Empowering artist advocates locally through GAAP and other parts of the Regional Advocacy Infrastructure Network is key to: 

• Achieving systems-level change in how the arts and culture sector are valued.
• Sustaining the political engagement of arts advocates.
• Increasing public investment in systems that support artist well-being and cultural organizations.
• Building a distributed power base grounded in localized self-determination.

Announcing the 2024 Grassroots Artists Advocacy Program Fellows

California for the Arts welcomes five members of the inaugural Grassroots Artists Advocacy Program (GAAP) cohort. The 2024 cohort, representing Oakland and San Francisco, brings together artists from Black, Indigenous, Immigrant, Latinx and LGTBQ+ communities. Working across cultural curation and production, dance, film, literature and theater, these leaders advocate for critical issues affecting artists and culture bearers. Their work focuses on addressing equitable systems change, fighting cultural displacement, deepening investments in BIPOC artists and culture bearers, providing support for cooperative housing for artists and spaces for artist collectives, and safeguarding platforms for community voices.

Overview

• The GAAP Fellowship Program awards a cohort of five artist advocates who live and/or work in Oakland or San Francisco $12,000 each to participate in a nine-month curriculum while meeting regularly as a community of practice.
• Thanks to the generosity of the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, there are two cycles planned, with the first GAAP cohort completing their advocacy plans in support of artists’ needs and presenting them in July 2025.
• The application, selection process, and timeline for the second cohort will be announced in June 2025. Read Guidelines and FAQs. (Note: guidelines are subject to change for the next round in 2025).
• GAAP offers training and skills building to help participants create an advocacy plan toward changing policy and systems, particularly in support of individual artists and culture bearers.
• Members of the GAAP cohort develop direct relationships with policymakers, including elected and appointed officials and have the opportunity to advocate on local, state, and federal levels.
• Currently, CA for the Arts has KennethRainin Foundation funding for two GAAP cohorts.

Priorities

The Grassroots Artists Advocacy Program has three high-level, long-term goals and four short-term goals:

Long-term

• Diverse artists are thriving in the Bay Area.
• More artists are engaged in advocacy.
• Local, state, and federal policymakers are engaged with artists, their issues, and their unique perspectives.

Short-term

• Artists are directly engaged in state cultural policy development and advocacy.
• Artists are empowered to advocate for the well-being of artists.
• Artists are empowered to look at the policy space, conduct informal policy analysis, and gain understanding first-hand.
• Artists have relationships with their elected officials.
• GAAP is replicated across California as part of the Regional Advocacy Infrastructure Network (RAIN) Program.

GAAP is a new program funded by the Kenneth Rainin Foundation

For more information on GAAP, please contact Program Consultant Lead Ted Russell ted@caforthearts.org or 415-531-4893.