September 2020 Newsletter
Nearly 300 arts and culture organizations and individual artists have been selected to receive reimbursement grants from the City of Sacramento’s Creative Economy Recovery program. The program is designed to financially assist arts groups, tourism and cultural organizations who have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and is funded by the $89 million the City received from the federal CARES Act.

Scores were based on a proof of impact and loss from the COVID-19 pandemic. To provide more funds to as many groups as possible, the Arts, Culture, and Creative Economy Commission created a cap of $100,000 on Creative Business Reimbursement grants and a cap of $10,000 in Individual Artist Reimbursement grants.

“The COVID-19 pandemic crippled much of our Creative Economy in Sacramento,” said Ray Gargano, grant programs officer. “Many of these facilities were forced to close their doors to the public and I am glad that we were able to financially help so many iconic institutions and organizations, businesses and individual artists.”


Megan Van Voorhis Named as Cultural & Creative Economy Manager

Following an extensive national search led by Arts Consulting Group, the City of Sacramento has named Megan Van Voorhis as its Cultural & Creative Economy Manager. She will start her new position in mid-September.

Van Voorhis joins the City of Sacramento from her current role as the president/CEO of Arts Cleveland. During her 17-year tenure there, Van Voorhis partnered to successfully launch several critical arts and culture initiatives. She led capacity-building projects for individual artists and small arts organizations, established a collaborative marketing database for major arts and cultural organizations, helped create a dedicated local public-sector revenue stream to support arts and culture and spearheaded programs to connect the arts to other sectors.

Art in Public Places - Request for Qualifications
Artist Roster for January 2021 - December 2025

All California and US-based artists are invited to submit their qualifications for inclusion in the Sacramento Artist Roster. Public artists and studio artists are encouraged to apply. The Sacramento Office of Arts + Culture manages the Art in Public Places Program for the City of Sacramento. The Artist Roster will primarily serve as a resource for the selecting artwork through a public panel selection process. 

Sacramento Office of Arts + Culture reserves the option of using the Artist Roster as the sole resource for identifying appropriate artists for a project, or in combination with an explicit artist call that has been posted. The Office of Arts + Culture will continue to post Calls for Artists Projects when appropriate. 

Once an artist is accepted, they are retained on the Roster until it expires at the end of December 2025. All artists will be notified to reapply in September of 2025 for a new Roster. While the Roster is active, a call will open every September for additional artists to be added. Artists already accepted on the Roster during the initial call, do not need to reapply until the roster is completely refreshed in 2025. Accepted artists on the Roster may request to update their information and artwork at any time during the roster period.

The RFQ will open September 14, 2020 and will close November 13, 2020 at 6:00 PM.