Alliance for California Traditional Arts

Alliance for California Traditional Arts is dedicated to supporting and sustaining folk and traditional arts throughout the state. Its Living Cultures Grants Program provides small grants to fund exemplary projects in traditional arts. The Apprenticeship Program supports a period of concentrated learning for apprentices who have shown a commitment to and a talent for a specific folk or traditional art form or practice. Through these grant programs, the alliance makes about 90 grants statewide each year. It has supported more than 600 artists and small arts organizations since it awarded its first grants in 2006. This grant to the Alliance for California Traditional Arts supports the Performing Arts Program’s Communities strategy by providing funding to small arts organizations and individual culture bearers through two regranting programs.

Throughout the Community Leadership Project, the Alliance for California Traditional Arts has successfully served as a regranting intermediary and technical assistance provider for small-budget cultural organizations in three priority regions: San Francisco Bay Area, Central Coast, and San Joaquin Valley. With this exit grant, the group will focus its capacity-building efforts on financial sustainability, asset management, and leadership development. The Irvine and Hewlett foundations will equally co-fund the exit grant to this organization.

Alliance for California Traditional Arts is the only nonprofit in California dedicated to supporting and sustaining the folk and traditional arts at the statewide level, and serves as the California Arts Council’s official partner in this capacity. With three offices (Fresno, San Francisco, Los Angeles) to serve a large statewide constituency, the ability to link staff and board members would improve intra-agency communications and effectiveness. In addition, connectivity would provide opportunities for the larger arts field the Alliance serves to attend meetings, trainings, and presentations via the system.