A Place Where Heritage Inspires the Future

Preserving Yesterday’s Stories to Power Tomorrow’s Voices

From a Shared Vision to a Community Hub

Cultivating Creativity, Community, and Cultural Fluency

Preserving Yesterday’s Stories to Power Tomorrow’s Voices

A Future Built on Cultural Understanding

Reverence, Creativity, and Excellence

Empowering Generations Through the Arts

The Dedicated Hearts and Minds Driving Our Mission

Education & Learning: Cultivating Critical Thought and Cultural Knowledge

The Joyful Path to Discovery and Identity

Building Confidence and Connection

Tailored Cultural Education Across All Ages

Building Bridges Between the Center and the Home

Voices of Our Community

“Since enrolling my son in the music theory and history class at the AAACCC, I have seen a monumental shift in his focus and his self-esteem; he used to be hesitant to speak up in school, but now he confidently discusses the origins of jazz and African rhythmic structure with his peers and teachers. The instruction is incredibly professional, yet the environment feels like a loving extension of our family, and the way they integrate history into the lessons has made him feel profoundly connected to his heritage, something I struggled to do on my own. He isn’t just learning music; he is finding his voice, and that is absolutely priceless. This center is an indispensable resource for our family.” — Samantha R., Parent of a 10-Year-Old

“The impact of the AAACCC on my daughter has been remarkable, especially the confidence she gained after participating in the summer dramatic arts program where they focused on playwrights from the Black Arts Movement. The mentors don’t just teach acting; they engage the students in conversations about social context and storytelling, which has significantly enhanced her analytical skills and critical thinking. She has gone from being a quiet, reserved child to one who is comfortable commanding a stage and expressing complex emotions. Knowing she is being taught by artists who are also dedicated cultural historians gives me immense peace of mind that her education here is both high-quality and culturally grounded. I recommend this center to every family I know in the area.” — David K., Parent of a 16-Year-Old

“As a grandparent, I appreciate how the Center makes history accessible and relevant for my granddaughter, who is in the ‘Future Voices’ program. The way they use dance and storytelling to teach about historical figures is magical—she comes home excited to tell me about them, bridging our generational knowledge gap in a way I didn’t expect. I also attend the adult poetry workshops, which have given me a beautiful creative outlet and a strong connection with other elders in the community. The Center truly is multi-generational and the staff treat everyone with genuine warmth and deep respect. It’s a place where we can all connect with and contribute to our shared history.” — Elena M., Grandparent of a 6-Year-Old

“The historical and archival workshops here have been a true revelation for my two boys. Before coming to the AAACCC, they viewed history as a dry subject, but now they are actively volunteering to help organize local oral history collections, learning how to interview elders and archive documents with professionalism and care. They are learning transferable skills in research and critical literacy while developing a profound respect for their community’s past—it’s an incredible synergy of academic rigor and cultural pride. The staff’s dedication to teaching both preservation techniques and the importance of primary source materials is top-tier, and the boys are absolutely thriving in this environment.” — Charles W., Parent of 12-Year-Old and 14-Year-Old

Become a Cultural Steward: Lend Your Talent, Time, and Passion

Your Comprehensive Guide to Our Operations, Programs, and Policies

Enrollment for our sequential programs typically opens three times a year—Fall, Winter, and Summer—with specific dates advertised widely on our website and through community newsletters, and prospective families are strongly encouraged to register early as many of our specialty classes fill up quickly due to small class sizes designed for individualized instruction. Our process involves a mandatory parent orientation session to ensure complete understanding of the curriculum and expectations, followed by a brief assessment to place the student in the most appropriate skill-level class, and financial aid applications are reviewed concurrently to ensure equal access to our offerings. Safety is our absolute top priority, and we maintain stringent protocols including required background checks for all staff and volunteers, a mandatory sign-in and sign-out system for all minors, and a staff-to-student ratio that exceeds state guidelines for specialized education settings, with all personnel trained in emergency response and first aid procedures to ensure a secure and nurturing environment for everyone in our care.

Our curriculum is founded on the principle of Integrated Cultural Literacy, which rejects the idea of separating art from its historical context, instead using the rich and complex history of the African American experience as the foundation and inspiration for all creative practice. For example, a visual arts class does not just teach painting technique; it explores the impact of figures like Jacob Lawrence and the role of art in the Great Migration, ensuring students understand the social forces that informed the aesthetic. We utilize primary source documents, oral histories from our archive, and culturally specific art forms like jazz, blues, West African dance, and spoken word to ensure that every technical lesson simultaneously builds a deep, profound understanding of cultural heritage and identity, thereby fostering not just skilled artists but culturally grounded scholars who appreciate the significance of their work.

We understand the importance of nutrition for focus and learning, and as part of our commitment to supporting the whole child, we provide healthy, culturally relevant snacks for all students enrolled in our after-school and full-day summer camp programs, ensuring they have the energy required for both their academic and artistic sessions. For our longer summer camps, we typically partner with local, reputable catering services to provide a nutritious lunch option, and we maintain an exhaustive policy regarding dietary restrictions and severe allergies, requiring parents to provide detailed documentation upon enrollment. Our staff is thoroughly trained in allergy awareness and cross-contamination prevention, and we strictly separate food preparation and distribution, ensuring that every student can enjoy their snack and meal safely, accommodating common needs such as gluten-free, dairy-free, and nut-free requirements with dedicated planning.

The African American Arts and Culture Community Center maintains extensive operating hours to serve the varying needs of our diverse family base, with administrative and archival services typically available from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM on weekdays for public inquiries and research, and our programmatic schedule extending well into the evening and weekends to accommodate working parents. Our after-school sessions generally run from 3:30 PM to 6:30 PM, providing a safe, supervised, and educational environment after the public school day concludes, with flexible pick-up times within that window for convenience. Weekend classes and master workshops are scheduled on Saturdays between 9:00 AM and 4:00 PM, and we host public events on select evenings and Sundays, ensuring that whether a parent works traditional hours or needs weekend educational opportunities, the Center offers accessible, high-quality programs that fit into their family’s schedule.

Parental and family involvement is not just encouraged; it is considered an essential pillar of the African American Arts and Culture Community Center’s success, and we expect active engagement from every family to reinforce the value of cultural education at home. We facilitate this through multiple avenues, including mandatory initial orientation sessions, regular parent-teacher conferences to discuss student progress and goals, and frequent invitations to attend all student performances, exhibitions, and public lectures, ensuring that families are fully integrated into the life of the Center. We also maintain a robust Parent Volunteer Network, offering structured opportunities for parents to contribute skills in areas like event planning, fundraising, or classroom support, and we host special family-only workshops focused on oral history and heritage preservation, ensuring that family members can learn and contribute to the cultural mission alongside their children.

Absolutely, the African American Arts and Culture Community Center is fiercely committed to its mission of equitable access to cultural and artistic resources, and we maintain a dedicated financial aid program to ensure that economic barriers do not prevent any motivated student from participating in our high-quality educational and artistic programs. We offer a sliding scale fee structure for eligible families based on demonstrated need and a dedicated scholarship fund, supported by our annual fundraising campaigns and generous donors, which covers tuition and materials for students who demonstrate genuine passion and commitment to their studies. The application for financial assistance is streamlined and confidential, reviewed on a rolling basis, and is designed to work in tandem with the general enrollment process, reflecting our core organizational value that cultural heritage and high-quality education should be a universal right, not a privilege determined by income.

Connect with the Center

We Are Here to Answer Your Questions and Welcome Your Visit

The African American Arts and Culture Community Center is committed to being an accessible and responsive resource for our community, and we encourage you to connect with us through the method that is most convenient for you, whether you are seeking enrollment information, details about our archival holdings, or opportunities to collaborate. We have multiple channels available to ensure your inquiry is routed to the appropriate team member promptly, whether you prefer to correspond via email for detailed questions, speak directly to a staff member over the phone, or correspond via traditional mail for official documentation and correspondences. Our dedicated Community Engagement team monitors all channels during business hours, and we strive to acknowledge and address all inquiries within 48 hours, ensuring that your experience with the Center’s administrative services is as professional and helpful as our programmatic offerings.

Primary Contact Methods
For general inquiries, enrollment questions, program details, and media requests, please use the following contact information:

Email Correspondence:

General Inquiries: info@aacc.lat (This is the fastest way to reach our team)

Address :PO BOX 7366 Stockton, CA 95212

Join Us

Invest Your Career in Cultural Excellence

The African American Arts and Culture Community Center offers much more than just a job; we offer the profound opportunity to invest your professional skills, artistic passion, and intellectual curiosity into a mission-driven environment that is actively shaping the cultural and educational landscape of the community. We are continually seeking highly qualified, dedicated, and culturally fluent professionals across a spectrum of disciplines, including teaching artists specializing in African American and African diaspora arts, experienced administrative and operations staff, development and grant writing experts, and archival specialists committed to historical preservation. Working here means joining a team that values both professional rigor and personal passion, where your contributions directly translate into empowering young people and preserving an invaluable cultural legacy, offering competitive salaries and benefits alongside unparalleled job satisfaction rooted in tangible community impact. We look for individuals who are not just competent but are deeply committed to our core values of Reverence, Creativity, and Excellence, and who are excited by the prospect of contributing to a living, growing cultural institution.