Foundation Awards $120,000 to Local Arts Organizations

Grants will support innovative collaborations at seven nonprofits

This week, the Sacramento Region Community Foundation granted nearly $120,000 to support local arts programs that respond to the changing needs of the region’s creative community.

The seven recipient organizations were selected from 32 proposals submitted to the Foundation as part of its Transforming the Creative Economy Strategic Initiative, which aims to foster a thriving cultural community in the Sacramento region by supporting arts organizations as they innovate, diversify and build board capacity, and develop new audiences to meet the evolving needs of the area’s communities.

“Arts organizations across the region are seeing shrinking audiences and arts education is underfunded in local schools,” said Jeannie Howell, the Foundation’s Community Impact Officer. “For our cultural community to sustain itself—and for it to thrive—arts nonprofits must develop new approaches. That’s why these programs are so inspiring. They celebrate collaboration and innovation, and, in doing so, they reflect the vitality of local arts.”

Among the seven grants awarded is one that funds a project between the Calidanza Dance Company, the Crocker Art Museum, and the Latino Cultural Center that pairs public performances with educational workshops celebrating Dia De Los Muertos in a low-income neighborhood. Another grant will help E. Claire Raley Studios for the Performing Arts (CLARA) tenants bring their programming to students in Sacramento schools, and another supports the Pence Gallery Association’s series of interactive social events that bridge arts and non-arts organizations in Yolo County.

“These projects illustrate the dynamism of the Sacramento region’s arts community,” said Priscilla Enriquez, the Foundation’s Chief Giving Officer.

“Even more than helping local arts organizations address the challenges facing their sector by funding these projects, we are excited to work with the awardees—and they will work with each other—to develop better, more sustainable models for local arts organizations. Together, we want to ensure that the Sacramento region’s arts community thrives into the future,” she added.

Altogether, the Foundation granted $119,753 to 916 Ink, Calidanza Dance Company, Crocker Art Museum, CLARA, Fairytale Town, Pence Gallery Association, and Verge Center for the Arts.

These awards complement six grants given earlier this year from the Foundation’s Dennis Mangers Fund for Young Performing Artists to improve access to performing arts education and training for underserved youth. Those awards granted $22,400 to support an array of opportunities in dance, music, theater, and theater production for over 140 low-income youth locally.

To learn more about the Foundation’s work to enrich the region’s arts sector, please visit www.sacregcf.org. For more information, please contact Shirlee Tully at shirlee@sacregcf.org or (916) 765-9000.