Kern Dance Alliance - Assemblymember Vince Fong Acknowledges KDA at CA State Capitol

KDA was honored to be recognized at the California State Capitol by Assemblymember Vince Fong - CA District 32 on April 18, 2024.
Mr. Fong's remarks acknowledged KDA's efforts to improve the quality of life for people living in the Central Valley's through the arts by addressing the following points:
In celebration of California Arts, Culture, and Creativity Month, Assemblymmember Fong recognized the Kern Dance Alliance, or KDA, an arts agency serving the Central Valleys.
In attendance was the KDA Executive Director, Andrea Hansen, KDA President, Marcie Hronis, and KDA Director of Social Media, Janae Peters.
In the last 9 years, KDA has used the arts to improve the quality of life for people living in Kern County.
Our programs have centered on creating 100s of jobs in the arts while also impacting our creative economy.
KDA's trailblazing programs use the arts to teach educational endeavors, like math and reading, decrease health disparities, like helping people with Alzheimer’s, cancer, and disabilities, and bring hope and joy to some of our most marginalized groups.
Since 2015, KDA has hosted over 100 thoughtfully crafted arts programs and has reached over 70,000 community members.
Because of our commitment and dedication to advancing the arts in the Central Valleys, we were awarded a historic and unprecedented California Arts Council grant that has increased the arts in our region.
In 2022, KDA was one of 14 arts agencies statewide chosen to administer the inaugural California Creative Corps program, a $60 million dollar investment into 58 California counties crafted by Governor Newsom and passed into legislation in 2021.
KDA was awarded $4.2 million dollars to administer the program that places the arts in public service into 14 Central Valley and Eastern Sierra counties.
In the last year, the KDA Creative Corps has:
- Impacted 14 counties / 110 zip codes
- Created 652 arts jobs
- Produced 30,000+ workforce hours
- Generated 131 million media impressions
- Improved the lives of Californians living in the lowest quartile of the CA Healthy Places Index through the arts
- Built capacity individual artists and arts organizations - 70% of which are first time grant recipients
- Encouraged local municipalities to realize the arts are the solution to the delicate issues we face as a community including lifting people out of homelessness, decreasing crime and violence, and improving mental health.
KDA’s data is currently being used by the California Arts Council and California for the Arts as a model for excellence in our state by proving that the arts can make BIG impacts, by reflecting transparent processes and accountable actions with tax-payer dollars.
KDA was in Sacramento attending the CA Arts Summit while sharing about our Creative Corps program, our work with Prop 28 implementation, and advocating for continued Central Valley arts funding.
We are grateful that Assemblymember Fong has supported our efforts since we launched 9 years ago - thank you!
To learn more about our work visit www.kernance.org / www.kdacreativecorps.org.