What We Do
Kalderra is a Healdsburg-based nonprofit working to earn California’s official State-Designated Cultural Arts District certification for the Healdsburg community, and to steward that district for generations to come. We are working in close collaboration with the City of Healdsburg including the Arts and Culture Commission, and the Healdsburg Chamber of Commerce toward a formal, three-partner district structure.
2015 — The State Opens the Door →
California passes AB 189, launching the statewide Cultural Districts program.
2017 — First Districts Designated →
14 communities across California earn state recognition.
2019–2021 — Healdsburg Plans Through Hardship →
Through wildfires, flooding, and a pandemic, Healdsburg completes its Arts and Culture Master Plan.
2023 — A New Tool for Artist Housing →
AB 812 gives designated cities the power to reserve affordable housing for artists.
2024 — The City Commits →
Healdsburg forms its Arts and Culture Commission and hires an Arts Manager.
September, 2025 — Kalderra is formed →
Kalderra, a dedicated nonprofit is established to lead Healdsburg’s application and steward the district
December, 2025 — The Field Expands →
10 new districts are designated statewide, bringing the total to 24. Healdsburg’s moment has arrived
More programming, public art, and a city that invests in creativity for everyone — residents and visitors alike.
State recognition that cements this city’s identity as a creative community.
1. Build the Partnership Core →
Formalize roles with the City and Chamber of Commerce.
2. Map Cultural Assets →
Inventory Healdsburg’s creative businesses, artists, venues, and organizations.
Workshops and visioning to ensure the district reflects all of Healdsburg.
Establish and map official boundaries with community input and City guidance.
Signage, public art, and storytelling rooted in Healdsburg’s history and heritage.
6. Apply for State Designation →
Submit a complete, competitive application to the California Arts Council.
7. Activate and Sustain the District →
Launch programming, events, and marketing with long-term funding to match.
2015 — The State Opens the Door
In 2015, California Governor Jerry Brown signed AB 189 into law, directing the California Arts Council to establish a statewide Cultural Districts program — a formal, competitive system by which communities where arts and culture define a place can earn official state recognition, resources, and support.
2017 — First Districts Designated
The California Arts Council designated the first 14 Cultural Arts Districts across the state — including Calle 24 in San Francisco’s Mission District, Little Tokyo in Los Angeles, and the Truckee Cultural District in the Sierra Nevada. These communities became a national model for how state recognition can anchor and amplify a creative economy.
2019–2021 — Healdsburg Plans Through Hardship
A volunteer group of more than 34 Healdsburg community members— the Creative Leadership Team, comprising artists, educators, business owners, and longtime residents — worked alongside professional consultants to develop Healdsburg’s Arts and Culture Master Plan (ACMP). The process began in 2019 and was delayed by wildfires and evacuations, flooding, and the COVID-19 pandemic. They persevered anyway. The final plan was shaped by over 526 resident surveys, bilingual community workshops, and five planning visits — and was adopted by the Healdsburg City Council in August 2021. It remains the community’s roadmap for its creative future.
2023 — A New Tool for Artist Housing
Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 812 into law, creating a powerful new benefit for state-designated cultural districts. Cities with designation can now reserve up to 10 percent of required affordable housing units in new residential developments (within or within one-half mile of the district) specifically for artists. No existing tenant can be displaced, and a fair vetting process ensures access for working artists at all income levels. This is a concrete, legally-backed tool to help keep artists home.
2024 — The City Commits
In 2024, the Healdsburg City Council formed the Arts and Culture Commission (A&CC), appointing seven inaugural members to oversee implementation of the ACMP. The Commission held its first meeting in January, 2025. The City also hired a part-time Arts Manager in November, 2024, a milestone representing the City’s formal, funded, and staffed commitment to arts and culture as a civic priority. City funding for arts and culture implementation, which began at $50,000 per year in the 2022–2024 budget cycle, was increased to $75,000 per year in the 2024–2026 cycle.
September, 2025 — Kalderra is formed
Kalderra was established as the dedicated nonprofit lead organization required by the state application process. Working in partnership with the City of Healdsburg (City Council, Arts and Culture Commission, and City staff) and the Healdsburg Chamber of Commerce, Kalderra’s mission is to secure state designation for Healdsburg and serve as long-term steward of the district.
December, 2025 — The Field Expands
The California Arts Council designated 10 additional Cultural Arts Districts across the state, bringing the statewide total to 24 recognized districts. This expansion signals renewed momentum in the program — and a clear opening for Healdsburg to join the next cohort.
For Artists
For working artists in Healdsburg, the district creates a real support structure, not just a recognition label.
State designation brings official marketing and promotional support at the state level, putting Healdsburg's creative community in front of a much larger audience. It opens up grant funding and technical assistance specifically for designated districts. It creates the conditions for more commissions, more performance opportunities, more venues, and more reasons for creative businesses to open and grow here.
But the bigger opportunity is building a creative economy that actually sustains artists over time: stronger audiences, more affordable workspace, better connections to each other, and a city that treats the creative sector as a genuine economic priority rather than a nice feature.
For Residents
State designation changes what it feels like to live in Healdsburg day to day.
More arts programming, designed for the people who live here, not just those passing through. Better connections between venues, organizations, and neighborhoods, so the creative life of the city feels like one coherent thing rather than scattered events. Public art, cultural storytelling, and improved public spaces that give the city a stronger, more visible identity.
The ACMP already called for more accessible, affordable, and inclusive cultural spaces across Healdsburg, from parks to the Community Center to neighborhood gathering places. The district is a framework for making that happen in a coordinated way, with state backing and dedicated partnerships.
For families, longtime residents, and young people growing up here, this is a signal that Healdsburg's identity is not just a tourism pitch. It belongs to the people who live here, and the city is actively investing in it.
For Healdsburg
Healdsburg's creative life isn't a cultural amenity. It's a core part of how this city's economy works.
Pre-pandemic figures in the ACMP put the creative industries at $47 million in annual earnings and $112 million in annual sales locally. Those numbers have almost certainly shifted, but the underlying reality hasn't. Galleries, performance venues, artist studios, arts nonprofits, and cultural festivals bring people here, fill hotel rooms, support restaurants, keep retail active, and generate tax revenue.
Healdsburg's economy has long been anchored by wine and tourism. Growing the creative sector alongside those strengths gives the city a more resilient and diverse economic foundation, one that attracts new creative businesses, supports the ones already here, and builds year-round vitality.
State designation accelerates that. It connects Healdsburg to a network of 24 recognized districts statewide, opens grant funding and promotional partnerships unavailable to undesignated cities, and sends a clear signal to visitors, investors, and entrepreneurs that Healdsburg's creative identity is real, supported, and growing. For the City, it also embeds the creative economy into future planning, land use, and public space investment in ways that shape how Healdsburg grows for years to come.
The creative economy is working here. Designation is how the City puts its full weight behind it.
1. Build the Partnership Core
California's Cultural District designation requires a formal three-partner structure: a nonprofit arts organization, a local government entity, and a business association. Kalderra serves as the nonprofit lead, working alongside the City of Healdsburg, including the City Council, Arts and Culture Commission, and City staff, and the Healdsburg Chamber of Commerce.
Kalderra is also actively engaged in the City's SMART Station Area Specific Plan process, a $1.13 million MTC-funded planning effort covering the half-mile area around the planned Healdsburg SMART rail station and the South Entry corridor. Getting cultural district priorities written into that plan now, before land use and design decisions are locked in, matters. When culture is embedded in infrastructure planning from the start, it shapes how the southern gateway develops rather than being retrofitted later.
This is the larger principle behind building the partnership core: getting the right people aligned early so the district's needs are part of how Healdsburg grows, not an afterthought.
2. Map Cultural Assets
A Cultural Asset Inventory is a core requirement of the state application, and Kalderra will work with the Arts and Culture Commission to update the inventory included in the ACMP. The 2021 count identified 344 creative businesses and 29 nonprofits within and near the proposed district area. That baseline will be refreshed and mapped to meet current state specifications.
This inventory is also a practical economic development tool. It shows the City, funders, and partners exactly where creative businesses are concentrated, where gaps exist, and where support or investment could have the greatest impact. Understanding what Healdsburg already has is the first step toward building on it strategically
3. Engage the Community
Healdsburg has already done something remarkable. Between 2019 and 2021, more than 30 community leaders, hundreds of residents, artists, educators, and business owners came together and built the Community Arts and Culture Master Plan. They did it through wildfires, flooding, and a pandemic.
This district is the next chapter of that same work.
Kalderra's role is to carry that momentum forward, not to start over. The workshops, the visioning, the community conversations that shaped the ACMP. Those relationships and that trust are the foundation we build on. The goal is a district that genuinely reflects what Healdsburg's community said it wanted, and continues to build toward as this work moves forward.
That means the same inclusion that shaped the ACMP. That includes longtime residents, families with generational cultural ties, emerging artists, seniors, young people, our Latino community, and the nonprofits and community organizations already doing this work daily. They will be in the room shaping decisions, not reviewing them after the fact. Community engagement is also how the district stays useful and grounded over time, keeping it connected to the businesses, organizations, and neighborhoods that carry it forward.
Corazón Healdsburg and the Healthcare Foundation of Northern Sonoma County are developing the Abel de Luna Multicultural Wellness Center which is a core anchor area within the district. Kalderra is committed to supporting that work. The center will be a lasting home for Healdsburg's Latino cultural life and a physical expression of what this district stands for: equity, inclusion, and multilingual programming that reflects the full diversity of the people who live here.
As the district grows, so will how it is governed. A steering committee drawn from Healdsburg's nonprofit, arts, business, and neighborhood communities will share real decision-making over the district's future. The community built this vision. The community will help run it.
4. Define the District
Working with the community and the City, Kalderra will assist in establishing the official geographic boundaries of the Healdsburg Cultural Arts District. The proposed district is organized around four anchor areas, connected by the Foss Creek Pathway multi-use corridor. All boundaries are subject to community input. The final boundary map will be submitted as part of the formal application.
Clear, well-defined boundaries do more than satisfy an application requirement. They direct investment, guide signage and programming, help residents and visitors navigate the district, and make sure the district can be reflected in future city planning and development decisions. Mapping the district is how it becomes a real and lasting part of Healdsburg's civic infrastructure.
5. Create a Sense of Place
The district should be something you can see, feel, and move through.
Kalderra serves as the neutral convener, partnering and coordinating with organizations, the City, and local artists to develop cultural wayfinding and signage throughout the district, along with public art and storytelling that celebrates Healdsburg's layered history. That includes the artistry and cultural legacy of the Southern Pomo and Western Wappo peoples whose presence has shaped this land for thousands of years, the city's long performing arts tradition, and the thriving creative community active here today.
The Foss Creek Pathway, already featuring public art installations, becomes a living cultural corridor connecting all four areas of the district. Wayfinding, public art, and cultural storytelling also serve a practical function. They will help people navigate the district, spend more time in it, and connect with the local businesses and public spaces that give it life.
6. Apply for State Designation
Kalderra will prepare and submit a complete application to the California Arts Council. The components include the Cultural Asset Inventory, District Boundary Map, Partnership Agreements, Community Support Letters, Financial Documentation, and 22 narrative responses covering equity, partnerships, community engagement, and district vision.
The application is built on years of community planning and documentation, from the ACMP itself through the ongoing work of the Arts and Culture Commission. It makes Healdsburg's case for joining California's statewide family of designated cultural districts. Designation is not just a label. It gives the City a stronger platform for recognition, funding, partnership, and the kind of long-term implementation that keeps the creative economy growing.
7. Activate and Sustain the District
Designation is the beginning, not the finish line.
Kalderra will work with district partners on events, marketing, and community programming that make the district a real part of daily life in Healdsburg, not a seasonal attraction. The goal is year-round activation: events that bring people together, programs that support local artists and nonprofits, and public spaces that people use regularly.
Sustaining that takes diversified, long-term funding. Kalderra will work with the City, the Chamber, and other partners to build a funding base that does not depend on any single source. A district that is financially stable can grow its programming, strengthen local businesses, deepen its connection to residents, and keep delivering on what Healdsburg's community asked for.