arts Council, Leela will present a summer concert series titled “Ananda: Joy” featuring performances of the traditional kathak solo by veteran and emerging dancers and musicians. The series aims to create a space for artists and audiences in the South Asian American community to come together to celebrate their shared cultural heritage and strengthen community bonds.

Leela’s nationally touring dance company, Leela Dance Collective (LDC), has garnered critical acclaim under the artistic direction of renowned kathak artists Rukhmani Mehta, Seibi Lee, and Rachna Nivas, and engages some of today’s leading dancers and musicians, as well as collaborative artists of other genres. LDC’s repertoire represents the breadth and depth of kathak, and amplifies the voices of a new generation of female artists. Through traditional works, cross genre collaborations, and cutting edge choreography, LDC is making kathak relevant for contemporary audiences worldwide.

In addition to performances in public spaces, LDC is expanding its performances in community spaces, such as libraries and local schools. In 2019, Leela joined the roster for the Music Center Performing Artists in Schools and Neighborhoods Program, a program designed to inspire creative thinking and introduce audiences K-12 to the world’s diverse cultural traditions through school performances. Through this program, LDC serves as a model for artistic excellence, inspires creative thinking, and introduces young audiences to the joy of kathak and the rich history of India’s cultural heritage.

Leela’s educational arm, the Leela Academy, provides world-class education and training in kathak and Hindustani classical music to children and youth. The Leela Academy’s cornerstone program, the Leela Youth Dance Company (LYDC), serves as our elite pre-professional performing group for girls in grades 7-12. The program champions excellence in kathak while serving as a platform for youth leadership development that empowers young South Asian American women as artists, cultural ambassadors and leaders of social change.

Finally, the Leela Foundation provides the financial infrastructure critical for the viability and sustainability of classical Indian artistic traditions. Through the artists, educators and programs supported, the Foundation ultimately seeks to ensure that communities worldwide and generations to come have access to the richness and depth of India’s artistic traditions.

With support from the California Arts Council, the Arab Film and Media Institute will produce the 29th edition of the Arab Film Festival, the largest and oldest festival of its kind outside the Arab world. The 2025 festival will be held in the San Francisco Bay Area with a touring edition in Los Angeles and online screenings.

The Arab Film and Media Institute (AFMI) is the first U.S.-based organization of its kind, dedicated to supporting and showcasing Arab film and media. Rebranded from the Arab Film Festival in 2017, AFMI now operates through four core programming pillars: Exhibitions, Education, Creators, and Industry.

Exhibitions include AFMI’s flagship Arab Film Festival, the largest and longest-running independent festival of its kind outside the Arab world. The festival and its year-round screenings provide a vital platform for authentic Arab stories, reaching thousands annually through in-person and virtual events. Programs like Arab Women in the Arts and Arab Love: Queer Lens highlight underrepresented voices and themes.

Education brings curated Arabic-language films and discussion guides into Bay Area middle- and high-schools. AFMI also runs Takalam: Arab Youth Speak Up!, a summer filmmaking camp that empowers Arab teens to tell their stories through film.

Creators supports Arab and Arab American media-makers through fiscal sponsorship, mentorship, and workshops. The Arab Creators Collective and other services help emerging filmmakers navigate the industry, build skills, and access resources.

Industry efforts focus on advocacy and visibility, with events like InFocus: Arab Cinema—a partnership with the Academy of Motion Pictures and NewFilmmakers LA—connecting Arab talent to Hollywood decision-makers and fostering authentic representation.

Through these integrated efforts, AFMI combats harmful stereotypes, uplifts Arab voices, and fosters community dialogue, equity, and cultural pride across California and beyond.

With support from the California Arts Council, EAST BAY CHILDRENS THEATRE INC, the oldest continuously operating theatre company in the SF Bay Area, will produce an original musical for our fall school tour. This includes design and construction of sets and costumes; purchases and maintenance of lights, sound equipment and props; printing; storage and transportation rental. It also includes renting rehearsal space and providing travel stipends to actors. The tour consists of eleven Title 1 schools, visiting two or three schools per week. This show will be Jack and the Beanstalk and the Giant, and the Goose, and the Really Truly-Uly Rotten Day, a musical adaptation by Ron Lytle of the classic fairy tale. Public performances on weekends in rented venues provide income of which helps cover the cost of the school tour.

EBCT’s core program is touring World Premiere musical versions of classic fairy tales to underserved school districts. The musicals are written by EBCT’s resident musical playwright, award-winning Bay Area composer/writer Ron Lytle. EBCT school tours use Ron’s adaptations of these familiar stories and characters to expose young students to the joy and positive instructive power of music and theatrical performance.

EBCT’s program is administered through both volunteers, and paid artists/contractors, all of whom reside in the Bay Area. Some of the volunteers come from EBCT’s board of directors who include both current and retired teachers. The paid artists/contractors are seasoned theatrical and educational professionals as well as some who come from other fields but have
a strong interest in theatre and education. The passion, skills, and theatrical experience of this full-range team help make EBCT’s productions first rate in the field.

The school performance tour is conducted over several weeks at approximately 11 Title 1 schools. In advance of its school visits, EBCT provides the school and teachers with a comprehensive Teaching & Activities Guide created by EBCT’s Education Committee, most of whom are former teachers, who tailor each guide to the themes and issues presented in the production.

Approximately 400 to 500 children are present at each performance after which the teachers are given evaluation forms to complete in order to provide feedback about the quality of the production, their measure of student engagement and enjoyment, the use and relevance of the Teaching Guide provided by EBCT for pre-performance instruction, the production’s recognition of positive values, and whether the children benefited from the musical as a learning experience.

Following the school tour, the production is performed for the general public at theaters in the community, the income from which is used to help fund the cost of the school tours.

With support from the California Arts Council, Bay Area Jazz and Arts Inc will present ‘Boss Guitars,’ a series of 8 free masterclasses with renowned Oakland-based guitarists from the the Black and Latinx cultural traditions of jazz, blues, R&B, gospel, Latin music, and South American folk music. ‘Boss Guitars’ will be collaboratively developed with community members and address a community-identified need to create an accessible environment for intergenerational arts learning and to center Black and Latinx artists whose cultural traditions are threatened by gentrification in the Bay Area.

Bay Area Jazz and Arts Inc is a volunteer-run non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the art forms of jazz, blues, and world music through live performance and educational programs. Our performance space, The Sound Room, offer live performances featuring jazz, blues, and world music Thursday-Sunday weekly, totaling around 30 shows monthly. We feature local artists, touring artists, and emerging youth talent. We feature workshops and masterclasses with prominent artist-educators in our community. We contribute to our community, promoting fundraisers for local arts organizations and school bands. Our intimate listening room is all ages and features the music as the core experience, not a peripheral experience. The Sound Room was selected by DownBeat Magazine as 1 of the best places to hear jazz in the World 4 years in a row and was featured in the New York Times 36 hours in Oakland and in the Wall Street Journal ‘One of a Kind Experiences in Oakland.’ We have been named the Best Live Music Venue in the Bay Area for 2023.

With support from the California Arts Council, Martinez Arts Association, a small arts organization, will present our inaugural Black History Month Festival in February 2026. This program, presented free for the community, will feature an intergenerational lineup of renowned local Black performers spanning jazz, blues, funk, R&B, zydeco, hip-hop, gospel, Afro-Cuban music, poetry, and spoken word as well as visual art from local Black youth artists. The program will be collaboratively developed with community members and respond to a community-defined need to uplift the cultural contributions of under-represented Black artists in the Bay Area and provide culturally responsive programming celebrating Black History Month for Contra Costa County audiences.

Martinez Arts Association (MAA) provides scholarships to local graduating seniors in the visual arts. In response to budgetary cutbacks to our public schools, the MAA offers grants to teachers for purchasing art supplies for their students.

Our annual Art In the Park program, now in its 54th year, is a free community festival held every August featuring fine arts and craft booths, live music, and food trucks. This event features over 60 artists and is also a fundraising event that supports teacher grants and student scholarships.

We support art exhibits in our Martinez community including at the Martinez Library, Roxx on Main, and The Campbell Theater, John Muir Hospital, and the Contra Costa County Administration Building.

Our Dia de los Muertos program at Ignacio Plaza honors those who have passed away through altars, music, food, and rituals.

Our SWAN (Support Women Artists Now) Day program celebrates women in the arts with live music and fine arts and crafts exhibits.

Our annual Community Arts Award (now in its fifth year) recognizes local artists and arts organizations with a financial award and recognition of their contributions to the arts in Martinez.

Our annual Holiday Boutique showcases over 20 local artisans, artists, and craftspeople with a two-week program at the Old Martinez Train Depot.

Martinez Arts Association was instrumental in bringing the Alhambra Way Mural Project to fruition, featuring work by local artists and including a mural dedication program.

Martinez Arts Association promotes local arts events, exhibits, workshops, and classes in our bi-monthly newsletters.

With support from the California Arts Council, Community Rejuvenation Project will partner with Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice (CURYJ) to design and produce a large-scale community mural in the Casa Sueños Building in Oakland’s Fruitvale District: CURYJ’s new hub for the Youth Power Zone and permanent supportive housing for system-impacted youth and families. The project, titled From Bars to Blossoms: Dreaming Beyond Incarceration, will be co-created with youth leaders from CURYJ’s Dream Beyond Bars, Homies 4 Justice, and Life Coaching programs. Through intergenerational storytelling workshops and community design sessions, youth, elders, and families will shape a mural that reflects cultural resilience, justice, and collective healing. CAC funds will support artist compensation, youth fellowships, supplies, and community engagement activities, ensuring the mural reflects the lived experiences, visions, and values of Fruitvale’s historically under-resourced communities.

As a pavement to policy organization, CRP develops and implements best practices around public art policy through strategy-based, on-the-ground experience in urban communities. Over the past twelve years, the collective has painted more than 300 murals throughout the Bay Area. CRP has developed an innovative and effective model for community engagement by incorporating multimedia and documentary filmmaking into its approach. In addition, CRP has advocated strongly for increased investment in public art and more sensible public art policy. CRP has also been a founding member of several community-based coalitions working on ongoing equitable development, anti-displacement, and cultural resiliency campaigns, as well as increased transparency and accountability from public officials. CRP has also been a part of important discussions, both in the municipal and public sectors, around creative placemaking, cultural equity, and new directions in public art, on both a local and national level.

With support from the California Arts Council, World Arts West will produce Amazed by Grace, a new multidisciplinary performance collaboration between choreographer Nikka Maynard, West African dance company Diamano Coura (DC), composer Terrance Kelly, and the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir (OIGC). The project explores the connections between African Diasporic cultural forms from our African homelands to our current home communities in the East Bay, with a focus on the forms of Praise Dance, West African traditional drumming/dancing, and Gospel Music.

World Arts West Dance Festival
The first and most successful cultural event of its kind in the country; each annual festival features 10-15 ensembles – with workshops, panels, film showings and other community programming centered on an overarching theme. Last year, we celebrated our 45th Annual Dance Festival at Dance Mission Theater and Presidio Tunnel Tops, showcasing culture, wisdom, and beauty through global dance and music, with the theme of “Dance as Activism” – reflecting the power of cultural dance to challenge societal norms, preserve cultural heritage, and inspire social change.

Arts Equity Research
WAW conducted the first ever comprehensive needs assessment of Northern California’s cultural dance companies. Funded by the Wallace Foundation, A Community of Dance: A Baseline Study of Culturally Specific Dance Organizations in Northern California provides a baseline understanding of the unique characteristics of culturally specific dance organizations in Northern California. Through an in-depth community engagement process with 100+ organizations, the study highlights the unique strengths and challenges of culturally specific dance organizations while identifying emerging, effective strategies to support this subsector of the arts ecosystem.

Artist Service Programs
Workshops, fiscal sponsorship, mentorship, production support, Cultural Artist Archiving Cohort, Career Pathway Roundtable and Comprehensive Equity Resource for cultural artists.

Cultural Artist Visibility & Advocacy
Ensuring cultural artists are represented on important local, regional & national platforms.

Grants Accelerator Program (GAP)
Year-long program mentoring 12 Bay Area cultural artists to access grants funding and increase their capacity to present their work.

Wallace Foundation National Arts Partners Regranting Cohort
Groundbreaking initiative supporting BIPOC arts organizations under 500K; the largest grant in WAW’s history, enabling us to enter grantmaking for the first time, the next step in WAW’s equity journey centering cultural artists.

Special Artist Commissions
Commissioning and producing innovative, new, large scale dance-music projects.

With support from the California Arts Council, The Writers Grotto will host the Rooted & Written 2026 Conference/Fellowship by and for writers of color. The conference will serve 40 Fellows at no cost and 250+ additional participants, culminating in a national public reading and amplifying the Grotto’s mission to elevate voices of color.

The Rooted & Written Conference is the only tuition-free literary conference designed for Writers of Color. It attracts international audiences to San Francisco in-person and virtually, gathering at the Writers Grotto Mission District/SOMA Headquarters for presentations and networking. Renowned for its commitment to elevating Writers of Color, the conference amplifies their creative output.

The fellowship program nurtures emerging Writers of Color, providing mentorship, craft refinement, and industry connections. It awards 40 fellowships to the most promising BIPOC candidates, with participation entirely free.

A key part of the Writers Grotto community resource is its integration of extensive public programming through the presentation of its members’ created works and works-in-progress at public readings, literary festivals, and cultural events. The Writers Grotto also provides classes year round in all genres of literature, both free (through its Rooted & Written Conference and Fellowship for Writers of Color), and at low cost.

Given the reality of continually rising rents in the Bay Area, and the gradual retraction in jobs and paying markets for writers, aspiring writers without outside income—and many well-published writers as well—are increasingly unable to find opportunities to work together in a professional setting. The Grotto provides an affordable physical community space along with rich, invaluable daily membership conversations and support provided both in person, through virtual gatherings, and through the Grotto daily listserve.

200+ classes and workshops per year are taught by Grotto members on writing fiction, essays, memoir, journalism, poetry, children’s books, screenwriting, social media, professional development and grant-writing, and more. Classes range from one afternoon to 8 weeks, and enrollment ranges from 10-30 participants per class. Classes are held in person at The Grotto, via Zoom, or as hybrid courses. The Grotto also offers low-cost, drop-in writing sessions that encourage participants to write and support each other in a communal setting. Write-ins last for 2.5 hours and are held in person at The Grotto, via Zoom, or as hybrid courses.

The annual Rooted & Written Conference and Fellowship for Writers of Color anticipates featuring internationally renowned keynote speakers/luminaries (all creative artists of color based in literature), and Teaching Faculty who will offer workshops and classes in multiple genres (fiction, non-fiction, poetry, screenwriting, etc.) to 30+ Fellows, all writers of color who receive a full scholarship to the conference.

With support from the California Arts Council Kala Art Institute will continue to provide a cohort of veteran artists custom-tailored artist residencies at Kala, invite veteran alumni to return to Kala as mentors, and new this cycle we will design course offerings and lead quarterly community-based workshops for military communities, all free and open to the public. Kala’s Veterans Initiative in the Arts includes artist residencies, exhibition and public programs opportunities for veteran artists, and quarterly art-making workshops for military families, caregivers, and the extended veterans community. Residencies include 24/7 access to Kala’s printmaking studio, digital lab, darkroom, sculpture lab and project spaces, a project stipend, technical support, opportunities for exhibition and artist talks at Kala, and resources to design and lead workshops for other veterans and for the general public.

The heart of Kala’s mission is supporting artists and engaging the community. Kala’s artist residency program offers professional facilities to those working in and across printmaking and digital media, new media, public art, sculpture, installation, and performance. Kala’s artist residency program is known for the support it offers to artists, specialized resources spanning printmaking, photography, sculpture and media arts, points of contact with accessible staff, and the caliber of work artists are able to produce and share with the community while in residence. Kala’s artist residencies provide time, space, equipment, and a knowledgeable network of artists (175+ artists a year) to foster dialogue, risk-taking, creation of new work, and community building.

Kala’s exhibitions and gallery, free and open to the public Tuesday-Saturday, provide a platform for innovative presentations of contemporary art and a forum for artists and the public – sparking conversations across views and timely topics. This complex web of timely topics includes racial and social justice, displacement, the environment, community wellness, and more. Kala hosts community events, film screenings, artist talks, and performances in the galley too.

Kala fosters a fresh approach to experimentation, as artists investigate the interface of digital work, work made by hand, and everything in between. A spirit of exchange and education is nurtured through all Kala’s programs. Kala offers quality arts education to the general public and local youth through its on-site art classes – after school studio art, teen studio workshops, family and community art-making sessions, summer art programs, field trips, and a robust Artists-in-Schools program, established in 1991, providing artist-led instruction to students in neighboring East Bay public schools.

Providing multiple points of access to space and resources through artist residencies, exhibitions, and arts education is more important than ever as we fight for equitable engagement in the midst of these challenging times.

With support from the California Arts Council, US JAPAN CULTURAL TRADE NETWORK INC (CTN) will commission, produce, and present Memento Forest – Katami, a multimedia intergenerational performance project by dancer/choreographer Marina Fukushima.

Taking inspiration from dialogues and interactions with Japanese and Asian American elders, as well as with her own family, including her late father and three generations of mothers, Marina centers and uplifts unseen bodies, unheard stories, and intergenerational relationships, transforming a personal grieving process into a communal and collective caring and healing process.

Following its scheduled premiere in spring 2026 at NOHSpace in San Francisco, the artists will create a digital collage of the work, which will be published as one of the micro-seasons in the Digital Library of CTN’s 72 Seasons Project, offering continued engagement for current and future audiences.

CTN’s programs and services include: designing and delivering exemplary arts and cultural programs in San Francisco Bay Area and various communities across the U.S. and Japan through producing, presenting, and programming; building and sharing broad knowledge about artistic resources and cultural practices of the U.S. and Japan; providing access to contextual understanding for the artistic works to enhance understanding and appreciation of audiences/participants; facilitating strong working relationships between and among diverse communities, including artistic professionals in the U.S. and Japan; and providing translations, facilitation and coordination services to enable intercultural dialogues, collaborations and projects in both countries with an emphasis on the San Francisco Bay Area, where it’s based since 2007. By collaborating with regional and national network organizations as well as larger institutions and international arts festivals, our programs and services cover broad geographies and reach diverse demographics, promoting Japanese cultural traditions, artistic expressions and wisdom of the community.

Today’s Future Sound (TFS) will deliver a 12-week Therapeutic Beat Making (TBM) program at Alameda County Juvenile Hall, offering two 1.5-hour sessions per week. Youth will collaborate with professional teaching artists to compose original beats, learn music production, and create a class album. Grounded in trauma-informed, culturally responsive pedagogy, the program supports emotional regulation, self-expression, and community connection.

Funds will support artist stipends, program coordination, training, planning, and curriculum delivery, as well as equipment upkeep and materials needed for accessibility accommodations. TFS will also conduct a pre-program survey and post-workshop evaluations to assess growth in student engagement, confidence, and skill development. The program’s goals are to promote healing, increase access to high-quality arts education, and provide youth with meaningful tools for expression, skill-building, and future success.

Interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, therapeutic, arts education through beat making and music production that builds confidence, inspires creativity, and helps individuals create positive change.

With support from the California Arts Council, the MUSEUM OF SOCIAL JUSTICE will collaborate with artist Oscar Magallanes to develop a multidisciplinary exhibition focused on the lived experiences of Indigenous youth from southern Mexico and Central America who have been separated from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border. The project will include a gallery exhibition, a short documentary film, and a public art or digital mural component. Grounded in trauma-informed collaboration, the work will center youth voices, many of whom speak K’iche’ and Mam, and reflect their cultural identities and resilience. In partnership with advocacy and legal organizations, and with guidance from a trauma-informed mental health advisor in designing healing-centered workshop components, the project will serve as both testimony and cultural preservation, using art to inform and honor communities navigating forced migration and systemic erasure.

As part of its permanent collection, the Museum showcases the work of women missionaries who established schools, medical clinics, and other services for refugees of the Mexican revolution in the early 1900’s, including the first integrated drinking fountain in Los Angeles from circa 1917. Through a collaboration with the Bradley Center at Cal State University, Northridge the museum was able to digitize over 2,000 photographs documenting life in Los Angeles for poor Latinos beginning in 1899. The museum has worked with a variety of curators to plan exhibitions on diverse social justice themes, including the Civil Rights Movement, immigration, and East L.A. student activism. In 2017, the Museum began partnering with artists from under-served communities to produce artistic responses to our major exhibitions. The museum invests in young adult leadership to act as docents, support our media needs, research our archives, develop educational components for upcoming exhibitions, etc.

With the support of the California Arts Council, Velaslavasay Panorama will partner with Community and Environment Research Lab in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at University of California Irvine to host: three artistic immersive panorama-making workshops centering on environmental awareness to envision healthy futures at multicultural community outreach events in South/East Los Angeles, including Dia de Los Muertos, and Bob Baker Day. In addition, we will host three garden sessions of healing, empowerment and transformation to increase climate awareness and resources for low-income communities of color living in proximity to inner-city oil drilling sites and manufacturing facilities.

Immersive panoramic installations are the philosophical center of the VP and are presented on a semi-permanent basis. Former works included: “Panorama of the Valley of the Smokes” (2000-2004), a surreal scene of the LA basin 200 years ago and “Effulgence of the North” (2007-2017), a hypnotic depiction of the Arctic landscape by night. “Shengjing Panorama,” (2019-present), our current panorama on view, is a visionary experience of daily life in Shenyang, China circa 1910-1930 and the first ever US-China collaborative panorama.

Beyond the panorama, the VP curates highly collaborative performances, film screenings and illustrated lectures on visual art, arcane culture and experimental media. Programs include: “Union Square Florist Shop,” a living installation and performance of a bygone flower store circa 1969; an archo-historical illustrated lecture by the Shenyang Visual Archive; an evening of magic lantern performances by Charlotte Pryce; a 16mm film screen series with Jesse Lerner exploring themes of tourism, documentary, surrealism and archaeology in Mexican cinema; theatrical performances of “The Grand Moving Mirror of California,” a moving panorama tradition dating back to 1853.

Our blossoming garden is an extension of immersive landscape art offering an oasis of lush, tropical foliage. Located in Council District 8, we are open to the public weekly on a by-donation basis and serve an annual visitorship of over 15,000 people. Our performances, exhibits programs are primarily focused on serving the Los Angeles community at our headquarters in West Adams/University Park but we reach additional audiences nationally and internationally by sharing our work at festivals, universities, conferences and other presenting opportunities including via postal mail.

With support from the California Arts Council, Pelisa Arts & Energy will produce Rhythms of Fatherhood, an ongoing series of community events for Black and Brown fathers and children in Oakland, centered on health and wellbeing. The project was born out of Kiazi’s journey as a single father of a four-year old girl in Oakland. Our events feature music and dance performances, African Diasporic-rooted cultural workshops, and healthy Afro-Caribbean and Jamaican cuisine.

Ngoma Drumming Workshops
Free Ngoma drumming workshops in traditional Congolese percussion. Through partnerships with schools and community centers, Pelisa offers dance, music, and cultural workshops providing a platform for participants of all ages to connect with Congolese culture, building bridges across cultural backgrounds. Each year during Black History Month we play for many assemblies throughout the Bay Area. Ongoing class series include: Ile Omode School, Oakland; Live in Peace, East Palo Alto; Fairview School, Hayward; Lorin Eden School, Hayward; East Oakland Youth Development Center; Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, Oakland; Congolese Song Series, East Palo Alto, CA

Professional dance and music performances
As Co-Director of Fua Dia Kongo, Kiazi Malonga collaborates with local arts and community organizations showcasing the vibrancy of Congolese dance and music. Recent highlights include: Black Joy Parade, Oakland, CA; SF City Hall Black History Month, SF; Kiazi Malonga Album release performance, Menlo Park; performance in celebration of Malonga Day; Stanford Black Grad Celebration; Leading cultural immersion trip “Embrace Kongo” to Congo; Performance at World Arts West Dance Festival; Performance at Diamano Coura’s 50th Anniversary.

Rhythms of Fatherhood
Ongoing community events for Black and Brown fathers and children in Oakland, centered on health and wellbeing. The project was birthed out of Kiazi’s journey as a single father of a four-year old girl in Oakland. In collaboration with Calabash’s Chef Nigel Jones, these events feature music and dance workshops featuring healthy Afro-Caribbean and Jamaican cuisine – supporting mental health and community healing. Rooted in the mbongui healing traditions of the Kongo Kingdom, these gatherings create a safe space for participants to share, connect, and heal collectively.

Social Justice & Environmental Advocacy
Using the arts as a vehicle for change, Pelisa raises awareness about human rights abuses in the DRC, including the environmental and social impacts of cobalt mining.

With support from the California Arts Council, the Arts Council for Monterey County (Arts4MC) will provide an enriching visual arts education program to 1-2 elementary schools in South Monterey County, a historically excluded community, where very few opportunities for the arts exist. A local community artist with many ties to these students, has been selected to design and lead these programs.

There is no organization in our county that connects more artists, students, cultural nonprofits and partners to visual and performing arts. Each year we expand our capacity to ensure that everyone benefits from high quality arts programs, including developing strategic partnerships in every supervisorial district in our community. Our guiding strategy is to support artists, teaching artists and arts organizations wherever there are substantial gaps – whether by demographics (low-income), location (rural) or by circumstances (at-risk-youth), we provide direct services. Today, we strengthen the ability of hundreds of artists, cultural groups and arts organizations to effectively serve our residents, as we present award-winning projects and programs that help address our communities’ greatest needs through the arts, serving our residents in English and Spanish.

Arts Education – Our Professional Artists in the Schools is a cornerstone program providing teaching artist residencies in 40 partner schools, reaching more than 26,000 students. Our Arts as Healing program provides specialized classes for at-risk youth, people with disabilities, senior citizens and veterans, weaving creative mastery with social and emotional learning to develop their truest potential.

Capacity Building – We stimulate the creative economy through the development of artists and arts organizations. Since 1985, artists, nonprofits, and cultural groups maximize their reach and deepen impact through our grant funding, training and consultations. Further support includes professional development workshops on grant writing, marketing and advocacy. We also provide affordable art studios to local emerging artists through our ArtWorks program.

Community Partnerships – We are often approached to strengthen and connect arts programming to crucial community needs. We have provided services such as a hands-on arts program at the Monterey Bay Aquarium for historically-excluded Salinas teenagers, visual arts programs at Rancho Cielo Youth Center for at-risk young adults and a mural beautification project at the Veterans Transition Center.

With support from the California Arts Council, Noe Valley Chamber Music (DBA Noe Music) will connect Black and Latinx expecting mothers with world-class musicians to compose and record original lullabies for their babies, fostering community through music, strengthening maternal health, healing, and parent and child bonding.
We will partner with Alameda Health System and their successful Beloved Birth Black centering and Spanish Centering (Latinx) programs—a unique care model that enables midwives to provide perinatal care in a group setting, breaking down hierarchies and building trust in the wisdom of the group. Expecting mothers learn together, and support each other throughout their pregnancies.
The Lullaby Project harnesses creative expression through music-making and storytelling to empower women and families, especially those who are most vulnerable and experiencing challenging life circumstances.

Noe Music presents diverse artists in multi-day residencies. Our artists immerse themselves in our community by presenting public concerts for adults, interactive family concerts, and free public school workshops. The range of artists we present includes world, jazz, folk and experimental styles, as well as classical music, with a guiding emphasis on diversity and inclusion.

Another core offering is the Lullaby Project—connecting pregnant women experiencing homelessness with professional Bay Area artists to compose original lullabies for their newborns. The project began as a partnership with the Homeless Prenatal Program in San Francisco and Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute. We now expand our collaborations to include Alameda Health System’s Spanish Centering and Beloved Birth Black Centering programs, running eight programs to date.

Our intended audience is families of all ages. We create offerings for every stage of life, starting with the Lullaby Project in which we encourage mothers’ musical messages to reach their babies in utero. Our Noe Music Kids series offers interactive concerts tailored to young ears, for kids ages 3 to 12. We also offer free workshops to public schools in SF. At our mainstage offerings for adults, we offer discounted student tickets and complimentary childcare for those parents who would otherwise struggle to attend. All of our public offerings are wheelchair accessible.

Golden Thread Productions will present the world premiere of a new Afghan-American play titled PILGRIMAGE by Afghan-American playwright Humaira Ghilzai, co-written by Bridgette Dutta Portman and co-produced with Z Space. PILGRIMAGE tells the story of five Afghan and Muslim American women who embark on an Umrah, a minor pilgrimage, to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. As they travel together on a journey of spiritual reawakening, they navigate grief, faith, family conflict, and personal transformation. The play offers an unprecedented representation of Afghan and Muslim women rarely seen on U.S. stages. It presents a nuanced, woman-centered story that explores what it means to be Afghan, Muslim, and American today. The production will be guided and supported by Afghan-American artists, community council members, and community organizational partners who will provide cultural competency, outreach, and engagement.

We fulfill our mission through rich and diverse programming, artist development, and community engagement. Our programs include the development and production of full-length plays; an annual New Threads Staged Readings series; annual events such as What do the Women Say? a celebration of International Women’s Day; and our two signature programs: the Golden Thread Fairytale Players, offering a cultural exploration of the Middle East designed for children, and the ReOrient Festival, a biennial festival of short plays highlighting the diversity of Middle Eastern perspectives and aesthetics, which also includes a ReOrient Forum, featuring discussions and performances by artists, academics, and activists.

With support from the California Arts Council, Dance Brigade (aka Dance Mission Theater) will present Liberation Academy 4.0, a comprehensive cultural dance performance initiative that addresses the urgent need for platforms to uplift, educate, and inspire new generations of dancers and cultural practitioners from the African Diasporic community. Grant funds will be utilized to run a five-month program, including a season of workshops, mentorships, classes, special performance commissions and student showcase performances designed to enhance participants’ technical skills, artistic expression, and understanding of the cultural, social, and historical contexts of the African Diaspora.

– Run a thriving inter/multicultural community arts venue, Dance Mission Theater (DMT);
– Create, produce, and sustain groundbreaking festivals including the Mission Youth Arts Festival, Manifest-ival for Social Change, and D.I.R.T. (Dance In Revolting Times) – all of which explore issues of equity through the assertion of culturally rooted dance forms and/or sociopolitical subject matter;
– Present and foster the work of other companies and festivals – like the Black Choreographers, Deaf Dance, and CubaCaribe Festivals;
– Help incubate and launch the professional careers of artists through programs such our Choreographers Showcase;
– Provide high quality facilities and resources that support over 110 choreographers every year, the majority of whom are women and people of color, via rental subsidies, fiscal sponsorship, grant and publicity mentorship, performance opportunities, and co-productions.
– Serve 1,000 adults/week through a diverse array of classes in dance styles such as Haitian, samba, hip hop, house, and others in our three dance studios, as well as off-site at other community venues.
– Run a comprehensive, affordable dance instruction program for youth ages 3 – 18 serving more than 400 children per semester and providing a number of scholarships to local families;
– Producing the Liberation Academy with citywide workshops and performances focused on African Diasporic arts, centering Black-focused and Black-led storytelling
– Create original productions by DMT’s resident company, Dance Brigade, San Francisco’s groundbreaking, feminist social-change modern dance company.

With support from the California Arts Council, Yerba Buena Gardens Festival will partner with American Indian Contemporary Arts to present the 27th annual Native Contemporary Arts Festival (NCAF) on June 21, 2026.

This multi-cultural gathering and Father’s Day tradition will celebrate, honor, and acknowledge the original peoples of California and around the globe. The Native Contemporary Arts Festival brings together Californian and urban Native Americans as well as the Indigenous people of the Americas from Alaska to Patagonia and the Pacific Rim through artistic presentations of music, dance, poetry, and crafts. All of the live performances and interactive art experiences will be outdoors, admission-free, family-friendly, clean and sober, ADA compliant, easily accessible by public transport, and open to the public in San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Gardens.

YBG Festival presents classical, world, and jazz music, contemporary and traditional dance, theater, children’s and family programs, and cultural events reflecting the rich cultures and creativity of the region. Artistic excellence, inclusion, diversity and innovation are at the heart of our mission. As the only curated arts park fully dedicated to the long-term presentation of free arts and cultural programs, Yerba Buena Gardens has a unique place in the cultural landscape of San Francisco.

Note: YBGF is not affiliated with YBCA (Yerba Buena Center for the Arts). There is no overlap between the two entities.

With support from the California Arts Council, New Vintage Baroque Inc. dba Musica Sierra will present Musical Headwaters: Hello, Cricket!, the sixth commission in its acclaimed Musical Headwaters series. This innovative program commissions new musical works inspired by the Sierra Valley, bridging nature-based education with the visual & performing arts to deepen children’s social-emotional connection to the earth.

Musica Sierra will bring out The Chivalrous Crickets, a dynamic folk-Celtic ensemble, to create “Hello, Cricket!”, a story-driven musical tailored for first-grade learners. Rooted in traditional music forms, the work uses play, storytelling, and song to align with the five domains of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL). The project includes a week-long residency across Sierra-Plumas School District, culminating in public performances. This collaboration highlights folk and traditional arts as powerful tools for learning and connection in rural communities.

Music education for ages 0-99 in the schools and community, music exposure through world class performance and community engagement. This is all done through the arm of Musica Sierra, based in Sierra County.

Shasta Stories is an ongoing docuseries and storytelling organization that pairs film with community screening events; sharing personal stories from underrepresented and diverse voices across rural Siskiyou County. Each 20–35 minute film explores themes like identity, belonging, and what it means to call a place home—across ethnic, cultural, age, income, and gender groups. Rooted in community, each episode centers the first-hand stories of local residents—told in their own words, on their own terms. Screenings are free and facilitated for dialogue and empathy; films are also available online for free. Grant funds help us hire California-based artists to research, film, and edit episodes, and host events throughout Northern California. With focus on storytelling, listening, and place, Shasta Stories reflects the richness and complexity of home in one of the state’s most rural, misunderstood, and underfunded regions.

Shasta Stories’ primary program produces 25–40 minute documentary episodes featuring first-person stories from racially, culturally, gender-diverse, and economically under-resourced residents of Siskiyou County. Collaborating closely with culture bearers and local artists, we create films centered on social justice, community resilience, and ecological mindfulness. Episodes are paired and showcased at free community screenings designed to encourage dialogue, cultural exchange, and active participation through facilitated story circles held in safe, inclusive spaces welcoming all walks of life. We prioritize accessibility by ensuring our screenings provide accommodations such as wheelchair access, ADA-compliant facilities, and subtitles, creating an inclusive experience for all community members. Following public events, the films are accessible online at no cost, preserving local history and expanding audience reach.

WIth support from the California Arts Council, JaZzLine INSTITUTE, a small arts organization, will present ‘Blues Explosion,’ a week-long, intergenerational celebration of the Black cultural tradition of the blues, including four blues concerts featuring a 7-piece ensemble of Black vocalists and instrumentalists, a live radio broadcast, two free blues masterclasses, a free jam session, and an awards program honoring Black musical pioneers and emerging talent in our community. ‘Blues Explosion’ is collaboratively developed with community members and addresses a community need to uplift the Black cultural tradition of the blues in the Bay Area, create opportunities for accessible intergenerational learning, and center under-resourced Black Bay Area communities whose culture is threatened by gentrification.

JaZzLine INSTITUTE is dedicated to the preservation, celebration, and education of the historical and cultural significance of music out of the African-American diaspora through performance and educational programs. We produce masterclasses and workshops with visiting artists, educational programming in public schools, music scholarship fundraisers for local youth, memorial programs for departed local musicians, radio programming including live in-studio concert broadcasts, jam sessions for youth, educational events in local juvenile detention centers, and concert programming celebrating Black History and centering women in music. We recognize musical pioneers in our community, both living and departed, through our BAJABA awards. JaZzLine INSTITUTE celebrates diverse forms of music from the African-American diaspora including Negro spirituals, jazz, blues, R&B, soul, gospel, and hip-hop.

With support from the California Arts Council, Visual Communications Media’s ARMED WITH A CAMERA FELLOWSHIP will develop and support two (2) Lead Artists and six (6) Emerging Fellows to create six (6) media art works to amplify the cultures, histories, and perspectives of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in California.

Visual Communications’ programs includes: the annual Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival and year‐round screenings and exhibitions; the Armed With a Camera Fellowship for Emerging Media Artists; the Digital Histories media production and storytelling program for older adults. We are home to the VC Archives, one of the largest photographic and moving image collections on Asian Pacific experiences in America.

With support from the California Arts Council, RAMA Blueprints will continue to produce free community discussions at BRAVA Theater under the banner of the Tres Generaciones/Three Voices series. This insightful initiative features panels composed of three highly experienced and respected local intergenerational community leaders, each deeply rooted in the practice of community support services. In turn, the podcasts are then archived and available to inform both interested community members and other communities and cities seeking solutions and culturally responsive practices. RAMA Blueprints takes on the crucial role of both facilitator and producer for these engaging panels. CAC funding would be used for the facilities rental costs, technical crew, marketing and promotion, in-state travel and lodging expenses, research and development for the production, and subscription costs for podcast production and archiving services.

The core programs of the RAMA Blueprints Podcast are the podcast that documents the oral histories of San Francisco community leaders as a method to pass on knowledge, wisdom, and cultural education; Tres Generacíones/Three Voices a series of live dialogues with multi-generational leaders to create narrative that addresses the persistent challenges and disparities that need to be addressed to ensure equity and opportunities for all; the RAMA Archives which consist of relevant interviews, profiles and community discussions that places and showcases the San Francisco Mission District and Latine community as an integral part of California history, shaping the present and the future generations.

With support from the California Arts Council, Active Cultures will launch galaFEST Los Angeles, a public festival of art, food, and ecologies. Developed in collaboration with the Green Art Lab Alliance (GALA), galaFEST will commission and present new artist-led projects in public outdoor sites across Los Angeles that explore climate, culture, and land. CAC funds will support artist fees, production, and staffing to realize this inaugural initiative, culminating in a series of free public programs—including performances, installations, and workshops—that foster collective imagination around ecological futures through the arts.

Active Cultures offers programming in three concentric tiers: Member and Community Programs, Public Projects, and Large-Scale Community Events. Our year-round projects provide opportunities for deep collaborations with artists over time, building public programming that centers broad and diverse artistic practice and prioritizes direct engagement with Los Angeles audiences. We embrace the concept of radical hospitality to inspire curiosity and feed empathy, while gathering communities to experience art accessibly with intention and conviviality. We operate in the public sphere to deepen our relationships to land and food, and we uplift Los Angeles as a vital hub of the international art and food movement. Food is the essential lens through which we examine fundamental questions about power, cultural expression, history, equity, climate futures, and ourselves.

CAC Impact Project funding will sustain ongoing operations of “The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot Play,” building on our successful launch. Funds will support continued production costs and stabilize our operations moving forward. The play runs Friday and Saturday nights at our dedicated Larkin Street venue, providing stable employment for 21+ LGBTQ+ artists while offering free and sliding-scale tickets to ensure community accessibility. This ongoing production addresses the critical need for authentic transgender storytelling and economic opportunities for LGBTQ+ artists in the Tenderloin, home to one of San Francisco’s largest transgender populations. The play preserves and shares the pivotal story of the 1966 Compton’s Cafeteria Riot—a foundational moment in transgender civil rights history that occurred in the Tenderloin neighborhood—through community-centered programming that transforms historical trauma into collective healing and pride.

The Tenderloin Museum opened in 2015 with the intersecting goals of promoting a deeper understanding of the history of the Tenderloin neighborhood, re-imagining our collective future, and supporting our current community. To accomplish these goals, the museum enacts a three-pronged approach: a critically-acclaimed permanent history exhibition, community-driven programs and tours, and economic support in the form of local partnerships and hiring practices. To accomplish these goals, each year TLM produces 40-50 public programs, 5-7 special arts presentations (including aerial dance, theatre, and visual art exhibitions), and 50 walking tours, in addition to maintaining its critically-acclaimed permanent history exhibition. All told, these programs attract approximately 5,000 people each year. We invest in deeply collaborative relationships with organizations in the arts, humanities, and social sectors, and our success on a relatively small budget is directly linked to those efforts.

With support from the California Arts Council, Skywatchers will produce Calling Us In, a dance-based exploration of radical inclusion and community accountability, challenging myths about substance use disorder and poverty and exposing the humanity and real solutions available to us. The Skywatchers ensemble will collaborate with renowned choreographer Sarah Crowell to develop a series of 4 dance works designed to reach thousands of audience members and draw attention to San Francisco’s critical public health crises of opioid overdoses and housing insecurity. Performances are presented for free in 4 public locations in the Tenderloin: Glide Memorial Church, Faithful Fools, Tenderloin Museum, and San Francisco City Hall.

Since 2011, ABD/SKYWATCHERS—an ensemble composed largely of Tenderloin (TL) residents subject to housing insecurity, social isolation, and chronic illness—has been co-creating site-specific, multidisciplinary artworks that center and uplift the lives, histories, and urgent concerns of the residents of the TL. Ranging from little formal training to over 40 years of professional experience, ensemble members contribute our varied experience and skills to an arts-based platform of our own making.

Each year over 100 Tenderloin-based performer-residents come together to engage several thousand audience participants and a substantially larger audience for web-based and video production. All events are free and held in ADA-accessible spaces. Participation is also free, and SKYWATCHERS’ open-door policy invites anyone interested in joining to drop in and participate. The organization and all our programming is dedicated to expanding the boundaries of traditional performance forms and modes of engagement. We are an ever growing and changing group of co-creators that attract audiences who may rarely enter conventional arts venues, but come to see our stories spoken, sung, and moved on SKYWATCHERS’ stage. We also attract traditional arts audiences that are engaged by the works’ themes, aware they don’t see these stories in other artwork they seek out. Over the last decade, SKYWATCHERS has made works that address the slow violences of poverty and structural disenfranchisement, mass incarceration and the war on drugs, the climate crisis and clean water, and revolutionary acts of community survival.

SKYWATCHERS creates lasting impacts:
· In 2024, 8,500 people participated in/ witnessed SKYWATCHERS.
· We have built sustained collaborations with 15 neighborhood partners.
· We have built a health equity partnership with UCSF, California’s largest medical
school, and the Department of Public Health.
· At the neighborhood level SKYWATCHERS positions the arts as an integral sector
in equitable social change in San Francisco.

With support from the California Arts Council, Rogue Artists Ensemble will support the development and world premiere of SHELLS, a surrealist new comedy that faces the challenges of cooping with mental illness and gun violence in an increasingly chaotic reality.

Rogue creates original works of theater incorporating mask, puppetry and modern technology. We believe in collaboration as an approach for creating work and frequently partner and work closely with guest artists, diverse communities and other arts organizations to realize projects.

We have a strong commitment to community outreach and educational programs including school workshops and classes for adults, many of which are provided for free. Our all-ages shows have toured throughout California to small community events and schools, in addition to larger venues including The Geffen Playhouse, The Pasadena Playhouse, Segerstrom Performing Arts Center, Rio Hondo College, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and the National Puppetry Festival in Minneapolis. Rogue has received accolades from critics in LA and a UNIMA Citation of Excellence, the highest honor within the puppetry community. We have also received Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle and LA Stage Alliance Awards.

We believe that storytelling is a powerful platform for social inclusion and cultural exchange. All Rogue projects are built in collaboration and conversation with our audiences across the greater community of L.A. These interactions inspire us to create responsively, with inclusion at the core of our work. We strive to include a multitude of voices and perspectives in the planning and implementation of each project’s development, as well as through the company’s administrative operations. Theater is a living art form that requires inherent intellectual and emotional exchange between audience and performers, and our values are put into practice through listening, responding, and refining. The art we create emerges in dialogue with audience feedback.

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 Oxnard Performing Arts Center Corporation (OPAC) will fill the visual arts void in Oxnard by formalizing an exhibition space at The Mexican Consulate, providing rotating exhibitions, printed catalogs, gallery talks, and other public programs for residents and the Consulate’s 96,000 annual visitors from the Central Coast of California.

Due to budget cuts, the City of Oxnard’s Carnegie Art Museum closed in 2019 and remains closed to this day, leaving residents without a public venue to appreciate/ engage with visual art.

Curated by artist and educator Rafael Perea de la Cabada, the Consulate Gallery: 1) showcases artwork that speaks to Mexican/American and Latinx beauty, culture, traditions, and issues, 2) provides opportunities to local artists, and 3) makes a government building more welcoming.

OPAC, the Oxnard Performing Arts Center Corporation, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to providing dynamic cultural and community programming at the Oxnard Performing Arts & Convention Center and beyond. As a creative hub in Ventura County, we present a diverse array of events, performances, and educational opportunities that bring people together through the power of the arts.

Our programming spans from large-scale mainstage productions and campus-wide festivals to intimate workshops and lectures, ensuring there is something for everyone. We proudly showcase both emerging and established local and international artists, fostering a vibrant cultural scene that enhances Oxnard’s creative landscape. Through our initiatives, we provide vital arts education, engagement, and entertainment for residents and visitors alike.

Signature Events
Sight + Sound Film Festival – Celebrating independent cinema and music.
Día de los Muertos (Free!) – Honoring tradition with music, dance, and altars.
Native Plant Festival (Free!) – Exploring creativity and indigenous flora.
RescueCon (Free!) – Where animal welfare meets the arts.
Asian American Pacific Islander Festival – Showcasing AAPI heritage and creativity.
IchigoCon – A celebration of gaming and anime culture.
Chelita Festival – Arts, music, and micheladas in a lively atmosphere.

Signature Programs (All Free!)
Family, Children’s & Teen Art Programs – Hands-on creative experiences.
DJ & Audio Engineering Programs – Training the next generation of music professionals.
Art-as-Wellness – Encouraging mental health through the arts
Gallery at the Mexican Consulate – Showcasing cultural and visual arts.
Community Engagement & Public Art – Bringing creativity into public spaces.

Through these programs and events, OPAC strengthens community connections, nurtures artistic expression, and ensures the arts remain accessible to all.

With support from the California Arts Council, The Jazz Organ Fellowship, a small arts organization, will present “The B3 Sessions,” a series of 8 free masterclasses with master Bay Area Hammond B3 organists. This program will respond to a community-defined need to uplift marginalized master musicians from the Black cultural traditions of jazz, blues, gospel, and R&B and provide accessible, culturally relevant intergenerational learning opportunities. The program will be collaboratively developed with community members and use artistic practices to impact Black Bay Area communities whose culture is threatened by gentrification.

The Jazz Organ Fellowship (JOF) provides workshops at jazz camps and community venues with world class jazz organists; presents performances with organ combos at middle schools and high schools; promotes a jazz organ curriculum explaining the lineage of jazz organ music, its primary proponents, and the significance of this genre within the wider musical spectrum; donates Hammond organs and Leslie speakers to schools, museums, and venues; promotes an awards program including The JOF Award and The Jazz Organ Fellowship Hall of Fame honoring living and deceased jazz organists who have contributed significantly to the development of the music; and presents jazz organ concerts at festivals, concert halls, and clubs throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. JOF programs elevate the position of the organ in all aspects of the music world, centering Black cultural traditions of jazz, blues, gospel, R&B, and beyond.

With support from the California Arts Council, Inlandia Institute will implement a pilot project in Riverside, California, for “Pura Madre”, a multi-pronged creative literary arts program for women-identifying Latine mothers and their children beginning and ending in Hispanic Heritage Month. In Mexican Spanish “pura madre” has several meanings. Literally translated into “pure mother”, “pura madre” or “madre” is a slang phrase that is used to indicate something is worthless. We’re reclaiming the phrase by creating a program that will enrich the lives of our community’s mothering creatives and their children. Latinas make up over 50% of the population of women in the Inland Empire. Pura Madre will provide both income and space for Latina mother artists/writers in the region to focus on their creative practice with their child nearby engaged in similar activities.

Organization’s Core Programs and Services: Inlandia Institute is the only regionally focused nonprofit literary arts network dedicated to the Inland Empire region. Each of our five core programs supports the artistic development of the region’s writers, from beginners through intermediate practitioners to professionals. At each level, artists share expertise through workshops, professional development activities, and outreach and engagement programs, including an award-winning publications program. Inlandia Institute’s five core programs are: Children’s Creative Literacy, Adult Creative Literacy and Professional Development for Writers, Publications, Free Literary and Cultural Programs, and Literary Laureate. Celebrating the region in word, image, and sound, Inlandia is dedicated to fostering a dynamic and successful community of artists who explore our diverse and vibrant region.

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, Ensemble for These Times will present “El Tiempo Latine: Mujeres Ahora” (Latine Time: Women of Today): a project celebrating contemporary women, queer, and nonbinary Latine composers, which will include a free concert of music by eight women and LGBTQ+ composers and releasing a new recording with music by these composers; all conducted with the goal of inspiring, uplifting, and bringing increased recognition to BIPOC women composers and their work in the field of contemporary classical music.

Winners of The American Prize in 2021 in Chamber Music Performance, Ensemble for These Times (E4TT) is a contemporary chamber music group currently celebrating its eighteenth season. E4TT performs 4-6 hybrid concerts each season in the San Francisco Bay Area at various venues for an enthusiastic and growing audience; 1-2 of these concerts are offered free-of-charge to all attendees and ticket prices are kept deliberately low for the remaining concerts, with deeply discounted prices for students and the elderly, and a policy of no one turned away from attending self-presented concerts due to a lack of ability to pay. All self-presented concerts continue to be available online at no charge to viewers and are archived on YouTube for later viewing at no cost to all. The group regularly commissions new work for premiere on their annual season, and is committed to performing the works of women, people of color, members of the LGBTQIA community and by those historically oppressed or forgotten. In 2020, the group began an interview series focusing on women creative artists; the second season of the series in 2021 focused on BIPOC composers and musicians, and a third season, which started in January 2022, focused on California BIPOC women composers. The group began a podcast version of the interview series, entitled “For Good Measure,” in June 2022, which is continuing. The group also began a pilot outreach program, “Uplift,” in 2022/23. Ensemble for These Times also tours regularly, with previous engagements in New York, Boston, Southern California, Madrid, Krakow, Berlin, and Hungary, and has released five award-winning CDs, with the ensemble’s sixth recording to be released in May 2026.

With support from the California Arts Council, Arts Benicia will invite teens and young adults to participate in its Printmakers’ Workshop, a signature program of the organization founded in 2001 by Bill Harsh. The project will reach out to youth in disadvantaged and diverse segments of the community to provide formative art education experiences. It will ensure the development of the next generation of California printmakers by providing access to instruction, mentoring, and equipment that would otherwise not be accessible.

Since its formation in 1987, Arts Benicia has established a compelling series of ongoing annual exhibitions, classes for adult, teens, and children, events, and public programs that have contributed significantly to the region’s cultural vitality and attract thousands of visitors each year. A community-based non-profit organization, Arts Benicia serves as a hub for the visual arts community in Benicia and the Historic Arsenal District, and it offers resources and benefits for artists, including opportunities to exhibit and promote their work.

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 the support from the California Arts Council, Neighborhood Music School Association will continue to grow and strengthen its highly demanded programming for the hard-of-hearing community within Los Angeles. This project will engage our already established community partners with the Bionic Ear Lab and John Tracy Center to build out more opportunities for hard-of-hearing individuals of all ages to strengthen their sense of music appreciation and develop musical skills. Our project will also provide continued one-on-one and group music workshops at the Neighborhood Music School catered specifically for hard-of-hearing folks.

Founded in 1914 by musician and composer Carrie Stone Freeman, Neighborhood Music School was first known as the Los Angeles Music Settlement and was a part of the Settlement movement, a cause which helped immigrant families to assimilate and adjust to their new home in Los Angeles. Our neighborhood of Boyle Heights is one of Los Angeles’ oldest and was known as “the Ellis Island of the West Coast” due to its large and diverse immigrant population throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

True to its original purpose over a century ago, Neighborhood Music School offers low-cost, high-quality one-on-one music instruction on a wide variety of instruments. Students at NMS typically take one private lesson per week on the instrument of their choice, and many play multiple instruments. In addition to private instruction, NMS provides collaborative, performance-based learning environments to students through our Ensemble Program and Summer Camp offerings.

With support from the California Arts Council, Una Productions will develop and present the San Francisco premiere of Infinity in September 2026. Co-directed by choreographers and drag artists Fuchsia and Eric Garcia (Churro Nomi), Infinity is a multidisciplinary performance featuring Bay Area-based Queer and trans dancers, drag performers, and musicians. Set in an intergalactic cabaret, the work uses movement, live music, costume, and immersive design to explore themes of transformation, liberation, and collective imagination. Infinity addresses the systemic under-representation of trans and gender non-conforming people in the performing arts by creating equitable, paid opportunities for LGBTQIA+ artists and offering accessible public programming. The project includes free community showings and sliding-scale workshops designed to uplift Queer voices, engage local audiences, and foster inclusive, celebratory space for artistic expression, empowerment, and community healing.

Una’s core programs for the SF Bay Area include dance classes, workshops, studio showings and theater performances. The company also creates dance for film, outdoor performances and online streaming of our performances to create more accessibility to dance and performance.

Una has multiple performances and free studio showings a year in San Francisco, as well as international touring, teaching and choreographic commissions. In the Bay Area, we teach ongoing classes for the LINES Ballet Training Program’s curriculum, affordable public dance classes, as well as seasonal workshops open to the public throughout the year. These classes and workshops are accessible to a range of movement backgrounds and experience levels. Una also provides mentorship for young artists, dancers and choreographers as well as outreach with public schools and youth dance programs that include workshops, showings and q&a discussions. Una is currently a partner/company in residence with Lowell Public High School in SF and Westlake School for Performing Arts in Daly City.

Una has been presented by UCCS/ENT Center, Z Space, the 92NY Harkness Mainstage Series, The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, the Chutzpah! Festival/BCMAS in Vancouver, Port Hardy, Campbell River, Sointula and Alert Bay – performing for and engaging in cultural exchange with the ‘Namgis First Nation Community, Fusion International (Japan) in Kaga and Tokyo, co-presented by the ODC Theater, presented by the Spectrum Dance Festival at The Launchpad, Movement Research at the Judson Church, Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out, Springboard Danse Montreal, and more.​

Chuck has been an Artist in Residence of RoundAntennae, Berkeley Ballet Theater, Fusion International (Japan), Brooklyn College/CUNY Dance Initiative, The Launchpad/Dance Initiative (CO), 92nd St. Y, and a choreographic fellow for the Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation NDCL. They were also a recipient of the Inaugural Illume Award, the Rainin Opportunity Fund and a USAI grant from the MidAtlantic Foundation.

With support from the California Arts Council, Modoc County Arts Council will supports art programs that will serve to preserve and inspire marginalized groups, activate youth voices, promote wellness, and celebrate cultural diversity. Collaboration with Warner Mountain Indian Health Clinic’s Teen Wellness Cafe to create a mural that will build familial and community bonds in a sober environment. MCAC will utilize cultural assets by implementing arts events to support tribal communities rebuild the erasure of their culture from local history of boarding schools and genocide. By partnering with Modoc County Probation and CASA to reach justice-involved youth, and Pit River Indian Behavioral Health we will use art therapy to develop murals that support personal health, improve positive identity, and reflect hope for the future, and give back to the community through restorative justice.

The Modoc County Arts Council is organized into four main programs: Visual Arts, Arts Education, Performing Arts, & Culture. Under Visual Arts we have gallery shows including a student art show, and a digital art gallery (pending), Sponsorship of galleries in two Modoc towns, mural projects on buildings in Alturas and Cedarville; under Arts education we have consulting and collaborating with the Modoc High Art Classes, our Arts Instructors Program in partnership with The Art Center of Alturas, and sponsorship of local galleries in two Modoc County towns that have arts educational programs; under Performing Arts we have the Missoula Children’s Theatre one-week residency and the Poetry Out Loud programs for Modoc County, as well as partner with the Modoc Performing Arts Theater and the Modoc High School Drama Club. We have implemented the Modoc Community Concert Series and have four concerts per year – we hope to expand this to eight concerts per year with additional funding. We have a community radio station KILN 99.1 LP FM that has local content from area musicians and provides consulting and assistance with recording. Under Culture we have anticipated partnerships with the Library, Museum, local ranches, and Tribes to provide venues, events, and classes that foster the celebration and understanding, and artwork of different cultures in Modoc County.

Simcheong’s Secret Recipe is a bilingual, community-engaged performance project that brings together Korean American elders and younger generations through food, storytelling, and theater. Developed by Masil Theater in collaboration with Korean American Community Services and Rising Youth Theatre, the project centers on immigrant women whose stories have rarely been heard on stage. Many elders feel disconnected from their children and grandchildren due to language and cultural shifts. While younger generations may not speak Korean, food remains a shared bridge, carrying memories, identity, and care across time. Through interviews, story-based workshops, and a staged reading in San Jose, participants will create and perform original material based on their lived experiences. This work aims to reconnect generations, honor unseen labor, and spark healing dialogue within the Korean American community through the shared language of food and performance.

In the hope Art gives rest to live, and life gives breath to the Art
We constantly connect the two, and sometimes we create by looking at it anew. We have been making theatre for the very young and community and are doing art eucation.

With support from the California Arts Council, Media Arts Santa Ana will launch the Santa Ana Multi-Media Institute (SAMMI), a free multi-faceted intergenerational program that teaches artists and community members how to impact positive community change via digital production skills, citizen journalism, mini-documentaries, social media commentaries, podcasts, video poems, public service announcements and innovative digital media campaigns. This program centers artists and community members to collaborate on, develop and produce a magazine-format arts and cultural affairs series that addresses community issues, such as social justice, health and wellness, housing insecurity, historical erasure/trauma, poverty and immigrant and LGBTQ+ rights. SAMMI will utilize acclaimed instructors who foster creative social change through their work to empower and inspire participants to use technology and creative expression to heal, uplift, and transform the historically under-resourced and marginalized Santa Ana community.

MASA’s core programs include the OC Film Fiesta multicultural film festival, SMART Walk (South Main Art, Retail & Technology) resource fair, the Millennial Producers Academy (MILPA), Cafe MASA, Grassroots Garage Band, MASARTE Gallery exhibits, Curator Incubator Project, the OC Teen Cinema Camp, the Youth Murals and Media Class and Taco Truck Cinema. MASA is also a presenting partner in Arts Orange County’s OC Día del Niño festival. MASA promotes self-expression, community empowerment, civic participation and cultural agility by providing affordable film screenings and discussions, media arts training and interdisciplinary workshops to underserved youth and adults in the primarily Latino immigrant and working class communities in and around Santa Ana. Media Arts Santa Ana operates the TVGB Digital Maker Space and MASARTE Gallery, located in the Santa Ana Arts Collective artist affordable housing building, located at 1666 N Main in Santa Ana.

Wordstock209 is a proposed week-long, community-based literary festival that will take place in Stockton, California, in 2026. In collaboration with the Behavioral Health Program of Community Medical Centers, our team includes B.C. Leake, the Season 15 America’s Got Talent winner, Orlando “”Zeps” Molina, author of the children’s series Rhymosaurs, the four San Joaquin county poets laureate (Tracy, Stockton, Escalon and Lodi). This event will spotlight all the San Joaquin County Poets Laureate and serve as a platform to uplift local and regional voices, celebrate diverse literary traditions, and engage the public in free, accessible literary programming. The festival will feature readings, workshops, school visits, and hands-on book arts activities for youth and families. In addition to delivering meaningful community impact, Wordstock209 will further elevate Tuleburg Press as a literary leader in planning, coordination, and outreach.

Tuleburg Press publishes local authors and mentors emerging writers at The Write Place, the organization’s creative writing and book arts center. We publish 1-3 books a year. Classes and field trips for people of all ages, with specific attention to low-income and marginalized groups, are held in paper making, book binding, letter press printing and writing in fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry. We currently service between 30-40 participants a month. Tuleburg Press collaborates with other organizations to provide these same services to specific groups: one.Charter Elementary School for homeless children, Community Medical Centers and the San Joaquin Pride Center are priority partners. Finally, we work with local school districts to enhance elementary school libraries, focusing on reopening shuttered sites, funding acquisitions, and lobbying for trained library technicians. Tuleburg Press is a stakeholder in the revitalization of the downtown Stockton core and a lead organization on arts advocacy and access in Stockton.

With support from the California Arts Council, Your Neighborhood Museum will bring together Native artists, culture workers, and repatriation specialists for a 2-day convening. We will establish a cohort that will build upon the evolving role of Native artists in the repatriation of cultural items from museums and universities. Our goals are to support Native artists who are seeking informed guidance as they encounter repatriation practice in museums, foster mutual support among the cohort, build awareness of the impacts of repatriation by examining the tensions faced by Native artists who must engage with museums that are interested in their art while simultaneously falling behind on the return of ancestral remains and cultural items. The convening will empower artists to engage institutions in meaningful discussions, advocating for artists while also supporting repatriation.

We utilize mutual aid frameworks to provide museum services like conservation, archiving, exhibitions, public programs, grant writing, repatriation support, and research directly to our communities, as well as training in these areas. We do this by creating more sustainable community-led models for curation, preservation, and programming.

We make these skills and resources accessible to those under-resourced and under-recognized by traditional art institutions. We leverage our skills, networks, and experience to support preservation projects led by communities. We create systems that better serve the immediate needs of communities while investigating and addressing root causes, such as inequities in preservation investments and a lack of diversified options for training and development.

Our collaborators have decades of cumulative experience in social justice organizing and cultural heritage care both within and outside of traditional institutional structures. We provide training and mentorship, sacred site protection, heritage care workshops, and technical and administrative support. Previously supporting our communities as volunteers, in 2019 we began formalizing to build our capacity and received our 501c3 status in 2021.

Our largest program is CARE: Caring for and Repatriating Everything, a seminar and workshop series that supports California Tribes reclaiming cultural items under the Federal and California Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Acts (NAGPRA/Cal-NAGPRA). This program covers the repatriation processes and caring for cultural materials with Know-Your-Right and skills based training, grants for cultural workers, and building networks of mutual support.

Workshops with Community Partners: we offer hands-on training, like basket cleaning with CA Tribal partners, removing museum labels on repatriated items, testing for harmful pesticides on repatriated items, addressing fire and smoke damage on art and belongings in LA.

Mentorship: Providing hands-on skills-building, field work, and intellectually rigorous experiences for students by utilizing existing YNM programs for training while co-developing leadership opportunities with students to facilitate programs.

Writes of Passage: Journeys of Service is a collaborative storytelling project that brings veterans and civilians together to share and preserve personal narratives of service. The program begins with a story hike to build connection, followed by a 2.5-day retreat led by local culture bearers. Participants then engage in writing and storytelling workshops, culminating in public performances. A consistent cohort allows participants to develop their stories over time, fostering trust and understanding.

Centered in the Morongo Basin—home to a significant veteran population—this initiative is led by local, military and community-based facilitators who understand the isolation and marginalization faced by both veterans and rural residents. Stories will be recorded and archived online, uplifting underrepresented voices and strengthening community ties. CAC funds will support artist facilitators, culture bearers, venue, social worker and media production.

Mil-Tree’s core programs are creative and art-based workshops, and retreats that support our vision to provide safe spaces for veterans returning to civilian life to gather, express themselves and tell their stories in a non-judgmental environment. We do this through ongoing creative programs that engage veterans and their families, active military and the greater community.

Mil-Tree is a grassroots nonprofit organization based in the High Desert community of Joshua Tree, California serving San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. The organization is inclusive and offers creative outlets in the arts and held spaces for dialogue and discussion for veterans, active military and civilians. Mil-Tree was created to welcome our veterans home not only with words by providing various opportunities of engagement with the community at large. Recognizing the loss incurred by leaving the close-knit unit formed in the military, this organization strives to help build new relationships within the community. We include active military, family members and civilians to accomplish this goal, and provide different types of art workshops and projects, including movement, writing, art, music, theater, building and rock climbing. We also provide dialogue circles and retreats to help support the ongoing transition from military service into civilian life. Our programs have a strong track record of positive impact on program participants. Those who participate feeling alone or isolated find a fun, safe and creative environment where collaboration and expression lead easily to new friendships. We have found that arts and dialogue are the best way to bridge different parts of community, building on trust and the things we have in common. Often our programs lead to personal transformation and growth, and the synergy created between our participants is recognizable and profound.

With support from the California Arts Council, IDRIS ACKAMOOR AND CULTURAL ODYSSEY (IACO) will produce “Artistic Beingness,” an innovative residency that promotes artists’ ability to thrive as working professionals in California. It includes a live performance by the world renowned Idris Ackamoor providing:

(1) Three Artist Survival Seminars with networking resources to link artists to business supports;
(2) One live performance; and,
(3) One Artist Survival Workbook to contribute to Workforce Development/Retention.

As SF’s oldest, continuously operating African American performing arts organization, IACO has employed 1000s of artists. It promotes emerging artists by facilitating the next generation to survive and retire in San Francisco. “Artistic Beingness” will be RECORDED as part of IACO’s “Don’t Drop Dead on Stage: Prosperity, Sustainability, & Success” an unprecedented curriculum that integrates 50 years of “Lessons Learned,” for future artists.

As the oldest, continuously operating African American performing arts organization in San Francisco, IACO has employed 1000s of arts professionals, contributing to the vitalization and diversity of the local arts industry.

(1) Founded in 1972, Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids Ankhestra (IAPA) implements innovative arts experimentation through live productions and international publications. For example, Black History Month 2024, IAPA performed the UNDERGROUND JAZZ CABARET residency featuring movie star DANNY GLOVER and legendary actress/activist RHODESSA JONES. Sold-out audiences witnessed multidisciplinary arts, woven into historic, imminent social issues as part of SF FOUNDATION’S BAY AREA CREATIVE CHANGE program (Strut Records/iK7 April 2025 release).

(2) Committed to dismantling biases and stereotypes, AFRICAN AMERICAN THEATER ALLIANCE FOR INDEPENDENCE (AATAIN) is IACO’s consortium of SF fiscal sponsorees that work together to increase inclusion of underrepresented artists in the City. In 1998, AATAIN! became a landmark project, pioneering the regranting business model to save Black theater (inspired by August Wilson). This includes Fiscal Sponsorship, Technical Assistance, development resources, and mentoring. Since 2021, AATAIN! collectively activated 17 Cultural Spaces by producing 85 public events, 28 workshops, 51 artworks, 4 exhibitions, and compensating over 100 arts professionals. Distributing $2.4 million, IACO’s highlighted regrantees have included African American Shakespeare, AfroSolo Theatre, Bay Area Theater Company, African American Art & Culture Center, and Medea Project: Theater For Incarcerated Women (an IACO founded company).

(3) “Don’t Drop Dead on Stage” is a new curriculum/workshop series designed to educate artists and arts administrators to establish economic security and long-term sustainability in San Francisco.

(4) Film Production: Based on its historic role in pioneering the Performance Art Theatrical Method, IACO’s tradition of ”Arts as Social Activism” continues in its public awareness films. Examples include: ”This Ain’t Your Mamas Theater Company” (women’s health/incarceration), ”Artistic Being” (imminent politics), and “We Just Telling Stories“ (theater recovery in prisons).

With support from the California Arts Council, Opera Parallèle (OP) and partners will produce the fifth iteration of Expansive, a collaboration between OP and San Francisco’s Transgender District (TGD or “the District”) that celebrates the breadth of transgender and gender nonbinary performing artists by showcasing such artists working in classical music and opera. Our partnership furthers TGD’s strategic initiatives to celebrate the culture, resilience, and resistance of transgender individuals in the city’s Tenderloin neighborhood through arts and culture programming led by and for transgender people, while offering a career-enhancing performance opportunity and compensation for transgender artists, and a boost to the local economy for LGBTQ+-friendly business owners, cultural workers, and more.

Opera Parallèle develops and performs contemporary opera, commissions new works, and re-orchestrates contemporary grand opera, breathing new life into underperformed masterworks for the 20th & 21st centuries. Embracing rituals of old while bravely finding space for the new, this tension sparks creativity – colorful collisions that inspire new ways of experiencing opera. Born in San Francisco, a city built on both old and new, between art and technology, Opera Parallèle merges tradition with innovation to reimagine the power of opera in the modern world, highlighting stories of social relevance that explore the depth of the human condition.

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.

Using CAC funds, Community through Art (CTA) brings professional artists and supplies to increase arts engagement practices for those who are unhoused, in recovery, processing trauma, and/or struggling with their mental health. In collaboration with our partners the Recovery Cafe program of Mercy Coalition in West Sacramento (offers daily meals, classes on health and personal growth, and job skills training), 4th & Hope in Woodland (an emergency shelter, supportive housing, and substance abuse treatment center), and Davis Community Meals and Housing in Davis(a non-profit providing day-use resource center, and emergency, transitional, and permanent supportive housing), participants will engage in skill exploration in a supported environment while gaining self-confidence and creative problem-solving skills. Mediums explored each week are determined by participants and teaching artists together in the previous session.

Our support and dedication to the arts in Yolo County has its foundation in projects reflecting the cultural make-up of the county as we work to connect artists, young people, students, art supporters, the community at large, and political and business stakeholders to our developing arts culture.

YoloArts promotes access to arts through our arts education programs in public schools around Yolo County, by operating two public art gallery, Gallery 625 and The Barn Gallery, sponsoring arts events and celebrations, working with local jurisdictions on community engagement and economic development through the arts, and providing professional development activities and opportunities for artists and the county-wide art community.

The Art & Ag Project remains a signature creative placemaking effort for us as it connects artists with Yolo County farms, and results in an arts showcase at our annual Art Farm Gala.

With support from the California Arts Council, YG2D will expand and sustain our Songs for Life program, which connects professional musicians with hospice patients to provide evidence-based musical comfort, companionship, and legacy creation during end-of-life care. Currently serving the San Francisco Bay Area with volunteer staff and musicians, CAC funding will enable us to launch sustainable operations in Los Angeles while strengthening existing Bay Area services through equitable compensation for participating musicians and dedicated program managers.

“Songs for Life” is a heartfelt program connecting professional musicians with hospice patients to provide musical comfort and companionship. Adding meaning to life’s final chapter, musicians create original music inspired by and in honor of each patient’s life.

“ALIVE INSIDE” is a transformative program that establishes a symbiotic relationship between local artists and the incarcerated community through music and poetry. Facilitated by YG2D trained personnel, led by local artists, and in collaboration with prison health and wellness programs, YG2D offers this marginalized community the uncommon opportunity to express grief and honor loss through creative mediums in the context of a safe and powerful communal listening space. The shared experiences within these sessions foster large-scale communion as both artists and inmates connect through their vulnerability and sharing of personal experiences of grief, ultimately amplifying the voices of the incarcerated population both within and beyond prison walls.

“Weekly Community Grief Release”: YG2D facilitates a weekly online gathering space where individuals share and witness grief within a supportive community. The event features music and poetry from local artists and time for communal sharing in a safe virtual space.

“You’re Going to Die” Podcast: YG2D’s weekly podcast navigates conversations on grief, loss, and mortality through personal stories, insights, and reflections shared by a variety of guests, including activists, authors, musicians, and individuals who have experienced profound loss.

“You’re Going to Die” Open Mics: Poetry, Prose, and Everything Goes; Mourning Our Mothers/Fathers; All The Feels, and more! YG2D’s beloved open mic events have been the main attraction of YG2D since its inception. Now held live monthly in the Lost Church in San Francisco and virtually every quarter, YG2D continues to provide communal space to explore and embrace mortality through live music and poetry performed by local artists while celebrating the joy of being ALIVE together.

With support from the California Arts Council, ARTS ORANGE COUNTY will present its annual “Día del Niño,” a free admission festival celebrating the artistic richness and cultural heritage of OC’s Latinx community through engaging arts experiences for all ages, featuring participatory workshops and performances by award-winning professional artists, community groups and young artists.

Arts Orange County fulfills its mission by offering the following programs and services:

Regranting – when funds are available. During pandemic, raised private funds and secured County funding, oversaw regranting of nearly $8 million. In 2023-24, served as Administering Organization for CAC’s Individual Artist Fellowship Program in Region I (Imperial, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego counties).

Orange County Arts Awards, honoring artists, arts visionaries and arts patrons

Creative Edge Lecture, presenting thought-leaders in the field of creativity

Imagination Celebration, county-wide, six-week festival of arts for families & children in collaboration with Orange County Department of Education

Día del Niño, a free festival of Latino arts for families and children

OC Jails Project, creative writing instruction to Transitional Age Youth

SparkOC.com, online arts calendar

Newsletter, bi-monthly ArtsOC institutional & arts community news

Leadership Convenings, bringing together arts leaders of various cohorts and artists for regular online and in-person gatherings to share concerns, best practices

Breaking Through, webinars for arts leaders about exemplary local programs fulfilling diversity, equity and inclusion goals

Emerging Arts Leaders-OC

Consulting and Project Management services on cultural planning & public art to municipalities and arts organizations

With support from the California Arts Council, SHOONG FAMILY CHINESE CULTURAL CENTER will launch the “From Source to Future” Community art project, which will culminate in a large-scale mural on its historic building in Oakland Chinatown. The project includes multi-generational, bilingual storytelling and calligraphy workshops with our community. The contributions of local youth, artists and elders will shape a collective narrative spanning the Center’s past, present, and future, as a community center in Chinatown since 1953. This creative intervention reclaims space for cultural pride, visibility, and belonging. It aims to amplify underrepresented voices, foster intergenerational connection, and spark civic revitalization in a neighborhood impacted by systemic inequities and the pandemic. The mural will stand as a lasting symbol of resilience and healing—strengthening community ties and anchoring Oakland Chinatown’s cultural identity for future generations.

We serve over 500 youth per week through these programs:
Chinese Language After-school Program (Monday through Friday) — Students receive daily Cantonese and Mandarin language instruction combined with arts and culture activities. We offer a comprehensive and rigorous language education. Our graduating students are well-prepared for the AP Chinese Language Exam. It is notable that we are one of the few language schools in the East Bay offering Cantonese instruction, helping preserve a heritage language underrepresented in academic institutions and to meet the needs of a diverse student body.
Saturday School — Weekend classes reinforce Chinese language skills and deepen arts and cultural learning.
Arts and Cultural Programs: We teach dance, music and traditional Chinese arts such as paper-cuts and calligraphy. In our annual calligraphy presentation, students showcase their skills in brush and ink, honoring a vital cultural art form that incorporates poetry and literature.
Storytelling and Speech Presentations: Students practice public speaking and storytelling. During this annual event language mastery is celebrated promoting student confidence and pride.
Traditional Dance Classes — Students learn and perform traditional Chinese dances, connecting to cultural heritage through movement.
Field Trips for the Arts — Educational outings to important cultural sites, such as Angel Island and the Oakland Museum of California deepen students’ understanding of poetry and visual arts in Chinese American history.
Summer Camp: Our full-day summer camp provides language immersion, arts, STEM activities, and field trips, supporting working families with affordable, high-quality care and education.
Youth Sports and Leadership Development: Since our founding, we’ve offered safe, supportive spaces for Asian Americans in youth sports.
East Bay Cardinals Competitive Team — Our basketball program serves a diverse group of players, including those from Tibetan, Vietnamese, Yemeni, Chinese, Laotian, and Cambodian backgrounds. Seasoned players mentor younger athletes, teaching discipline, teamwork, and leadership.

With support from the California Arts Council, ABOUT PRODUCTIONS will conduct the intergenerational “Social Justice Residency” which will engage 4 East L.A. area community leaders in interviews conducted by 25-30 high school students at Roosevelt High School’s Math, Science, and Technology Magnet Academy (MSTMA) in Boyle Heights (East L.A.). Students will be mentored by a team of teaching artists to collaboratively write 4 plays based on the interviews, collectively titled “Seeds of Resistance: Social Justice Plays by Youth Inspired by Community Leaders’ Stories.” A production of the 4 plays, directed by the teaching artists and the classroom teacher will be performed by the students and professional actors, presented at Roosevelt High School Performing Arts Center for a community audience with a post-play panel of the 4 community leaders.

Now in our 36th year, our itinerant company’s critically acclaimed INTERDISCIPLINARY THEATERWORKS have been seen extensively in Greater L.A., in the U.S. and Canada, and on national TV. We collaboratively create and present innovative original theaterworks with community performing and visual artists to unearth and illuminate cultural histories of Latin America, the Southwest, California and L.A., and explore the human spiritual condition. We are one of the few companies that brings affordable theater to low-income, under-served communities by mining seldom-tapped regional histories that address relevant issues and under-represented voices.

In partnership with performing arts and cultural centers, community-based arts organizations, and educational institutions, we have collaborated with many of the region’s leading community artists — performing, media, and visual — authors and historians. Our interdisciplinary productions have integrated media, music, dance, and innovative storytelling and lighting design. Presented in numerous L.A. County neighborhoods, our productions have also been featured in festivals such as the International Hispanic Theatre Festival in Miami, Telluride Theatre Festival in Colorado, New Voices Festival at The Public Theater in New York City, and SXSW in Austin.

Our successful 20+ year YOUNG THEATERWORKS program serves L.A. area highest-risk and educationally disadvantaged youth with standards-based intensive residencies and workshops to impact their academic achievement, creative engagement and connection to their community. The program improves literacy, communication and collaboration skills as students explore personal identity, family and community history, and social issues. Working with committed principals and classroom teachers in the L.A. and Pasadena Unified School Districts we provide free or low-cost 6-10 week residencies and workshops. In conjunction with our original theaterworks we also provide workshops that engage students in the content and artistic strategies of these theaterworks, giving them the opportunity to see professional work and directly connect them to professional artists in their community.

With support from the CAC, Red Poppy Art House (RPAH) will present the 22nd Anniversary Season of the Mission Arts Performance Project (MAPP), a series of FREE-bimonthly, multidisciplinary, intercultural arts events. Funds will support artists, and administrative costs for MAPPs at RPAH which includes performances, exhibitions/site-specific Installations, updating the second exterior mural and the FREE family-Art program.

MAPP at RPAH engages the community with arts-programs focused on current social-themes, facilitating artists and audience collaboration.

Incubated in 2003 by the Red poppy Art House Artists, the Mission Arts & Performance Project (MAPP) is a homegrown bi-monthly, multidisciplinary, intercultural event that takes place in the Mission-District of San-Francisco. Started at RPAH and expanded to the neighborhood, on the first Saturday of every even-month, the MAPP transforms ordinary-spaces into pop-up performance/exhibition sites for an intimate-scale artistic and cultural exchange.

Red Poppy Art House produces more than 150 multi-disciplinary events each year including music, poetry, dance, literary events, art exhibitions, workshops and lectures that showcase the talent of local and far-flung artists. The Poppy is known locally, nationally and internationally as a venue that welcomes artists from all backgrounds to share the music of their culture, allowing the changes and fusion that naturally comes from performing in the diversity of San Francisco. Operating from a neighborhood storefront, The Poppy’s intimate performing space is ideal for listening and creating diverse art forms. In addition to its performing program, The Poppy serves emerging arts professionals through its Professional Development Track, which provides training in community arts presentation through workshops and internships. Finally, the Poppy serves neighborhood youth through its monthly free Family Art afternoons.

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.

“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, lead artist Lucia Gonzalez Ippolito and the Lovers Lane SF artist collective will curate our 5th annual Lovers Lane artisan street fair where thousands attend to support 70+ artisans of all kinds and create 100s of art pieces on the spot for free! Lovers Lane 2026 will take place on Valentine’s Day in the Mission District’s Balmy Alley. In addition to our artisan vendors, we will provide free resources in the form of a health and wellness section, children’s art and physical activities, and all day performances by local artists. Our event represents radical love for our communities, cultures, and families as we come together to celebrate, connect, and create through a day full of joyful resistance in honor of San Francisco’s artistic and activist legacies.

We aim to bring diverse and vibrant collaborative projects that celebrate love, compassion, and the rich heritage of the Mission District. Lovers Lane is a collective made up of cultural keepers, revolutionary organizers, multidisciplinary artists, and community youth and elders. We truly strive to obtain seven core values of trust, respect, service, creativity, safety, collaboration and community. Through a combination of visual art, music, lowriders, community resources, all ages activities, food, and health/wellness spaces, Lovers Lane aims to foster a sense of togetherness and appreciation for both all types of relationships and the broader community. By embracing the intersectional Latino culture that thrives in the Mission District, Lovers Lane seeks to create an atmosphere of multiculturalism, welcomeness, and safety during any space we occupy.

Funding from the CAC would support JGPG’s Resilience Project, which provides free, weekly Mindful Movement classes for veterans and veteran service providers. These trauma-informed classes focus on breath, gentle movement, and mind-body awareness to foster resilience, healing, and connection. Accessible online and adaptable for all mobility levels, the program requires no prior experience. It integrates expressive movement and storytelling to reduce isolation and support healing. Facilitators work to cultivate lasting community bonds, directly addressing the loneliness many veterans face. This program offers a vital, inclusive space where participants can connect, heal, and build a sense of belonging.

Creation and presentation of new work of dance theater, by Joe Goode and local choreographers.

Movement for Humans, a gentle accessible movement class for people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities

Resilience Project, a program which interviews a specific group of participants – originally Veterans – and using their stories about resilience to develop participant-specific new dance theater work.

The Joe Goode Annex. An affordable studio theater rental program for individual artists, community arts groups, and other small nonprofits.

Workshops and classes at the Annex and online, for people of all ages, backgrounds, and interests.

Inspired Bodies. JGPG offers teens at several school sites the opportunity to train with company member and create original dance theater works.

D.R.A.G | Divination, Rainbows, and Glitter is led by JGPG company member and teaching artist, Wailana Simock/Magdelena workshop participants explore new ways to express themselves through drag, movement and story-telling and honor ancestral and indigenous knowledge of sex and gender identities.

GUSH Dance Festival serves dance-makers and audiences in the SF Bay Area with a particular focus on LGBTQ+ and QTPOC artists. This biannual community-centered project is aligned with equity, social justice and decolonizing the art-making experience by providing an open platform for artists to create work that voices their distinct history, culture and artistic imprint.

With support from the California Arts Council, MashUp Contemporary Dance Company will develop and present the company’s 10th Annual International Women’s Day Dance Festival (IWDDF), a four-day celebration of women in dance. Featuring performances, screenings, classes, mentorship, and community events across Los Angeles, IWDDF centers feminist perspectives while welcoming participants of all identities. Grant funds will play a critical role in sustaining the festival and supporting the celebration of its 10th anniversary, and in particular, the cornerstone Showcase event. As MashUp celebrates its 15th year as a company, and the 10th year of IWDDF, this investment advances the company’s mission to uplift underrepresented voices and provide sustainable, paid opportunities for artists. With over 400 attendees annually, IWDDF fosters cultural exchange, expands dance literacy, and strengthens LA’s creative ecosystem through inclusive, accessible programming.

MashUp sustains the following programs:

International Women’s Day Dance Festival (IWDDF) — Annually in March, MashUp recognizes the advancements of women with a four-day festival, featuring an all-female and non-binary choreographer showcase, movement classes, dynamic panel discussions around gender equity in the arts, and unique networking opportunities. Highlights include one-on-one mentorship for high school students at the Women Dance Summit and the electrifying Support Women Artists Day film festival.

National Women’s Equality Day (NWED) – Each August, MashUp joins forces with female-identifying creative teams, ideological partners, or social justice organizations to celebrate NWED via a performance, creation of a film, or community gathering. This program provides an opportunity for cross-disciplinary female artists and activists to collaborate, and challenges audiences to examine a current, culturally critical feminist topic.

Choreographic Residency — Open to female-identifying and non-binary emerging and mid-career choreographers, the residency includes a stipend ($2K-$4K), studio time with MashUp company dancers, and a fully produced showcase with professional documentation. A direct investment in the future of the dance field, this program is one of the only LA residency opportunities that provides this level of financial and producorial support.

Choreography Open Mic Nights — Quarterly events that offer eight LA-based choreographers 10 minutes to showcase their work and engage with a supportive public audience. The environment is designed to be extremely supportive, encouraging choreographers to ask for feedback and allowing audiences, including “non-dancers,” to learn how to articulate their thoughts about dance and directly interact with the artists, fostering a deeper appreciation for the art of dance.

Intensives — MashUp hosts two-day dance intensives at its home studio: Frogtown Creative, as well as sends teachers out to studios to ensure access. Crafted specifically for the early career professional, these intensives include movement classes, Q&As with industry leaders, and mentorship sessions.

With support from the California Arts Council, the Oakland Asian Cultural Center will hold its third annual Lunar New Year x Black History Month Celebrating Asian and African-American Solidarity. Free to the public, we will showcase dance and music from the Asian and African diaspora. Our partners Eastwind Books and Marcus Books will run a cross cultural children’s zone that will provide a story time, children’s books with solidarity and anti-racist themes, and an educational art project. We will also offer a marketplace where BIPOC artists and small businesses will sell food, art, and handmade products to the public. This event engages community members in cross-cultural exchange, developing cultural pride, and engaging in solidarity and healing that is grounded in a space that rejects racism, colorism, and xenophobia.

Before the pandemic, we welcomed 25,000+ guests each year to our center through affordable or no-cost, unique, and easily accessible multi-ethnic and multidisciplinary art and cultural programs. Programs include:

(1) Artist in Residence; (2) Classes/Workshops/Seminars; (3) Exhibitions; (4) Festivals; (5) Performances and Other Special Events; (6) School Tours & Community Outreach

With support from the California Arts Council, Artist As First Responder will continue programming for the AfroPortals Project Space & Archive—an interactive arts, design, media, literary, and archive lab located in East Oakland. This artist-led, place-based initiative centers storytelling, healing, and global connection while addressing community-identified needs related to displacement, grief, joy, cultural erasure, and climate resilience .
AfroPortals is curated by a collective of California-based artists and cultural workers deeply rooted in practices of healing, creative expression, and community resilience. Programming will include an evolving series of interdisciplinary pop-up exhibitions, public forums, and neighborhood-based activations.
Located in a census tract with a Healthy Places Index score of 14.6, AfroPortals serves residents who have long been excluded from traditional arts infrastructure. It operates as a resource and living archive preserving community voice and artistic memory, across generations.

Exhibitions: Salt to Catch Ghosts (2022), Collective Arising: The Insistence of Black Bay Area Artists (2022), and Black Joy Story Windows (2021 and ongoing), a self-guided multi-media public art exhibition installed in 30+ storefronts in Downtown Oakland that highlights the work of more than 20 local Black Artists, Cultural Organizations, and businesses.

Site-specific Ceremonies: A Meditation for Black Lives (2020) and Art of Defense #Shield Build (2020) took place to honor Black Lives in the wake of the murders of George Floyd, Brianna Taylor, and Ahmaud Aubrey, and Black Women in Mourning & Joy Collective (2022-ongoing) offers space for Black Femmes, Trans, and Non-Binary family to process their mourning through different arts rituals and practices.

Print and Public Talks: Since 2000, AAFR authored and facilitated the forum and live zine series Blatant. It centers on the radical imagination of Black women artists and cultural workers creating across disciplines and geography. The series has been sold at the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco, the Berkeley Museum of Fine Art, Bandung Books, and the San Francisco Museum of Fine Art.

The AfroPortals Project Space & Archive: an experimental, interactive Art and Design Lab rooted in the principles of Afrofuturism, Black Memory, and Collective Liberation, housed in two retrofitted shipping containers in East Oakland. AfroPortals fosters resilience and builds power within communities by cultivating belonging, storytelling, and radical imagination. The space blends art and technology to inspire community healing.

A monthly Men’s Wellness Fellowship gathering, a space of courage and safety for Black and Brown men in the San Francisco Bay Area.

In 2024, Artist As First Responder produced two print publications, created a site-responsive ceremony, hosted 64 public forums and 13 exhibitions, partnered with five global activation sites, and facilitated five community activations through the Climate Justice Artist in Residence.

With support from the California Arts Council, SYNCHROMY will produce Urban Birds: The Plasticine with San Pedro-based artist Ashton Phillips by holding ten oral history workshops designed for San Pedro’s marginalized community members who are disproportionately impacted by Diesel Particulate Matter. The workshops will equip participants with the tools to carry out their own oral history practice and create intercommunity archives of stories that may otherwise be erased. With permission from workshop participants, the sound and language of the participant’s stories will become the fabric of a performance built through collaboration, experimentation, and care at Angels Gate Cultural Center in San Pedro, California. This project draws out previously untold, unheard human and ecological stories to notice the interconnection between humans and our environments, and to localize these stories to the immediate environment.

LIVE MUSIC PROGRAMMING
Synchromy produces 6-8 live music programs annually, motivated by our mission to support underrepresented composers and produce projects with a purpose. Our 2023-24 season features 6 programs, comprising 14 live performances and 9 world premieres by LA composers; programming for the 2024-25 season is in progress. Tickets are free or low-cost. For paid events, we distribute free tickets through partner organizations. A number of our events take place outdoors, and we produce new and ongoing works online.

SUPPORT FOR COMPOSERS
Synchromy supports composers’ artistic, professional, and community development. In 2022, we increased our commissioning fee to $1500 at minimum, and pay composers, musicians, and crew equitably. We support the creative process from inception through production and beyond. We provide composers with high-quality documentation and press kits, which are crucial in obtaining further funding and performance opportunities. At a community level, we hold Composer Welcoming Committees each month, inviting composers who are new to Los Angeles to meet with our artistic directors and pitch ideas. We are currently developing Calculator for Creativity in conjunction with universities across LA to help student composers transition to professional life.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Synchromy believes that an effective way to diversify our audiences, serve the underserved, and continue to grow is through collaboration. We began our collaboration initiative in 2018 and have continued this initiative through our current fiscal year. We partner with the Audubon Society, the LA Conservancy, as well as Monk Space, Chapman University, SpacePants, AutoDuplicity, and Basic Flowers. Our goal over the next two years is to create five new partnerships per year in our new Pasadena home, including collaborations with outreach facilities (homeless shelters, low income housing, and the like), educational bodies, and to offer childcare for audience members through collaborations with church nursery facilitators.

With support from the CAC, DSTL Arts will execute a limited series of free, arts-based, civics-themed workshops focused on examining the significance of the U.S. Bill of Rights & supporting the production & public presentation of community-generated literary & visual artwork inspired by the theme, “We the People,” ultimately culminating in the publication of “Art Block Zine; Vol. 11: We the People” in July 2026 to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the U.S.’s declaration of independence.

DSTL Arts fulfills its mission to inspire, teach, and hire emerging artists from underserved communities through a variety of arts-based programs, mentorships, and publishing opportunities for emerging writers and artists. This includes our Poet/Artist Development Program offering mentorships, professional development, and publishing opportunities to emerging poet/artists, ages 18 and older, specifically from historically-marginalized communities. Furthermore, our Art Block Zine and Aurtistic Zine publications feature emerging writers and artists from Los Angeles County and beyond, and in particular, neurodivergent artists from ages 6 and older through Aurtistic Zine. Our Conchas y Café bilingual community writing workshop series produces a biannual zine of the same name featuring the work of bilingual (English/Spanish) and monolingual (Spanish-speaking) adults learning new skills and techniques in creative writing. Lastly, our Creative Impact community-based, social justice-themed arts workshops provide paid teaching artist internships to select emerging poet/artists enrolled in our Poet/Artist Development Program and poet/artist-led, intergenerational, social justice-focused, arts workshops and publishing opportunities for our broader community. To make all of these programs accessible to our community, DSTL Arts offers our Mobile Art Lab as an additional resource, bringing a uniquely fitted vehicle to community settings where access to large-format scanners/printers, tablets, and WiFi is limited, thereby addressing the digital divide our community members often experience. And to further engage and celebrate our community and program participants, we host a monthly podcast that highlights local artists and featured artists from our zines, as well as provide all of our workshops as both in-person and virtual programs that exist in perpetuity on our YouTube channel where individuals are welcome to continue their learning experience.

With support from the California Arts Council, Jail Guitar Doors (JGD) will create a multi-discipline project celebrating evolving expressions entitled “Queer Liberation Series & Exhibition.” Curated by five LGBTQIA+ artists within our community, the project includes a free culminating public performance, short documentary, and art exhibition at JGD’s CAPO Center located in Hollywood, CA.

The project will provide resources to develop an original performance piece and exhibition that celebrates the healing, stabilization, uplifting and transformation of the LGBTQIA+ community. Through workshops led by gay icons and legends in the drag, ballroom, and punk communities, participants will explore historically groundbreaking music, art, fashion, and movement disciplines rooted in the expression of queer identity. Visual arts curation, including photography of the ballroom workshops, will be supported by local gender expansive and non-conforming artists who specialize in building exhibitions.

JGD provides music education programs for current and potential system-involved youth. The two main programs include Songs and Beats Workshops and Community Arts Programming & Outreach (CAPO) Project. Songs and Beats is a 12-week songwriting workshop for incarcerated youth that Weekly prompts are focused on age-appropriate themes that are designed to help youth heal past traumas, learn to positively experience their emotions, and improve their relationships with others as well as themselves. CAPO was created as an extension of JGD’s Songs and Beats Workshop to support youths’ successful return to their community. Not solely for formerly justice-involved youth, CAPO is an originative reentry and diversion program that is also open to marginalized and at-risk youth ages 12-22. CAPO delves beyond the 12-week workshop to gain a comprehensive working knowledge of the many facets of the music and entertainment industry. Classes and workshops include music production, engineering, composition and arranging, recording and editing, licensing, marketing and promotions, and digital design. At CAPO, each participant will have a mentor who will help them develop a Personal Program Log (PPL) with an Individual Service Plan (ISP) and Individual Program Plan (IPP). Together, these tools create a holistic approach that include well-being, probation, life-skills, emotional support, transportation plan, and any plans for therapy/sobriety to support youth in successful completion of their probation and reaching their individual goals.

Taught by music industry professionals, youth have the opportunity to develop mastery in their chosen fields of interest. JGD also fosters relationships within its extensive network to create an advisory board of music and entertainment industry professionals to serve as mentors to assist in CAPO participants in entering the field through internships that provide hands-on working experience.

Prior musical training is not required. Programs are open to all races, denominations, genders, and sexual orientation.

With support from the California Arts Council, David Herrera Performance Company will present Galán, a 60-minute immersive dance performance at Z Space in San Francisco. The production reevaluates and recontextualizes the familiar galán (“heartthrob /hero”) persona found in Latinx telenovelas and popular culture. Galán empowers gender and sexual fluidity through the celebration, honoring, and uplifting of non-patriarchal and queer identities in Latinx communities.

David Herrera Performance Company’s core programs are multi-fold consisting of 1) performances, 2) community engagement offerings such as LatinXtensions and Latinx Hispanic Dancers United, 3) community collaborations/partnerships, and 4) the development of new programs.

Performances:
DHPCo. serves a multicultural audience through yearly performances, including a home season, tours, commissioned performances, and festival participations. Our most recently completed full season (2019, pre-Covid) featured nine regional performances that reached 1400 guests. Included a two-week sold-out home season, a commission by Yerba Buena Gardens, a showcase at Grace Cathedral, participation in PUSHfest at ODC Theater (awarded “Audience Choice”), and returning to the Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choreographers at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.

Community Impact:
Community programming consists of current LatinXtensions mentorship and Latinx Hispanic Dancers United (LHDU).

LatinXtensions is our 12-month mentorship program for emerging dance makers. LatinXtensions offers culturally-sensitive capacity building in the areas of non-profit management, grant writing, equity practice, outreach, budgeting, artistic creation, and community building. Established POC dance artists serve as guest speakers and mentors throughout the cycle.

Latinx Hispanic Dancers United is a network in which dance artists, scholars, and administrators come together to build regional and national community and support systems. The network provides a pipeline through which resources and ideas are exchanged among members, creating discourse and collaboration, building community, and developing political power. LHDU has grown to engage over 200 artist through Bay Area LHDU and the LHDU National branches.

Collaborations:
DHPCo. joins forces with artistic and community organizations to create educational programming that showcases diversity in the dance field and community.

With support from the CAC, funding will support Know Yourself 4.0, a free, day-long intergenerational arts and wellness workshop rooted in the theme To Be Seen, Heard, and Understood. Designed for BIPOC youth and their caregivers in Bayview-Hunters Point and East Oakland, and co-presented with ANYxMEANS, an Oakland-based BIPOC and Queer music organization, the program integrates dance, music, and mindfulness to strengthen cultural identity, emotional well-being, and family connection. Participants engage in youth and family sessions, culminating in a community reflection circle and creative showcase that honors their voices and stories. All materials, meals, and artistic support gifts are provided at no cost. In an ADA-compliant venue with full accommodations, CAC funds will support artist stipends, production coordination, accessibility services, meals, and outreach, ensuring a trauma-informed space where healing and joy thrive.

Founded in 1999 by Micaya, The SF International Hip Hop DanceFest exists to support the cultural artistry and theatrical integrity of hip hop dance. The core programmatic goals of the SFIHHDF are to:

> Support the evolution of hip hop dance by presenting a range of innovative, high-caliber dance companies with world-class production values. Through these efforts, our goal is to garner positive attention for this rich artistic genre from dancers, audiences and the media.

> Broaden understanding of both dance and hip hop culture on the part of our audience and the Bay Area community, and use SFIHHDF as a vehicle for bringing together 3,500-4,000 culturally and economically diverse audiences to the theater.

> Contribute to the ongoing development and evolution of the genre by providing a consistent forum for its artists; by facilitating connections among hip hop dance artists, and providing mentorship opportunities for young dancers, and emerging artists and companies.

With support from the California Arts Council, SHASTA COUNTY ARTS COUNCIL will produce “World Beats” concert series featuring distinct world music performances, each showcasing a different genre, hosted at Old City Hall in the heart of Redding Cultural District, downtown Redding.

Shasta County Arts Council (SCAC) is housed in the City of Redding’s National Registry 1907 City Hall – 8,000 sq. feet that includes a classroom, ballroom, television studio, administrative offices and a pocket park next door. Our gallery features 13 exhibits annually including High School & Middle School Juried Art Competitions where 20+ schools participate. SCAC was the first arts council in the state to manage a public access television station (SCAC.tv) and we now teach digital media arts skills to at-risk youth and interested public members. Our ballroom is host to classical music monthly (we own a Yamaha Grand piano), ballroom, ballet & modern dance classes weekly, concerts, performances as well as theater throughout the year. We also host community meetings & rentals, using our space 300+ days per yr. SCAC is the lead agency for the newly formed Redding Cultural District which is one of 14 districts throughout the State of California.

With support from the California Arts Council, Chopsticks Alley Art will produce “Flavors of the Diasporas: A Culinary Journey of Belonging”, a multidisciplinary exhibition featuring immigrant and first-generation American artists navigating bicultural identities from Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Iran, India, and the Philippines now living in the Bay Area. Each artist will create new work exploring their personal migration stories through visual art, dance performance, spoken word, and culinary storytelling. The project will culminate in a free public exhibition, live performances, and a community gathering centered around food and cultural exchange. CAC funds will support artist stipends, materials, venue rental, and community outreach. Flavors of the Diasporas provides a platform for underrepresented immigrant voices, fosters cross-cultural understanding, and creates a welcoming space for dialogue, connection, and healing through the arts.

Founded in 2014, Chopsticks Alley Art (CAA) creates educational arts programming that celebrates and addresses the needs of Southeast Asian Americans to celebrate their cultural heritage while engaging in social issues affecting our communities. Past programs have included art classes, gallery exhibits, free cultural festivals, and pubic art-making events.

CAA has an established record of programing successful and accessible cultural events that appeal to a demographically diverse and inter-generational audience. One of our primary first initiatives, Chopsticks Alley Eats, organized community members to promote volunteerism in support of homeless children. Chopsticks Alley has an online, multimedia publication to share the voices of young Vietnamese and Filipino Americans through talk shows, podcasts, and other media. Building from this online platform, we launched Chopsticks Alley Arts as a 501(c)(3) organization in 2017, furthering the impact of our programming.

With support from the California Arts Council, Level Ground will produce and exhibit a two-week culminating gallery show for our Social Practice Labs — a new program featuring artist-led book clubs, seminars, workshops, and events inspired by revolutionary texts that lead us towards social and cultural change. Inspired by our 18-month engagement with Octavia E Butler’s “Parable of the Sower,” this culminating gallery show titled “Season of the Sower” includes work from 10 Black and trans emerging and mid-career artists selected by Lead Curator yétúndé olagbaju.

We run three distinct, interdependent programs. The specific events and projects within each program may evolve or even change year-to-year on account of our capacity, budget, and strategic decision-making, but these programs provide the consistent scaffolding for where Level Ground directs our resources.

Our Residency Program provides emerging visual artists and cultural stewards with financial, creative, and care support to produce and exhibit a new body of work. A rotating selection committee curates each residency cohort, and every program cycle culminates with a free public offering from the residents.

Our Production Incubator supports experimental and nonfiction filmmakers making work about critical socio-political issues. We create opportunities for collaboration and provide resources for project development, production, and distribution.

Our Social Practice Labs are artist-led humanities seminars and workshops inspired by revolutionary texts where our larger communities join the Level Ground Collective to study and practice frameworks of collective liberation and abolition. Each year, the lab is documented in an annual group publication and/or exhibition.

Alongside our programs, Level Ground maintains a Mutual Aid Network that offers responsive, ongoing, and direct material support specifically and exclusively for the Level Ground Collective (i.e. emergency grants, health stipends, project materials).

With support from the California Arts Council, PIECE BY PIECE will provide free, therapeutic mosaic workshops for Veterans from across Los Angeles County. While some success has been made to house more Veterans – housed or unhoused – they are still among our most at-risk citizens suffering isolation, mental and physical health issues, PTSD, and depression. By engaging in the meditative process of mosaic arts in a supportive community Veterans, from all branches of the military and years of service have an opportunity to process complex emotions, and find satisfaction in the transformative, creative practice of art without judgement or expectation – and in a highly accessible medium that does not require prior experience. Funds will support the trauma-informed teaching staff, all mosaic materials and tools, and workshop set up providing full accessibility for disabled vets.

Programs include:

– Artisan Certification Program: Progressive skill-building course guiding participants through four certification levels in mosaic.

– Directed Studies: Multi-week sessions focusing on advanced techniques led by Piece by Piece instructors and professional Visiting Artists.

– Open Studio: Open session for active participants to create personal projects, refine skills, and receive support from instructors.

– Community Outreach: Group projects with community members in an inviting, low-commitment setting.

– Social Enterprise: Artisans complete orders and commissioned projects, receiving an hourly wage for their work.

– Studio Prep Associates Program: The organization employs individuals who have experienced homelessness to provide program support sorting, preparing, and managing donated mosaic materials.

In celebration of the 30th anniversary of our United States of Asian America Festival’s (USAAF), the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center (APICC) will curate a landmark visual arts exhibition at SOMArts Cultural Center, showcasing three decades of arts-based community building, diasporic cultural memory, and collective resilience and advocacy across Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) communities in the Bay Area.

This exhibition will feature archival materials, artist retrospectives, and participatory public programming that illuminate the stories of historically underrepresented communities.

CAC funds will support curatorial labor, venue costs, and accessibility services, ensuring equitable participation across AANHPI diasporas, including LGBTQIA2S+, refugee, immigrant, and mixed-race artists. This project reflects APICC’s commitment to cultural preservation, intergenerational healing, and equity in the arts, and will serve as a vital platform for reflection, resistance, and imagining collective futures.

Through collaboration, productions, and presentations, APICC supports the development and growth of the diverse artistic endeavors of the San Francisco Bay Area Asian/Pacific Islander (API) community. Founded in 1998, our primary purpose is to heighten the visibility of artists and address the interests of San Francisco’s underserved API audiences. By means of technical services for our community’s emerging artists and arts groups, APICC collaborates with emerging and well-established groups with special focus on mid-career artists, allowing them access to production and fundraising expertise, performance and rehearsal space, as well as organizational consulting. APICC’s anchor program, the annual United States of Asian America Festival (USAAF), presents artists and organizations representing a diverse range of ethnic and cultural groups. All disciplines are represented: theater, music, dance, film, literature, visual arts, and more.

With support from the California Arts Council, Daroo Korean Performing Arts and Culture (Daroo KPAC) will present the 12th Annual Korean Traditional Music & Arts Festival, also known as the Roar Cultural Festival, in November 2025. This multi-day, multicultural celebration will feature traditional and contemporary performances, community workshops, cultural exhibitions, and interactive arts education activities. Grant funds will support artist stipends, cultural programming, and community engagement efforts that center immigrant voices, intergenerational participation, and cross-cultural understanding. The festival provides a platform for Korean American and other underrepresented artists while fostering inclusive, community-driven dialogue around identity, belonging, and heritage. By deepening access to traditional arts and encouraging active participation from historically underserved communities, Daroo KPAC seeks to use this project to elevate cultural equity and visibility, especially among youth, seniors, and multilingual families in Southern California.

1. The Annual Roar Cultural Festival, held since 2022, promotes Korean performing arts to both Korean and non-Korean communities. Its goals are to:
Promote Korean culture through yearly events and ultimately create a “Street of Korean Culture.”
Introduce Korean heritage to non-Koreans through immersive cultural experiences.
Provide performance and collaboration opportunities for artists across cultures.
2. The Annual Korean Traditional Music and Arts Festival, held since 2013 and awarded the Korean Ministerial Prize in 2020, offers:
A performance competition, followed by performance opportunities at high-profile venues like LA Korean Cultural Center (Ari Project), Muckenthaler Cultural Center,
The Source OC, and community outreach sites such as nursing homes and health centers.
Pathways for participants to apply to prestigious Korean contests, such as the Jeonju Metropolitan Amusement Festival and the Eastern Folk Song Festival.
3. Ongoing Outreach Performances & Educational Programs:
We present Korean folk music and culture through performances at schools and community events such as Park’s High, Waldorf School, the Aquarium of the
Pacific Autumn Festival, Korea Culture Day, Fullerton College World Festival, and more.
We also provide educational lectures at institutions like Pepperdine and Loyola University, promoting cross-cultural understanding through Korean traditional arts.

With support from the California Arts Council, ENRICHING LIVES THROUGH MUSIC will launch the Music and Memory Project, a cultural and creative initiative that honors students’ heritage by collecting and exploring their families’ traditional lullabies and the stories behind them. Students will collaborate with teaching artists and guest composers to study the musical structure and cultural context of these lullabies, then use this knowledge to compose original chamber ensemble pieces. These compositions will be performed in community gatherings and formal concerts, celebrating cultural identity through shared storytelling and music-making.

Enriching Lives through Music (ELM) is a multi-year, tuition-free, community-based music program primarily for first generation Latine students in San Rafael, California. We promote social change through the ambitious pursuit of musical excellence. ELM currently offers 170+ children ages 8-18 instruction on orchestral instruments, year-round, for their entire childhood – providing increasing layers of support to them and their families as they grow older. We plan to admit a new cohort of 25-30 third grade students each year.

ELM is based on a model of inclusivity, equity, and intensity. Students participate in ELM for 10 hours, four days per week. After school, students study their primary instruments (violin, cello, flute, clarinet, oboe, trumpet, trombone), participate in enrichment classes, and receive academic support. In addition to instrument-specific classes, all students have weekly sectionals, weekly ensemble (orchestra) rehearsals, and musicianship/theory classes. On Saturdays the ELM community joins together to rehearse in orchestras. ELM creates opportunities for students to thrive creatively, academically, socially, and emotionally.

With support from the California Arts Council, FLYAWAY PRODUCTIONS will create FREEDOM COMES WHEN ONE WALKS THROUGH IT, a dance-based public art project connecting public libraries -designed to freely nourish people, and prisons -designed for punishment and isolation.

FREEDOM COMES will be created in coalition with Empowerment Avenue, incarcerated writer April Harris, and composer Kalyn Harewood. It will explore testimony from currently incarcerated women regarding their specific paths to freedom via commutation, parole, 1170 resentencing, appeals, legislation (like the Racial Justice Act), activism, and art creation. It will uplift their struggle and honor how the soul gets free.

The project will culminate in multiple aerial performances in/on SF Library branches starting in 2026. This is Flyaway Productions’ eighth project with systems-impacted people and second collaboration with women behind the walls.

PERFORM: We make dances that are site-specific, off the ground, and justice-driven. We perform in unlikely places, activating the sides of buildings above bleak city streets. Discarded needles; unhoused bodies lining sidewalks. This is where we create. Our site-specific dances impact neighborhoods because they unfold at the very place where conflict lives. For us, a building is a witness. It holds the complexity of a neighborhood’s history in its “hands,” I-beams, or concrete walls. Our tools include coalition building, an intersectional feminist lens, and a body-based push against the constraints of gravity. From 2017-2023, Flyaway created The Decarceration Trilogy: Dismantling the Prison Industrial Complex One Dance at a Time. We continue to create new work centering incarcerated artists and exploring prison systems change.

TEACH: We offer year-round classes to adults, teens, and youth. We offer GIRLFLY, a Youth Art & Activism Program, integrating dance-making and activism. Our training with youth offers some remedy for the ways women and girls/GNC youth remain underserved in public culture as a whole. We also offer teaching residencies that link social justice content, school curriculum, and movement innovation, where your young artists are our collaborators.

ADVOCATE: We provide a bridge between the arts, gender justice, racial justice, and everyday life. We are constantly developing new forms for community engagement and coalition building with activists and non-arts partners.

COLLABORATE: We have worked with Bay Area Dance Artists Bianca Cabrera, Quinn Dior, Clarissa Dyas, Laura Elaine Ellis, Sonsherée Giles, MaryStarr Hope, Megan Lowe, Jhia Jackson, Saharla Vetch and natalya shoaf. We also work in collaboration with designer Sean Riley, rigger Dave Freitag, and over a dozen women/nonbinary composers, including Pamela Z, Madlines, Jewlia Eisenberg, Carla Kihlstedt, Van Anh Vo, Melanie DeMore, and Theresa Wong.

Rooted in Skid Row through music, community, and openhearted inclusion of the most marginalized members of society, Urban Voices Project amplifies artistic expression to improve well-being, strengthen social networks, and inspire individuals to be their own best advocates. Our programming consists of community singing, performing ensemble choir, music education classes, music wellness workshops, and recurring events designed to build community and strengthen access to resources for individuals experiencing homelessness. Funding from the California Arts Council will support general operating costs, including employee training and professional development, paying local artists and choir members, expanding program offerings to other healthcare and social service sites to reach more community members, and training teaching artists/facilitators in this community-driven instructive methodology behind impactful and culturally competent UVP programming.

To place music & singing community spaces in every medical and social service site across Los Angeles, to create community and a more comprehensive, holistic system for engaging individuals coping with the conditions of homelessness.

With support from the California Arts Council, the SHELTER COVE ARTS AND RECREATION FOUNDATION (SCARF) will offer 10 free art classes to under-resourced communities* in Shelter Cove and Southern Humboldt. Our goal is to foster a sense of community by encouraging creative collaboration and helping participants develop an appreciation for the area’s natural beauty, biodiversity, and history. Through a diverse range of art classes, we will honor the work of local research and conservation organizations, as well as the rich heritage of indigenous peoples, their preservation practices, and their impact on the community. These classes will introduce artistic mediums, providing students with opportunities to explore their creative potential while being guided through the artistic process.
*Under resourced is defined as: Disabled, Seniors, Veterans, Immigrants, Tribal Communities, LGBTQIA+, Low-Income, Rural, marginalized/under resourced/ Women, and Youth

Management of the Lost Coast Artist’s Art Gallery located at the Inn of the Lost Coast in Shelter Cove, CA
5 Art Receptions every year, held at the Art Gallery, located at the Inn of the Lost Coast in Shelter Cove, CA
Sponsor the Lost Coast Quilt Guild & The Labor of Love Quilt Show in place for many years, the next event is planned for 8/30/25)
Creation and maintenance of the Community Children’s Garden and Playground
Creation and maintenance of the Lost Coast Labyrinth in Shelter Cove
Sponsorship of frequent art classes for the community – (typically monthly)
Sponsorship the Artist in Residence program
Creation and maintenance of the Nature and Fitness trails in Shelter Cove, CA
Scholarship Program for children ages 5-18

With support from the California Arts Council, LA Commons will leverage the power of our Day of the Ancestors: Festival of Masks to celebrate Blackness and promote healing in Leimert Park as community members across the generations engage with cultural traditions from across the African diaspora.

LA Commons programs engage residents of neighborhoods where most live below the poverty line and are new immigrants struggling to find their place in Los Angeles. Target audiences are artists and culture bearers, youth ages 15–25, and residents of all ages. Participating neighborhoods include MacArthur Park, Leimert Park, and greater South Los Angeles. By engaging community members in our core “Neighborhood Story Connection” program, we create a space where stories & voices are heard and then transformed into dynamic public art that reflects local hopes, dreams & identities. Relationships developed through these public art projects are leveraged to engage people of all ages in the stories of our Los Angeles, through resident led neighborhood tours, public art campaigns, and other culturally informed experiences that support local businesses and artists, and share opportunities to experience authentic food, music, festivals and rich cultural histories across Los Angeles.

With support from the California Arts Council, Lieder Alive and the San Francisco VA Medical Center will launch Finding Voice and Vision: Empowering Veterans through Music, Writing, and Film. This bold, arts-driven initiative transforms the lives of veterans through the healing power of creative expression. Designed for those most often left behind—women, BIPOC, LGBTQ+ individuals, and those in rural or low-income communities—this free, 3-month online program helps participants process trauma, rediscover identity, and reconnect with others. Creative prompts focused on trauma and resilience are inspired by the poetry of veteran Brian Turner and music by Kurt Erickson. Veterans create, reflect, and share work in a culminating public event that engages communities, fostering awareness, connection, and recognition.

More than a workshop, it’s a transformative lifeline—restoring dignity, supporting reintegration, and empowering veterans to reclaim stories through art.

*The organization is preparing its14th season of presenting chamber music, including known and new vocal and instrumental artists.

*At the core of our Lieder Alive Amici Educational Program is an immersive and intimate environment for professional and aspiring professional vocal artists, pianists, and other instrumental musicians to explore their craft. This includes intensive coaching sessions and performance opportunities with Lieder Alive.

*The organization has evolved into an organization with a much broader and more extensive outreach serving new and historically under-served audiences. Multiple languages are being presented, and the authenticity of the artists is primary. Both elements have prompted a change to the mission statement embracing the global aspect of the organization.

*A concerted effort is being made to engage historically marginalized groups. We seek to create engaging opportunities for under-served groups of community members who would benefit from the healing experience of poetry put to music – the essence of Lieder.

*Lieder Alive has a collaboration with an online music distributor
to commission new works from leading vocal composers from California. Each featured Guest Composer will contribute a 3–7-minute vocal/piano art song (Lied). The new works will constitute the Lieder Alive Neue Lieder Songbook and receive their World Premiere at Lieder Alive concerts.

With support from the California Arts Council, Vital Arts will commission Dabke Drag Drums Against Displacement, an experiment in the synthesis of Dabke (dance tradition from Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria) drag, contemporary dance and advocacy. Created by choreographer Shams Amal, the project draws on ancestral strategies of their Bedouin ancestors for placemaking: rhythm, storytelling, migratory land tending, and textile. The work incorporates belly dance, folk dance, Sufi whirling, and the subculture of queer and Black diaspora and Latine dances including ballroom, vogueing, and Cumbia. The project develops through a year-long community-engaged process beginning in Fall 2025, culminating in August 2026 with a community processional event beginning at Oscar Grant Plaza in Oakland, traveling up and down Telegraph Avenue, and ending with a processional, full-length performance, and celebration at BAM House Cultural Center, Oakland.

Current programs designed to combat the displacement of artists and preserve their essential contributions to their communities’ culture and economy include:

Artist Space Trust (AST): Partnering with the Northern California Land Trust, AST provides permanently affordable housing and creative spaces for artists, using a community land trust model to facilitate intergenerational transfers of property, ensuring affordable ownership and control. (www.artistspacetrust.org)

Artist Displacement Prevention Grant: A one-time grant offering up to $2,500 to artists facing urgent financial emergencies and displacement risks, serving artists in Alameda, Contra Costa, and San Francisco counties.

Trust-Centered Mutual Aid and Technical Assistance: We support the most historically underserved artists including LGBTQ+, disabled, unhoused, and BIPOC artists, collectives, and small organizations in operational, development, and financial stabilization.

Bay Area Artist Census (BAAC): A 3-year initiative gathering data to support the local artist community, focusing on BIPOC, trans, and disabled artists. The first year emphasizes community engagement, educational outreach, and gathering input on census design.

Advocacy: Collaborating with regional and statewide agencies to draft and propose legislative policies supporting artist housing and workspace, partnering with organizations like Safer Spaces DIY to adapt legal structures for artist spaces.

Artist Displacement Data & Information: As a regional hub, Vital Arts combines data on artist displacement with quarterly stakeholder meetings to formulate and implement strategies preventing displacement.

Resource & Information Sharing: Networking with local stakeholders to share knowledge and resources tackling housing and economic challenges for artists. Supported by a team of volunteer experts in various fields.

AB 812 Community Toolkit Development: Assisting in developing resources to implement CA Bill AB 812 for artist housing near cultural zones, enhancing the availability of affordable housing for artists statewide.

With support from the California Arts Council, Foglifter Press will produce the 2025-26 Start a Riot! Chapbook Prize for San Francisco Bay Area 2SLGBTQIA+ BIPOC (QTBIPOC) literary artists, including a $4,000 prize, publication, promotion, and a free, accessible public release event. Designed in response to the displacement and erasure of QTBIPOC+ writers in the Bay Area, this artist-led program uplifts historically excluded voices, supports community connection, and advances equity in the literary arts. CAC funds will support artist pay, ASL interpretation, venue and event production, and promotion.

Foglifter operates four core programs: 1) Annually publishes two issues of our Foglifter literary journal featuring the original work of 60–80 2SLGBTQIA+ literary artists who receive honorariums for publication; 2) Annually publishes one Start a Riot! chapbook with prize winning authors receiving honorariums/royalties); 3) Annually produces at least four free literary events each featuring at last six 2SLGBTQIA+ writers who receive honorariums; 4) Invests in the professional development of 2SLGBTQIA+ literary artists through our programming, workshops, social media outreach and guest editorships featuring paid honorariums.

Developmental Disabilities Service Organization seeks CAC funding to help establish ALL IN: The Festival of Accessible Theater as an annual cultural event in the Sacramento region. DDSO launched the festival in 2024 as an outreach project funded by a Creative Corps grant. Given the community’s positive response, DDSO will present a second festival in late June of this year. CAC grant funding would support a third festival in June 2026.

Grant funds would help compensate the festival’s artistic and administrative directors; audio describers for festival performances; speaker fees for the Forum on Accessible Theater during the festival; venue rental; photography, videography and graphic design services; and printing and advertising.

Grant funding would also support training in technical and performance skills for actors from Short Center Repertory, InnerVision Theater and Theater V58.

DDSO runs four multidisciplinary art centers serving Sacramento and San Joaquin Counties, and one life skills program for adults with severe and profound disabilities. Outreach programs include a touring theatre company (The Short Center Repertory), a public art mural project, and an online archive of artists with developmental disabilities.

“Essay Whaat?” is a series of free Saturday morning arts events designed to activate and connect under-resourced Los Angeles neighborhoods through theater, music, and dialogue. Led by Dan Froot & Company in partnership with local venues in Watts, Orange Heights, Sun Valley, Westlake, Inglewood, and West Adams, each event features professional actors performing original interpretations of community-curated texts, as well as live music by neighborhood-based artists, and locally prepared food and drink. CAC funds will support compensation for actors, musicians, community participants, project coordination, artistic direction, venues, and production costs. “Essay Whaat?” offers a replicable model for inclusive, community-driven arts programming that deepens local relationships and builds cultural networks across some of LA’s most vibrant neighborhoods.

501 (see three) ARTS develops and tours original, ensemble-devised performance works that often address pressing social issues. These works are typically developed through community-based research and storytelling, culminating in performances that blend theater, movement, and music. Our performance events often double as community forums, fostering dialogue among audience members on topics ranging from food insecurity to gun violence to plastic pollution.

CAC funding will support PLACE alumni with new workshops and a culminating exhibition. “Travel Diaries”: Journeys from Chronic Heartache towards Resilience invites alumni to artistically reflect on their overarching healing journey inspired by their PLACE experience. Using mixed media, installation, and storytelling, participants will explore their growth, epiphanies, and challenges. The project will culminate in an exhibition and community events with virtual options. Guided workshops will help alumni create intuitively, while learning curatorial practices and public event production for leadership development. All programming is free, ensuring accessibility for under-resourced communities. PLACE nurtures multi-generational, culturally rooted artists, leaders, and healers.

We offer both hybrid, online and in-person lectures, workshops, art exhibitions, lectures and artists’ talks sharing intuitive art making processes for self-reflection, and group discussions that help explore and release generational family trauma. Participants learn to recognize and release family patterns, including links to cultural and societal dysfunction. To claim aspirations, and grow self-agency, the art workshops, artists’ talks and exhibitions provide platforms to artistically answer the question: “If you had a place of your own, what would it be?” This is an artistic exercise in “self-agency”.
Below is our foundational hybrid, virtual and in-person workshop series with the goal of providing a printed book and an online e-learning engagement tools.
Foundational WORKSHOP Residency series in 4 PHASES (These can be delivered separately)
Preparation: Turning on Your Intuition: Intuitive Collage. Experience accessing your intuition and turning off your analytic brain.
Phase 1: Exploring Hungry Ghosts– Identifying family patterns and beliefs holding you back.
Phase 2: Releasing Hungry Ghosts– Art projects to release beliefs and patterns no longer serving you. Practicing self-acceptance and forgiveness.
Phase 3: Claiming My PLACE– Intuitive Art creation in answer to, “If you had a place of your own, what would it be?”
Phase 4: Proclaiming My PLACE– The Exhibition/Artists’ Talk. A public statement of what you want for your life. Practice overcoming fear of judgement.

Leadership Development:
PLACE works to provide alumni with opportunities for deeper healing and development of self-agency into leadership. Alumnae are invited to participate as exhibition artists, workshop facilitators, speakers, event coordinators and community workshop collaborators.

With support from the California Arts Council, Longshadr will engage members of the Blue Lake and Arcata communities in a collective creation process using the plays of John B. Keane as a vehicle for storytelling. Keane’s plays’ themes include capitalism’s effects on rural communities, emigration and nomadship, and addictions. Real stories from community members will be interwoven into a devised piece of theater and performed by both community members and professional actors, titled CAPITAL & KIN: STORIES FOR SALE.

Longshadr’s programs and productions are all community-developed.
We start by identifying a community and their stakeholders. We then engage in a series of interviews and group dialogues that influence the themes, characters, and conflicts within each show. These shows are then produced for the public and contain engagement programs such as talk-backs, “Bar Chats”, dramaturgical resource sharing, and site-specific trips.
Programs that have been successfully developed through this project include:
+ RADIOMAN, a monologue-play documenting a local craftsman’s journey as a Vietnam soldier to running a millworks for other veterans and displaced communities. Developed from firsthand interviews with veterans from every major American war and their family members, this show illustrated the community-specific themes of PTSD, depression, patriotism, and the family commitments behind every soldier. This piece was co-produced with Dell’Arte Inc. and Blue Ox Millworks and ran with several extensions due to popular demand.
+ MADSUMMER, a raucous musical comedy that highlights the often forgotten elderly community in Humboldt County through a loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, taking place in a senior center. This show derived from aging community members’ stories in Humboldt County (ages 55 to 90) and centers the themes of finding love later in life, solitude, government’s role in “other-ing”, and capitalistic ventures targeted at taking advantage of this community.

With support from the California Arts Council, Drawing Together will partner with a community-based organization in Pasadena to deliver a series of workshops focused on intuition and authenticity as a way to facilitate healing after the Eaton fires in January of 2025. The goal will be to create one authentic artwork that will then inspire a series of saleable items to address economic impact, which will be presented at one of the Pasadena ArtNights.

Drawing Together offers the following opportunities to connect to your creative side:
Art Education classes for early childhood through teens
Workshops for children, teens, and adults
Community Projects based on specific health indicators and community-identified needs
Advocacy and Outreach Consulting Services
Publication of Workbooks related to our community projects

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, Crow Comedy Inc. will produce a season of Storyectomy: American Heroes. This project is a six-week, in-person storytelling arts course dedicated to amplifying the lived experiences of military veterans, their families, and the medical personnel who serve this population. ‘American Heroes’ is an extension of Storyectomy—an umbrella of workshops that raise awareness for mental health equity in our communities. The interdisciplinary curriculum encompasses creative writing and storytelling arts, including concept design, plot, arc, punchlines, performance techniques, and the fundamentals of comedic arts, offering a transformative experience for both storytellers and audiences.

Funding from the CAC will help offset production costs: sound, lighting, videography, photography, and stipends for arts instructors and guest performers. The final performance will be filmed and published online on our YouTube Channel and website.

Arts Enrichment Programming for Youth/Teens
– Kids Comedy Camp (ages 10-17) and out-of-school comedy classes that help kids find their voice, and build their confidence.
Robust Scholarships Program applications applied on rolling consideration cycle, available on our website.
– Storyectomy* is a six-week-long, in-person narrative storytelling workshop that gives survivors, healthcare professionals, and caregivers the space to share and connect. These free classes give students the structure and performance skills to tell their personal stories effectively.

– Adult Arts Programming Classes in Stand Up Comedy and Storytelling. Scholarships are also available.

– Open Mic and Boys Drool – an ongoing audition and access program to give female-identifying and nonbinary comics exposure and amplification

– Bergamot Comedy Festival – held each Spring – amplifying the voices of 50+ emerging comics and over 750+ audience members providing professional development and growth opportunities to the festival comics and is open to the community.

– Ongoing Community Programming – workshops, networking events, panels that are provided free to the community

With support from the California Arts Council, ENCORE PROGRAMS INC A NONPROFIT PUBLIC BENEFIT CORPORATION will continue and expand our unique arts based therapeutic program in Orange County. This Arts Exposure Project, first funded by CAC in 2023-24, ressurected our long standing commitment to arts based DEI oriented services, after a long interruption due to state budget cuts and the Covid pandemic. The financial support has resulted in many first time ventures and further support will allow us to greatly expand our reach into new culturally based events, workshops, and exhibits. Our participants have greatly benefited from these excursion, but they have been confined to nearby events due to transportation costs. Further support will allow to travel further afield, and participate in additional events.

Encore Programs offer two programs based on the creative arts: Encore as a vocational and occupational program and Creative and Vocational Arts (CAVA) as a therapeutic arts program for dual diagnosed adults who are developmentally disabled. Encore Programs uses an Arts based approach (Visual, Music, and Drama) to teach the skills necessary to integrate more closely with their surrounding communities. To that end , students are trained in the arts, given opportunities to enter and participate in exhibits and performances and learn about the Arts Industry should they ever apply for volunteer programs or jobs. They use the therapeutic components of our approach to manage their own behaviors and life stressors.

With support from the California Arts Council, Fresh Meat Productions (FMP) will organize and produce our 25th Anniversary FRESH MEAT FESTIVAL of transgender and queer performance June 18-20, 2026 (Z Space, SF). All performances will feature ASL interpretation.

Our FRESH MEAT FESTIVAL is a beloved community gathering with artists creating and performing new work at the intersections of transgender, racial and disability justice.

CAC funds will support Artist Fees of the festival’s 10 performing artists and ensembles, and will also support our festival’s annual commissioning program, FRESH WORKS! — FMP will award FRESH WORKS! commissions of $5,000 each to 4 BIPOC transgender, gender-nonconforming and queer artists, to support the creation of new work. FMP will present the world premiere of these 4 commissioned works at the 25th Anniversary FRESH MEAT FESTIVAL.

Fresh Meat Productions (FMP) will celebrate our 25th Anniversary Season during this CAC grant period!

Based on our commitment to trans/racial/disability justice, Fresh Meat Productions’ year-round programs and events are all either FREE or $0+ sliding-scale with no one turned away for lack of funds.

Our programs: support the creative expression, artistic advancement, professional development, and cultural leadership of transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) and queer communities; empower and connect audiences; foster dialogue and learning; promote the evolution of transgender arts and culture; and build vibrant, resilient, connected communities.

Our programs include:

THE CREATION AND PERFORMANCE OF NEW WORK:
1) FRESH WORKS! Commissions: this program awards grants to support the creation of new work by trans, non-binary, Two-Spirit and queer Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) artists: we present these new works at our annual FRESH MEAT FESTIVAL.
2) Sean Dorsey Dance (SDD): Now celebrating its 20th Anniversary Season, our resident dance company SDD performs FMP’s founding Artistic Director (transgender/queer/disabled choreographer) Sean Dorsey’s trans/queer-centric dance-theater.
3) TRANSfutures Commissions: community-nominated, unrestricted grants to BIPOC TGNC artists each year.

PERFORMING ARTS PROGRAMS & EVENTS:
1) Our FRESH MEAT FESTIVAL of transgender and queer dance and performance is an annual three-day, multidisciplinary performance festival that centers TGNC and queer BIPOC artists.
2) Co-sponsorship of community-based trans arts events, with a focus on BIPOC TGNC events.

ENGAGEMENT AND EDUCATION:
1) Trans-supportive dance classes and workshops
3) Guest teaching and in-school presentations and residencies
4) LGBTQI+ community conversations

ADVOCACY:
1) National advocacy for intersectional trans/racial/disability justice in Dance through speaking engagements, panels, lectures, and other field-wide advocacy for trans equity in Dance.
2) Trans-positive Cultural Competency Trainings for dance venues, studios, and service organizations.

With support from the California Arts Council, Tomato Sage Consortium, with Francis Wong as Project Director, William Roper as Lead Artist, Steven L. Isoardi, Ph.D. as advisor, will produce “Up from the Ashes”, an oral history and community engagement project exploring the experiences of multiple generations of musicians and composers in Altadena who lost everything in the Eaton Wildfire. Through video interviews of ten artists in Altadena, the project will document the contributions of these important culture bearers at this critical time, uncovering their reflections on the loss of home, their life’s work, and potentially generational wealth, as they fight to maintain the spirit, vision, and artistic legacy of jazz music and community in the aftermath of the fires. The project culminates with a film and public programming in Altadena, Pasadena and Los Angeles.

Tomato Sage Consortium’s core program and services is to cause the creation, performance, documentation and distribution of new works of art particularly but not limited to the disciplines of composed and improvised music, performance art, dance, theatre and video works. Our primary service is to make available to the public documentations of live performances, studio recordings and video works through the media entity Tomato Sage Consortium Records.

With support from the California Arts Council, Meztli Projects will provide IndigenARTS & Wellness, a project blending art, Indigenous practices, with mental health and wellness support. Using a variety of contemporary and traditional art forms, we generate dialogue around intergenerational trauma & resiliency, sexual & gendered violence, systemic violence, and art as medicine and a tool for healing to process, reflect, and work towards individual & collective wellness. Guided by artists, culture bearers, and Elders, IndigenARTS & Wellness offers culturally relevant and competent free arts programming centering collaborative artmaking, connectivity, ……………… to increase wellness as-well-as employ arts practitioners rooted in Indigenous practices. (64 words)

Meztli Projects provides culturally relevant and competent arts programming to Native/Indigenous populations as well as the general public. Workshops range from printmaking such as screen printing and lino block printing to beading, drum making, mural painting, and zine making.

Youth Development: Meztli Projects’ (Ready 2 Rise Project) is a unique set of interlocking programs between youth, artists and cultural workers from East Los Angeles who have been impacted by street violence and incarceration, developed to specifically center impacted youth by building a framework for participation, decision-making, apprenticeship, and entrepreneurship. The suite of programs include a Cultural Worker Apprenticeship program, a Youth Arts & Action Workshop Series and a 10-month program focusing on Arts-Based Healing Practices. Each program folds into the next creating a pathway for employment and wellness through art making, opportunities to assist program facilitators, and mentorship.

With support from the California Arts Council, The Dance Resource Center of Greater Los Angeles (DRC) will continue to empower and bolster Greater LA and Southern California’s creative economy via DRC’s HomeGrown Community Space; Residency and Performance Opportunity. HomeGrown is a multi-site collaboration with local artists, dance studios, small businesses and community driven organizations across the County to provide free, accessible, sustainable, well-furnished studio space to multi-discipline, multicultural and all ability individual artists and dance companies from predominantly marginalized groups at varying stages of career. Through HomeGrown, with support from CAC, DRC will respond to direct and vital need via thoughtful strategic partnerships and shared resources, strengthening art programming and delivering on the organizations mission as an effective centralized service organization, resource hub, network and advocacy center for arts, culture, and the professional creative community.

DRC serves a varied constituency consisting of small to mid-sized dance companies, choreographers, independent artists, presenting venues, educators, agents and administrators, and regularly engages with the substantial and diverse population of Los Angeles. DRC is the central source, voice, and advocate for dance in a variety of community spaces. DRC is the only discipline specific dance service organization in LA County that offers specialized and creative options to meet the significant and vast infrastructural needs of its constituents.

DRC’s events and programs expand opportunities for growth that foster leadership within dance, performing and cultural arts. DRC’s resources provide infrastructure in communities to not only evolve dance, but allow dance to be self-sustaining within communities. DRC believes in providing a platform for dance throughout Los Angeles so that communities have the creative control to formulate relative programming and art making, in order to best serve and represent their respective communities. Via nuanced, reliable, high quality and trusted services and programs, DRC actively supports leaders and stakeholders in Los Angeles so that there may be a comprehensive representation in arts leadership. DRC has a considerable membership program that offers discounts on dance events, conferences, showcases, one-on-one meetings with mentors, the ability to reach dance audiences through marketing services, and priority access to resources and opportunities. DRC advocates for LA dance on local, regional, and national levels through research and advocacy addressing the unique aspects that effect the LA-area dance and movement sector. Importantly, DRC collaborates with organizations across various sectors.

DRC’s current programming has three areas of focus: Community (online calendar; convenings; weekly LA Moves newsletter; Day of Dancer Health; comprehensive Dance Directory; Marketplace); Administrative Support (consultations; fiscal sponsorship; marketing services; staffing; technical assistance) and Artistic Development (supported performances, HomeGrown residencies, and showcases). Additionally and as needed, DRC offers Emergency Relief Microgrants.

With support from the California Arts Council, Starfish Stories Inc DBA The Francisco Homes (TFH), will continue to engage TheatreWorkers Project (TWP) to implement LIFER: Stories from the Inside/Out enabling men on parole from serving life sentences to express themselves through a two-part incentivized, rehabilitative theatre process that will begin with a writing component to be used as the basis for a script. The second phase will include acting coaching, rehearsals and 2 performances, each followed by “Second Act” participant-audience dialogues. The performances will be documented and streamed to multiple audiences.

The participants may choose to join both the writing and performance components of the program or conclude their creative journey with the writing portion. Stipends will be paid for each workshop, rehearsal and performance they participate in.

The Francisco Homes provides housing and an environment where our residents have a full range of daily choices and an individualized service plan which is their road map to a successful transition from prison to freedom. We provide case management, counseling, groups, workshops and life skills classes along with opportunities for community service. We greet them with a hug and the simple statement, “Welcome Home.”

With support from California Arts Council, School of The Getdown, a small arts organization, will celebrate Black Music Month in June 2026 by presenting the fifth annual Black Music Month Festival: A Cultural Mosaic. Presented free for the community, the program be collaboratively developed with community members, featuring a multigenerational, cross-genre array of Black Oakland-based musical acts. The program is collaboratively developed with community members and addresses a community defined need to uplift under recognized Black artists and cultural traditions and foster an environment for intergenerational collaboration in the arts, centering Black Bay Area communities whose culture is threatened by gentrification.

School of The Getdown offers a weekly vocal workshop series; private lessons in singing, instrumental music, performance, and music history; an annual multidisciplinary youth arts summer camp; vocal and instrumental masterclasses with resident and visiting artists; and masterclasses and lecture performances in schools, prisons, and educational programs worldwide. We produce multicultural and intergenerational concert series, free community programming, commissioned artistic works, festivals, and lecture performances, and thematic programming celebrating Black history and Black culture, primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area.

With support from the California Arts Council, NAKA will create and present performances of Ja weya ob’aj wij, ex weya nchemaj/Mi Historia, Mi Telar/My Story, My Weaving. Our work is a new narrative-based dance-theater performance project, created in collaboration with women from the Indigenous Maya Mam immigrant community of East Oakland, CA. Our project integrates personal and collective narratives, movement, textile art, and poetry into a full-length touring dance-theater performance project featuring the voices and visions of the Mam community in Oakland.

-Producing LIVE ARTS IN RESISTANCE, a series of performance showcases, artist residencies and community town halls that address racial inequity & white supremacy in popular culture.

-Creating and touring experimental performance works; including Y Basta Ya!, a series of touring dance performances and movement workshops to shine a light on the stories of Latine and Indigenous Maya Mam women and their experiences with invisibility, labor rights, domestic violence, and sexual abuse. Y Basta Ya! Is funded by a New England Foundation for the Arts National Dance Production award, Rainin Fellowship and Guggenheim Fellowship.

-Research residencies in Japan and Mexico as part of NAKA’s work in community-based ritual practices

-Producing Dismantling Tactic X artist residency and philanthropic forums – convening a cohort of radical, social-practice artists who center their work on the topic of race and white supremacy.

-Co-Facilitating ongoing Circulos de Aprendizaje (Collaborative Learning Circles) with San Francisco Latina and Indigenous Maya Mam (Guatemala) immigrant women – using art for healing and addressing issues such as racism and colorism in the Latine community.

-Pro-Bono Language Justice Access Consulting, to arts and social justice organizations who want to hire in-person or online sign language interpreters. This includes: referrals for culturally appropriate interpreters who would be a good match for the situation (including trilingual Spanish-English-ASL / Chinese-English-ASL interpreters); sharing best practices about publicity and outreach (best done by Deaf-led organizations); sharing best practices about budgeting for interpreters, necessary prep information that interpreters will need prior to an assignment, interpreter placement, lighting; advocacy for the hiring of Deaf Interpreters. On occasion, NAKA Artistic Co-Director, Debby Kajiyama will serve as a pro-bono coordinator of interpreter services for events, such as the KH FRESH Festival (2023, 2024) Jess Curtis’ Memorial service and Melissa Lewis Wong’s recent show, flowers and fog.

With support from the California Arts Council, 18th Street Arts Center will present a series of community events honoring Japanese American resilience during WWII incarceration through the “Manzanar Baseball Project Grand Opening” led by artist Dan Kwong, with partners Great Leap and the Manzanar National Historic Site. The project includes a live-streamed broadcast of the cultural celebration featuring vintage-style baseball games at the Manzanar Internment Camp site, offering accessible remote viewing. A local screening event, community workshop, and culminating multi-media performance by Kwong will all be held at 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica. Using baseball — a symbol of both Americana and quiet defiance — the project pays tribute to the spirit and resistance of those unjustly imprisoned, supporting cultural memory, healing, and resilience. Funding supports artist compensation and production expenses.

18th Street provides a hub for contemporary artmaking through two program areas that reflect its mission:
1) A Public Events and Exhibition Program that includes commissioning new work from artists focused on engaging the public and revealing the art-making process, and a Cultural Asset Storytelling Map which underpins our community engagement projects with citizen-generated research.
2) A three-tiered Residency Program fostering inter-cultural collaboration and dialogue
The three tiers are:
a) Visiting artist residencies, for national and international artists and curators who live at 18th Street for 1-3 months.
b) Long-term residencies subsidized by 18SAC for local Los Angeles-based artists.
c) Long-term Cultural Organization residencies that uniquely add to the vibrancy of the 18SAC and often serve as collaborative partners.

With support from the California Arts Council, CAKECUTTER INSTITUTE (The Compton Arts Project DBA) will expand its Cultural Preservation Project through a six-part community engagement series. Artists from Compton Cipher and Reading the City will collaborate with residents to inspire five new public art sites, 7–10 traffic light box installations designed by lead partner Sēpia Artist Collective. Each piece will include augmented reality (AR) elements linked to the Compton Memory Map, a growing digital archive of neighborhood memory and civic identity. Centering Black, Latinx, and differently abled communities, the project offers paid creative roles, accessible cultural programming, and inclusive workshops. It also includes media documentation, public reflection events, and a forthcoming publication. Through art, storytelling, and technology, this initiative aims to foster community wellbeing, honor personal histories, and build lasting pride in Compton’s cultural legacy.

Cakecutter Institute serves as the managing partner of The Compton Arts Project (DBA), activating creative projects across Compton and surrounding communities. Our work is delivered through four core program areas:
1. Arts Advocacy & Policy Development
We provide pro bono consulting to the City of Compton to support the launch of its first Arts Commission and advance civic arts policies aligned with LA County standards. We also coordinate the development of a Public Art Registry and long-range Creative Placemaking Plan.

2. Creative Placemaking & Public Art
We lead community-centered initiatives like the Traffic Lightbox Project, Elliott Pinkney mural restoration, and The Compton Memory Map. These efforts combine site-specific installations, sustainable design, and augmented reality to reflect Compton’s cultural identity and increase public safety.

3. Cultural Programs & Storytelling
Signature programs include Reading the City (curated cultural panels), Compton Cipher (an international arts and cultural exchange series between Compton artists and those from Amsterdam and Panama), and the Bi-Annual Community Arts & Culture Summit (hosted at Compton College), which convenes Compton stakeholders to share updates, inform strategic planning, and shape local arts policy. Storytelling workshops, creative labs, and digital media documentation support cultural preservation and intergenerational dialogue.

4. Healing Arts & Environmental Justice
We integrate wellness and environmental resilience into our programming, partnering with local leaders to connect art with climate justice, neighborhood safety, and collective care.
Our arts programming is supported by a collaborative network that includes artists, youth, elders, civic partners, and advisory board members. We prioritize fair artist pay, equity in participation, and long-term capacity-building. Through all our efforts, Cakecutter reaffirms that community creativity should drive public policy and civic life

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 California Arts Council, Grown Women Dance Collective will collaborate with community mobilizers and social justice organizations in Contra Costa County and Oakland to produce arts and wellness programs supporting disinvested communities, especially those impacted by incarceration, Long Covid, and voter disenfranchisement.

We will present a world-class dance performance, teach 200 community arts and wellness classes to children 3-18, adults and seniors, help mobilize voters with a #DanceTheVote campaign, and support high school and transition-aged interns.

Programs will support cultural resistance, resilience, self-empowerment, and joy, celebrating and strengthening Black and Brown communities. All programs will be free.

Our programs celebrate resistance, resilience, self-empowerment and joy.

Performances & Narrative Shift Choreography: We create world class performances led by dancers of color in our 50’s and 60’s, centered around African American experiences and achievements. Our choreography shifts the narrative on important societal issues such as mass incarceration, homelessness, voting rights, and environmental justice. We challenge stereotypes, create cross-cultural, intergenerational, and cross-class bridges, catalyze new conversations and community action, and create a forum for healing based on art, justice, and human connection.

Dance and Healthy Movement Instruction in Under Resourced Communities:
We teach Dance (Technique & Dance with Literacy) to youth and therapeutic movement to adults (Dance, Pilates for Back & Joint Pain, Pre/Post Natal Pilates, & Fall Prevention for Seniors); bringing access to the arts, wellness skills, and the growth and emotional well-being associated with both.

Pilates Certification Training and Mentorship for Underestimated Community Members:
We provide Comprehensive Pilates Certification training for disinvested community members. Programs include full scholarships to receive internationally accredited certifications, mentoring, mental health counseling, financial literacy, nutrition classes, paid internships and job placement assistance. This empowerment program helps break the cycle of intergenerational poverty, helps stave off gentrification, decreases health disparities, and creates healthier, more joyous communities.

With support from the California Arts Council, Kearny Street Workshop will launch year 2 of a community-responsive arts fellowship for Asian Pacific American (APA) visual artists (AVA Lab) providing community-based education and wellness practices, culminating in a healing retreat with award-winning faculty and facilitators, and a year-end exhibition.

KSW makes artists out of community members and community members out of artists. For the past 50 years, KSW has nurtured the creative spirit, offered an important platform for new voices to be heard, and built artistic communities. We prioritize racial justice and healing, prioritizing art that expands liberation for all people, especially Asian Pacific Americans.

​KSW’s core programs include:
* KSW Presents: Reading showcasing writers across all genres. We spotlight those of the Asian Pacific diaspora, people of color and Queer writers. We feature emerging writers coupled with more experienced talent.
* Interdisciplinary Writers Lab (IWL): A 3-month, multi-genre master class for local BIPOC writers. Emerging writers are challenged to explore and develop their writing skills. Participants build community, develop and expand their practice, and have their work published in an anthology.
* Asian American Visual Histories (AAVH): An example of an artist-led project based on immersive technology and community storytelling, allowing the public to experience accessible art based on local history.
*APAture: APAture Festival is a one-of-a-kind annual multidisciplinary arts festival that showcases 50-75 emerging APA artists to an audience of 1,000 in venues throughout San Francisco. APAture is the only festival focused on emerging APA artists and has helped launch the careers of prior participants.
*We Won’t Move Podcast: “We Won’t Move: A Living Archive” is a podcast hosted by Kazumi Chin, Dara Del Rosario, and Michelle Lin about APA artists of the past, present, and future, whose stories shape the movements and dreams of SF.
Programming is geared towards working class audiences, with affordable and/or free showcases and no one is turned away for lack of funds.
We work at the intersection of arts and activism, leveraging the arts as a vehicle to address inequities and injustices as well as to celebrate culture, community, and connections.

With support from the California Arts Council, ACADEMY OF SPECIAL DREAMS FOUNDATION will present an inclusive art exhibition celebrating traditional Indigenous embroidery and textile arts. Featuring artists with disabilities from California and beyond, the project uplifts cultural heritage, promotes disability inclusion, and showcases the resilience of underrepresented voices through art rooted in tradition.

The Academy of Special Dreams Foundation is dedicated to promoting the creative talents of people with disabilities. To achieve this mission, the foundation employs three key strategies:

Encouraging artistic expression through open-call competitions: The foundation organizes and administers competitions that invite individuals with special needs to showcase their artistic talents through various artistic mediums.

Providing financial support for artists with disabilities: The foundation offers scholarships, cash awards, and other forms of financial support to artists with disabilities, in order to promote their continued involvement in the arts.

Showcasing artistic expressions: The foundation hosts art exhibitions in the community, as well as web-based virtual galleries and exhibitions and produces videos that highlight the works of artists with disabilities. Additionally, the foundation offers an art therapy program to promote mental health.

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 Ventura County Arts Council (VCAC) will establish mini art galleries inside three county libraries. The galleries will be curated by VCAC, offering opportunities for local artists to display their work. All three branches are situated in the lower quartile of the California Healthy Places Index: the Albert H. Soliz Library in El Rio, the Fillmore Library in Fillmore, and the Ray D. Preuter Library in Port Hueneme. The branches were chosen because no local art galleries or public art spaces currently exist for the communities residing there.

VCAC runs several programs. We re-grant funds to arts organizations and artists when they are available and recently with NEA grant money matched by our county government. Artists in the Classroom is a multi-disciplinary arts education program serving K-8 schools countywide which we took over administering from the county’s Office of Education. Our Arts & Youth Justice program teaches arts to youth in the system, at several locations in the county and at the court school in the Juvenile Justice Center. We administer Poetry Out Loud locally and established a county Poet Laureate and Youth Poet Laureate program. The Atrium Gallery is a public art program and for that we curate three floors in the Government Center in collaboration with the County’s DEI council focusing on exhibitions that highlight artwork by people outside of the mainstream. VCAC prioritizes partnering with arts organizations and artists serving marginalized and underrepresented people and working in the communities where they reside.

With support from the California Arts Council, Asian Improv aRts with multidisciplinary lead artist, Truc Nguyen, will produce “Ordinary People”, a 45-minute multimedia film / video performance April 2026 at Dresher Ensemble Studio, marking over 50 years since Vietnamese refugee resettlement at the end of the Vietnamese-American War in 1975. Additionally Truc will create a companion 15-18 minute video/audio work that can live on its own and be accessible after the in-person performances.

Asian Improv aRts goals: 1) To make it possible for artists to create innovative works that are rooted in the diasporic experiences of Asian and Pacific Islander heritage. 2) To engage a next generation of community members in the arts through arts education. 3) To enable sustainability for artists and arts organizations in a challenging economic environment. 4) To facilitate creative collaborations that bring together major institutions, artists, and multigenerational audiences and participants.

With support from the California Arts Council, TheatreWorkers Project (TWP) will continue to provide Theatre Inside, a rehabilitative, literacy-building arts program, for residents of California State Prison, Los Angeles County (LAC). Theatre Inside will enable participants to explore and reframe their narratives, culminating in a theatre piece written and performed by the participants, presented to audiences of their peers, families, and the public.In accordance with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), TWP’s program will support the goal of facilitating “the successful reintegration of individuals …back to their communities equipped with the tools to be drug-free, healthy, and employable members of society.”

Using theatre to illuminate social and political issues has been our goal since 1983 when founder Susan Franklin Tanner was awarded a CAC Artist in Communities grant to create theatre with unemployed steelworkers in southeast LA. With that grant, Tanner founded TheatreWokers Project (TWP) and pioneered a form of documentary theatre where the participants, supported by professional artists, provided the content and became the storyteller/actors. TWP went on the create theatre projects with and/or about shipbuilders, meat packers, longshoremen, critical nurses and Latinx immigrant workers. Over time, our focus expanded to include collaborating with community-based re-entry programs serving the formerly incarcerated and prison programs serving incarcerated youth and adults, workshops for community and university medical centers, and providing classical and contemporary theatre experiences for youth through ongoing school residencies and performances. COVID-related restrictions have prompted us to embrace and incorporate filmed performance collages, virtual program delivery and correspondence courses as centerpieces of our programming.

With support from the California Arts Council, Muses & Melanin (M&M) will admit and graduate the 2026 cohort of talented BIPOC writers. This program, an eight-month professional development practicum for California creative writers of color, is designed to advance the trajectory of their literary careers. Funding will go towards:
• a $300 stipend for program graduates, to seed their first-ever literary bank accounts;
• producing a formal, public Graduation Celebration Ceremony & Reading at San Francisco’s Koret Auditorium. This ceremony represents an official presentation credit graduates can include on their brand-new literary resumes!
• a Literary Launch Kit awarded onstage to each program graduate, consisting of practical and fun elements, including a Guide to Literary Agents, a writer’s calendar, an MLA Style Handbook, business card holder, branded M&M hats and shirts, and a bookstore gift certificate.

We provide professional development via our 8-month career-accelerator practicum that helps talented creative writers of color establish sustainable literary careers in a #PublishingSoWhite industry. Our program launches participants into the literary profession with a series of professional development workshops, writing workshops, guest speakers, and co-working sessions, culminating in a public graduation and readings ceremony and reception.

With support from the California Arts Council, Neococo Collective will expand its arts-based empowerment program for forcibly displaced women and nonbinary individuals in Los Angeles. Through collaborative textile arts, storytelling, and entrepreneurship workshops, participants will gain creative expression, job training, and economic opportunity in a trauma-informed, multilingual environment. CAC grant funds will support teaching artist fees, culturally responsive materials, supportive services and stipends for participants, ensuring accessibility and sustained engagement. The program will culminate in a community exhibition celebrating participants artistic work and personal narratives, fostering cross-cultural dialogue and inclusion. This initiative not only nurtures artistic practice but also builds pathways to economic stability and community integration for immigrants navigating new lives in California.

Neococo Collective’s core programs and services center on empowering forcibly displaced women and nonbinary individuals through art, economic opportunity, and community building. Our primary initiatives include:
Arts-Based Workforce Development – Participants engage in textile arts training, storytelling, and design, gaining both creative and technical skills applicable to the workforce.
Paid Apprenticeships – Participants receive stipends while contributing to the production of ethically made goods, fostering financial independence and hands-on experience.
Wraparound Support Services – We offer trauma-informed care, multilingual education, childcare, transportation assistance, and a culturally responsive environment that ensures accessibility and safety.
Community Engagement – Public exhibitions, pop-ups, and storytelling events create space for cross-cultural exchange and visibility for immigrant voices.
These programs are designed to foster dignity, healing, and self-reliance through creativity and community.

With support from the California Arts Council, Black Humboldt will implement the Arts & Legacy Project—an 18-month, humanities-informed arts and culture initiative that uplifts the creative legacies and living narratives of Black and Brown communities on California’s rural North Coast. The project blends public art, showcases, performances, intergenerational storytelling, and community-based archiving to foster cultural belonging, healing, and visibility in historically underserved areas creating culturally relevant art and dialogue in rural communities where BIPOC stories are often erased.

Grant funds will be used to:
-Provide equitable compensation to Black and Brown artists, educators, and culture bearers.
-Produce community-engaged exhibitions, performances, storytelling events, and lectures.
-Expand The Archive Tent, our mobile oral history and multimedia station.
-Support accessible, multi-site cultural programming across Humboldt, Del Norte, Trinity, and Mendocino counties.
-Cover essential administrative, archival, marketing, and materials costs.

Arts & Culture Programming – visual arts exhibitions, performance showcases, cultural festivals, and educational lectures focused on Black and Brown contributions to arts and culture. Uses creativity as a tool for wellness, expression, and community building.
Public Installations & Exhibitions: Features visual storytelling, history-sharing, and cultural education in public spaces (e.g., libraries, schools, museums).

Community Events & Celebrations- Intentional social gatherings designed to cultivate connection, joy, and solidarity among local Black and Brown residents.

Leadership Development & Community Advocacy- Programs designed to develop leadership among Black and Brown individuals in Humboldt, with a focus on equity, representation, and civic engagement. Network-building initiatives connecting local grassroots organizers and BIPOC-led groups to share resources and strengthen community infrastructure.
Media, Storytelling & Archiving- Platforms that highlights local Black and Brown experiences, creative work, and issues impacting the community.
Community Support & Healing Spaces- A culturally grounded support initiative for Black and Brown individuals new to the region, helping them navigate Humboldt and build connections. Events, dialogues, and workshops that provide support for intergenerational trauma, identity exploration, and collective care.
Economic Empowerment- Through vendor markets, grants, and visibility at events. Paid opportunities, fellowships, and capacity-building for creatives, organizers, and culture bearers within the diaspora.