In 1985, the California State Summer School for the Arts (InnerSpark) was created to enable artistically gifted and talented students, broadly representative of the socioeconomic and ethnic diversity of the state, to receive intensive training in the arts through a multidisciplinary program.

Each year, InnerSpark conducts the California Arts Search to identify the most talented high school-aged visual, literary, media, and performing artists in California.  The teenagers selected are designated California Arts Scholars, and attend one of the country's premier summer arts institutes on the campus of the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia.

AC5 honors and recognizes those Contra Costa County students chosen to attend CSSA by arranging a public ceremony and reception in the chambers of the Board of Supervisors.