Arts and Culture and the CA Economy
It was the first conference I’ve attended in person since March of 2020 and it felt right that after all this time in isolation, the conference that brought me out of my slippers was the California Economic Summit presented by CA FWD. Why you wonder might the Executive Director of a statewide arts advocacy organization choose to attend a summit focused on the economy? The answer is simple, because we are an essential component of California’s economy and if we don’t show up and prove we need to be a part of the solution, we will never realize the investments we need to prosper or the policies we need to uplift and prioritize the creative workforce. In fact, in a conversation with another conference goer from the healthcare industry she offered, the arts are almost an invisible workforce, yet so critical to our health and wellness. Clearly, part of our collective work is to make the arts more visible. Showing up and speaking up is the first step.
In this last year, in our own advocacy we realized how important it was for us to show up in the rooms we had not been in before. Traditionally, our lobbying organization California Arts Advocates has worked to increase funding for the state arts agency, California Arts Council (CAC) and although our work there will continue, we have also seen significant funding this last year go to the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research (OPR), the California Labor Workforce Development Agency (LWDA), and the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) that will help arts and culture to not only recover from the impact of the pandemic but aid in building back more equitable, community focused solutions. We need to employ the acronyms and the phrases policies makers use to build economic resiliency to our own industries advantage. We need to get artists into the pipeline for community investment projects and learn how to integrate arts and culture into new funding sources such as CERF, Community Economic Resilience Fund, a $600 million bill passed by the Legislature this year that will allow regions to transform their current economies as well as work toward more sustainable and equitable economies going forward. At the same time, we need to share the positive impacts the creative industries can bring to the table for our economy, our health and our overall wellbeing. We need to be more than entertainment on an economic summit agenda and included as part of the systems change and policy development conversations. We need to show that by centering artists and culture bearers we can realize more equitable and creative results for the great challenges we face today including racial injustice, climate change, political polarity and economic disparity and dismantle the systems that perpetuate intersectional systems of inequality based on gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, class and other forms of discrimination. Finally, we need to see that our industry shares common goals with other sectors and work together towards achieving an equitable California dream for all to include living wages, affordable housing, child care, digital access and climate change resilience.
We can only do that if we show up in the rooms where policies and investments are being made and speak up. Next year, I hope there will be a large and loud cohort of arts and culture policy wonks at the CA Economic Summit. Join us and learn how you can be part of the force that prove, the arts work.
-Julie Baker, Executive Director, California Arts Advocates
Image credits:
Julie Baker with left to right, Senator Josh Newman, Senator Susan Eggman, Senate Pro Tem Toni Atkins, Assembly Member Cecilia Aguiar-Curry who was honored for her work on broadband for all legislation.
Julie Baker with Senator Josh Newman, the first Senator to co-author SB-628, CA Creative Workforce Act.
Julie Baker with Dee Dee Myers, Director, Go-Biz.
Julie Baker thanking the Governor for signing SB 628 and historic investments in arts and culture.
Ways to Engage at the State and Locally
Sign up for e-news from a variety of state government agencies to learn about public funding opportunities, technical assistance and resources for your business/organization: Go-Biz, CAL-OSBA, OPR, LWDA and CAC.
Contact your City Manager or County CEO’s office and ask about regional economic development and how you can be more involved in the planning and implementation.
Engage in CFTA’s regional conversations starting in January.
Not sure where to start, contact us? If you are based in Northern CA (North of Santa Barbara) contact Kara Q. Smith Kara@Californiansforthearts.org or for Southern CA, contact Tracy Hudak, Tracy@Californiansforthearts.org