On September 7, at 12:30 p.m., at the San Mateo Public Library (55 West Third Street, San Mateo), three Bay Area grantmakers invite Bay Area nonprofit organizations and artists to learn about their available commissioning and project grants. Presenters will be: Jessica Mele, of the Hewlett 50 Arts Commissions and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; Frances Phillips from the Creative Work Fund; and Olivia Malabuyo Tablante, representing The Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation Special Awards in the Arts Program. Interested participants are urged to reserve a space online at http://creativeworkfund.org/forms/cwf-seminar-registration.
While each program has a different focus, all three require applicants to present project plans and budgets that allocate significant portions of the requested funds to paying or commissioning artists. All three require nonprofits to be based in the following counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, or Sonoma. Also, each funding program changes the artistic genres funded from year-to-year and the following are invited in their next rounds of applications: media arts and performing arts (The Creative Work Fund); dance (Gerbode Special Awards in the Arts); and theater, spoken word, or musical theater (Hewlett 50 Arts Commissions).
The September 7 workshop (and coming events in Oakland, Richmond, and Santa Cruz) are intended to encourage applications and help artists and organizations understand which grants they are eligible to apply for, as well as which opportunities best suit their goals and ambitions.
“The Bay Area has a well-deserved reputation as a home for exciting new art created both by local artists and by artists who have come here from across the country and around the world to create and present their new works,” said John McGuirk, Performing Arts Program Director at the Hewlett Foundation, one of the grantmakers participating. “We support these programs because we believe our communities thrive and individuals’ lives are enriched when artists are supported to create and share new works here.”