April is the fifth annual Arts, Culture and Creativity Month in California, and advocates for the arts are promoting diversity in the arts workforce and celebrating recent policy wins.

In Los Angeles, the County Board of Supervisors just voted to join Arts for LA's Creative Jobs Collective Impact Initiative, which aims to create 10,000 living-wage jobs in the state's creative sector by the year 2030.

Gustavo Herrera, CEO of Arts for LA, said the idea is to rebuild the arts economy after COVID.

"We really are focusing on centering youth and adults from historically underrepresented communities," Herrera explained. "Here in Los Angeles, approximately 59%, or nearly three-fifths of our arts workforce, currently self-identify as white."

The collective's steering committee is putting together recommendations on legislation, budget investments, joint programming, data/accountability, and collective communication efforts - and will report back to the Board in October. Find out more about arts advocacy at 'ArtsforLA.org.'

Meanwhile, artists, advocates and policymakers are gathering in Sacramento for an Arts and Culture Summit on April 17, followed by a rally and meetings with lawmakers on April 18.

Herrera emphasized April is the perfect time to get involved.

"It's so important that we have a strong community of advocates, really pushing for arts and culture in every community," Herrera urged. "And then also, to just go out and experience the arts and celebrate all of the creativity across the state."

The summit will celebrate recent policy wins for the arts sector, including the passage of Prop 28 last year, which will direct millions more per year toward arts education.

Lawmakers could salvage plans to restore a historic Wyoming arboretum after the legislature cut initial funding from the supplemental state budget. Its future now depends on bills in committee.

Companion bills introduced in the Wyoming House and Senate would recognize the Cheyenne-area High Plains Research Station and Arboretum as an official state historic site. The center was used a century ago to research and grow trees that could handle the area's harsh climate.

Jessica Friis, horticulturist for Cheyenne Botanic Gardens, helps steward the site.

"A lot of those trees are still standing today," Friis pointed out. "We'd like to return to that original mission where we can grow these tough plants in that greenhouse and make them available."

Friis pointed out today, trees grown there could be used for reforestation after wildfires and other modern needs. The bills now sit with the committees on agriculture and appropriations.

Megan Stanfill, executive director of the Alliance for Historic Wyoming, said the site is more than 2,000 acres in size, and includes an active grasslands research station, historic buildings, the Cheyenne National Cemetery and a Girl Scout camp.

"You have all of these different aspects, where it's outdoor recreation, it's historic sites, it's cultural heritage, and then it's also a place of solitude," Stanfill outlined.

If the area becomes an official state historic site, it would be cooperatively managed by the city of Cheyenne, Wyoming State Parks and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

By Brianne Sanchez for Arts Midwest.
Broadcast version by Mark Moran for Iowa News Service reporting for the Arts Midwest-Public News Service Collaboration

Stories are shortcuts, introducing people and places we might not otherwise encounter. They help us discover meaningful connections, even amid isolating circumstances. Curious people often turn to books because novels and memoirs open up on demand, but everyone has a story to tell. 

In Iowa, CultureALL’s Open Book program makes striking up a conversation with a stranger as simple as visiting the local library. Their catalog of personal narratives introduces real-life protagonists whose singular struggles touch broader topics like immigration, identity, grief, faith and more. 

Since 2018, the Des Moines-based social impact organization has recruited more than 50 Iowans from diverse backgrounds to serve as human “Books.” They share short talks about a defining chapter of their lives with intimate audiences of “Readers.”

From Charlie’s harrowing story of surviving a traumatic childhood abduction to Sylvia’s tale of defying society’s expectations as a blind woman to earn her PhD in soil chemistry, human “Books” prove why people shouldn’t be judged by their cover. 

“Open Book can be a catalyst to speed up a relationship and introduce a conversation that maybe wouldn’t have naturally occurred,” says Karen Downing, a retired English teacher who brought the concept to CultureALL.

CultureALL supports human “Books” through the storytelling process. It compensates them for visits to retirement communities, libraries, businesses and other locations. 

Open Book’s story-sharing format was inspired by Human Library, a movement that began in Denmark in 2000 to address prejudice through personal connections. 

CultureALL’s version is reciprocal.

“We realized that, yes, people want to hear other stories,” Downing says. “They also really wanted to share their own and get a sense of their lived experience in conversation with someone else.”

She and former CultureALL AmeriCorps Service member JJ Kapur collaborated to localize the Human Library concept and measure its empathy-building impact.

Humanizing Complex Issues

Initiatives like UpLift: The Central Iowa Basic Income Pilot have participated in Open Book to bring local voices to issues like poverty and homelessness. Congregations have also used the program to build relationships across racial divides. Funding from Humanities Iowa is helping the CultureALL program connect urban and rural populations, too. 

“Hearing a personal story can change a lens on an issue or big, thorny topic that people maybe don’t have a nuanced understanding of,” Downing says.

The vulnerability Open Book encourages can be validating for participants like Yerliana Reyna, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic who moved to Iowa by way of the Bronx, New York. 

Reyna is a middle school counselor who connected with Open Book after participating in the Iowa Latinx Project’s Media Ambassador Program. She shared her story at a senior center in Pella, a community known for its deeply Dutch heritage. 

“I remember one of the ladies kept looking at me and then when I was done [speaking], she said, ‘You know that you are more brave than you think,’” Reyna says. “Your story can be of encouragement for somebody else.”


Brianne Sanchez wrote this story for Arts Midwest.


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A Wyoming arts hub is surveying organizations across the state to see if a potential new AmeriCorps program could help fill gaps in arts and humanities programming.

The AmeriCorps Rural Intermediary Program would provide extra support for Wyoming arts and humanities organizations, which are often rural and can employ just enough staff to operate.

Allison Maluchnik, executive director of the Nicolaysen Art Museum in Casper, said it could provide several benefits to the museum.

"We could utilize AmeriCorps members to help with our art education, outreach," Maluchnik explained. "There is potential for capacity-building at different arts organizations, volunteer programs. There are many different ways that AmeriCorps members could serve different organizations in the state."

Maluchnik noted the first step toward implementing the program is gauging interest. Wyoming arts organizations can take a survey on the topic through Jan. 20. They can contact the Nicolaysen museum for more information.

According to a University of Wyoming report, arts and culture added more than $540 million to the state's economy in 2022 but it varies widely by county. Teton County saw nearly $230 million in arts-based economic output, while 11 counties saw less than $5 million.

Maluchnik stressed rural arts organizations could especially use the support.

"This would hopefully give those organizations that do not have the larger community a sense of support," Maluchnik emphasized. "And also, a means to build programming and volunteer capacity."

The program would be a state-facilitated arm of the national AmeriCorps service program, which offers resume-building and scholarship money to members who serve.


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