HB1923

SECTION 1. Chapter 9, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new part to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"Part . creative arts workforce grant program

§9-A Definitions. For purposes of this part:

"Creative work" means work directly relevant to the creation, development, production, and marketing of visual, performance, and literary art, including but not limited to painting, mural making, photography, music, performance art, acting, filmmaking, dancing, fashion design, graphic design, poetry, and all other forms of creative writing.

"Creative workers" means visual, performance, and literary artists, including but not limited to painters, muralists, photographers, musicians, performing artists, actors, filmmakers, dancers, fashion designers, graphic designers, poets, and writers.

"Earn and learn" means a program that:

(1) Combines applied learning with compensation in a workplace setting that allows workers or students to gain work experience, secure a wage, and develop skills and competencies directly relevant to the occupation or career for which they are preparing; or

(2) Brings together classroom instruction with on-the-job training to combine formal instruction and actual paid work experience.

"Grant program" means the creative arts workforce grant program established pursuant to section 9-B.

§9-B Creative arts workforce grant program. (a) There is established within, and administered by, the foundation a creative arts workforce grant program. The grant program shall have the following objectives:

(1) To establish creative arts workforce development as a state priority;

(2) To recognize creative workers across the State as essential workers and contributors for overcoming the State's greatest challenges through the rebuilding of the State's cultural landscape into a more equitable and just framework;

(3) To develop and support a workforce career development pipeline that serves creative workers at all stages of their careers;

(4) To create equitable opportunities for career exploration and participation in creative work for individuals and communities who may have faced barriers to participation and employment in creative work as a result of low levels of public and private investment, limited exposure to arts programming, or other social or economic barriers to participation and employment in creative work; and

(5) To promote employment and earn and learn job training opportunities for creative workers throughout the State.

§9-C Creative arts workforce grant program; earn and learn job training. (a) The foundation shall specify and set aside a portion of program funds of the grant program to be awarded to grantees to provide, either directly or through contract, earn and learn job training employment opportunities for students who have enrolled or completed a program in the arts; low-income or unemployed creative workers; and others with a demonstrated interest in, or commitment to, creative work in their communities.

(b) Grantees awarded funds under this section may serve as, or contract with, labor market intermediaries who will connect prospective earn and learn program participants to employers with earn and learn job training employment opportunities that involve creative work.

(c) Earn and learn job training employment opportunities for a creative worker under this section shall be for a period of no less than twelve months and no more than twenty-four months.

(d) Employment opportunities funded by the grant program pursuant to section 9-B shall pay a living wage in the regional labor market where the work is performed.

(e) Creative workers under this section shall be employed in jobs that provide opportunities over the course of their enrollment in the grant program, to learn occupational skills relevant to job characteristics of the arts and entertainment industry.

(f) Employment opportunities under this section shall support creative workers in diverse projects, including but not limited to public artworks, musical and theatrical performances, and community document projects that lift up the voices of systemically marginalized populations and that reframe and reimagine the possibilities of defining a new creative arts cultural landscape in the State.

(g) The earn and learn program shall be structured to promote transition to unsubsidized employment at the time participants complete enrollment, with job placement in a living wage job as an important underlying objective of the program.

§9-D Creative arts workforce grant program; career exploration and participation. The foundation shall specify and set aside a portion of program funds of the grant program to create equitable opportunities for career exploration and participation in creative work for individuals and communities who have faced barriers to participation and employment in creative work as a result of low levels of public and private investment in the arts, limited exposure to arts programming, or other social or economic barriers to participation and employment in creative work.

§9-E Creative arts workforce grant program; unemployed, underemployed, and displaced creative workers. The foundation may specify and set aside a portion of funds from the grant program to be awarded to grantees to provide other workforce services to unemployed, underemployed, and displaced creative workers."

SECTION 2. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $ or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2022-2023 for the creative arts workforce grant program established pursuant to this Act.

The sum appropriated shall be expended by the state foundation on culture and the arts for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 3. In codifying the new sections added by section 1 of this Act, the revisor of statutes shall substitute appropriate section numbers for the letters used in designating the new sections in this Act.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2022.

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.B. NO.	1923
THIRTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2022
STATE OF HAWAII