OUR PROGRAMS
QCC’s programs include artist development through Creating Queer Communities, production and curation of the annual National Queer Arts Festival, and fiscal sponsorship for LGBTQ+ artists, projects, and arts organizations.
Creating Queer Communities
For more than 25 years, Creating Queer Communities has provided QTBIPOC artists in the San Francisco Bay Area with the grants, training, and community they need to make their work sustainable. CQC artists develop and present new work as part of the National Queer Arts Festival, supported by real infrastructure built for the artists who need it most.
Fiscal Sponsorship
Queer Cultural Center is an incubator of emerging and established artists, organizations, and production companies. Through our support, independent artists and small companies gain access to funding that would otherwise be out of reach.
We have supported the growth and development of QWOCMAP, RADAR Productions, Fresh Meat, Peacock Rebellion, and hundreds of individual artists.
PAST PROGRAMS
Replanting Seeds
Queer Cultural Center is thrilled to announce the launch of Replanting Seeds, a regranting program supporting 6 Indigenous-led Two Spirit and IndigeQueer organizations in the city of San Francisco. QCC is providing each organization with a general operating support grant as well as skills training and tailored coaching to support each grantee organization’s self-determined goals.
Queer Conversations on Culture and the Arts
Queer Conversations on Culture and the Arts (QCCA) brings together locally and nationally renowned artists, writers, filmmakers, and scholars for a series of conversations to discuss a broad range of LGBTQ+ topics in the humanities, architecture, design, and the arts.
Emerging Scholars’ Program
The Emerging Scholars’ Program (ESP) brings together recent graduates in the disciplines of Fine Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences, and Environmental Design disciplines whose work explores gender identity and issues relevant to queer and trans people of color with Bay Area non-profit, community-based arts and social service organizations for a series of conversations that will bring community perspective to their work and develop a network of queer scholars and community partners to foster collaborative research, workshops and cultural events that will enrich the lives of the queer community.
Healthy Communities
QCC launched year-round presentations and staged a series of approximately 25 arts programs in the Castro neighborhood of San Francisco, exploring medical and mental health issues such as living with life-threatening diseases, amphetamine abuse and working in the sex industry.
LGBTQ Arts Archive
The LGBTQ+ Arts Archive contains material that traces the emergence, diversification and ongoing evolution of Queer arts and culture in San Francisco. Originally created in the late 90s and early 2000s, they represent our sensibility at that time and were never meant to be a complete index of queer art or artists; but rather a humble start at building visibility and online community. The majority of artists presented have either lived in San Francisco or have been connected to the Bay Area in a Queer way.
As of 2026, plans are underway for a full inventory of NQAF and LGBTQ+ Arts Archive materials. In an era of erasure, it’s more important than ever to hold our archives in alternative institutions. Stay tuned to hear more about this work!