Fogo Na Roupa dancers, led by Linda Yudin from Viver Brasil, in Carnaval San Francisco's 2023 parade. Photo: Courtesy of the organization.

2023 Living Cultures Grant:

Supporting Culture Bearers and Organizations Statewide with its Largest Investment Ever

The Alliance for California Traditional Arts (ACTA), the Administering Organization for the California Arts Council’s Folk and Traditional Arts Grant Program, is awarding 98 grants totaling $850,000. It’s the largest group of grantees in the history of ACTA’s Living Cultures Grant Program. 

This year’s cohort invited individual artists and culture bearers for the first time, after previously focusing funding only on organizations and community groups. With the generous support of the California Arts Council, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Walter and Elise Haas Fund, 50 individual artists and culture bearers will receive $5,000, and 48 organizations and community groups will receive $12,500 in all regions of the state.

Our 2023 cohort represents a tapestry of cultural communities and artistic traditions woven throughout California, from Siskiyou to San Diego. We’re proud to promote them all: the ecological knowledge of Big Valley Rancheria in upstate Lake County, Triqui textiles in Monterey County, Lao language and dance in Fresno County, West African Malinke music in San Bernardino County, and many more. Look out for more details on each grantee on our website and social media later this year and beyond!

Click below to learn about all 98 grantees!

Welcome Nathan, Aliah, and Juhi!

Three New Staff Join the ACTA Team

Please join us in offering a warm welcome to three new ACTA staff members! Nathan, Aliah, and Juhi each bring a wealth of experience, cultural sensitivity, and dedication that will serve the artists, practitioners, and cultural organizations supported by ACTA throughout California, and beyond. Enjoy learning about each of them below, and click through to read more!

NATHAN THAMMAVONG

IT / Administrative Specialist, Fresno Field Office

Nathan Thammavong is an IT Administrator based in Fresno, CA. He graduated from California State University, Fresno with a degree in Business Information Systems with a focus on app development. An app that he worked on previously named PeddlerNow was designed to connect the local community together by showing the locations of local street vendors to new and existing customers.  Within ACTA, Nathan will work to research, train, implement, and consolidate technology services that provide support to all programs within ACTA.

ALIAH NAJMABADI

Program Manager,

San Francisco Field Office

Aliah Najmabadi is a traditional dance artist and culture worker based in the San Francisco Bay Area. With over two decades of experience in cultural programming and community development, Aliah’s passion lies in the preservation of traditional arts practices. Rooted in the Iranian/Central Asian dance community, Aliah is extensively involved in the traditional performing arts landscape of the Bay Area, cultivated through her involvement with organizations such as Golden Thread Productions, Afsaneh Arts, The Isadora Duncan Dance Awards, World Arts West and Diaspora Arts. 

JUHI GUPTA

Digital Media Specialist, San Francisco Field Office

Based in San Francisco, Juhi Gupta is a designer and creative strategist with a deep-seated desire and vision for a more equitable world. Juhi began her career in social justice as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago, and her background is in design, communications, and marketing for progressive causes – from supporting artists with disabilities to fighting mass incarceration in California. 

Read the full bios

at the button below!

ACTA Program Manager Quetzal Flores speaks at D.O.O.R.S. program launch on Nov. 2, 2023

Reentry Through the Arts:

Healing-Centered Traditional Arts for Justice-Impacted Families

With funding from the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, ACTA will be providing healing-centered arts services designed to support justice-impacted adults and their families at the Los Angeles County Justice, Care, and Opportunity Department’s (JCOD) Developing Opportunities Offering Reentry Solutions (D.O.O.R.S.) Center in the Antelope Valley, for the Cross Sector Initiatives Division of the Department of Arts and Culture.

ACTA’s Reentry Through the Arts program includes three 13-week courses taught by ACTA artists who are renowned in their respective forms and have deep knowledge in and experience with guiding justice-impacted participants in embodying traditional arts practices as pathways to recognizing, understanding, and moving beyond trauma. These artists are accomplished traditional artists in their fields and have taught in ACTA’s Arts in Corrections (AIC) programming inside state prisons and past Reentry programs. The three courses to take place in succession beginning in December include: 

1. Afro-Colombian Drumming, by Eduardo Martinez, contextualizes how West African musical forms converged with their American indigenous and European counterparts to create the diverse cultural styles prevalent in popular culture today.
2. Collective Songwriting, by Matt Amper, exemplifies how storytelling and music can shape who we are as individuals and as part of a community: songs tell stories that can be set to music.
3. Mírame: Arts in Healing Trauma, by Ofelia Esparza and Alec Esparza, uses the art of visual poetry and assemblage in a collaborative and community setting.

For further questions about the program, please contact Betty Marin (bmarin@actaonline.org) and Quetzal Flores (quetzal@actaonline.org).