Background

The California Creative Corps program follows an unprecedented period in which communities globally have suffered as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. During these years, creative sector professionals across the United States have been proposing ways to employ and deploy artists in programs similar to the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA).

The launch of a statewide Creative Corps pilot program is the result of a recommendation from the Governor’s economic and jobs recovery task force, and is the first of its kind in the nation. $60 million from the 2021-22 state budget has been invested in the California Arts Council to create a program through which Administering Organizations, appointed through a competitive process, are responsible for regranting monies across their service areas, or “Regions.”

Nevada County Arts Council has been selected as the Administering Organization (DBA “Upstate California Creative Corps”) for the Upstate Region, responsible for distributing $3.38 million in grant funding across nineteen counties.

You can view the California Creative Corps Regional Map here, and a list of Administering Organizations who are serving other regions in California here.

Program Goals

Artists, culture bearers and organizations are invited to apply for funding to implement media, outreach, and engagement campaigns that increase awareness for one or more of these program goals:

1. Public awareness of environment-related issues, such as water and energy conservation, climate mitigation, and emergency preparedness, relief, and recovery

2. Civic engagement, such as election participation

3. Social justice and community engagement

4. Public health awareness messages, such as mitigating the spread of COVID-19

Our Approach

The release of our Guidelines and Application takes into account input received during a Listening Tour of the Upstate Region in late 2022 and early 2023. Our grant application and review process is shaped by the voices of artists and culture bearers, as well as representatives of arts organizations, social service organizations, local government, including Tribal authorities, educators and community members. Our approach can be summarized through:

1. Simplicity in our application format

2. Flexibility in adjudicating different types of projects

3. Sensitivity to local issues and local ways of defining and measuring those issues, including the lived experience of artists and culture bearers, and their communities

4. An equitable distribution of funds that aligns us as equal partners with our grantees to ensure positive change for our most vulnerable communities in rural Upstate California

 The Upstate California Creative Corps aligns with a vision that the lives of all Californians are enriched through a diverse spectrum of artists and culture bearers and arts and cultural experiences, and that the arts can be a key factor in addressing our challenges. The presence of the arts and creativity in daily life revitalizes communities and promotes civic engagement, encourages collective problem solving and builds bridges across cultures.

Listening Tour

The Upstate Listening Tour presented key information on the Healthy Places Index, and invited a conversation on how artists can help communities tackle issues specific to each county. Together, we encouraged input on solutions, and invited artists to position themselves to create awareness around them.