Starting in 2023, the Board and Staff of both organizations embarked on a systematic process, aided by consultants, to define, refine, and clarify the strategies that will guide our work. With this in mind, we started by engaging a number of internal and external stakeholders to understand the strengths, weaknesses, opportunity areas, and public perceptions of both organizations, as well as the most relevant challenges faced by the arts and culture sector in California. We interviewed people in different sectors and with varied perspectives; surveyed prior and current Board members; conducted a vision and values workshop with Staff and Board members; and created a Task Force that developed and refined the strategic plan’s goals, objectives, and outcomes. We consulted with external stakeholders in order todeepen and sharpen our focus on racial and cultural equity, and refined the language used throughout the document together until we found the precise meaning of our ideas. The result is this document, which was approved and adopted by the Board on June 20th, 2024.

One of the most important ideas that we developed as part of this effort was our approach to Racial and Cultural Equity. We knew from the beginning that we needed to be unapologetically true to ourselves and define a vision that we can fully stand behind. Racial Equity is foundational to our work and how we seek to understand inequitable systems that continue permeating our societies as we work to design policy systems that center equity and belonging. We know that public policy has historically been used to oppress, exclude, and deny access to opportunity for many people with different identities and circumstances and redesigning such systems to be inclusive and equitable guides our practice in the field. We also recognize that the meaning of equity is continually evolving, and we commit ourselves to keep a finger on the pulse of what our communities seek and need and the language they use to describe these needs. We share the ultimate goal of an arts and culture sector in California where everybody can thrive regardless of their identities or circumstances.

Our first step in the planning process was to clarify the vision we seek to realize and provide meaning to our work.

The vision that will guide our work for the next six years is:

We understand arts and culture as essential to the wellbeing of society and intrinsic to community life. We advocate for policies where arts and culture is embedded within broader policy change to reshape systems toward equity and justice. We advance racial and cultural equity to ensure diverse forms of artistic and cultural expression are included and supported in public policy. We envision a world where artists, community-centered arts and culture, and culture bearers are celebrated so everyone thrives and has a sense of belonging.

From this vision emerges the following organizing principles that provide the North Star for both organizations to grow and achieve our missions:

• We understand arts and culture or artists and culture bearers as essential to the wellbeing of society and embedded in community life and advocate for policies where arts, culture and creativity intersect with broader policy change (housing, creative workforce, health, and climate) to reshape systems toward equity and justice.
• We partner with organizations, organizers, community-centered arts and culture, culture bearers, and local networks, recognizing community knowledge and lived experiences advocating for policies that strengthen economic, heritage, communal, and recreational creative activities.

1.

Advance the creative workforce through racial and cultural equity in our programming, research and data analysis, policy development, coalition building, and shared leadership.

2.

Mobilize artists, culture bearers, creative workers, and community-centered arts and culture with other aligned sectors to develop public policies where arts and culture serve as drivers of community health and economic development.

3.

Develop a local and regional approach to arts and culture advocacy that emphasizes the empowerment and self-determination of artists, culture bearers, creative workers and community-centered arts and culture to build regional advocacy networks.

4.

Invest in organizational growth and sustainability by developing and improving internal systems and processes, financial strategies, and human-centered approaches toward a culture of care.

5.

Define organizational directions and address the structural needs of CA For The Arts and CA Arts Advocates as symbiotic organizations.

Systems Change

We understand the arts and culture as essential to society's well-being and embedded in community life. We advocate for policies where the arts and culture intersect with broader policy change (housing, creative workforce, health, and climate) to reshape systems toward equity and justice.

Partnerships

We partner with organizations, organizers, community-centered arts and culture, culture bearers, and local networks, recognizing community knowledge and lived experiences and advocating for policies that strengthen economic, heritage, communal, and recreational creative activities.

Bridging

We serve as a bridge between public policy and the arts and culture sector as we advocate for equitable public funding, thriving and sustainable conditions for creative workers and the creative economy, and other core policy priorities.

Convening

We are a convener and thought collective in arts advocacy and policy that takes a regional approach, shares actionable and culturally-centered research and acts through cross-sector partnerships.

Communicating

We exchange actionable and insightful communications to expand public understanding of arts and culture, to platform the voices transforming the arts ecosystem, and to build an inclusive arts advocacy coalition.

Connecting

We connect communities and build coalitions across economic realities, geography, expertise, affinity, and identity that develop equitable visions of the future of arts, culture,and creative economy in California.

Collaborating

We link field building, advocacy, and policy through the collaborative work of CA for the Arts and CA Arts Advocates.