The mission of The Arts Fund is to create, fund and administer programs and projects that foster the arts for the people of Santa Barbara County; to act as a catalyst which maximizes the effectiveness of arts resources and to nurture collaborative relationships with other arts organizations.

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Originally incorporated as the County of Santa Barbara Art Associates, The Arts Fund was created in 1983 as a private, nonprofit corporation to promote, foster, and support art activities in Santa Barbara County and to facilitate the works of the Santa Barbara County Arts Commission. In the late 1980s, The Arts Fund evolved into an independent organization with its current mission of offering art education, development and exhibition opportunities to aspiring artists and curators, as well as opportunities for Santa Barbara County residents to expand their appreciation for the wealth of local arts in our own community.

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For more than 30 years The Arts Fund has been an incubator for emerging artists in Santa Barbara County. Located in the Funk Zone, we offer the only Community Gallery in the Santa Barbara area where we showcase the work of local artists of all ages and identities from the Santa Barbara region. We stimulate the expansion of creativity by offering art education, professional development and curatorial training in studio and gallery environments to emerging artists including teenage, university and postgraduate students. We connect the greater community to local artists, curators and sponsors to celebrate and enrich our community’s cultural experience and creative possibilities. As a founder and principal organizer of the Funk Zone Art Walk we are the epicenter of the cultural explosion in the Funk Zone.