Community Arts Festival

At ten in the morning on Saturday, April 18, 2026, El Lucero Ballet Folklorico Mexicano opened the outdoor stage at Central Park, 11200 Baseline Road, Rancho Cucamonga. Welcome and announcements followed at 10:15. The stage stayed in use until the closing announcements at 2:50 in the afternoon. This was the 5th Annual Community Arts Festival, presented by the Rancho Cucamonga Community and Arts Foundation in partnership with the City of Rancho Cucamonga, with U.S. Bank as sponsor.

Around the stage were the booths and tables of more than 35 arts organizations: art instructors, exhibitors, artist vendors, and performing groups. The foundation puts the crowd at over 1,500 community members each year. The city’s April newsletter promised “a full day of live music, community performances, and interactive arts experiences for the whole family,” and on the morning of the festival the foundation posted that the family activities were free.

The stage from ten to three

The program followed a quarter-hour rhythm. After El Lucero came The Bright Hive at 10:30, Rockstars Of Tomorrow Rancho Cucamonga at 10:50, The School of Arts + Enterprise, Alta Loma Dance Academy, and the SAAG dance group. Folklorico returned before noon with Ballet Folklorico Aztlan at 11:50. Aloha Hula Studio went on at 12:05, then SoCa Arts, then the Herencia Mexicana Folkloric Group at 12:35. The afternoon opened with the Grapeland Grizzly Choir at 1:05. Drum Sync Academy LLC followed at 1:20 and held the stage for half an hour. The Polaris Education Foundation closed the program with a ballet group, a model group, and its “Hearts of Harmony” Awards at 2:20. The posted schedule was last updated April 10 and marked subject to change.

Awards between the sets

At 12:50 the foundation took the stage for its own awards. Its 2026 Visual and Performing Arts Scholarships went to seven high school seniors heading to college in arts disciplines. The scholarships totaled $10,000 and were chosen from a record number of applicants. The winners came from Rancho Cucamonga High School, Etiwanda High School, and Los Osos High School, and they were recognized at the festival that day.

That evening a member of the foundation’s crew, posting as whicheversoprano, wrote about working “to serve my hometown.” The post called the day “my first Community Arts Festival” and thanked the foundation’s board, the vendors, and city staff Mary Johnson and Crystal Gallegoz-Ramirez.

Victoria Gardens, April 2022

The festival began on another site. On March 31, 2022, the Claremont Courier announced the city’s first Community Arts Festival for Saturday, April 30, at the Victoria Gardens Cultural Center, 12505 Cultural Center Drive. It ran from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and was free to the public. It offered live performances by youth and adult artists, a visual art exhibit, and hands-on activities for families and children. Arts groups could take part at no cost with an information booth, a set on the community stage, a demonstration, or an exhibit of artwork.

The festival was timed to California Arts, Culture and Creativity Month. Its online description invited visitors to “Try a visual arts activity to inspire your inner artist. Discover the many multi-cultural arts groups in our region.” U.S. Bank funded that first year with a grant, and Bank of America sponsored the art exhibit. The foundation’s executive director then was Susan Sluka Kelly. By the foundation’s own count, the inaugural festival spotlighted over 40 local arts organizations, held classes and performances through the day, and drew over 2,000 people. Its website keeps photo galleries from each festival since: 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025.

A foundation from 1986

The organizer is older than the festival. It was founded in 1986 as the Rancho Cucamonga Community Foundation and turned to the arts in 2006, when the city was preparing to open the Victoria Gardens Cultural Center and the Lewis Family Playhouse. Its Instagram profile dates its arts work from that year. It took its present name in 2011. After that it raised $150,000 to $200,000 a year, spent largely on locally produced theatre, free school group attendance for hundreds of children, guest artists, and concerts at the cultural center.

The foundation describes the Covid-19 pandemic as causing “complete devastation of performing arts venues” in 2020. In response it widened its focus to community and the arts in a broader sense. In spring 2021 it launched a Community Arts Grant Program offering up to $25,000 to local arts organizations, and the festival followed the next spring. The foundation is now run by an all-volunteer board of eight, with Executive Director Bethany Encina and a bookkeeper. In July 2026 it awarded the first Susan Sluka Kelly Community Art Grant to the Inland Valley Repertory Theatre, for a project with the Lewis Family Playhouse.