This a partner post between California Humanities, CA for the Arts, The California State Library, and the California Arts Council.
Arts and humanities are vital to any civilization, progress, and democracy. They help convey our deeper values as a society—such as freedom, justice, and equality. In California, our state’s variety of cultures, languages, and opinions yields a nearly infinite variety of possibilities for civic engagement. From writing poetry to running for office, from voter drives to direct actions, residents of the Golden State constantly seek new opportunities to forge a more just society—and will continue to do so as our electorate continues to diversify in the future.
Artists and humanists are beacons in the ways communities better tell their stories and imagine the future. From civic infrastructure such as parks, libraries, and monuments to cultural districts, creative cities, and community-based programs, the arts and humanities are constructing the narratives we are telling ourselves as a nation, serving a deeper purpose in our civic life by being the antidote to belonging, well being, and innovation.
This October, California’s leading agencies and organizations celebrate in unison the intrinsic worth of the arts and humanities in civic life. CA for the Arts, California Arts Council, California Humanities, and the California State Library join thousands of arts and humanities organizations and communities across the nation to celebrate National Arts and Humanities Month throughout October. Our agencies and organizations will carry this message to communities throughout California through activities that honor the efforts of artists, historians, teachers, and cultural groups working to make the arts and humanities a part of everyone’s life.
Who We Are + October Highlights
As a hub for credible information and creative expression, the California State Library serves as a gateway for all Californians to engage with art and humanities. The State Library will be celebrating the month of October with an interactive Post-it Art board in Gillis Hall of their 914 Capitol Mall location that visitors can take art and leave art as they please. For the wider community, the State Library offers a Digital Concierge Program for content-creation, digitization, and digital preservation that’s dedicated to preserving and sharing the collections hidden throughout California state government. Preserving state agency collections and making them available helps Californians better understand the impact of decisions that are made by policymakers and also helps influence and shape policies that are made by Californians both at the community level and the state level.
As the leading statewide organization for arts and culture advocacy, CA for the Arts serves to educate the public on issues and policies affecting the creative field, building tools for artists, creatives, and cultural workers to participate in the civic process. This October, the organization hosted a webinar in partnership with CalMatters, A Deep Dive Into the 2024 Elections!, exploring the impact the elections have on arts and culture. The recording is available to view just in time for the upcoming elections. Additionally, CA for the Arts is making available for download the 2024 Election Candidate Engagement Resource Guide, a compilation of resources to activate the creative community during the elections.
An independent nonprofit organization and a partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities, California Humanities has been promoting the humanities as relevant, meaningful ways to understand the human condition and connect us to each other since 1975. Through programs such as California on the Ballot, Civics + Humanities Middle Grades, and the Emerging Journalist Fellowship, California Humanities promotes the humanities as essential to a vibrant democracy, and has continued to focus on public engagement and field-building to amplify its impact and make the humanities even more valued, more visible, and more deeply embedded in the lives of individuals and in our communities. Held on October 3, How Can California Overcome Its Voter Disillusionment? explored California’s practical strategies for local, state, and federal elections and the state’s election history to see how these insights could improve voter participation across the country. And with only weeks before people head to the polls, they spotlighted a supported project—Bulosan: On American Democracy— that expertly uses musical composition and historical writing to blend the Filipino American experience in California with commentary on America as an “unfinished work.”
California Arts Council convened a meeting of its Creative Economy Workgroup (CEW) on Tuesday, October 15, from 9 to 4:30 pm at El Teatro Campesino in San Juan Bautista. Using an equity lens, the CEW responds to the ideas, strengths and needs of our communities that reaches and includes historically marginalized communities to develop a strategic plan for California’s creative workforce. See the agenda and sign up for the Creative Futures newsletter here.
Engage Civically Where You Are With These Arts and Humanities Resources
The California State Library is proud to support accessible non-partisan voting information, including the CalMatters Voter Guide and the Easy Voter Guide from the League of Women Voters multiple formats and multiple languages, including English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese. Also, check out the Simplified Voter Guide, which is ideal for adult literacy students, English language learners, and anyone who wants voting information in plain language.*
*This project is supported in part by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian.
CA for the Arts would like to share the San Francisco Arts Town Hall Mayoral Forum, held by Arts for a Better Bay Area (ABBA) and several collaborating arts organizations on Wednesday, September 18. The event featured four of San Francisco’s mayoral candidates: Mayor London Breed, Daniel Lurie, President of the Board Aaron Peskin and Supervisor Ahsha Safaí.
Expertly moderated by Maria Jenson (SOMArts) and Rodney Jackson (SF BATCO), this Town Hall gave the candidates an opportunity to articulate their views on the future of arts and culture in the city, answering questions curated by arts and culture leaders and voted on by the San Francisco community. The Arts Town Hall Mayoral Forum was developed in partnership with many distinguished organizations, including ArtSpan, SF Arts Alliance, Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center, SFJAZZ, SF Symphony, SF Opera, SOMArts Cultural Center, and more. Watch the video recording here.
Also in the Bay Area, on Thursday, October 10, San Jose Arts Advocates hosted a Virtual Forum with candidates for San José City Council District 10 in the November 5th runoff election. This was a unique opportunity to engage with current and future city leaders on key issues impacting the creative community in San Jose.
As part of their California on the Ballot (COB) initiative, California Humanities has compiled articles, websites, studies, and other resources related to discussions that were the focus of its two seasons: Equity at the Polls, Recall Elections, Voting Rights for Indigenous Populations, the Electoral College, and Media and Democracy, to name a few. See the list of linked resources here and here, and watch all COB programs here.
The Humanities for All program is a grantmaking program that responds to the needs and interests of Californians, and aims to promote understanding and empathy among all our state’s peoples in order to cultivate a thriving democracy. Apply for a Humanities for All Quick Grant (up to $5,000) any time to engage communities where you are. Also, the California Documentary Project supports documentary film, audio, and digital media productions that explore California in all its complexity and tell stories from every corner of the state. Apply by November 4. Finally, California Humanities grantees are continuously hosting free programs across the state, in public libraries, community centers, museums, and more! Stay civically engaged by attending humanities and arts programs near you.
National Arts and Humanities Month is coordinated by Americans for the Arts, the national organization working to empower communities with the resources and support necessary to provide access to the arts for everyone. This month-long celebration grew out of National Arts Week, which was started in 1985 by the National Endowment for the Arts and Americans for the Arts.More information about National Arts and Humanities Month is available at AmericansForTheArts.org/nahm.
California Humanities, a statewide nonprofit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities, promotes the humanities—focused on ideas, conversation and learning—as relevant, meaningful ways to understand the human condition and connect people to each other in order to help strengthen California. California Humanities has provided grants and programs across the state since 1975. To learn more, visit calhum.org.
The California State Library was established in 1850 and is the central reference and research library for state government and the legislature. The library collection includes more than 4 million titles, 6,000 maps and 250,000 photographs, and includes an extensive collection of documents from and about the state’s rich history. Around the state, the State Library also serves California’s local libraries, providing more than $500 million state and federal funds to support public libraries and delivering statewide library programs and services. Visit library.ca.gov/
California for the Arts is a comprehensive, multidisciplinary advocacy service organization focused on building resources and public awareness of the value and impact of arts, culture, and creativity across California. Visit caforthearts.com
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. Learn more at arts.ca.gov.
