california cultural districts
The California Arts Council has selected 14 districts to serve as California's inaugural state-designated Cultural Districts. Nevada County is home to two of them. Grass Valley-Nevada City Cultural District is California’s only twin-city district and nestles in what is historically understood as Gold Country, and home – to this day – to our local Nisenan Tribe. These are the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the western part of our county. In the Eastern part of our county is Truckee Cultural District, found on the banks of the Truckee River in the High Sierra at an elevation of almost 7,000 feet. Click here to learn more…
The Business of Art
The Business of Art is held annually as a day of illuminating plenary and professional development sessions for our creative community led by thought leaders and influencers from the field. Marketing and media workshops, business planning, partnerships, legal advice, and mentoring are offered at this multi-partner event, with expert speakers, panelists, workshops leaders and facilitators selected both locally and from across California. Click here to learn more.
FOREST⇌FIRE
FOREST⇌FIRE is a project engaging the Truckee-Donner community living within the Tahoe National Forest. Our museum-class exhibition, opened on December 10, 2021, wasn’t just a thing of beauty. It shared the 13,000 year history of forest ecology in our region, and offers solutions to catastrophic fire that could save the Northern Sierra Nevada. These solutions require the energy and focus of multiple agencies and community partners, and FOREST⇌FIRE positions the artist as a powerful vehicle of communication at the heart of this critical conversation. Click here to learn more.
arts in education
As State-Local Partner with California Arts Council, Nevada County Arts Council commits to a policy of Access, Equity and Community Engagement through promotion of arts education projects. As a partner with California Alliance for Arts Education we aim to improve teacher preparation, advocate for public funding for the arts, and ensure equity and access to arts education by closing opportunity gaps and eliminating inequities in access to arts education. Our Education Committee is active in all these ways and more. Click here to learn more.
NISENANIM NI - I AM NISENAN
Through this unique partnership Nisenan Tribespeople are learning, through hands-on experience, important filmmaking and communication skills such as storytelling, cinematography, locations, self-financing, and documentary interview techniques. The Nisenan are controlling the film's voice and vision and are participating in all aspects of a unique filmmaking process. Click here to learn more.
ARTS incubator
Arts Incubator provides fiduciary oversight, financial management, and other administrative services to help build the capacity of cultural initiatives or emerging arts collaboratives who may not yet have their 501(c)(3) status. In some cases, an organization may have this status, but not the years of programming required to apply for more serious grants. Click here to learn more
promoting the arts
We want Nevada County to become known as the ultimate cultural destination. For this to happen, our artists and arts organizations need to feel supported – and our community and our visitors need to know where to find them. We are the go-to resource for promoting the arts across Nevada County, with our Community Arts Calendar, Artist Directory, Call to Artists page, newsletters and advocacy. New this year is our Cultural Asset Map, which is live and growing.
FIRE SEASON PREPAREDNESS
Nevada County is a preeminent West Coast cultural destination and – for those of us who are lucky enough to live here – profoundly nurturing. Rich in arts and unspoiled, our home is nevertheless subject to unforeseen natural disasters such as fire or public health crises. When these dangers manifest, and before they do, there are resources available to help our creative community. This resource page is for artists, creative professionals and arts organizations or collective who wish to prepare.
belonging
Belonging is the result of a California Arts Council grant called Artists in Communities, formerly called “Artists Activating Communities”. And that’s just what we’ve be doing since 2017. Belonging is about our vulnerable mountain home and the people who tend it, love it and depend on it. Artist Ruth Chase mobilizes perspectives on our most sensitive issues, whether climate change or cannabis farming, land ethics or displacement - and what it means to be indigenous, and connecting us through creativity. Click here to learn more.
nevada county poet laureate
A collaboration between Nevada County Arts Council and Nevada County Board of Supervisors, our Poet Laureate Program reflects the depth and breadth of poets and poetry appreciation in Nevada County, and respects the role poetry can play in the lives of people of all ages. Click here to learn more.
SIERRA POETRY FESTIVAL
Following success upon success, and now approaching its sixth year, Sierra Poetry Festival is a key focus in our calendar year, and prioritizes youth voices and community participation and partnerships. Our annual Sierra Poetry Festival will be held on April 13, 2024. Click here to learn more.
WILD & SCENIC FILM FESTIVAL VISUAL ART EXHIBITION & CONTEST
Each year we partner with the Wild & Scenic Film Festival to mount a multi-venue exhibition in local galleries and businesses across Grass Valley-Nevada City Cultural District. Together, we offer a fresh dimension for more than 8,000 festival attendees to enjoy the work of our artists, and meet with filmmakers, social activists, and environmental leaders. Click here to learn more.
IMAGE NATION
In partnership with Welcome Home Vets and through photography workshops with master photographer and United States veteran Michael Llewellyn, Image Nation now resides in the form of an online e-commerce gallery, where veteran alumni can display and sell their work, with all profits benefiting them. We thank Larry and Brenda Hoyle for their generosity in funding this important phase of Image Nation, ensuring its legacy in perpetuity.. Click here to learn more.
our REPORTS
During 2019 we completed our seminal study of cultural assets for their economic impact, as well as a key survey of arts education in our schools. We also developed a public facing digital cultural asset map to help promote tourism in our California Cultural Districts and Nevada County more broadly. Nevada County Arts Council is also proud to have contributed to Arts-In-Corrections: County Jails Project, a critical multi-year study measuring attitudinal changes experienced by residents as a result of creativity, and the impact of this on their lives.
Acting up | Pilot Program
Nevada County Arts Council recently rolled out a pilot series of workshops called Acting Up at the Wayne Brown Correctional Facility, our County Jail. Over the course of three months, we commissioned experienced actor, director and playwright, John Deaderick, to teach theatre and acting to close to twenty inmates, varying in age from early twenties to early seventies, and serving time for a variety of offenses. The series was the result of an unusual partnership with California Lawyers for the Arts. Click here to learn more.