Background on the Creative Youth Workforce Development Grant

 As part of its American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) framework for Creative Youth Workforce Development, the City of Sacramento’s Office of Arts and Culture (OAC) is launching its 2025-26 Creative Youth Workforce Development Grants. On February 15, 2022, City Council allocated $10 million and approved the ARPA framework and funding priorities for the Arts and Creative Economy. $1.25 million of these funds are for Creative Economy-focused youth workforce development. 

 To provide support for organizations with different levels of experience and capacity, two different grant categories will be offered and funding awarded to Sacramento-based nonprofit cultural organizations and for-profit creative businesses to create high impact training and work readiness experience for youth and young adults ages 16-24.

Grant Categories

•  Creative Youth Workforce Pilot Grants - Up to seven grants of $75,000 each will be awarded to organizations with some level of experience in youth workforce training who are piloting a more formal creative youth workforce program. 
•  Creative Youth Workforce Program Grants - Up to three grants of $220,000 each will be awarded to organizations with a strong existing youth workforce development program that they are planning to scale and will be sustainable after the end of the grant period. 

Grant Program Overview

 OAC will provide grants for programs that provide youth workforce readiness, training, apprenticeship or pre-apprenticeship opportunities, skills development, placement services and/or coaching and mentoring in the creative economy. 

 Grants must be dedicated towards creative economy subsectors that represent high growth
potential and/or reflect Sacramento’s unique strengths and industry opportunities.
 

The grant awards will aid communities that sustained negative impacts due to COVID-19. Programs must be designed to provide services to youth in the US HUD qualified census tracts, US HUD adjacent and/or the Sacramento Opportunity Zone.

THE OBJECTIVES of the Creative Youth Workforce Development program are to:

· Invest in the development and expansion of high-quality programs offered by organizations that can demonstrate significant experience, industry connections and student placement rates in high potential areas of the creative economy.

· Invest in the broader ecosystem of service providers who offer exposure to creative industries employment opportunities.

· Provide productive opportunities for youth engagement and create pathways to future employment opportunities in growing industries.

To be eligible for a Creative Youth Workforce Development grant, an Applicant must submit a grant application outlining how the Applicant will use the funding to implement youth and young adult training and internship programs in one of the four priority areas listed below. Applicants may be non-profit organizations or creative businesses that are ready to administer pathway internships, apprenticeships, pre-apprenticeships, and training for a minimum of five (5) youth and young adults for $75,000 pilot grants or a minimum of twelve (12) youth and young adults for $220,000 grants. 

Link to full guidelines

Background on the Creative Youth Workforce Development Grant

 As part of its American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) framework for Creative Youth Workforce Development, the City of Sacramento’s Office of Arts and Culture (OAC) is launching its 2025-26 Creative Youth Workforce Development Grants. On February 15, 2022, City Council allocated $10 million and approved the ARPA framework and funding priorities for the Arts and Creative Economy. $1.25 million of these funds are for Creative Economy-focused youth workforce development. 

 To provide support for organizations with different levels of experience and capacity, two different grant categories will be offered and funding awarded to Sacramento-based nonprofit cultural organizations and for-profit creative businesses to create high impact training and work readiness experience for youth and young adults ages 16-24.

Grant Categories

•  Creative Youth Workforce Pilot Grants - Up to seven grants of $75,000 each will be awarded to organizations with some level of experience in youth workforce training who are piloting a more formal creative youth workforce program. 
•  Creative Youth Workforce Program Grants - Up to three grants of $220,000 each will be awarded to organizations with a strong existing youth workforce development program that they are planning to scale and will be sustainable after the end of the grant period. 

Grant Program Overview

 OAC will provide grants for programs that provide youth workforce readiness, training, apprenticeship or pre-apprenticeship opportunities, skills development, placement services and/or coaching and mentoring in the creative economy. 

 Grants must be dedicated towards creative economy subsectors that represent high growth
potential and/or reflect Sacramento’s unique strengths and industry opportunities.
 

The grant awards will aid communities that sustained negative impacts due to COVID-19. Programs must be designed to provide services to youth in the US HUD qualified census tracts, US HUD adjacent and/or the Sacramento Opportunity Zone.

THE OBJECTIVES of the Creative Youth Workforce Development program are to:

· Invest in the development and expansion of high-quality programs offered by organizations that can demonstrate significant experience, industry connections and student placement rates in high potential areas of the creative economy.

· Invest in the broader ecosystem of service providers who offer exposure to creative industries employment opportunities.

· Provide productive opportunities for youth engagement and create pathways to future employment opportunities in growing industries.

To be eligible for a Creative Youth Workforce Development grant, an Applicant must submit a grant application outlining how the Applicant will use the funding to implement youth and young adult training and internship programs in one of the four priority areas listed below. Applicants may be non-profit organizations or creative businesses that are ready to administer pathway internships, apprenticeships, pre-apprenticeships, and training for a minimum of five (5) youth and young adults for $75,000 pilot grants or a minimum of twelve (12) youth and young adults for $220,000 grants. 

Link to full guidelines

CALL TO ARTISTS

The City of Sacramento, Office of Arts + Culture, a division of the City of Sacramento Convention and Cultural Services Department in partnership with Wexford Science + Technology, invites qualified professional visual artists to submit their qualifications for one exterior mural (total square footage is 3,476 sq. ft.) commission opportunity. This project, currently being developed and funded by Wexford Science + Technology (Wexford) and anchored by UC Davis, is an innovation hub and knowledge community located in Sacramento, CA.  The funding and contracting for this project are handled entirely through Wexford. This is a privately not publicly funded project. The Office of Arts + Culture is providing general guidance and services for the RFQ and panel selection portion of this project.  

Professional visual artists with experience in studio painting, large scale designs, environmental designs, or murals are encouraged to apply. Artists may apply separately or as a team. Through an open competitive selection process, two finalists will be selected and paid a stipend to develop and present conceptual designs. Once selected, the chosen artist will contract directly with Wexford to develop a final design and install the artwork on site.  Additional consideration will be given to artists who reside in or have historic, personal, or cultural connections to the land within Sacramento County or Yolo County. Studio artists without significant mural or public art experience are still highly encouraged to apply. 

ART BUDGET

The two finalists will each receive a $500 stipend to develop their concepts. The artist / artist team selected for the mural will receive the following payment, which is intended to cover all expenses for the mural, including materials, equipment, and labor. 

Location: Aggie Square Parking Garage (2 columns, each column approx. 22’ wide by 79’ tall – approximately 3,476 SF) - $42,500

Funds are directly from Wexford’s project budget and the selected artists will enter into a written agreement with Wexford for their work. Payment will be made 50% at contract signing with the remaining 50% to be paid upon project completion.

PROJECT BACKGROUND

The mural will be installed on the exterior portion of our parking garage, which is part of our Aggie Square project. These two particular columns are west-facing and therefore will be visible from multiple project areas. The parking garage is currently known as “Aggie Square Garage” and the current address is 2800 49th Ave. The total square footage of both columns is 3,476 sq. ft, with each of the columns being roughly 22’ wide and 79’ in height, so the artist will need to get creative with negative space as we won’t expect them to fill the entirety of each column with this budget.

Aggie Square will serve as a nexus of innovation, creativity, academic research, and community engagement. It can be seen as a place to live, work, learn, discover, and heal. The exterior parking garage mural should reinforce Aggie Square as a place for creative people to pursue their dreams. 

We don’t want this to be just a “decorative” piece but rather something that adds to Aggie Square overall. We would love to see an element of surprise and some kind of ties (abstract is fine) to the community. Integration with the surrounding architecture is necessary. During the RFP process, the artist should submit past examples of exterior murals they have designed and installed, especially in a community setting. General themes that we are looking at for this piece include innovation, community, collaboration, life science, research, and/or education. Otherwise, we would like to keep the guidelines for the mural concept open ended. Artists should submit portfolios and examples of past work and should not submit a design concept. The design concept development stage will occur for only the two selected finalists. 

DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS AND CONTENT FOR SELECTED ARTIST

Once finalists are selected through the RFQ process, the mural should be designed to reinforce and honor the region’s eclectic background and consider any, or all, of the natural (rivers, trees, foothills), economic (agriculture, healthcare/bioscience), or cultural (murals, diversity of people, neighborhoods) attributes of the Sacramento region. Designs can look forward in a way that creates a feeling of hope without ignoring the rich history of the past. The goal is for the art to inspire creativity, discovery, healing, and optimism. 

The selected artists will have access to the project’s design and development teams. While the budget is mostly geared toward painted murals, Wexford will also consider installations beyond painted murals such as vinyl graphics, sculptural wall installations, lighting treatments, etc.  However, the budget for this site is fixed no matter the medium or installation scheme the finalist presents for the conceptual design phase. 

Finalist conceptual design presentations will give the artist an opportunity to explain and clarify the conceptual direction they intend to develop but are not expected to encompass the final design for the artwork. After selection for the project, the selected artist will have some time to meet with stakeholders, meet with other project team members, tour the site, and do further research and design development before presenting their final design for approval. Once the final design is approved, the mural must be completed and fully installed by April 25, 2025.  This is the final deadline for installation. 

ELIGIBILITY 

All eligible applicants must be 18 years or older and be experienced professional visual artists. While not required, applicants are encouraged to demonstrate a history of involvement in collaborative projects and/or public art projects. Applicants are encouraged to share past mural projects they have created and/or worked on.  Artists should clarify the role they played when working in collaborative or team environments. If applying as a team, the panel will be most interested in projects where the team has previously worked together. 

Applicants must have strong ties and/or reside in the Sacramento Valley, namely Sacramento and Yolo counties. The applicant need not reside in the mentioned counties so long as they can demonstrate historical, personal, or cultural ties to the region. 

HOW TO APPLY AND PROJECT GUIDELINES 

Artists may apply for the Aggie Square Mural Phase 3 RFQ by filling out the online application on Submittable.com and submitting it with required supporting materials. The entire submission must be completed on Submittable at https://saccityarts.submittable.com/submit . Applications submitted any other way will not be considered. There is no application fee to apply or to use Submittable. To apply, register a username and password and follow the instructions.  For registration, please use an email address that you monitor. All initial correspondence and updates will be through your Submittable account, not the contact info you list in your application. 

The call is listed as Aggie Square Mural Phase 3 RFQ. City staff will review the applications for eligibility and advance eligible applications to a diverse panel of community and development stakeholders, artists, art administrators, and curators who will review all complete submissions and interview at least three finalists prior to choosing an artist for the commission. APP staff will facilitate the panel’s review. 

As part of the online Submittable application, artists will be required to submit the following materials for consideration. Artist teams should submit only one application and identify one team member as the main contact. Incomplete applications will not be accepted:

· Professional Resume:  Detailing experience, past projects, along with any relevant skills and qualifications. (2 page maximum; teams may submit a 1 page maximum per team member)

· Portfolio of Past Artwork:  Highlighting examples of the artist’s public art and/or mural projects. (10 image files)

· Image Description List: Providing the Title, medium, location (if applicable), and commissioning body (if applicable). If artwork was part of a team or collaboration effort, role artist played must be indicated. 

· Artist Statement:  Clarifying the artist’s inspirations or interests as shown through the artist’s creative practice and provided sample artwork. (1 page maximum; teams must submit a statement that discusses their work and creative practice as a team)

· Statement of Interest:  Explaining the artist’s interests in the location options and overall project opportunity. (250 word maximum)

· Location Statement:  Demonstrating the applicant’s ties to the Sacramento Valley region. (150 word maximum)

· 3 Professional References:  From past clients or collaborators (name, title, phone, and email)

PANEL REVIEW OF APPLICATIONS

The selection panel is inclusive of a diverse set of individuals with differing cultural, racial, and professional backgrounds. The selection panel will review and score applications based on a series of objective criteria that will help them decide which artists will receive an invitation to prepare and present a conceptual design. Panelists will evaluate artists based on the criterion shown below (60 Points Total) as evidenced by subcategory questions described in the Scoring Rubric (available to applicants in the online Information packet). 

Panelists are only reviewing past artwork and qualifications. No proposed designs for this project are to be submitted or reviewed during the RFQ application process. The areas of panel review of artists’ past work samples are: 

· Originality (20 points)

· Technical Skill (20 points)

· Public Art Experience (20 points)

INFORMATION PACKET FOLDER AND INFORMATION SESSION

The information packet folder may be downloaded here:  Phase 3 Information Packet Folder .

The folder includes some basic information about the project and locations as well as the Scoring Rubric that the selection panel will use to score all qualified applicants. Once selected for the commission, finalists will be provided additional support materials and opportunities to meet with stakeholders in order to prepare and complete their final design presentation. During this RFQ process, the information packet includes the following; although, additional items may be added as they become available:

· Scoring Rubric for Applicants – Aggie Square Mural Phase 3

· RFQ – Aggie Square Mural Phase 3 - PDF format 

An online information session will be held on Wednesday December 4, 2024 from 530 pm - 630 pm PST. The zoom link registration is: https://cityofsacramento-org.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAuc-2uqjsjGdxsXBG3GLf_q9JQPToqeHFm . This will be an opportunity to ask questions about the Aggie Square development project, the application process, the goals for the site locations, and hear more about the project from city staff and project stakeholders.  The session will be recorded and will be uploaded to the Information packet folder. 

PRELIMINARY PROJECT TIMELINE 

11/01/24  Call to Artists Launches

12/04/24  OAC facilitates online Information Session (recorded)

01/06/25 Call to Artists Ends

02/05/25  All Day Selection Panel online Review Day - 9am – 4pm – Finalists selected 

02/10/25  Finalists notified 

02/28/25 Finalist Presentations to Selection Panel – possible in person (TBD)

03/03/25  Chosen Artist notified 

03/14/25  Final Design approved by Wexford / Artist sets install schedule and may begin on-site

04/25/25 Final Deadline for all work to be completed and installed

QUESTIONS

Donald Gensler, Manager, Office of Arts + Culture, Art in Public Places, dgensler@cityofsacramento.org or call 916-808-8493. 

INTRODUCTION: The Sacramento City Council and the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors make funds available to the Cultural Arts Awards (CAA) program to support nonprofit arts and cultural organizations. This funding provides general operating support to organizations within Sacramento County who contribute to the cultural vibrancy of our communities. To be eligible for funding, grantees must meet standards of diversity and equity, cultural and community impact, show sound management, and financial accountability. 

ABOUT THE CULTURAL ARTS AWARD: 

Program Goals:

• Support best practices in management including responsive planning, accountability, fund development, transparency, qualified boards and staff, and overall fiscal health.
• Encourage the involvement and appropriate compensation of artists.
• Support organization’s commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.
• Celebrate the cultural vibrancy within Sacramento County and its neighborhoods.
• Support arts and cultural programs that demonstrate strong artistic impact.
• Promote artistic expression deeply rooted in and reflective of historically marginalized communities.
• Encourage innovative and creative programs that engage audiences and participants.
• Support organizations that respond to community need through planning and program delivery.

CONTACT US: We are here to help. 

Please contact staff with any questions you have. 

• Email: oaccaagrant@cityofsacramento.org 

All applicants MUST read the full guidelines before applying. For full guidelines please CLICK HERE or visit our Website. 

View entire Guidelines here.

Program Overview

Sacramento Film + Media is committed to sustaining and growing film and television production in the City of Sacramento. The Film + Media Grant Program supports this aim by subsidizing permit fees and reducing the costs of safety personnel and reimbursing qualified expenses for production companies when these activities occur in the City of Sacramento. 

Sacramento Film + Media will award six $10,000 production grants and two $5,000 post-production grants during fiscal year 2025 in two grant rounds. Grant funds that remain available due to a lack of eligible applicants in the prior period will be rolled over to the next round. Grants will be for:

1. Required services and permitting fees by City of Sacramento staff and/or departments, including police, fire, permit fees, parking fees (inter-department transfer of funds); Reimbursement awards where an applicant has demonstrated a need that exceeds City services support, where qualified expenses occur within the city (i.e., hotel nights, rental cars, rental equipment, location fees, catering, local hires, post-production, etc.); or

2. Reimbursement awards for post-production support.

 Eligibility

The Sacramento Film + Media Grant program is open to productions filming at least 50% of the project in the Sacramento region with at least two locations in the city of Sacramento. It is also open to productions where 75% of post-production is done in the city of Sacramento. Eligible productions include feature length films, short films, episodic television, television pilots, television movies/miniseries, documentaries, docuseries, commercials, music videos, and unscripted television. Production companies may only apply for one grant per round. Production companies may apply for multiple rounds but may only be awarded two grants in a twelve-month period, including a post-production grant. Applications must be submitted prior to physical production commencement to be considered eligible (documentaries excluded), and post-production applicants must have 75% of physical production completed to be considered eligible. 

THIS IS A REIMBURSEMENT GRANT, ONLY EXPENSES WITHIN THE CITY OF SACRAMENTO WILL BE REIMBURSED.