California: $2-Million Budget Windfall Supports Six New Programs

The California Arts Council (CAC) has created six new programs with an extra $2 million in one-time funds from the California State Assembly. The $2-million supplement, which was allocated from a discretionary fund via a budget bill passed in July, brought CAC’s total fiscal year 2014 budget to $7 million. With the boon of its first budget increase in more than 10 years and with the leadership of a state legislator who secured state discretionary funds for the arts, CAC is capitalizing on its long-standing commitments to arts education, to at-risk youth and other underserved communities, and to creative economic development. Through new programs—Creative California Communities, The Arts in Turnaround Schools in California, Creativity at the Core, JUMP StArts, the Statewide Chinese Cultural Exchange Symposium, and Arts on the Air, an arts storytelling program—CAC is demonstrating that its work reaches beyond artists and arts patrons and that the arts benefit all citizens of California. Several of the new programs are based on recommendations from CREATE CA (Core Reforms Engaging Arts to Educate), a statewide arts education coalition that includes CAC, the California Department of Education, local government agencies, and representatives from primary, secondary and higher education. For more information, contact CAC Public Information Officer Caitlin Fitzwater