California Arts Council Seeks Peer-Review Panel Applicants for 2025 Grant Season

SACRAMENTO, CA - The California Arts Council (CAC) has opened its call for applicants to serve on peer-review panels for its 2025 grant season. The state art agency is seeking arts and cultural practitioners from diverse communities statewide to volunteer for a critical role in the grant application process as grant review panelists.

Selected panelists will evaluate grant application submissions, ensuring an equitable, honest, and thorough review and ranking process.

Prospective candidates must be California residents age 18 or older with experience in a wide range of artistic, cultural, and social fields, including but not limited to:

• Artists and cultural practitioners of all disciplines
• Arts learning for youth
• Cultural placekeeping/creative placemaking
• Cultural development
• Youth advocacy
• Arts programming of, for, and by people with disabilities
• Social service, justice, community building
• Adult, juvenile detention/court
• Nonprofit management
• Arts programming for veteran populations

This is a great opportunity for experienced arts practitioners as well as new and emerging members of the arts and culture community. The panel experience provides great insight into the grant-making process and can serve as a professional development practice for their career and artistic goals.

As an appreciation for our volunteer panelists, individuals who complete their panel service will receive a $300 honorarium to subsidize their attendance at a minimum of two or up to three virtual meetings and rank submission activities. Panelists make a four- to eight-week commitment to read and rank approximately 30 applications by the grant review deadline. An average of 30-60 minutes of time is needed to appropriately review and rank each panel application.

Panelist applications submissions for the 2025 grant season are due by March 18.
Previous applicants from past grant seasons are strongly encouraged to reapply to ensure that you are included in the current season's panel pool. Panelists selected to serve during the 2025 grant season will be contacted by CAC staff between May and July. Panel service will run approximately between July and September. Dates are subject to change.

Complete details are available on the Grant Panels page of the California Arts Council website.

Application Office Hours

Prospective applicants with questions regarding service as a grant peer-review panelist and the application process are invited to join California Arts Council Program Analyst Yaquelin Ruiz during two virtual office hours opportunities via Zoom. Office hours are structured to be a "drop-in" format; no registration is required. Attendees are welcomed to join and exit as needed, scheduled for the following dates and times:

• Wednesday, February 19, 12 p.m.
• Wednesday, March 12, 12 p.m.

Media Inquiries Only:
Kimberly Brown
Public Affairs Specialist
[email protected]

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The California Arts Council is a state agency with a mission of strengthening arts, culture, and creative expression as the tools to cultivate a better California for all. It supports local arts infrastructure and programming statewide through grants, initiatives, and services. The California Arts Council envisions a California where all people flourish with universal access to and participation in the arts.

Members of the California Arts Council include: Roxanne Messina Captor, Chair; Leah Goodwin, Vice Chair; Gerald Clarke; Caleb Duarte; Vicki Estrada; Roy Hirabayashi; Alex Israel; Dorka Keehn; Phil Mercado; Nicola Miner. Learn more at www.arts.ca.gov.

The California Arts Council is committed to increasing the accessibility of its online content. For language and accessibility assistance, visit https://arts.ca.gov/about/about-us/language-communications-assistance. To read this announcement in Spanish, please use the website's Google Translate tool by clicking the "Translate" link in the upper righthand corner of this page.

El Consejo de las Artes de California se compromete a aumentar la accesibilidad de sus contenidos en línea. Para obtener ayuda con el idioma y la accesibilidad, visite https://arts.ca.gov/about/about-us/language-communications-assistance. Para leer este anuncio en español, utilice la herramienta Google Translate del sitio web haciendo clic en el enlace "Traducir" situado en la esquina superior derecha de esta página.