Established by the State of California in 1976, the California Arts Council is a state agency with a mission of strengthening arts, culture, and creative expression as the tools to cultivate a better California for all.
The State-Local Partners (SLP) program is designed to provide general operating support and technical assistance to county-designated local arts agencies. Its main goals are to support the fostering of cultural development at the local level through funding, information exchange, cooperative activities, and leadership between the State and California's counties. This promotes the creation, presentation, and preservation of the arts across all cultures. The program targets local arts agencies that function as the county-designated organization supporting arts and cultural activities across communities. These agencies may be units of local government or nonprofit organizations. The program also specifies a 1:1 match requirement for awarded funds for organizations with Total Revenues of $1,000,000 or more in their most recent fiscal year.