Capitol Creative Alliance is a nonprofit arts organization with the mission to champion and inspire the creative community to build a thriving Sacramento region. We bring creatives together for education, inspiration, and connections. We believe a healthy creative community has the power to elevate our region’s quality of life and economic prosperity.
We serve students enrolled in art programs at our local colleges and universities, emerging creative professionals, and creative professionals working in the digital media and entertainment industry, including creatives working in graphic design, web design, UX/UX design, marketing, videography/photography, copywriting, and more.
Our programs are rooted in community engagement, education and improving our creative workforce. Creativity Speaks is our speaker series with guest speakers from various creative fields. Our goal is to encourage non-traditional creatives to have an open and honest dialogue and encourage traditional creatives to be exposed to a different perspective. Our next series begins in August!
Through our Creative Workforce programs, we create awareness of, and access to, careers in our regional creative workforce. Ascenders Academy is a six-month mentorship cohort that provides emerging designers with tools, skills, and community relationships that will take them to the next level of their careers. Our current cohort graduates in June!
Our Education programs offer opportunities for creatives at all levels to develop new skills and advance their careers through hybrid learning models, studio tours, workshops, lectures and more. We also partner with local colleges and universities to share our programs, services and opportunities.
Design Week Sacramento is a weeklong celebration of our local creative community. Throughout the week, we host Lectures, Panels, Workshops, Networking Events, Studio Tours, and more! All events are hosted by our local design community with the mission to improve the awareness of, and access to, the diverse careers that make up our creative economy. Happening in October 2023!
While our programs are geared toward creative professionals, we serve as the nexus between our local colleges and universities, creatives, and the nonprofit organizations, businesses, and civic agencies that are part of the fabric of our region.
So far this year:
- We served over 250 people through Creativity Speaks.
- For the first time ever, we were able to offer stipends to our speakers.
- We continued building a strong relationship with our videographer, Eddie Rodriguez, from Mero Pictures, and were able to pay him for his hard work.
- Thanks to our grant from the California Arts Council, all events in our first Creativity Speaks series were recorded and will soon be available in our Learning Library.
- We deepened our partnerships with The Urban Hive, Bike Dog Brewing, KWB Creative, AAF Sacramento, Sacramento State, and Californians for the Arts.
- We featured outstanding local creatives: Ryan Royster, Ernesto Delgado, Isela and Brandon Ortiz from Sac Dance Lab, Andru Defeye, and Aliyah Sidqe.
- Through Ascenders Academy, we paired 17 emerging designers with design leaders in our current cohort, and added six virtual workshops. We also hosted a Halfway Mixer and look forward to hosting our Graduation Showcase in June!
- We participated in the Partnership Fair for the Sacramento State College of Arts and Letters and shared our opportunities with students enrolled in the program.
- We attended the Arts & Culture Summit with Californians for the Arts and Create CA, rallied at the Capitol, and met with our local legislators to advocate for the creative workforce.
Investing in our organization supports the creative workforce!