California awards $2.8 million to 33 groups for free arts events in local parks
Grants of $28,000 to $150,000 from the Arts in California Parks program will pay for performances, workshops, cultural gatherings and public art through September 2027. More than 200 applied.
Sacramento. Thirty-three nonprofits, tribal organizations and local governments in California will share $2.8 million to put on free arts programs in parks, California State Parks, the California Arts Council and Parks California announced on Oct. 20.
The grants, from the Arts in California Parks program, range from $28,000 to $150,000. They were chosen from more than 200 applications. The projects begin this fall and run through September 2027. Parks California is a nonprofit created by the state to extend the reach of its park system.
What the money pays for
In Los Angeles, Homeboy Industries' Homeboy Art Academy will lead a yearlong program in painting, textiles, movement, storytelling and ceremonial arts for young people from the organization's Youth Reentry Center, held in city parks and ending with a traveling outdoor exhibition. Oakland's Sankofa Roots will gather up to 200 Native weavers and artists at Camp Jones Gulch in San Mateo County for a weekend of basketweaving with YMCA San Francisco.
Everywhere Science will run a free, four-week filmmaking challenge in Davis that ends with an outdoor festival in Davis Central Park. In San Diego County, the Mesa Grande Indian Housing Authority will build the first phase of a cultural park on Mesa Grande Band of Mission Indians land in Santa Ysabel, with a trail whose panels are written in Iipay and English.
Other grantees include Pony Box Dance Theatre, for a yearlong dance program in Palm Springs parks centered on LGBTQ stories; Ink People Center for the Arts, for a free multimedia play in Humboldt County parks on wildfire and cultural burning; New Village Arts, for Indigenous art walks at 10 sites in Southern California; and the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History, for a year of programs at Evergreen Cemetery in Santa Cruz. Cities, a county and park and community services districts are also on the list.
The third and last round of a pilot
The program began in 2024. This is its third round of grants and, according to its grants page, the final year of a three-year pilot. The first two rounds gave $2.8 million to 31 grantees and $2.6 million to 30. Counting this year, it has given more than $8.2 million to 94 organizations for more than 300 events, the agencies said.
Nearly 79,000 people took part in the program's events in 2025, and 40 percent of them were visiting their local park for the first time, according to the announcement. This round's 12-month grants went to organizations ready to run programs with partners they already work with. The agencies tie the program to the state's Outdoors for All initiative, which they said became law in September 2026.
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