For 70 years, the Zellerbach Family Foundation has promoted belonging, expression, and a shared sense of safety among people and communities across the Bay Area and California.
We believe that arts and culture play a central role in creating a thriving Bay Area by ensuring the experiences, traditions, and dreams of all individuals and communities can be appreciated and celebrated. We know arts and culture has the power to shift narratives, give voice to those who have been historically excluded from telling their own stories, and transform how our public systems respond to the needs of the community.
We are proud to invest in and partner with organizations like Movement and RYSE, who, through arts and culture, bring people together and change hearts and minds to imagine a better future.
Movement is an immigrant-led music and storytelling platform that harnesses the power of music and culture to help imagine new futures. Through podcast and radio, live performance, and community-building strategies, Movement builds both a narrative infrastructure and a narrative distribution platform led by immigrants that centers the stories of immigrant, migrant, and refugee musicians on their own terms.
Musician Thao in conversation with Meklit Hadero for the Movement with Meklit Hadero podcast. Photo courtesy of KALW Public Media.
Movement’s ongoing work also includes hosting gatherings where immigrant musicians from around the world come together for meals, community, and solidarity. These gatherings led to jam sessions and the formation of the Immigrant Orchestra in 2024 — a vital public resource for artist collaboration and connection that welcomes friends, family, and allies as well.
RYSE is a youth-led movement and social justice organization designed to embody the world young people dream of — a world with strong, healthy, united communities, where equity is the norm and violence has no place. RYSE provides space, opportunity, and resources for youth to build power, and works to achieve three overarching goals: 1) Young people feel loved, listened to, and powerful; 2) Systems are loving and just; and 3) Built environments center the dreams, needs, power, and healing of our young people, our communities, and the land.
Designed by RYSE Artscapes Interns and Bay Area artist Alex Bowman, “The People’s Garden” is a vibrant mural adorning the entrance to the RYSE Health Justice Center.
RYSE provides young people with space to heal holistically, explore and expand their interests, strengthen their leadership, and build community through a range of programs and activities, from arts-based healing and health supports to youth justice, powerbuilding, and leadership opportunities.
It is an honor to partner with and learn from organizations leading change in their communities by centering the diverse voices and experiences that make the Bay Area what it is. Together, this is how we will advance a shared vision of a Bay Area that celebrates the rich diversity of the region; where everyone feels safe and welcome, and everyone has equitable opportunities to thrive.