Your Arts Council in Orange County

ArtsOC, an independent nonprofit organization, is the officially-designated local arts agency of the County of Orange and its official state-local arts agency partner. Our mission is to provide resources, advocacy, consultation, and development programs that will nurture and champion the artists and arts organizations that make up our community

Meet our Staff and Board and read all about ArtsOC's history and mission

ArtsOC Events and Programming

Arts Orange County is directly involved in all these thrilling and fulfilling projects that benefit the community

Joy Harjo receives a standing ovation from attendees

Creative Edge Lecture

Once a year, a renowned thought leader is our guest for an illuminating talk on the power of creative thought in business, science, education, and life

Día Del Nino

OC Día del Niño/Day of the Child is a free family arts festival that celebrates children, develops their natural creativity and inspires lifelong participation in the arts. It features two days of fun and interactive activities and performances by professional artists, arts organizations, schools and community groups that can be enjoyed by the whole family and children of all ages and skill levels.

Emerging Arts Leaders

Emerging Arts Leaders | Orange County (EAL | OC) was founded in 2012 as a program of Arts Orange County. Its vision is to be a mechanism for strengthening future arts leadership by fostering connections between professional artists and arts professionals, encouraging and supporting creative innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit, developing skills, and facilitating networking among arts organizations, civic organizations and individual artists and producers.

Imagination Celebration

Each Spring, Arts Orange County presents Imagination Celebration: Orange County’s only county-wide family arts festival!

Presented in partnership with the Orange County Department of Education, Imagination Celebration dynamically connects the community, arts organizations, universities, and Orange County students through meaningful arts experiences.

Orange County Arts Awards

The Annual OC Arts Awards is a benefit evening that recognizes & celebrates the arts organizations, artists, and arts patrons in the OC community whose significant contributions during the past year, or over the course of a lifetime, have notably impacted the arts in Orange County.

Poetry Out Loud

Arts Orange County is proud to facilitate participation by Orange County students and educators in the Poetry Out Loud Program. An initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts, California proudly holds court as home to the largest Poetry Out Loud competition in the country. The 2019 competition series encompassed 52 counties, 305 schools, and 730 teachers, reaching nearly 60,600 students statewide.

Voices: Veterans Storytelling Project

VOICES brings together the artistic community and the extensive community of military veterans in Orange County; teaching them to turn the story of their experience of service into a storytelling project that promotes healing and understanding

Advocacy

Arts Orange County speaks up for the arts and arts education to government, the media, the business community, and the citizens of Orange County.

Much of our current advocacy focus is in the area of arts education. We support the preservation and protection of state mandated, standards-based arts curriculum in Orange County public schools.

ArtsOC has taken a leadership role in advocating for the restoration of funding for the California Arts Council (CAC), our state arts agency. We work to ensure that Orange County's artists and arts organizations receive their fair share of the CAC funding that is available, and that Orange County is represented on the Council.

Learn More About Our Efforts

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