Report from the California Arts Council Meeting 3.24.23 Prepared by: Teri Ball
California Arts Council Meeting
3-24-23
Actions Taken:
Voting item 1 – This item passed accepting all recommendations as reflected below.
Programs Policy Committee Recommendations for 2023 Grant Guidelines: The Programs Policy Committee presented recommendations for revisions to guidelines for the following grant programs approved to open in 2023:
1) Arts & Cultural Organizations General Operating Support. Recommended Changes:
• Grant Activity Period: The Committee recommends extending the program activity term from one year
to two years (with second year funding contingent on the state budget and the submission of a report
that sufficiently describes fiscal and program outcomes).
• Maximum Request Amount: Change from “$30,000 for one year” to “$30,000 each year for two years, with the second year of funding contingent upon passage of the State Budget and the submission of a report that sufficiently describes fiscal and program outcomes.”
• Eligibility requirements: Most recent guidelines restricted eligible applicants to organizations with $250,000 or less in total revenue. In response to communicated needs from the field, the Committee recommends adding a tiered eligibility for applicants to this program:
Tier 1: organizations with up to $250,000 in total revenue
- Anticipate at least 55% of program funding for this tier
- Waive the match requirement for applicants in this tier with total revenues less than $60,000,
to mitigate barriers to access.
Tier 2: organizations with $250K - $1M in revenue
- Anticipate 25% of program funding for this tier
- Preserve 1:1 match requirement, pending CAC budgetary match needs
Tier 3: organizations with $1M - $1.5M in revenue
- Anticipate 20% of program funding for this tier
- Preserve 1:1 match requirement, pending CAC budgetary match needs
2) Impact Projects. Recommended Changes:
Maximum Request Amount: Raise from $20,000 to $25,000 Eligibility requirements. Add “Organizations that have applied for or would have been eligible to apply for previous, specialized project-based grant programs such as Re-Entry Through the Arts, Veterans in the Arts, etc., are encouraged to apply.”
3) State Local Partners
Recommended Changes:
● Maximum Request Amount: Raise from $65,000 to $75,000 (includes $5,000 for Poetry Out Loud)
● Program Administration:
○ CHANGE from “Maintain an accessible public office operated by, at minimum, one full-time staff member. In unique situations, exceptions can be made,” TO “Maintain an accessible public office operated by, at minimum, one full-time equivalent (FTE) staff position. In unique situations, due to location or funding realities, exceptions can be made, given that all programs and services are accessible to the public.”
○ ADD: Provide financial support, services, and/or other programming to a variety of arts organizations, individual artists, and the community.
○ ADD: Prioritize engagement and support for arts organizations, individual artists, and community
members representing historically under-resourced communities, especially those residing in the lower quartiles of the California Healthy Places Index.
○ ADD: In collaboration with the CAC, participate in planning a statewide convening, the primary outcome of which will be a deepening of equity practices in support of arts and culture organizations and individual artists and cultural workers in every county.
○ ADD: Actively promote CAC grant opportunities, including providing in-person and/or online workshops and other technical assistance to applicants and grantees.
o ADD: With CAC support, create an action plan to collect robust qualitative and quantitative data regarding communities served as outlined below, and report data possible to collect over the course of the grant activity period to the CAC for program evaluation.
○ ADD: Section on technical support and capacity building activities that the CAC will provide to support the State-Local Partner grantees.
○ ADD: section on Program Evaluation, Outcomes, and Metrics that describes ongoing partnership between the CAC and State-Local Partner grantees on evaluation activities to support accomplishment of program goals and objectives.
3) State Local Partners – Mentorship
Recommended Changes:
● Maximum Request Amount: Raise from $40,000 to $50,000
● Background & Purpose: ADD: This program exists to grow the field throughout the 58 counties of California.
● The CAC expects that by providing mentorship and support including best practices, an active State- Local Partner organization will be established in the identified county within 2-3 years. SLP-M grantees may re-apply for up to two additional years after the first grant program activity period in order to support this goal.”
● Program Design and Implementation Costs: Raise the cost percentage for mentee county/organization to up to 20% of grant funding to support program design and implementation.
● Best Practices: Consult/convene with CAC and SLP-M grantee cohort, if applicable, on this program.
4) Folk and Traditional Arts – Administering Organization
Recommended Changes:
● Grant Activity Period: change from one year to two years.
● Program Design and Implementation Costs: Change from 10% to “up to 30% of the grant award may be used for design and implementation, including up to 10% to support administrative costs and 20% for staff salaries for artists and culture bearers to implement the required program activities.”
5) Statewide and Regional Networks
Recommended Changes:
● Change name of review criterion to: Accessibility and Accommodations
● Application Questions:
● Change first question to “Describe your organization’s approach to ensuring the accessibility of programs and services and inclusion of people with disabilities. Describe both physical and communication accessibility, including in-person and online activities. Describe how your organization offers people with disabilities a way to request an accommodation to access programs and services. Consider organizational personnel and any partnering organizations, as well as the participants and beneficiaries of arts programming and services, as well as creatives with disabilities and potential audience members, in your response.”
● No recommended changes to the second application question for this criterion.
● Council may also consider adding instructions to applicants that they should include a line item in their budget tables to provide accommodations for persons with disabilities to access their programs and services, including in-kind or partner support for the provision of such accommodations.
Voting Item 2: This item passed unanimously after some minor adjustments to the original language. The final language is provided below.
Equity Committee’s Recommendations for 2023 Centering Community Artists Criteria in Guidelines
The Equity Committee recommends Council vote to approve edits to the 2023 grant guideline criterion:
“Centering Community Artists”
Proposed 2023 Guideline Changes
New Criteria Label: Centering Equity for an Inclusive Arts Landscape
New Criteria Description: In this section, organizations will demonstrate understanding, capacity, and ongoing commitment to building equity across the arts through inclusive policies, practices, projects, partnerships, and leadership. Organizations will also demonstrate how they serve and prioritize communities with the highest levels of need as indicated by the California Healthy Places Index (HPI).
New Application Questions:
1. What has inspired your organization to incorporate or evolve policies/programming that uses the arts as a tool to transform and/or express culture?
2. Describe the approaches your organization has taken or will take to center, uplift, and involve historically under-served communities that fall within the lowest quartile of the California Healthy Places
Index (HPI) in your region. a. The term “under-served communities” refers to populations disproportionately impacted by systemic exclusion in policy settings or historical decision-making processes. b. Neighborhood by neighborhood, the HPI maps data on social conditions that drive health— like education, job opportunities, clean air and water. This data is used by community leaders, policymakers, academics, and other stakeholders to compare the health and well-being of communities, identify health inequities, and quantify the factors that shape health.
3. How does your organization represent, and create equitable opportunities for historically excluded artists, cultural practitioners, or arts and cultural practices?
4. Describe the actions you have taken to build trust and ongoing relationships with the identified communities, artists, and cultural practitioners.
5. Address how you: a. Plan to evaluate success for the proposal and what success will look like. b. Will listen and respond to the diverse needs of the communities and artists / cultural practitioners throughout the project.
Criteria Label: Centering Community Artists
Criteria Description: Demonstrates experience, capacity, and ongoing commitment to engage and uplift historically and systemically under-resourced communities. Demonstrates experience, capacity, and ongoing commitment to engage and uplift historically and systemically excluded and erased artists, cultural practitioners, or arts and cultural practices. This experience, capacity, and ongoing commitment is reflected throughout the proposal.
Application Questions:
1. Describe, from the commencement of the organization, how you have evolved to or how you have continually engaged and uplifted historically and systemically under-resourced communities.
2. Describe, from the commencement of the organization, how you have evolved to or how you have continually engaged and uplifted historically and systemically excluded and erased artists, cultural practitioners, or arts and cultural practices.
3. Describe the actions you have taken to build trust and ongoing relationships with these communities, artists, and cultural practitioners.
4. Address how you: a. Plan to evaluate success for the proposal and what success will look like b. Will listen and respond to the communities and artists/cultural practitioners through the project.
Voting Item 3: This item pass unanimously as recommended.
Allocations Committee’s Recommendations for the 2022 Cycle Grantees.
The Allocations Committee recommends Council approve awards in the amount of $2,840,831 for the
2022 Cycle C grant programs, including:
● $1,765,831 for Creative Youth Development,
● $925,000 for Administering Organization- Individual Artist Fellowships Region IV, and
● $150,000 for Cultural Pathways-Technical Assistance.