Arts matter in Sacramento

Arts bring people together and provide a way to share culture, creativity and community.
Lively arts creates a strong economy, creates jobs, and creates a place of pride and activity.
Arts contribute to student achievement and school success.
Arts express individual and community values.
Arts preserve our heritage and inspire our future.
Arts provides a voice for everyone and a forum for conversation, reflection and appreciation.
Sacramento is home to some of the best arts and artists in the world - and they need to be recognized!

How For Arts' Sake Came to Life

Michael Kaiser, president of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., said it best when he addressed a packed audience of community leaders in May 2009. "When it comes to strengthening the arts community, it is all about unity".

Mayor Kevin Johnson echoed this sentiment, declaring that the arts are a central element of creating a thriving creative community.

Following Michael Kaiser's visit, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson challenged arts organizations, artists, civic leaders, businesses and residents from across the Sacramento community to be bold, to work collaboratively and reinvent the way the arts are defined and supported.

And the community responded.

In 2009-2010, more than 400 citizens came together to express their passion and dedication to revitalizing Sacramento arts. They created an action plan with a clear set of recommended goals and steps for moving forward over the next three years.

Despite the struggling economy, now is not the time to become timid about investments and celebration of the arts. Arts can be a catalyst for economic recovery. Arts are the means by which people of all walks of life can raise their spirits, enjoy creative pursuits, appreciate the ingenuity and talents of their fellow citizens, and gain pride and satisfaction about living in Sacroment. For Arts' Sake is designed to strategically address the challenges facing our arts community and to build on the strengths and opportunities within the arts community to achieve a stable, thriving creative enterprise sector.

By working together across the public, private and nonprofit sectors, we can showcase the diverse arts in the region, strengthen participation and support and make Sacramento come alive with arts.

Currently artists, arts organizations, government agencies and civic partners and Action Teams are implementing the recommendations and tracking their progress.

Implementation of the For Arts' Sake recommendations will:

Raise
the profile of Sacramento's arts scene locally and nationally.

Establish
Sacramento as a major metropolitan destination because of its arts.

Unify
the arts community around a shared vision and goals.

Strengthen
the region's cultural infrastructure.

Improve
access to arts and arts education.

Invest
in talent and the creative economy.