A new Bay Area project is putting both money and attention behind the artists and cultural leaders shaping the region's identity.
The Culture Keepers is a new initiative investing nearly $1 million into local artists, nonprofits and cultural institutions working to preserve community and culture.
The multi-year initiative is backed by a single donor providing long-term support for artists and cultural spaces across the Bay Area. Organizers say the effort comes at a critical time as rising costs and cuts to arts funding continue to push creatives out of the communities they help shape.
“We think it is really critical in this moment in time that we continue to create those creative workforce opportunities for individual artists,” The Culture Keepers Chief Curator Vanessa Camarena-Arredondo said. “Arts and culture does not thrive if we don't have work for them and artists are not cared for on a day to day.”
The project also helps fund storytellers and filmmakers. Organizers say the goal is to support those driving culture while acknowledging art as essential community infrastructure.
“We felt the urgency of the moment,” Camarena-Arredondo said. “Not only that, but realized a lot of our artists and culture groups, they don't have the funds to spread their story. We wanted to help them spread their story about the impact of culture in our region and put an investment behind them where they felt supported.”
NBC Bay Area’s Velena Jones has more in the video report above.
