CFTA In the News
Last month, I had the honor of sitting on a panel at the California Economic Summit, speaking with State Senator Anthony Portantino (25th District), Julie Baker, CEO of Californians for the Arts, Kristen Dolan, executive director of the California Desert Arts Council and Yaya Ortiz, co-founder of Culturas Music and Arts.
This panel was the first time the Creative Economy had been talked about from the plenary stage at this high-profile annual event. How strange is that? It's strange because the creative economy contributes between 7.5 to 23 percent of the state’s annual economic output depending on what you include in that category. Read More.
Many businesses were affected by the economic downturn spurred by COVID lockdowns and social-distancing mandates. Especially hard hit were local performing arts organizations including theater, dance and music.
“The nonprofit performing arts sector is facing an existential crisis like never before,” said Julie Baker, CEO of Californians for the Arts. “During COVID, we were the first to close and the last to reopen.” Read More.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a budget trailer bill allocating an estimated $11.5 million to small performing arts organizations to help them recover from the pandemic and comply with AB5, the 2019 law requiring more workers to be paid as employees instead of independent contractors. Read More.
On June 27, 2023 Governor Gavin Newsom signed the $310 Billion dollar 23-24 budget with Senate Bill 101. While the headlines captured the challenge to balance a $30 billion dollar budget deficit to protect funding for social services and education and negotiations related to infrastructure and clean energy, the arts were largely overlooked in the discussion. California’s arts and culture production drives 7.7% of the state’s economy, producing over $261 billion in direct impact and supporting 742,421 jobs. Read More.
Arts, Culture, & Creativity Month (ACCM) is statewide celebration organized by Californians for the Arts and arts advocates across the state to uplift the intrinsic value of arts, culture and creativity as not only a public good – transforming communities and individuals, but also as a driver of prosperity for the state economy.
What better time to speak of opportunities for prosperity in the Coachella Valley? California Desert Arts Council, along with Inland Empire Community Foundation, Arts Connection – the San Bernardino Arts Council, and Riverside Arts Council have all collaborated with California Arts Council to bring a state-funded, pilot workforce development project to Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Read More.
Artists and arts and culture organizations struggling financially before the pandemic saw their livelihoods threatened and pushed nearly over the ledge. Read More
Californians for the Arts and Create CA are presenting the inaugural CA Arts & Culture Summit today! It's taking place during California’s 5th Annual Arts, Culture & Creativity Month, and Ashley Williams is checking it out!
About a week ago, the statewide arts advocacy organization Californians for the Arts hosted a regional conversation for the North Coast — including Del Norte, Mendocino and Lake counties — at the Morris Graves Museum of Art in Eureka to share successes and hear regional concerns. Julie Baker, CEO of Californians for the Arts, pointed to $600 million invested in arts recovery, $30 million invested in cultural districts and $25 million invested in arts in parks. Read more.
“There has never been a more important and relevant time for the arts,” said Julie Baker, executive director of the California Arts Advocates, “to go to work to heal and provide empathy, hope and joy for a nation divided and recovering from the dual traumas of systemic racism and a global pandemic.”
KSFP 102.5FM will broadcast on April 23, 2022 at 6pm, April 24 at 7am, and May 1at 7am, the Arts Economy Panel show with featured guests Julie Baker (Californians for the Arts, Executive Director), Ralph Remington (San Francisco Arts Commission), and Jason Blackwell (Yerba Buena Center for the Arts).
(KTXL) – The arts and all they do to motivate and inspire are some of what we missed most during the height of the pandemic. On Thursday April 7, the city of Sacramento acknowledged and celebrated that with the mayor, declaring April Arts, Culture and Creativity Month. Hopeful Olympic breakdancer and Sacramento raised B-Boy Morris was one of Thursday’s featured performers. Julie Baker, with Californians for the Arts, joined Sonseeahray Tonsall live. Watch recording.
The omicron surge is hitting San Francisco arts groups, presenters and venues of all sizes just when they were starting to get back on their feet.
“A year ago, people expected to be shut down and they didn’t anticipate revenue when they did their budgets,” says executive director for Californians for the Arts and California Arts Advocates, Julie Baker. “Whereas now people had made budgets anticipating that they were going to have revenue, that they were going to start seeing back-to-business kind of income. And so now all of a sudden, it’s ‘Oh no, I’m not meeting my budget.’” Read more.
Our For(bes) The Culture 50 Champions are models of business excellence in their own various industries who also uplift Black and Brown communities through their crafts and philanthropic efforts. Championing the community takes many different forms. But whether it’s being intentional about the hiring process, investment and mentorship practices, driving discussions around access or effecting change through advocacy — we all know it when we see it. Read more.
If Governor Gavin Newsom signs SB628 into law—he has until Oct. 10 to approve or veto it—it could eventually mean more career opportunities for Californians who might otherwise feel excluded from pursuing arts and culture careers because of financial or other constraints, and allow creative sector employers to employ arts professionals and pay them a living wage.
The pandemic has hit the arts and culture sector hard. Restrictions on large gatherings meant artists and the institutions that host them had nowhere to perform or present. But with the crisis also came unprecedented financial support, especially from the federal, state and local governments.
The devastation wrought by the pandemic has paved the way for a once-in-a-lifetime windfall for the arts in Orange County and throughout California, thanks to a fiscal year state budget for 2021-22 which allocates some $615 million in funds, including more than $120 million in funding for the state’s designated arts agency, the California Arts Council (CAC).
State public health officials touted support for the new guidelines from entertainment event giants like Live Nation Entertainment and AEG as well as Californians for the Arts.
“We are pleased to see the Newsom Administration take proactive steps to support the arts and live events industries to keep audiences, performers and workers safe as we continue to battle the spread of COVID," said Julie Baker, executive director of Californians for the Arts, in a statement.
"It is deeply meaningful to me to join a Commission whose members recognize the arts are a catalyst for social and civic change," Buckley said. "I am grateful to Chair Solis for the opportunity to serve the residents of Los Angeles County, working alongside leaders and colleagues I deeply admire and supporting a Department of Arts and Culture that I deeply respect, as we all continue to advocate for increased accessibility, inclusion, equity and representation in the arts, and more arts resources across the region."
“I am excited to be reunited and work with Leticia again. She brings an incredible passion for the arts and years of lived experience forming partnerships at the intersection of government, the cultural field, and the LA community. She is a timely addition to the Arts Commission, whose support is invaluable as we strive to reach more people, more deeply, in more diverse ways,” said Kristin Sakoda, Director of the Department of Arts and Culture.
The 2021–2022 state budget, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on July 12, invests more than $600 million in the cultural sector of the economy, according to an analysis by the advocacy group Californians for the Arts.
When Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the 2021-22 state budget on July 12, the arts, culture and live events industries got $616 million — a figure that, according to many longtime arts advocates, could herald a new era in how the state supports the arts.
Ron P. Muriera, board president of Californians for the Arts, a co-founder of San Jose Arts Advocates as well as a consultant and artist himself, remembers when the California Arts Council had less than $1 million to grant to the entire state, in the 2003-04 fiscal year.
Reopening guidelines written by Californians for the Arts reference a California Department of Labor report indicating that the arts, entertainment and recreation sector saw the largest percentage of job loss in the state, 40.3% from March 2020 to August 2020, compared to that of the leisure and hospitality sector which saw a job loss rate of 27%.
“Senator Susan Rubio has emerged as one of our leading champions for the survival and sustainability of small nonprofit performing arts organizations and arts workers,” said Julie Baker, Executive Director of California Arts Advocates.
“As Chair of the Assembly Committee on Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism, and Internet Media, I am thankful to have the opportunity to work with leaders in these industries that have been especially hit hard during the pandemic,” said Assemblywoman Quirk-Silva. “We have worked collaboratively to advocate for funds needed to ensure that California’s Recovery will include funding for our creative and artistic industries, and tourism.”
The Alene Valkanas State Arts Advocacy Award honors an individual at the state level whose arts advocacy efforts have dramatically affected the political landscape. Stay tuned for more Leadership Award honoree highlights leading up to the virtual convening!
In this episode our featured voice is the Executive Director of Californians for the Arts Julie Baker. The focus of this week’s show is on how the covid-19 pandemic is impacting our creative economy, its workforce, state legislation to support the recovery of the creative economy as well as how a historical San Francisco outdoor music festival is reopening within a pandemic.
“Until several months ago…there was nothing on (the Blueprint) for any type of live event, theatre event, music, or anything like that,” she said.
After she and other art advocates pushed the state to make a plan for these businesses, the guidelines followed suit with restaurants and other indoor spaces, capping the number of people allowed inside. Even in the least restrictive Yellow Tier of the state’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy, venues could only host 25% of a full house.
Sacramento City Council Member Eric Guerra wants to be California’s next State Senator; we talk with him about his run for District 6 in our latest series of interviews with candidates. California’s arts community is also hemorrhaging from the pandemic, and there’s a growing discussion about what it’ll take to get the industry back on its feet financially. Plus, exploring the delta town of Locke’s rich Asian history and what to know before heading to your favorite state park this holiday weekend.
“We need to have this moment to reflect,” said Baker, “and artists are who we look to for the meaning, for the hope, for the clarity, for this cohesion, this sense of belonging — this sense of, How do we come out of this?”