What We Do

The Fresno Arts Council (FAC) is the state-local partner to the California Arts Council, designated by the county board of supervisors to serve the county’s residents. As the local arts agency, the FAC provides financial support, services and other programs to a variety of cultural arts organizations, individual artists, and diverse communities throughout Fresno County.

Our Mission & Purpose

The FAC is a private, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization originally established in 1979 under the name “Alliance for the Arts” by local artists, arts organizations and interested individuals who wished to create a voice for the arts in the Central San Joaquin Valley. By Memorandum of Understanding, the FAC serves as the local arts agency for the City & County of Fresno and is tasked to support and promote the arts industry.

Our mission is to enrich people’s lives through the arts, and our purpose is to foster an arts community that recognizes and honors the contributions of its citizens to the arts. We are managed by a volunteer board of directors, and our agency solicits financial support from foundations, membership dues, and government and corporate funders as well as private donors.

Est. 1979 in Downtown Fresno

In 1979, the “Alliance for the Arts” was founded as a grassroots organization responding to the need for promoting and advocating the arts in the Central San Joaquin Valley. Within a year, the organization’s purpose expanded, with the aid of a grant from the California Arts Council, to serve as an umbrella unit for all Fresno County arts organizations in key areas such as legislation, sponsorship, education, cultural arts programming, and community outreach.

As a fiscal sponsor, one of our most successful arts programs grew into what is now known as the Alliance for California Traditional Arts (ACTA): In 1991, the FAC hired folklorist Amy Kitchener, with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), to develop and curate local folk arts programming. Today, ACTA serves the State of California as an independent arts nonprofit.

The FAC also provides regranting services for public and private funds: From 1998-2010, the FAC and Central Valley Community Foundation (formerly the Fresno Regional Foundation) redistributed funds from the Arts to Zoo measure, which collected a 0.001% sales tax to benefit local cultural arts organizations. In recent years, the FAC has partnered with both private and public donors to provide grants for local artists, art programs, venues, and institutions through the Fresno Arts Safety Net Fund (FASNF) and FAC Cares Grant in 2020.

Our current arts programs & services include: The 559 Mural Project, ArtHop, Arts Alive in Agriculture Juried Exhibition, Arts in Education, African American Historical and Cultural Museum of the San Joaquin Valley, City Hall Gallery, City of Fresno Poet Laureate, Desvgn, Fresno Metro Black Chamber of Commerce FRIENDS Storytelling Project, The Horizon, The Janka Project, Libóta Mbonda Fresno African Drumming Group, LitHop, Poetry Out Loud, Smithsonian Institute Fresno Sculpture Directory, Yonsei Memory Project; technical assistance workshops, united arts advocacy, local liaison for the California Arts Council, city and county consultant for public art, fiscal receivership for individual artists and arts groups or initiatives.

Past art programs: California Veterans Project, Creative Fresno Digital Mural Map, Dining with the Artists, Fres.co, Fresno County Fair Project, Hanford Multicultural Theatre Company,Out Words, SomosFres.co, Teresa Flores (artist).