| Contra Costa County, CA Official Website

🚨 New Exhibition Alert🚨

Art of the African Diaspora

The Art Passages exhibition is now up for viewing

on the first floor of 1025 Escobar St, Martinez, CA.

The Art Of The African Diaspora exhibition is the longest running event of its kind, within the San Francisco Bay Area’s oldest established Art Center, the Richmond Art Center. In 1989, artist and professor Marie Johnson Calloway created the Colors of Black salon for African American artists.

In 1996, artists Jan Hart-Schuyers and Rae Louise Hayward established The Art of Living Black exhibit at the Richmond Art Center. Many artists from Colors of Black participated in the inaugural exhibition, which presented the work of emerging and established African American artists. Over the next twenty-five years, the Richmond Art Center presented exhibitions to increase visibility for African American artists in the Bay Area.

In 2019, the Steering Committee became aware of the necessity to incorporate a broader vision of the African Diaspora and consequently renamed the organization, Art Of The African Diaspora.

The Arts and Culture Commission is a proud partner of the Art Of The African Diaspora.

Arts and Culture Prospectus

of Contra Costa County

In a time of a historical pandemic, calls for racial equity and social justice highlight the need to recalibrate our focus, shift strategies and invest in projects that will have more direct impact on our diverse communities. Requests for district art projects along with Contra Costa County government and community organization collaborations have increased. Therefore, the Arts and Culture Commission recently requested the re-budget of the venture capital for FY 2021-22 to create an updated Arts & Culture Prospectus of Contra Costa County which will act as a community action plan and identify art projects that are specific to the unique needs of a supervisorial district in the County.

In May 2021, the County Board of Supervisors approved the development of an updated Arts and Culture Prospectus of Contra Costa County. From July 2021 to June 2022, the Arts and Culture Commission proposes to identify community stakeholders, facilitate two workshops, and present an updated Arts & Culture Prospectus for Contra Costa County with a District Art Projects proposal to the Board of Supervisors. The overall guiding principles for the Prospectus will be to increase engagement, outreach, community awareness, highlight art resources, and conduct a community evaluation.

The Arts and Culture Commission and community stakeholders will be working together towards collective arts and cultural goals.

Here’s our plan!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2TADmDF_QU

The Arts and Culture Commission of Contra Costa County in partnership with the California Arts Council, National Endowments for the Arts, and Poetry Foundation proudly supports Poetry Out Loud (POL), a national recitation contest open to high school students. Poetry Out Loud generates a love of poetry, helps students master public speaking, and builds self-confidence.

The program is open to all Contra Costa County high schools and organizations that work with grades 9-12 (homeschoolers can also participate).

CONGRATULATIONS

2020-21 LACOG GRANTEES!

EAST BAY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

RICHMOND ART CENTER

RYSE CENTER

THE QUINAN STREET PROJECT

About LACOG: In partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the California Arts Council (CAC) awarded the Arts and Culture Commission of Contra Costa County a grant as part of the 2020 State-Local Partner Cares Relief Fund. The Commission will administer a sub-grant program (LACOG) to fund general operating support, and/or project-based support to local arts and cultural organizations serving communities of color disproportionately affected by COVID-19. LACOG awardees are paired with commissioners to receive one-on-one guidance and support.