• Strong artistic commitment - Your creative practice is central to your life
• Clear advocacy vision - You can explain how your issues impact artists and culture bearers
• Collaboration experience - Some background in advocacy, activism, organizing, or network building
• Program commitment - Willingness to attend all sessions and complete the full experience
• Complementary perspectives - How you add to a diverse, well-rounded cohort

• Strong work ethic 
• Curiosity 
• Organization 
• Problem-solving skills 
• Attention to detail 
• Leadership with collaborative spirit

• Age: 18 years or older
• Location: Live or work in Oakland or San Francisco
• Language: Proficiency in English (curriculum presented in English)
• Identify as one or more of the following: (1) Artist with an artistic or creative practice (2) Culture bearer with cultural transmission or preservation experience (3) Creative worker with artistic/creative practice or cultural transmission or preservation experience

• Your creative or artistic practice or work in cultural transmission or preservation is more than a hobby to you.
• You should be able to demonstrate a dedicated commitment to your practice.
• Your practice should engage the communities of San Francisco or Oakland.
• Note: You do not need to be currently employed or earning revenue from your creative or cultural work.

Community and Social Arts • Crafts • Culinary Arts • Cultural and Heritage Arts • Design Arts • Emerging and Experimental Arts • Folk and Traditional Arts • Literary Arts • Media Arts • Performing Arts • Spiritual and Healing Arts • Visual Arts

Ongoing intentional engagement in creative activities to produce or perform works of art

Ongoing intentional engagement in activities involving original ideas, innovative problem-solving, or novel works across various fields

Individual responsible for preserving, transmitting, and promoting cultural traditions, beliefs, practices, values, and customs

Individual working in creative industries, including roles in cultural nonprofits and sectors that rely on creative output

• Diverse artists are thriving in the Bay Area.
• More artists are engaged in advocacy.
• Local, state, and federal policymakers are engaged with artists, their issues, and their unique perspectives.

• Artists are directly engaged in state cultural policy development and advocacy.
• Artists are empowered to advocate for the well-being of artists.
• Artists are empowered to look at the policy space, conduct informal policy analysis, and gain understanding first-hand.
• Artists have relationships with their elected officials.
• GAAP is replicated across California as part of the Regional Advocacy Infrastructure Network (RAIN) Program.

At the culmination of the 9-month fellowship, GAAP cohort members will have acquired:

• A passion for advocacy work;
• Integrated learnings about the workings of advocacy and policy development at the local, state, and federal levels;
• Skills including network building and community organizing;
• Experience advocating for an issue with a plan of their design;
• The ongoing support of the GAAP network; 
• Contacts in the worlds of advocacy and policy, including a new relationship with the office of at least one elected official; and                        
• A certificate of Advocacy Achievement from CA for the Arts!

Advocacy is speaking in favor of and working toward enacting specific government or industry policies.

Policy is a codified rule, law, regulation or practice to guide decisions and achieve desired outcomes.

GAAP uses an open application process. CA for the Arts will review applications and a panel will choose five fellows. The selection prioritizes cohort fit, representation of San Francisco and Oakland’s diversity, and impact potential. Key factors include artistic commitment, applicant’s proposed changes, existing and proposed networks, collaboration experience, and how the five cohort members complement each other. The goal is to form a diverse cohort committed to the entire program, with varied policy interests and a willingness to learn and engage in advocacy fundamentals together.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

GAAP is an open application process and does not require an invitation. Please apply if you’re an artist and/or culture bearer who lives or works in Oakland or San Francisco with a consistent artistic or cultural practice, a desire for equitable systems change and are ready to commit to a nine-month cohort-based fellowship program and directly engage in advocacy and policy development. 

If this calls to you and you identify as an artist with an artistic or creative practice, a culture bearer with experience in cultural transmission or preservation, and/or a creative Worker with an artistic or creative practice or experience in cultural transmission or preservation please read more about GAAP’s Accountabilities & Requirements, Timeline, Structure, Meetings, and Cohort Takeaways the GAAP cohort members will acquire by the culmination of the program. GAAP emphasizes the equitable resourcing of historically underrepresented and systemically marginalized populations, including BIPOC, LGBTQA+, Disabled, Deaf & Neurodiverse artists. 

Grassroots advocacy has been at the center of extraordinary change in our society in areas like civil rights, environment, labor, and immigration. Of course, those struggles endure, but grassroots movements have been crucial in achieving measurable progress for people who were historically denied a seat at the table when important decisions were being made. With this legacy in mind, GAAP equitably supports artists, culture bearers, and creative workers inspired to advocate for causes they care about. The fellowship offers paid training and skills building to help participants create an advocacy plan toward changing policy and systems, particularly in support of individual artists.

Specifically, we designed GAAP for artists, culture bearers, and creative workers with committed artistic or cultural practices and a desire for equitable systems change. The skills and knowledge acquired make them stronger and more confident advocates and organizers, allowing them to be proactive, engage others effectively, and create lasting impact in their advocacy efforts. The core objective is to help them directly participate in advocacy efforts with the understanding that artists and culture bearers know best about what they need in order to live in the Bay Area, sustain their practices and thrive. GAAP's local arts and cultural advocacy approach prioritizes racial and cultural equity. It emphasizes the empowerment and self-determination of artists, culture bearers and creative workers.

CA for the Arts and the funders of GAAP (the Kenneth Rainin Foundation and the Walter & Elise Haas Fund), have experience working with artists and culture bearers and a sense of current advocacy and policy issues impacting them. Other creatives, makers, cultural workers and creative workers who don’t have an artistic or cultural practice have varied, significant advocacy and policy issues with which the organizations are less familiar. Continued program success requires a deeper understanding and a degree of focus. 

In response to the boundaries of its place-based funders, GAAP currently limits its geographic scope to two cities, San Francisco and Oakland.

The program seeks to support emerging and seasoned advocates. Inexperienced advocates are better suited for CA for the Arts’ other advocacy Programs and Field Engagement initiatives. If you are interested but new to advocacy, please consider participating in CA Arts & Culture Summit and Arts Advocacy Day in April 2027.

Read this document for additional questions asked during past informational webinar sessions.