Help Support the Next 25 Years of ACTA

Grupo Nuu Yuku joined by Banda Brillo de San Miguel Cuevas at the 2016 Sounds of California program at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Photo: Prayoon Charoennun.

In 1997 at Asilomar in Pacific Grove, a group of artists, public folklorists, and cultural workers met to imagine a statewide network to animate and grow California’s diverse community of culture bearers and organizations in the folk and traditional arts field. Fast forward more than 25 years, and the Alliance for California Traditional Arts has supported over 1,788 folk and traditional artists and organizations, providing them with over $8 million in grants.

Thank you for browsing our oral history project documenting over 25 amazing years of the Alliance for California Traditional Arts. Together, we gathered stories from dozens of current and former grantees, staff, board members, partners, and colleagues, and dove into our archives of programming, grantmaking, research, and advocacy to tell the story of ACTA through five individual timelines, countless photos, multimedia links, research, reports, and more.

From bringing the healing power of traditional arts to incarcerated people to preparing local residents to document the sonic landscape of their communities — join us in celebrating our quarter-century journey to lift up California's extraordinary traditional arts practices.

Our community-driven efforts to sustain cultural practices in California, champion health equity and civic engagement, and build the field of traditional arts have been essential to the livelihoods of many traditional artists. But arts funding is unreliable, and the majority of traditional artists have not received enough investment to implement long-term changes in their communities.

You can help change this. 

Help us build the next 25 years by giving today to support California's extraordinary traditional artists and cultural communities. With your donation in honor of over 25 years of ACTA, $25, $250, or even $2,500 – or a gift in any amount – you will directly contribute to building sustainable communities through the restoration, healing, and transformational power of traditional arts and culture.

Or you can send a check to:

Alliance for California Traditional Arts
744 P Street, Suite 307
Fresno, CA 93721

Contact: Amy Kitchener, Executive Director
akitch@actaonline.org

Fogo Na Roupa dancers, led by Linda Yudin from Viver Brasil, in Carnaval San Francisco's 2023 parade. Fogo Na Roupa is a 2023 Living Cultures Grantee from the Alliance for California Traditional Arts. Photo courtesy of the organization.