Since 2020, advocates have rallied to support funding for arts and culture that has gone from unprecedented one time investments to having to protect budget cuts to ongoing funding. Achievements have been made to build coalition across the creative sector and to build awareness of the value of arts workers to California communities health and economic prosperity.

At the same time, it has becoming increasingly clear that California’s creative industries is in a precarious state with wide inequities across the sector due to a lack of sustained investments, access to affordable housing and space, capital and rising costs. With the 2024 election, more than 25% of the CA legislature is new, Federal Funding resources are increasingly uncertain and the California state budget remains unstable.

What can advocates expect in the year ahead and how can we be prepared for the 2025-26 legislative session? Learn in this conversation by featuring Julie Baker, CEO at CA for the Arts; Alex Torres, Policy Advisor at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schrek and Lobbyist at NIVA CA; Priscilla Quiroz, Legislative Advocate at Shaw Yoder Antwih Schmelzer & Lange; and Karri Wood Einertson, Executive Director of Government Affairs and Public Policy at SAG-AFTRA.⁠ ⁠