About Phoenix Arts and Culture

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The department supports, champions, and promotes the City's arts, culture, and educational community to make Phoenix a great place to live, work, and visit.

About Us

Arts + Culture Staff Arts + Culture Commission

Our Commitment

The department 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 Acknowledgement

The department acknowledges that modern-day Phoenix is on the traditional lands of the Akimel O’odham (Pima) and the Tohono O’odham and before that their ancestors (Hohokam) as well as the Pee-Posh (Maricopa). We honor the elders of both past and present, as well as future generations that enable us to live here today. Further, we acknowledge the sovereignty of the 22 Tribal Nations who continue to steward the lands that make up the state of Arizona.

The Phoenix Arts and Culture Department is made up of five divisions, including:

Grants and Community Engagement
Facilities, Operations, and Art Maintenance
Public Art
S'edav Va'aki Museum and the City Archaeology Office
City Youth and Education Office

The Department 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 a dozen cultural facilities, including the S'edav Va'aki Museum, the gateway to the cultural history of the Phoenix area;
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;
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; and
assuring that the City complies with all federal, state, and local laws and regulations regarding the identification and proper treatment of historic and cultural districts, properties, objects, and other archaeological resources.

The department is generously supported by the City of Phoenix General Fund, 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.