Santa Barbara County Office of Arts and Culture Awarded California Arts Council State Local Partner Grant

Santa Barbara, CA – The California Arts Council has announced a grant award of $69,440.00 to Santa Barbara County Office of Arts and Culture as part of its State Local Partner Grant program during its 2024-25 fiscal year grant cycle. Support awarded will continue to benefit communities throughout the state until the end of the project cycle timeline in September 2025.

The Santa Barbara County Office of Arts & Culture (SBCOAC) uses State Local Partner funding to support arts and culture initiatives throughout the county. This funding enables SBCOAC to provide grant training and consultation, produce free public art exhibitions, and support artists, culture bearers, and arts organizations. Over the next year, SBCOAC will offer programs including Poetry Out Loud, a high school poetry recitation contest, free gallery exhibitions in Santa Maria and Santa Barbara, and business skill workshops for artists.

“State Local Partner funding is essential to sustaining and expanding access to the arts in Santa Barbara County,” said Sarah York Rubin, Executive Director of the Santa Barbara County Office of Arts & Culture. “This investment allows us to provide critical support for artists, cultural organizations, and creative programs that enrich our communities. We appreciate the State’s commitment to the arts, which helps ensure that creative opportunities remain accessible to residents countywide.”

Santa Barbara County Office of Arts and Culture was featured as part of a larger announcement from the California Arts Council of more than 800 grant awards totaling close to $19.5 million in overall projected investments for operational and project support to nonprofit organizations and units of government throughout the state of California.

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. The Arts Council is California’s leading public arts grants provider with funding accessible to every county in California.

“Art makes us who we are in California,” said California Arts Council Executive Director Danielle Brazell. “We are defined by our creative workforce, and our everyday lives are informed, enriched, and uplifted by the artists and cultural workers across our state. On behalf of the CAC, I offer my sincere congratulations – and my gratitude – to each of our award recipients for this grant cycle.”

“We pledged fealty to our comprehensive and field-informed Strategic Framework in our decision making for funding for this fiscal year,” said Council Chair Roxanne Messina Captor. “Council made every effort to make each dollar in our budget go its furthest toward our most important aspirations for our agency, our governor, and our Legislature alike: to create a California for all, where the arts are accessible to all.”

Organizations were awarded grants across nine different program areas designed to benefit the whole of California’s arts and culture ecosystem, including a second year of funding for two-year programs awarded in the previous fiscal year. Award funds prioritize many of the aspirations articulated in the agency’s Strategic Framework, specifically increasing opportunities for general operating and multiyear grants, geographic equity, individual artists, small organizations, and state-local partner funding and capacity building.

Read the full announcement by the California Arts Council for more details and to view a complete listing of all 2024-25 CAC grantees by county, alphabetically by organization, and by program.

About the Santa Barbara County Office of Arts & Culture

The Santa Barbara County Office of Arts & Culture is a Division of the County’s Community Services Department and a CA Arts Council State-Local Partner, serving as the local governmental umbrella for arts and culture projects and programs. The Office represents a longstanding partnership between the County of Santa Barbara and the City of Santa Barbara. For more information, visit www.sbac.ca.gov.

CAC Media Inquiries Only:
Kimberly Brown
California Arts Council
Public Affairs Specialist
kimberly.brown@arts.ca.gov

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: Roxanne Messina Captor, Chair; Leah Goodwin, Vice Chair; Gerald Clarke; Caleb Duarte; Vicki Estrada; Roy Hirabayashi; Alex Israel; Dorka Keehn; Phil Mercado; Nicola Miner. Learn more at www.arts.ca.gov.