Alliance for California Traditional Arts

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Alliance for California Traditional Arts Founded in 1997, ACTA promotes and supports ways for cultural traditions to continue now and into the future.

The Alliance for California Traditional Arts (ACTA) promotes and supports ways for cultural traditions to continue now and into the future by providing advocacy, resources and connections for folk and traditional artists and their communities. Folk and traditional artists are defined as tradition-bearers and cultural practitioners: people who transmit what they believe, know, do, and create with others who share a common heritage. Rooted in California’s cultural communities, from Siskiyou to San Diego, ACTA is in direct communication with tradition-bearers who foster the state's rich and diverse cultural roots. ACTA’s programs and services are created, evaluated and evolved as a response to the specific needs of these cultural practitioners and their communities. ACTA works on behalf of artists, communities, and funders to connect them to each other, information, and resources. Beyond connection to funding, ACTA provides programs and services to the field such as: convenings, local and national field-building, research and technical assistance. Recognized for its culturally competent leadership, intellectual capital and excellence in program administration, ACTA is the official go-to entity for information about folk and traditional arts in California. Dedicated to sustaining and fostering the growth of cultural traditions found within the state’s diverse communities, ACTA ensures that its core values of respect, cultural pluralism, and cultural democracy permeate every aspect of its activity and programming. ACTA helps people connect to their past and keep traditions a central part of life today and tomorrow. By supporting folk and traditional artists, ACTA supports the health, cultural continuity and diversity of California.

Thank you to our amazing Great Valley Gathering sponsors, whose support helped make this inaugural event happen!Smithson...
10/15/2026

Thank you to our amazing Great Valley Gathering sponsors, whose support helped make this inaugural event happen!

Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (Smithsonian Folklife)
The Kresge Foundation
The James B. McClatchy Foundation
City of Fresno's Measure P Expanded Access to Arts and Culture
Fresno Unified School District
California Arts Council
Radio Bilingue
Price Paige & Company
Supervisor Luis Chavez
County of Fresno
City of Fresno, California

Downtown Fresno Partnership
Paz Dermatology
Miguel Arias, Fresno City Council District 3
Vallarta Supermarkets
Trader Joe's

Thank you to our Community Partners for helping make the Great Valley Gathering happen!Arte Américas Association of Lao-...
10/13/2026

Thank you to our Community Partners for helping make the Great Valley Gathering happen!

Arte Américas
Association of Lao-American Professionals and Students (ALPS)
California Humanities
California Arts Council
CCAT, Community Center for the Arts and Technology
Chinatown Fresno Foundation
Fresno Immigrant and Refugee Ministries - FIRM
Fresno County Historical Society
The Fresno Center
Fresno Folklore Society
Laotian American Community of Fresno - LACF
Mexican Heritage Center
Radio Bilingue
Taste of Freedom Project - TOFP
United Khmer Cultural Preservation

10/03/2026

Come on out to Courthouse Park this weekend, October 2-4 for The Great Valley Gathering, put together by Alliance for California Traditional Arts as part of the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings America 250 celebration!

The Great Valley Gathering is a free, three-day celebration of Central Valley culture, living traditions, and community.

Fresno Folklore Society has a been invited to table and provide activities including performances, jams, and sharing the history of local folk music through the lens of our 40+ years as a non-profit and even longer as an informal organization.

Check out the stage schedule for the Great Valley Gathering this weekend!Read artists bios, check out workshops descript...
10/02/2026

Check out the stage schedule for the Great Valley Gathering this weekend!

Read artists bios, check out workshops descriptions, and plan your festival experience at gathering.actaonline.org 🌄

Sāngīt-Nautanki is the traditional Folk Opera of Northern and Western India. Practiced for hundreds of years, this form ...
09/28/2026

Sāngīt-Nautanki is the traditional Folk Opera of Northern and Western India. Practiced for hundreds of years, this form represents the true continuation of ancient Sanskrit and Prakrit theater. Rich in music, dialogue, and dance, it features mythological and contemporary social issues and uses over three dozen poetic meters, including Doha, Chaubola, Chand, Lāvni, and Behertabil.

Dr. Devendra Sharma, a distinguished seventh-generation Nautanki opera performer, director, writer, and teacher with the Sāngīt-Nautanki Folk Opera Ensemble, proudly presents “Mission Suhani”. Co-authored alongside his father Pandit Ram Dayal Sharma, this original bilingual musical features issues of women’s empowerment, immigration and dowry. To engage contemporary global audiences, the production blends traditional Nautanki singing with English dialogues.

Come watch Devendra Sharma’s Sāngīt-Nautanki Opera Ensemble at the Great Valley Gathering! 🌄

See the schedule and learn more at gathering.actoanline.org

09/24/2026

Laotian-born Bounxeung Synanonh is a master performer on the kaen, a free-reed mouth organ made from 16 lengths of bamboo. At the age of 15, he lost his sight and that same year he started learning the kaen from village elders, including his uncle. The sound of the kaen is extraordinarily complex, as the player inhales and exhales through the instrument so it produces sounds continuously, and because of its multiple pipes, it plays multiple pitches simultaneously.

When Synanonoh immigrated to the U.S. as a refugee in the early 1980s, his musical skills were quickly prized by the stateside Lao community. In 2016, he received the National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship, the nation's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.

Watch Bounxeung perform in the ensemble Sieng-Khaen-Lao — "the sound of the Lao khaen" — comprised of Laotian American musicians based in Fresno, like Bounsxeung. The ensemble is produced by Sonny Somchitvongsa, a popular Lao singer who came to the United States as a teenager and assembled this group especially for the festival. 🌄

See the schedule at gathering.actaonline.org!

09/22/2026

FASHAWN will be performing at our Great Valley Gathering this October!

Fashawn is a Fresno born-and-raised rapper who first drew attention with his 2006 mixtape Grizzly City and a series of follow-up mixtapes that built his reputation in the Central California scene. His 2009 debut album Boy Meets World, produced entirely by Exile, earned critical acclaim and landed him on XXL Magazine’s 2010 Top 10 Freshmen cover alongside artists like J. Cole and Wiz Khalifa. He continued building his profile through the early 2010s with tours, festival appearances, a 2012 collaborative album with Murs (This Generation), and a memorable 2014 performance of the entrance theme for WBO champion Timothy Bradley’s rematch against Manny Pacquiao.

That same year, he signed to Nas’ Mass Appeal Records, releasing his acclaimed major-label sophomore album The Ecology in 2015, which featured Nas, Aloe Blacc, and others and placed songs in major video game franchises like Madden NFL and WWE 2K. He has since continued releasing music and collaborating with artists including Black Thought and Del the Funky Homosapien.

Watch FASHAWN at the Great Valley Gathering this October 🌄
gathering.actaonline.org

A basketweaver, linguist, language instructor, community organizer and advocate, Carly Tex has been creating a career in...
09/15/2026

A basketweaver, linguist, language instructor, community organizer and advocate, Carly Tex has been creating a career in language and culture ever since she began weaving baskets at the age of ten.

Carly is a member of the North Fork Rancheria Band of Mono Indians and descendant of the Dunlap Band of Mono Indians, dedicated to revitalizing her heritage language, Western Mono. With ten years of experience in language revitalization, documentation, program administration, and event coordination, she facilitates online language courses, contributes to Western Mono educational resources, and has presented on California Indian language and cultural revitalization to schools, museums, and libraries. She served on the AICLS Board of Directors from 2012 to 2018 and was appointed Executive Director in 2018, where she leads the organization's programs supporting the revitalization of California's Indigenous languages.

🌄 Hear and learn from Carly at the Great Valley Gathering this October!


gathering.actaonline.org

📸 Courtesy of the artist

Volunteer with us!The Great Valley Gathering is a free, three-day public event celebrating the living traditions, music,...
09/12/2026

Volunteer with us!

The Great Valley Gathering is a free, three-day public event celebrating the living traditions, music, dance, storytelling, craft, and foodways that shape California’s Central Valley. We're looking for friendly, dependable, community-minded people who are excited to support the arts and cultural traditions of the Central Valley. Generous volunteers like you are essential to bringing this joyful celebration to life.

Learn more and sign-up at bit.ly/GatheringVolunteer 🌄
gathering.actaonline.org



📸 Los Morales. Photo: Jenn Emerling

Califas’s musical signature is something lead vocalist Andrew Trevino calls “West Coast Conjunto.”The band brings togeth...
09/11/2026

Califas’s musical signature is something lead vocalist Andrew Trevino calls “West Coast Conjunto.”

The band brings together the sounds of tejano, conjunto, cumbia, old school, and other influences that reflect both their roots and musical journey. They are dedicated to delivering energetic, authentic performances while representing the music and culture that have shaped who they are. After more than two decades together, their mission remains the same: to celebrate their culture, connect with audiences through music, and keep the traditions they love alive for generations to come.

🌄 Watch Califas perform this October at the Great Valley Gathering!
gathering.actaonline.org




📸 Courtesy of the artist

Address

985 N. Van Ness Avenue
Fresno, CA
93728

Opening Hours

Monday 8:30am - 5pm
Tuesday 8:30am - 5pm
Wednesday 8:30am - 5pm
Thursday 8:30am - 5pm
Friday 8:30am - 5pm

Telephone

+15592379812

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