County arts agencies across California’s Upstate Region, led by Nevada County Arts Council, announce $3.38 million in grant awards to 27 partner agencies and 54 lead creative partners, with a total of 1,010 artists and culture bearers supporting initiatives serving California’s least represented peoples, and most vulnerable communities and environments.
Announcing Upstate California Creative Corps grantees follows over seven months of outreach, listening and support before and during the program’s application window. Says Eliza Tudor, Executive Director at Nevada County Arts Council, administering organization for Upstate California Creative Corps under California Arts Council: “Listening to those we intended to serve has been fundamental to our work and informed the development of our grant guidelines. Over 90% of our grantees are first time applicants for state funding. We couldn’t be more honored to enter this phase of the Creative Corps alongside our partners, together shedding light on some of the most important issues of our time.”
Grantees are collectively part of a media, outreach, and engagement campaign designed to increase awareness for issues such as public health, water and energy conservation, climate mitigation, and emergency preparedness, relief and recovery. California Arts Council views the California Creative Corps program as a job creation and human infrastructure development opportunity. Region by region, the program is increasing the ways in which artists are engaged in public work, so that they can continue build upon intersectional public interest goals beyond its pilot funding timeline. A complete list of grantees can be found at hcps://www.upstatecrea1vecorps.org/grantees.
Katrina Schneider, a core member of Upstate California Creative Corps’ team, says: “A unique factor in the way we designed our program has been about building capacity for our smallest agencies, who successfully applied alongside much larger more established entities, with or without the support of a grantwriter, as well as a slew of individual artists and culture bearers, working solo and in tandem as serious changemakers without previous access to funds and resources.”
Funded projects serve Upstate’s most vulnerable communizes, those identified via the California Healthy Places Index and other valuable local data sources. From place-based urban initiatives to multi-county regional projects that follow watersheds, tribal lands, forests, and some of California’s most remote mountain wilderness areas, projects engage diverse communities around solutions for some of society’s most fundamental challenges – through social practice and an array of artforms.
Tudor says: “Our Upstate California Creative Corps team is incredibly grateful to all applicants who worked so hard to submit proposals of substance and meaning for their communi1es. The process was competitive, and funding limited. This should send a clear message to the state that artists and culture bearers stand at the ready to move the needle on important issues – many of which remain unsolved despite generations of investment.”
Within the Upstate Region, as administering organization for the California Creative Corps, Nevada County Arts Council is one of a network of agencies who serve as State-Local Partners with California Arts Council. While each serves distinct communities, State-Local Partner agencies are connected through a coalition who benchmark, consult, and gain from peer learning and support, with equity at their core. Upstate agency partners are Arts Council of Mendocino County, Arts Council of Placer County, Colusa County Arts Council, Del Norte Association for Cultural Awareness, Friends of the Arts in Buce, Humboldt Arts Council (and Ink People, working in partnership with Humboldt Arts Council), Lake County Arts Council, Lassen County Arts Council, Modoc County Arts Council, Nevada County Arts Council, Plumas County Arts Council, Shasta County Arts Council, Sierra County Arts Council, Siskiyou County Arts Council, Tehama County Arts Council, Trinity County Arts Council, and Yuba Sucer Arts & Culture.
By resolution of Nevada County Board of Supervisors, Nevada County Arts Council is State-Local Partner with California Arts Council, and part of a coalition of County Arts Agencies serving diverse populations in every county across California. A 501c3 not-for-profit organization, Nevada County Arts Council facilitates collaborative efforts that promote and sustain the visual, literary and performing arts of Nevada County to advance the cultural, social and economic life of all community members. Learn more at www.nevadacountyarts.org.