8th Annual
Arts, Culture, & Creativity Month
April is Arts, Culture, & Creativity Month – a month of free events, resources, and advocacy opportunities across the state with the goal of engaging arts advocates and raising awareness of the impact of the arts within communities. From press conferences to group discussions, we shared talking points and resources for having effective meetings with your state representatives.
Save the Date!
CA Arts & Culture Summit
CA for the Arts is excited to announce its flagship ACCM event: the 4th Annual CA Arts & Culture Summit. The Summit will take place on Monday, April 20, 2026, in Sacramento, at both the Memorial Auditorium and the SAFE Credit Union Convention Center. The theme for 2026 is
Save the Date!
Arts Advocacy Day
Join us on Tuesday, April 21, 2026 at Capitol Park, Sacramento for Arts Advocacy Day, a vital moment to raise your voice and take action. Advocacy Day features an energizing rally featuring dynamic speakers and powerful performances to get your heart racing before we march to the Capitol together.
What is Arts, Culture, & Creativity Month?
In 2019, CA for the Arts successfully campaigned for the state to recognize and celebrate the arts by declaring April as Arts, Culture, & Creativity Month (ACCM) through a concurrent resolution passed in the California Senate. In 2021, an additional resolution was declared to recognize artists as second responders.
CA for the Arts directs this annual month-long spotlight on the arts to raise visibility and awareness about the value of our sector, to empower arts advocates to take action, and to spur greater investments in our industry and workforce.
Our goal is to activate the state and make it easy and educational for you to participate in ACCM. In the months ahead we will release FREE toolkits and resources to generate a social media campaign, get your local government to proclaim April as Arts, Culture, & Creativity Month, learn how to conduct a visit with your legislator and leverage local media to support getting your community talking about the value of the arts.
Sponsorship Opportunities
Stay tuned for the ACCM 2026 Sponsorship Package! It will outline all the ways you or your organization can help support this statewide celebration of arts, culture, and community. With flexible sponsorship opportunities to match every level of giving, there’s a place for everyone to contribute and make an impact in the arts.
For more information, please contact NeFesha Yisra'el, Director of Programs, at nefesha@cafortharts.org.
ACCM 2025 Report now available to download!
Our goal for last April was to make ACCM a space for connection and action: equipping advocates with toolkits, raising awareness, and amplifying the power of arts and culture to sustain us through challenge and change. Read this report and delve into “Health, Healing” & Hope” the powerful theme that shaped ACCM, dive into highlights from our social media campaigns, and see the numbers that tell the story of our statewide impact through county and city proclamations to kickoff events. Plus, get a full recap of the 2025 Arts & Culture Summit and Arts Advocacy Day, and discover the lasting mark we made on California’s cultural and civic landscape.
Arts Champion Awards
Every year, we present the Arts Champion award where we recognize state arts and culture policy leaders. Past Legislative Arts Star Award recipients include:
2025
Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas
Assemblymember Mike Gipson
Rick Stein
2024
Senator Anthony Portantino
Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo
Mayor Darrell Steinberg
2023
Speaker Emeritus, Anthony Rendon
Senator Toni Atkins
Assemblymember Tasha Boerner Horvath
2022
Governor Gavin Newsom
Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva
2019
Assemblymember Richard Bloom
Senator Scott Wilk
2018
Senator Ben Allen
Senator Jim Nielsen
2017
Assemblymember Ian Calderon
In the Archives
2025
ACCM 2025's programming and activations were shaped by the theme "Health, Healing, Hope," exploring the vital intersection of arts with community wellness and recovery while also emphasizing that Art Work is Real Work – building on our successful advocacy for artists as essential workers in our communities.
2024
ACCM 2024's theme was "Art Work is Real Work." Artists play an essential role in our economy and our health with critical contributions across a variety of social impact areas but often are without the services and conditions they need to thrive due to the ongoing undervaluing of their work.
