About Arts and Culture

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​​​​The arts inspire and bring joy to residents; they beautify public spaces, strengthen community pride and identity, help students academically, and bolster the economy. ​

The Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture is the city's designated local arts agency. It supports, champions, and promotes the local arts, culture, and educational community to make Phoenix a great place to live, work, and visit.​​​​


About Us

Arts + Culture StaffArts + Culture Commission

Our Commitment

The agency believes in fair treatment, access, and opportunity for all individuals. Our equity strategy aims to identify and eliminate barriers that have prevented marginalized groups' full participation in the agency's programs and to strengthen equity, diversity, and inclusion in the arts and culture sector for all Phoenix residents.​ The City of Phoenix fully endorses and supports equal business and employment opportunities for all persons, regardless of race, color, age, sex, religion, national origin, genetic information, marital status, disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression.

Download the City of Phoenix's Statement of Commitment for City Customers​​

Land Acknowledgment

The City of Phoenix acknowledges that Phoenix is located within the homeland of the O’odham and Piipaash peoples and their ancestors, who have inhabited this landscape from time immemorial to present day. The landscape is sacred and reflects cultural values central to the O’odham and Piipaash way of life and their self-definition. This acknowledgment demonstrates our commitment to work in partnership with the ancestral Indigenous communities to foster understanding, appreciation and respect for this heritage. ​

The agency works by:
  • managing an award-winning public art program that works in neighborhoods with local, national, and international artists to create a more beautiful and vibrant city;
  • investing annually in grants to nonprofit arts organizations and artists to ensure cultural services and opportunities are accessible to Phoenix residents of all ages;
  • overseeing cultural facilities that engage and serve residents and draw more than eight million visitors each year;
  • promoting professional development opportunities for individual artists and administrators to help sustain a healthy cultural workforce;
  • supporting programs and events for students to help develop their personal, social, and intellectual skills that are critical to success in life, school, and work; and
  • participating in national studies and administering field research to make a strong case for the arts to demonstrate their economic, social, practical, and educational benefits.

In addition to the department’s flagship programs, the agency oversees and supports the City's Youth and Education Office​, Archaeology Office​, and the S'edav Va'aki Museum​.​

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Strategic Work Plan

In March 2024, the department adopted a new mission, vision, purpose statement, and six goals to guide the agency’s work. The staff will create action items, priorities, outcomes, and assigned responsibilities for accomplishing these goals over the next three fiscal ​years.​

Purpose (Just Cause): To enhance Phoenix residents' and visitors' quality of life through meaningful arts, cultural, and educational experiences.

Vision: Phoenix's arts, culture, and educational sector is vibrant, sustained, diverse, and connected to the communities it serves.

Mission: Phoenix Arts and Culture supports, champions, and promotes the City's arts, culture, and educational community, making Phoenix a great place to live, work, and visit.

Goals:

  1. Increase resources and infrastructure by being bold and assuming greater leadership as an advocate for Phoenix’s arts and culture sector.
  2. Lead with equity in all agency programs, identify and eliminate barriers that have prevented marginalized groups from fully participating in the agency's programs, and engage underserved communities.
  3. Strengthen ongoing communications and increase opportunities for the sector to come together through networking, information, convening, and professional development.
  4. Position Phoenix as an arts destination to promote economic development and uplift neighborhood and cultural identity.
  5. Advance the department's capacity through collaborations and modeling best practices to ensure stable and effective management.
  6. Ensure success for the department as it adds new programs, facilities, projects, and staff.​

Learn More about​ the Agency's Strategic Work Plan
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The department is generously supported by the City of Phoenix, the Arizona Commission on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

 

 

The department is a proud member of Americans for the Arts, Arizona Citizens for the Arts, Arizona Impact for Good, Grantmakers in the Arts, the Phoenix Community Alliance, and the Public Art Exchange.

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