Arts & Culture El Dorado
MISSION:
Arts and Culture El Dorado’s mission to promote, connect, and empower arts and culture throughout the county is achieved by targeted programs and services, a vibrant gallery exhibition series, and a focus on initiatives which support and sustain the cultural life of the region.
HISTORY/INFORMATION:
Arts and Culture El Dorado (formerly El Dorado Arts Council) has been at work in El Dorado County since 1985. Our organization brings arts education and cultural resources to a rural population for whom geographic location or economic limitations may be prohibitive. We design our programming to nurture artistic production locally, support the voices of working artists and their communities, and provide educational opportunities, while fostering respectful dialogue across diverse beliefs.
Arts & Culture El Dorado has the privilege to repurpose several historic buildings on Main Street in Placerville as cultural and educational spaces for the arts, community resources, and other functions that serve our community. Supported by a 2019 NEA Our Town grant, we will preserve the historic elements of the buildings, while updating interior spaces to create affordable live-work spaces for artists, community flex space and a community cultural center. The project carves out spaces that are open to and supportive of all communities across the county. Extant community spaces are tied to religious groups, school facilities, or fraternal organizations that segregate the community and are unwelcoming to many segments of the population. In creating non-sectarian, non-governmental, arts-based spaces the cultural district is a unifying, equal-access space that promotes a sense of shared identity and cultural understanding among diverse communities.
The Arts Incubator program provides financial and administrative support to build the capacity of cultural projects and emerging arts groups that are not 501(c)(3) organizations. This program allows these groups to realize their ideas and make a lasting impact on the community. For example, See the Elephant Theatre and Dance Co. creates exceptional performing arts programming, targeting under-resourced schools during school hours with an eye to educational equity. All students can thus access the arts at no cost and with no disruption to parent work schedules. Our guidance, administrative support, and non-profit framework wholly facilitate this work.
Images: Katie Morris, Intertwined, 2012, ceramic, Tiffany Adams, Hero, 2017, Acrylic