CCI January E-News

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January 2026

Quick Grant - Apply Now!

CCI's Quick Grant program provides microgrants of up to $600 on a monthly basis to help you enroll in workshops, attend conferences, and work with consultants, coaches, and mentors in order to build administrative capacity, hone business skills, and strengthen the financial sustainability of your art practice or area of cultural production.

Apply by January 15 at 12 p.m. (noon) PT for activities starting on or after February 16.

CCI GRANT OPPORTUNITIES

Investing in Artists: Artistic Innovation - 2026 Program Launch Timeline Update

We’re excited to share an update on the launch of the Investing in Artists: Artistic Innovation program for the 2026 funding cycle. The program will be launching earlier than in past cycles, with applications anticipated to open in February, rather than our previous summer cadence.

The Investing in Artists: Artistic Innovation program provides grants of up to $9,000 to diverse, Bay Area working artists who are developing new work in the performing or media arts that pushes the envelope of their creative process, explores new artistic collaborations, and/or supports artistic growth and experimentation that extends the boundaries of their art-making. The upcoming round will be open to artists residing in Marin, Napa, Solano, or Sonoma Counties.

Learn more about the program and the 2025 grantees here. We look forward to sharing more details about the 2026 cycle soon!

CCI ADVOCACY

The National Artist Safety Survey

CCI is partnering with ARC - Artists at Risk Connection and a group of arts and culture organizations to field The National Artist Safety Survey. As we gather lived experiences from artists and cultural workers across the U.S., your perspective is essential!

By sharing your experience, you help ensure that resources and protections reflect your realities and needs. Your responses will inform the upcoming U.S. Safety Guide for Artists and Cultural Workers, to be released in early 2026. This is a practical resource designed to prepare artists and cultural workers with tools to navigate, counter, and overcome threats and persecution from those seeking to silence them.

You are welcome to share this survey with colleagues and communities that you believe should be included. It is open to artists and cultural workers in the U.S. If you would like to share it, please do so only via email or via private messages, as we want to make sure the survey reaches our communities.

The survey closes January 31, 2026.

STAFF NEWS

Where We've Been: CCI Staff Retreat

CCI Staff Retreat. 4 December 2025. Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena. Photo by Katherine Bray-Simons.

CCI Staff Retreat. 4 December 2025. Side Street Projects, Altadena. Photo by Katherine Bray-Simons.

During CCI’s annual staff retreat, CCI staff visited our friends at the Armory Center for the Arts and Side Street Projects.

Nearly one year after the Eaton and Palisades fires in Los Angeles, the visit offered a moment to reflect on the partnerships that emerged during a time of urgent need. Both organizations worked alongside CCI to support outreach efforts as we launched the Los Angeles Arts Community Fire Relief Fund, helping ensure that artists and cultural workers most impacted by the fires were informed, supported, and connected to resources.

Returning to these spaces together allowed us to honor the trust, care, and collaboration that made this work possible and to recognize the lasting impact of community-rooted partners in moments of crisis and recovery.

WORKSHOPS IN THE FIELD

The following workshops are provided by our peers in the field, and are not affiliated with CCI. Please contact their respective presenters with any questions.

Work of Art: Career Planning

SPRINGBOARD FOR THE ARTS

1/13

Squarespace Group Learning

RHIZOMATIC ARTS

1/19

Entertainment Legal Clinic

CA LAWYERS FOR THE ARTS

1/22

Work of Art: Marketing

SPRINGBOARD FOR THE ARTS

1/24

Income Tax Basics for Artists

SPRINGBOARD FOR THE ARTS

1/28

Artist Lab

CREATIVE CAPITAL

Ongoing

Do you have an upcoming professional development workshop/training for artists or arts workers? We may be able to share it in our monthly e-newsletter. Contact info@cciarts.org with details.

FIND FUNDING

The following funding opportunities are provided by our peers in the field, and are not affiliated with CCI. Please contact their respective administrators with any questions.

Emergency Resources for Artists and Freelancers

Find a running list of resources and opportunities to support emergency needs.

The Rauschenberg Medical Emergency Grants

NATIONAL

The Rauschenberg Medical Emergency Grants program provides one-time grants of up to $5,000 for recent unexpected medical, dental, and mental health emergencies to artists in financial need* who are creating in the visual arts, film/video/electronic/digital arts, and choreography. Apply by January 6.

Vallejo Arts Fund - 2026 Grants

CALIFORNIA

The Vallejo Arts Fund offers grants of up to $20,000 to individual artists, collectives, and organizations in Vallejo, CA. Guided by Vallejoan priorities and facilitated by Great Leap and Calling Up Justice, VAF will award up to $1 million over the next two years to support artistic and cultural work within the performing arts, visual arts, digital and media arts, traditional folk arts, and oral/written storytelling. Phase Four of VAF aims to support the people, practices, and places that make Vallejo’s cultural life so vibrant.

Grants will be awarded across five categories: Cultural Communities, Youth Arts Programs, Places & Spaces, Microgrants, and Capacity Building. Apply by January 13.

University of Michigan Roman J. Witt Artist Residency

GLOBAL

The Roman J. Witt Residency at the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design and University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities invites visionary artists and designers to apply for the 2026-27 program. Receive a $20,000 honorarium, $5000 in materials support, housing, and studio access while engaging directly with students and faculty. Your new work will be produced in Ann Arbor and exhibited in the IH Gallery in fall 2027. Apply by January 15.

Artist Residency Program

GLOBAL

Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (HCCC) is pleased to announce the opening of the free online application for the 2026 – 2027 Cycle (September 2026 – August 2027) of its Artist Residency Program. All artists working in craft media, including wood, glass, metal, fiber, and clay, as well as those who work at the intersection of contemporary craft and photography, are encouraged to apply by February 1.

Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grants

GLOBAL

The Foundation provides unrestricted financial resources to exceptional visual artists. The grants can be used in any way that allows an artist to meaningfully pursue their practice. Grants are typically used to create new work, acquire supplies, rent studio space, prepare for exhibitions, attend a residency, and offset living expenses. Rolling deadline.

Cancellation & Emergency Funds

NATIONAL

The program offers grants of up to $3,000 to experimental artists whose confirmed public presentations (exhibitions, performances, readings, etc.) have been cancelled or indefinitely postponed due to the loss of federal funding.

Cancellation Funds are intended to help offset unrecoverable project costs—such as materials, collaborator fees, and promised honoraria—that were committed prior to the cancellation. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis, with panels convening monthly. Rolling deadline.

OTHER RESOURCES

ACTIVATE Delegates & Emerging Arts Leaders

LOS ANGELES

Arts for LA's ACTIVATE is a FREE suite of advocacy training and leadership development programs. Through various program experiences, ACTIVATE recognizes the importance of local leaders and seeks to empower these individuals with the skills, knowledge, and an expanded network to effect change in their communities, the greater Los Angeles arts and culture sector, and most importantly, themselves. Deadline January 7.

Help Strengthen Arts Resilience in the Bay Area

BAY AREA

The Bay Area Arts Readiness Network (BAARN) is conducting a short online survey to understand how artists and arts organizations across the Bay Area are preparing for emergencies. Your experience will help shape future workshops, grant programs, and support networks to protect creative spaces and sustain operations when disasters strike.

STAY CONNECTED