Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission


The Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission was established in Sacramento, California, United States in 1977. The Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission is a public agency devoted to supporting, promoting and advancing the arts in the region. The mission of the Arts Commission is 'ADVANCING COMMUNITY THROUGH ARTS AND CULTURE'.
Funded by the City and County of Sacramento, the Arts Commission provides funding to local artists and arts groups; promotes the arts through marketing, outreach and education initiatives; provides resources to support and increase regional arts education activities; and serves as a community partner and resource.
The Arts Commission is guided by 11 Commissioners, appointed by the Sacramento City Council, and the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors.
As a local arts agency, the Arts Commission is committed to uplifting the cultural quality of life for the Sacramento region. Through community facilitation and planning, the Commission provides leadership in arts and economic revitalization; neighborhood and educational enhancement; regional cultural tourism and marketing; and in organizational and financial arts stabilization.
The Arts Commission’s programs include Art in Public Places, Grants and Cultural Programs, Arts Education and Arts Marketing and Outreach.

Art in Public Places

The City of Sacramento’s nationally renowned Art in Public Places program was established in 1977 to expand public experiences of visual art by installing artworks in public spaces. It includes a collection of more than 400 permanently sited works of art integrated into Sacramento’s built and natural environments. More than 80% of these artworks are by local and regional artists.
The Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission manages Sacramento’s Public Art Program which is funded through City and County ordinances and a Memorandum of Understanding that specifies 2% of eligible City and County capital improvement project budgets be set aside for the commission, purchase, and installation of artworks throughout the City. The Art in Public Places Committee, a sub-committee of the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission, oversees the development of a public art master plan, long range planning, policy and procedures and reviews and approves artist selection and projects.
The program has grown to include exhibition spaces, featuring ongoing installations of regional artists at Sacramento City Hall and Sacramento Municipal Utility District. An Education Program was established in 2008 and includes guided tours, workshops, lectures, discussions, and other educational opportunities for design professionals, public art practitioners and the general public.
The goal of the Art in Public Places program is to integrate art and the ideas of artists into the fabric of the City. The collection includes permanent and temporary artworks as well as art that is integrated into the design of buildings and landscapes. Some of the artworks are interactive, some static, some made with traditional or non traditional media like paint, wood, steel, glass, and clay or sound, light, video and film. There are artworks in the collection that are functional, like a bench or tree grate, some address a political or social concern. There are works that are monumental and others are meant to be experienced more intimately, and many will simply take you by surprise.
As a whole, the ever-changing APP collection is meant to:


View the artworks that are part of this incredible collection on the APP Collection Directory. You may search by name, title, medium, or simply select the Random Images option to browse.

Grants and Cultural Programs

Artists, arts groups and arts and cultural organizations are offered a variety of resources and grant opportunities to encourage their growth and to broaden their offerings to the Sacramento arts communities.
Because the Arts Commission re-grants public dollars, programs are always open to any and all artists and arts groups that wish to apply for a grant with us.
Each application is treated with the same transparent professionalism that exists in all Arts Commission processes. Funding decisions are not made by staff. Staff enforce equal access and inclusiveness as they facilitate the evaluation process through peer review panels.
Applicants have to spend time writing their applications, answering questions, and providing information that may seem redundant and can be hard to put together. All of this keeps the Arts Commission highly accountable to the public.
The Arts Commission offers grant programs targeted at Sacramento County nonprofit arts and cultural organizations, artists, and arts groups.
Arts Stabilization Program
The Arts Commission offers this program in an effort to provide resources, support, and technical assistance to Sacramento County arts and cultural organizations, artists, and arts groups.
The Arts Stabilization Program began in 1998 in an effort to strengthen the arts community and specifically nonprofit arts organizations. In 2007 some Arts Stabilization programs were expanded to include small arts groups and individual artists. This program provides resources, support, and technical assistance to Sacramento County arts and cultural organizations, artists and arts groups in marketing, business and financial planning, board and staff development and professional development.
Sacramento Poet Laureate Program


The Sacramento Poet Laureate Program was established in February 2000, and is designed to extend and bring to life the power and beauty of poetry and the spoken word to our community and to increase literary awareness in Sacramento County.
The Sacramento Poet Laureate Program strives to encourage literary awareness by the general public and celebrates the high caliber of talent among Sacramento’s poets.
Past Poets Laureate include:

Bob Stanley, Sacramento Poet Laureate, 2009-2011

Julia Connor, Sacramento Poet Laureate, 2005-2008

José Montoya, Sacramento Poet Laureate, 2002-2004

Dennis Schmitz and Viola Weinberg, Sacramento Poets Laureate, 2000-2002

Arts Education

The Arts Education program of the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission provides access to and engagement in, arts learning experiences for residents of all ages in the greater Sacramento region. The program does this by providing resources and collaborative partnership opportunities for arts organizations, social service and community organizations, schools, teaching artists, and educators to develop educational programming.
The Arts Education Program:


The Arts Education Program also manages an Arts Education Resource Directory, which is a searchable database of visual and performing artists and their arts education programs. The Directory lists workshops, residencies, performances, and field trips for all ages with contact information for booking the artists.
All the teaching artists listed in the Directory have been screened for their experience and skills by the Arts Commission through a panel of regional working and teaching artists. You will see on their listings that they have been approved for either K-12 Arts or Community Arts, or both.

Arts Marketing and Outreach

Making Sacramento a Dynamic Cultural Destination
The Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission sponsors cultural tourism and arts marketing initiatives designed to engage residents and visitors in the rich and vibrant arts community of Sacramento.
This is accomplished through marketing and public service advertising campaigns, cultivating business and media relationships which broaden access to the arts and by establishing a program through which individual artists are honored for their lifelong achievements, arts organizations for special accomplishments and arts advocates for their efforts on behalf of the arts community.
Highlights of marketing and community outreach programs offered by the Arts Commission: