18th Street Arts Center Launches Innovative Statewide Arts Project to Advance the Well-being of California Communities

Organization will hire artists in select communities to stage year-long projects pulling neighbors together to shape the future, address challenges and opportunities, and inform public policy.

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Jan. 31, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- 18th Street Arts Center (18SAC) has been awarded $3.3 million by the California Arts Council as one of 14 administering agencies for its California Creative Corps (CCC) program. The 35 year-old Santa Monica organization is one of only three agencies chosen to conduct CCC projects statewide.

The project design leverages the organization's decades-long experience in activating place-based arts and cultural strategies as exemplified in its Culture Mapping 90404 project, which documented the rich history and culture assets of the 90404 ZIP code in Santa Monica.

With 90404, 18SAC commissioned artists to create work informed by the culture map; resulting in performances, exhibitions, murals and public art, a film, walking tours and a local artisan collective. The iconic neighborhood project demonstrates how applying place-based arts practices drive community cohesion and inform public policy.

"Our experience in empowering artists to do creative civic engagement work in the communities in which they live is that they have a unique ability to create trust among neighbors—a sense of belonging where people become oriented toward the common good. It's hard for government agencies to achieve the same results," said Jan Williamson, 18th Street Arts Center Executive Director.

18th Street Arts Center California Creative Corps Project is now calling for applications from California artists and culture bearers interested in developing meaningful arts and culture projects in communities located within Quartile 1 ZIP codes of the California Healthy Places Index (HPI).

Forty artists from across the state will be selected for further project refinement and will receive professional coaching to compose their full project concept and budget, along with a $1,000 stipend. Eighteen projects will be selected for support and funding.

Each of the final eighteen artists will receive a year-long salary of $65,000, medical and dental insurance, the option to join 18th Street Art Center's SIMPLE IRA plan with employer match and production costs for their community art project from July 2023 - July 2024.

In addition to fostering community well-being, the selected artists will generate knowledge and media assets to contribute to a statewide California Culture Map. The culture map generated by 18th Street Arts Center California Creative Corps will provide the context to inform public policy and accelerate solutions to community needs. 18th Street Arts Center believes culture mapping is essential infrastructure for successful collaboration between arts and culture producers and community leaders seeking to foster well-being.

Artists interested in further details and applying should visit: 18thstreet.org/californiacreativecorps.

18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica, CA has been fueling the impact of artists on society since 1988. Conceived as a radical think tank in the shape of an artist community, we are a globally recognized catalyst for deploying artistic imagination to meet society's needs. We curate projects where artists and the public directly engage in creating experiences and partnerships that foster positive social change. 18thstreet.org

California Creative Corps is a pilot program funded by the California Arts Council as an engagement campaign designed to increase public awareness about issues of public health, water and energy conservation, civic engagement, social justice, and more. https://arts.ca.gov

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SOURCE 18th Street Arts Center