RISE Arts

Helping arts and culture nonprofits, artists, and cultural practitioners throughout the San Diego-Imperial Valley region to grow and thrive.

Through training and hands-on technical assistance aimed at reducing barriers to business success, RISE cultivates the role of participating organizations in becoming models for equitable workforce principles and pipelines for employment, economic development, and resident leadership within the communities they serve. These training sessions and technical assistance opportunities are made possible by partners such as the County of San Diego, the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture, and The San Diego Foundation.

Nonprofit Business Development Technical Assistance

Similar to our work with smaller or emerging nonprofits, RISE offers hands-on technical assistance courses specifically for arts and culture nonprofits that are seeking to build their business models, grant writing and development skills, and other critical systems and processes critical to their sustainability.

Participants join a cohort-based environment where their learning is supported by group-level instruction and feedback, hands-on activities where they put what they’ve learned into practice, and expert one-on-one technical assistance coaching support for focused help with specific challenges or needs.

Our arts-focused business development technical assistance support is made possible by the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture and funded in part by the California Arts Council, a State Agency.

Individual and Collaborative Training and Support

Starting in Summer 2023, RISE San Diego began serving as a training, networking, and ideation incubator hub for artists and cultural practitioners in the Far South/Border North (FS/BN) Initiative.

In Phase 1 of the program, sixty artists from San Diego and Imperial Counties are each working closely with one of five nonprofit-based Social Impact Hubs to develop and implement engagement campaigns that address the needs of communities in the lowest quartile of the California Healthy Places Index. These campaigns will connect with one or more of the program’s four focus areas:

Public health to stop the spread of COVID-19 and associated diseases or health disparities
Water and energy conservation, climate mitigation, emergency preparedness, relief, and recovery
Civic engagement, including election participation
Social justice and community engagement

As an FS/BN hub, RISE offers its artists and cultural practitioners individual and collaborative opportunities for mentoring, campaign ideation and development support, and related technical assistance through a social justice lens.

RISE is proud to work in community with our partner hubs at A Reason To Survive (ARTS), Alliance San Diego, Casa Familiar, and Imperial Valley Food Bank.

The Far South/Border North program is implemented by the City of San Diego in partnership with Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties, San Diego Regional Arts and Culture Coalition, and San Diego Foundation. This activity is funded in part by the California Arts Council, a State Agency.