Press Release: California Arts Council
Press Release
Contact: Stanley Pun, Stanley@AYPAL.org (626) 205-8811
Date: August 20, 2020
AYPAL: Building API Community Power Awarded California Arts Council
Local Impact and Youth Arts in Action Grants
State funds support youth power and youth organizing through the arts to create positive community change in Oakland and uplift the narratives of API and other youth of color!
Oakland, CA – The California Arts Council (CAC) announced a grant award of $15,200 for our young people to create meaningful community change in Oakland Chinatown through their Local Impacts grant program and $4750 to uplift the voices and narratives of API and youth of color in Oakland through cultural visual and performing arts through their Youth Arts in Action grant program to AYPAL: Building API community Power.
CAC’s generous donation will support young people, youth power, local artists, and most importantly, arts activism to create positive community change and the youth leaders of tomorrow! Through the Local Impacts grant program we will be able to hire and support local artists to work with API and other youth of color to create an intergenerational, culture centered space to connect our young people to their ethnic roots through performance art. Their work will culminate into our May Arts festival, lifting up the needs of API communities in Oakland, a display of our young people's leadership and voices, and creating space for youth, families, and community to build with one and other in an ever changing city impacted by development and gentrification. CAC’s contribution through their Youth Arts in Action grant will support our Fresh Off the Block visual arts exhibit, once again hiring local artists to work with our young people to create visual arts pieces to empower our young people to tell their stories, uplift their narratives, and build their leadership. Both events are heavily centered in art, culture keeping, and youth power centering young people's ability to be visionary, creative, and revolutionary, and to be agents of positive social change.
“We at AYPAL are deeply gracious to CAC for their support of two of our key youth power building arts activism events. Young people in AYPAL are given the opportunity to lean into their power, develop their leadership, and to demand and create a future for themselves and their communities through arts and healing practices. For many of our young people our program is their first experience learning about their own history and culture, understanding the value of arts in activism and creating change. Most importantly our young people have found a deep sense of belonging here in AYPAL and seek to cultivate and sustain community wherever they go.”
AYPAL was featured as part of a larger announcement from the California Arts Council of more than 1,500 grants awarded to nonprofit organizations and units of government throughout the state for their work in support of the agency’s mission to strengthen arts, culture, and creative expression as the tools to cultivate a better California for all. The investment of nearly $30 million marks a more than $5 million increase over the previous fiscal year, and the largest in California Arts Council history.
Organizations were awarded grants across 15 different program areas addressing access, equity, and inclusion; community vibrancy; and arts learning and engagement; and directly benefiting our state's communities, with youth, veterans, returned citizens, and California's historically marginalized communities key among them. Successful projects aligned closely with the agency's vision of a California where all people flourish with universal access to and participation in the arts.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the California Arts Council recognizes that some grantees may need to postpone, modify, or cancel their planned activities supported by CAC funds, due to state and local public health guidelines. The state arts agency is prioritizing flexibility in addressing these changes and supporting appropriate solutions for grantees.
"Creativity sits at the very heart of our identity as Californians and as a people. In this unprecedented moment, the need to understand, endure, and transcend our lived experiences through arts and culture is all the more relevant for each of us,” said Nashormeh Lindo, Chair of the California Arts Council. “The California Arts Council is proud to be able to offer more support through our grant programs than ever before, at a time when our communities’ need is perhaps greater than ever before. These grants will support immediate and lasting community impact by investing in arts businesses and cultural workers across the state.”
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The California Arts Council is a state agency with a mission of strengthening arts, culture, and creative expression as the tools to cultivate a better California for all. It supports local arts infrastructure and programming statewide through grants, initiatives, and services. The California Arts Council envisions a California where all people flourish with universal access to and participation in the arts.
Members of the California Arts Council include: Chair Nashormeh Lindo, Vice Chair Jaime Galli, Larry Baza, Lilia Gonzales Chavez, Jodie Evans, Kathleen Gallegos, Stanlee Gatti, Donn K. Harris, Alex Israel, Consuelo Montoya, and Jonathan Moscone. Learn more at www.arts.ca.gov.
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