The application for the second GAAP Cohort will open on June 30, 2025

Cohort 2 will be announced in September and begin meeting in October 2025. The GAAP cohort will meet regularly as a community of practice, learning from and supporting each other through a season of skill building through June 2026. The mandatory meeting dates will be included in the application process.

In the application process, artist advocates will identify a change benefitting artists and/or culture bearers they want to make happen, those selected for the GAAP Cohort 2 fellowship will be supported to develop an artist advocacy plan to work towards that change. Applicants need to explain how their idea for policy change will eventually impact artists and culture bearers. The application will be open 6/30 - 7/28.

Overview

The GAAP Fellowship Program awards a cohort of five artist advocates who live and/or work in Oakland or San Francisco $12,000 each to participate in a nine-month curriculum while meeting regularly as a community of practice.

Thanks to the generosity of the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, there are two cycles planned, with the first GAAP cohort completing their advocacy plans in support of artists’ needs and presenting them in July 2025.

The application, selection process, and timeline for the second cohort will be announced in June 2025. Read Guidelines and FAQs. (Note: guidelines are subject to change for the next round in 2025).

GAAP offers training and skills building to help participants create an advocacy plan toward changing policy and systems, particularly in support of individual artists and culture bearers.

Members of the GAAP cohort develop direct relationships with policymakers, including elected and appointed officials and have the opportunity to advocate on local, state, and federal levels.

Currently, CA for the Arts has Kenneth Rainin Foundation funding for two GAAP cohorts.

Priorities

The Grassroots Artists Advocacy Program has three high-level, long-term goals and four short-term goals:

Long-term

• 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.

Short-term

• 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.

Cohort Takeaways

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!

Empowering artist advocates locally through GAAP and other parts of the Regional Advocacy Infrastructure Network is key to: 

• Achieving systems-level change in how the arts and culture sector are valued.
• Sustaining the political engagement of arts advocates.
• Increasing public investment in systems that support artist well-being and cultural organizations.
• Building a distributed power base grounded in localized self-determination.

GAAP is a new program funded by the Kenneth Rainin Foundation

For more information on GAAP, please contact Program Consultant Lead Ted Russell ted@caforthearts.org or 415-531-4893.