About ACTA – Overview

Our Mission

The Alliance for California Traditional Arts promotes and supports ways for cultural traditions to thrive now and into the future.

Our vision is for a culturally and racially equitable California.

In our increasingly fractured society, we believe ACTA will play a critical role in shaping a positive future for California where the unique value of every culture is respected, sustained, and appreciated. Through our programs, services, and funding opportunities for the traditional arts, we are weaving a more integrated, just, and empathetic social fabric across California. Founded in 1997, ACTA is a 501(c)3 non-profit and for 24 years served as the California Arts Council’s official partner in serving the state’s folk and traditional arts field.

California is a leading creative and cultural capital in the world. With 1 in 4 Californians identifying as first generation immigrants, our state is at the forefront of the country’s shift toward racial and ethnic plurality. We are home to an abundance of cultural traditions embedded in California families and communities. From Ohlone basketry to Japanese koto music, from Oaxacan mask-making to queer voguing competitions, we recognize California’s breadth of cultural practice as sources of social belonging, power, and justice.

We’ve supported California’s living cultural heritage for more than 20 years.

ACTA is a statewide and national leader dedicated to supporting cultural practitioners and their communities. We travel up and down California from our offices in Fresno, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, reaching every corner of the state. We work in partnership with communities, learning from their own articulation of assets, needs, and aspirations in order to craft responsive programs and services. ACTA aims to serve as a bridge between cultural communities, providing opportunities for exchange, collaboration, and connection to new resources. 

Since our founding in 1997 by cultural workers, arts administrators, and artists, we have distributed more than $7 million in grants to more than 1,660 artists and organizations throughout 50 counties in the state.