The Artist @ Work Program is San Mateo County’s first Artist-in-Residence-in-Government program. Established in 2026 by the San Mateo County Office of Arts and Culture and US Cultural Strategy Fellow, Marcus Young, the program creates opportunities for artists, arts and cultural organizers, cultural producers, and others to bring socially engaged art practices into government work to better achieve the jurisdiction’s goals and responsibilities. Artists are placed in County of San Mateo departments, working alongside staff, project partners, and community stakeholders in a collaborative process to develop, strategize, promote, and implement artist-driven creative solutions to local civic issues. The A@W Program allows the County to develop and sustain new partnerships both inter-departmentally within the County as well as with artists and arts and cultural organizations across San Mateo County, while enhancing government operations with innovative and creative-based strategies inherent in the skillset of local artists. The goal is to improve government efforts with artist leadership and collaboration, while strengthening the local arts and culture community.

Artist lead: Na Omi Shintani
Department: Office of Racial and Social Justice in partnership with six community-based organizations: (Coastside Hope, Daly City Partnership, El Concilio of San Mateo County, JobTrain, Redwood City Together, and Samaritan House).

Project: Beads of Connection: Shared Prosperity in San Mateo County
Through the Office of Arts and Culture, the artist leads creative workshops related to the values and narrative of shared prosperity. The workshops share San Mateo County's Economic Mobility Action Plan with the diverse communities that provided the data and input that created the plan, and engage them in a personalized creative expression demonstrating the values and narrative embedded in the plan. The workshops will culminate in a collaborative art installation on view to the public.