Grant Listings: The Arts

Attitudinal Healing Connection manages the ArtEsteem in-school and after-school arts education program for East Bay students. Its curriculum builds self-esteem and encourages students' involvement in efforts to improve their communities. With support from the Fund, ArtEsteem anticipates serving 20 schools and community centers throughout Oakland and Berkeley in 2010.
Grant Amount: $25,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 12/04/2009 through 12/04/2010
Project Web Site: www.ahc-oakland.org

Founded in 1976 to serve the emerging field of video arts, the Bay Area Video Coalition has emerged as a training center in media-related fields for adults and youth. Among its youth programs, Digital Pathways serves 20 low-income teenagers over an 18-month period of biweekly classes and placements for participants in entry-level positions in the media arts industry. Youth participating in Digital Pathways can focus on either audio or video production skills. This program builds mentoring relationships between working artists and youth, recruits and serves youth from schools with limited arts offerings, and fosters the creation of high quality youth media works.
Grant Amount: $45,000 [2008] , $45,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 03/31/2008 through 03/31/2010
Project Web Site: www.bavc.org

Serving 250 students annually, the Youth Powered Media Arts Program at the Bayview Hunters Point Center for Arts and Technology provides free digital media classes to low-income youth with limited access to arts learning opportunities. The Fund's grant helps the program provide youth with access to state-of-the art media equipment and high-quality artist mentors.
Grant Amount: $25,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 05/12/2009 through 05/12/2010
Project Web Site: www.baycat.org

The California Alliance for Arts Education works on behalf of quality arts education in public schools. In 2006, the Alliance played a leading role in securing $105 million in art and music funding for school districts statewide, and it has worked to retain those funds in the state budget for the last two years. While California's fiscal challenges continue to threaten the quality of public education, the Fund's grant helps the Alliance keep arts education a priority subject for policymakers in Sacramento and in local districts.
Grant Amount: $40,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 03/24/2009 through 03/24/2010
Project Web Site: www.artsed411.org

California College of the Arts' Center for Art and Public Life develops creative community partnerships and places Community Student Fellows in public schools and after-school programs where they assist with the teaching of art. With the support of the Fund, the California College of the Arts plans to place 30-50 fellows throughout the community in the coming year, expanding creative opportunities for Bay Area children and youth.
Grant Amount: $50,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 11/23/2009 through 11/23/2010
Project Web Site: www.cca.edu

California Poets in the Schools places professional poets as resident artists in classrooms statewide. It operates its largest program in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Fund's grant supports the recruitment and training of new poet-teachers, subsidized workshops in schools serving low-income students, and the work of local area coordinators who liaise with school districts, find teaching placements for poets, and coach poet teachers.
Grant Amount: $20,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 09/02/2009 through 09/02/2010
Project Web Site: www.cpits.org

Choral music organization Cantare Con Vivo operates an outreach program that provides free, weekly, after-school choral music classes for elementary, middle, and high school students across Oakland. The Fund's grant helps Cantare Con Vivo to expand its advanced choral music program so that it can reach 100 underserved, culturally diverse Oakland middle and high school students. The organization's planned bilingual, multicultural initiative will introduce students to the music of the Andes and Latin America as part of general efforts to provide a culturally diverse and appropriate music curriculum.
Grant Amount: $8,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 06/16/2009 through 06/16/2010
Project Web Site: www.cantareconvivo.org

Each summer, Cazadero Performing Arts Camp offers talented children and youth intensive music training at their Northern California facility. The Camp's JumpStart in Music program, a three-day introductory music experience, reaches 2,000 public school students each academic year. Support from the Fund provides scholarships for low-income students, allowing them to take advantage of this beneficial music education opportunity.
Grant Amount: $7,500 [2009]
Project Dates: 12/08/2009 through 12/08/2010
Project Web Site: www.cazadero.org

The Community Music Center was founded on the philosophy that age, ethnic background, and income level must never be obstacles to participation in music education. Last year, the Center served 2,345 students of all ages and levels of ability, with no student turned away for inability to pay. Over the last five years, the Center has focused on providing increased opportunities for people of different ages and ethnicities to play music together. The Fund provides general operating support to aid the Center in continuing to provide its students with quality music education.
Grant Amount: $50,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 11/23/2009 through 11/23/2010
Project Web Site: www.sfcmc.org

Dimensions Dance Theater offers its Rites of Passage dance program in five Oakland public schools and at a central after-school site. The in-school program reaches 400 fourth-grade through eighth-grade students each week. In addition to teaching dance and life skills, these free classes provide young people from struggling families with tutoring, counseling, and assistance with college applications.
Grant Amount: $30,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 12/23/2009 through 12/23/2010
Project Web Site: http://www.dimensionsdance.org/

Drawbridge operates art groups for homeless and other vulnerable children in 11 Bay Area cities. Professional artists, and volunteers focus on helping emotionally vulnerable children express themselves and heal through art in age appropriate lessons. The Fund's grant helps keep this supportive environment operational during a period of transition for Drawbridge.
Grant Amount: $30,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 04/30/2009 through 04/30/2010
Project Web Site: www.drawbridge.org

The Imagine Bus Project offers free and low-cost after-school visual arts workshops at 10 sites serving low-income San Francisco children. Instructors are professional artists trained in youth development and arts education standards. The Fund's grant will help a planned expansion to 25 sites over three years.
Grant Amount: $35,000 [2007] , $30,000 [2008] , $25,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 07/09/2007 through 07/09/2010
Project Web Site: www.imaginebusproject.org

Kala Art Institute, with support of the Fund, manages an artists-in-schools program providing weekly art-making opportunities to students at eleven East Bay public schools. The students' work culminates in the exhibit of their art in the Institute's new education gallery. The Institute also offers teachers ten professional development workshops annually.
Grant Amount: $10,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 12/22/2009 through 12/22/2010
Project Web Site: www.kala.org

The artists at Kid Serve Youth Murals guide children in Bay Area public schools through the process of designing and constructing mosaic murals in their schoolyards. Many projects draw upon themes from classes in science or social studies and involve the schools' surrounding communities. The Fund's grant provides partial subsidies for the creation of seven murals in San Francisco and Alameda County public schools that primarily serve low-income students.
Grant Amount: $15,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 03/16/2009 through 03/16/2010
Project Web Site: www.kidserve.com

Leap...imagination in learning places artists and architects in San Francisco, Berkeley and Oakland public schools and after-school programs to teach art and design. The program's rigorous teacher training and distinctive architecture curriculum provides area students with high-quality, creative educational opportunities. The Fund's grant helps extend the program's reach so that it can serve 30 schools in 200910.
Grant Amount: $20,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 08/26/2009 through 08/26/2010
Project Web Site: www.leap4kids.org

Luna Kids Dance is working to develop a sustainable, standards-based dance education program throughout the Oakland Unified School District. Over the last three years, the program has expanded from the lower grades at three elementary schools to involve two middle schools and classes for high school teachers. Its weekly dance classes, professional development program, and parent-child dance events aid in the cognitive and physical development of students.
Grant Amount: $10,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 04/07/2009 through 04/07/2010
Project Web Site: http://lunadanceinstitute.org/

Marsh Youth Theater, a program of The Marsh, offers year-round theater arts classes in the San Francisco's Mission district, home to a significant number of low-income and Spanish-speaking families. The program annually serves 240 students. Participants stage productions in which they perform, build sets, and run technical systems, developing confidence and skills. The Fund's grant provides operating costs and helps strengthen offerings for advanced students.
Grant Amount: $20,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 04/30/2009 through 04/30/2010
Project Web Site: www.themarsh.org

Fiscal Sponsor: Community Initiatives
Media Enterprise Alliance's after-school program, based on strong youth development principles, enables low-income students to apply their creativity through new media. The Alliance's Oakland public high school pilot expands in 2010 to serve multiple sites, annually presenting 150 students with the opportunity to build media arts skills.
Grant Amount: $15,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 12/15/2009 through 12/15/2010
Project Web Site: http://www.cifunds.org/media_enterprise_alliance.html

The Museum of Children's Art offers hands-on, age-appropriate arts classes for children and families in its museum, in schools, and at other community sites. The Fund's grant assists the Museum with implementing two aspects of its recent strategic plan: strengthening professional development of teaching artists, and hiring an evaluation consultant to revise its survey instruments and improve data-gathering systems.
Grant Amount: $40,000 [2008] , $30,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 11/21/2008 through 11/21/2010
Project Web Site: www.mocha.org

In response to budget cuts, the Oakland Unified School District secured a major federal Department of Education grant to instruct classroom teachers in how they could incorporate music education into other subject lessons. Curriculum-development specialists from Music in Schools Today are partnering with participating Oakland teachers to create standards-based curricula that document the project, helping Oakland teachers continue such lessons when the federal grant is depleted. The Fund supports this timely partnership, allowing Oakland teachers to continue their professional development.
Grant Amount: $20,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 12/23/2009 through 12/23/2010
Project Web Site: www.mustcreate.org

Music National Service's MusicianCorps pilot program aims to recruit, train, and place young professional musicians in under-resourced public schools and other community centers. MusicianCorps members receive living stipends, benefits, and professional training in exchange for a year of service. Through the work of these volunteers, Music National Service intends to reinforce the value of artists in the national service agenda. With the help of the Fund, MusicianCorps will place six fellows in the Bay Area so that they can provide creative opportunities to community members and help organize community service projects.
Grant Amount: $50,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 11/23/2009 through 11/23/2010
Project Web Site: www.musicnationalservice.org

New Conservatory offers comprehensive theater education for children and youth through its San Francisco locations. In 200910, the Fund's assistance will help the New Conservatory to increase opportunities for quality arts education by also operating 10 satellite sites in low-income neighborhoods. This effort will include extending a recent pilot program for hearing-impaired children who would otherwise have limited opportunities to engage in theater arts.
Grant Amount: $20,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 09/15/2009 through 09/15/2010
Project Web Site: www.nctcsf.org

Originally formed as a teen performing group, the Oakland Youth Chorus now provides one of the largest music education programs for Oakland public schools, working with some 1,000 students per year at 23 sites. Its curriculum is clearly aligned with California's Visual and Performing Arts framework, and it reaches many children who otherwise would not have opportunities to study music. The Fund's grant is helping the Chorus address both programmatic and organizational development goals identified in its strategic plan.
Grant Amount: $40,000 [2008] , $40,000 [2009] , $30,000 [2010] , $30,000 [2011]
Project Dates: 07/11/2008 through 07/11/2011
Project Web Site: www.oaklandyouthchorus.org

Fiscal Sponsor: Tides Center
Run from a public school campus in San Francisco's Excelsior District, Out of Site offers free after-school multidisciplinary art classes to predominantly low-income high school students. The program is rigorous and serves students who would otherwise have limited access to in-depth, semester-long art classes. The Fund's grant supports organizational development.
Grant Amount: $30,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 04/07/2009 through 04/07/2010
Project Web Site: www.tides.org

Performing Arts Workshop (PAW) is one of the oldest San Francisco organizations advancing arts education for San Francisco children and youth. Its programs serve students in local public schools, transitional housing, and after-school programs; and it sponsors professional development in the arts for classroom teachers. The Fund's grant helps PAW pursue its strategic plan and extend the arts to more young people from low-income families, including English language learners and students with special needs.
Grant Amount: $35,000 [2005] , $35,000 [2006] , $35,000 [2007] , $35,000 [2008] , $35,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 10/07/2005 through 10/07/2010
Project Web Site: www.performingartsworkshop.org

Fiscal Sponsor: Marcus A. Foster Educational Institute
Prescott Circus Theatre delivers free after-school circus arts classes to 200 low and very-low income children from seven Oakland public schools. While teaching circus skills, the program helps its students develop the abilities they need to succeed, such as teamwork and communication. Some of the older children, with the Theater's facilitation, also perform at numerous public events as a youth circus troupe. The Fund's grant provides flexible support while the Circus goes through an organizational transition.
Grant Amount: $15,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 04/24/2009 through 04/24/2010
Project Web Site: http://www.prescottcircus.org/

ARTPLACE, presented by the Prescott-Joseph Center in West Oakland, connects K-5 students with professional artists for weekly hour-long arts skills classes at their school--PLACE at Prescott Elementary. The ARTPLACE room, open during lunchtime, also provides a supportive space for students to work on projects. At the end of each course, participants show their work alongside that of professional artists at the Center, accentuating their achievements. The Fund's grant supports ARTPLACE and the Center's efforts to engage the West Oakland community in creating a safe, nurturing environment for its children.
Grant Amount: $7,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 03/16/2009 through 03/16/2010
Project Web Site: www.prescottjoseph.org

Working with artists, the Rex Foundation director designed and piloted a high school curriculum that uses creative arts projects to teach the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Fund's grant helps the Foundation to improve and re-mount this curriculum, to hire an outside evaluator and curriculum specialist, and to document the project. Rex Foundation will leverage this effort to create a curriculum package accessible to high schools across the country, raising awareness of and commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Grant Amount: $15,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 12/03/2009 through 12/03/2010
Project Web Site: www.rexfoundation.org

The Richmond District Neighborhood Center, with support from the Fund, provides after-school program participants with quality arts lessons at four public school sites in San Francisco. Each student receives twice-weekly lessons in two different art forms, moving through sequential activities that steadily improve participants' art skills and their confidence with creative expression. About 300 students participate annually.
Grant Amount: $20,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 12/01/2009 through 12/01/2010
Project Web Site: www.rdnc.org

In exchange for subsidized studio space, many artists affiliated with Root Division volunteer as art instructors at four after-school programs in San Francisco's Mission District. Root Division's seasoned program director trains these artist-volunteers, reviews lesson plans, and ensures program quality. The Fund supports Root Division's Youth Education Program, bringing instruction in a variety of arts media to underserved youth.
Grant Amount: $15,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 12/09/2009 through 12/09/2010
Project Web Site: www.rootdivision.org

First Exposures, a San Francisco Camerawork program, matches professional photographers with low-income, at-risk, high-need youth. Mentoring in traditional darkroom and digital photography skills increases the creative choices and leadership opportunities available to its participants. The Fund's grant enables the program to expand its advanced sessions in digital photography so it can serve a total of 84 youth in weekly classes and another 120 youth through community centers.
Grant Amount: $15,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 04/13/2009 through 04/13/2010
Project Web Site: www.sfcamerawork.org

Professional vocal music ensemble San Francisco Chanticleer has gradually expanded and strengthened its Bay Area public school arts education program. Its new Open Door project addresses a lack of advanced training for elementary and middle school choral and general music teachers in San Francisco, Berkeley and Oakland. Open Door will offer daylong open house events followed by sustained mentoring for teachers. Supported by the Fund, this project provides a systemic approach to advancing quality choral music programs and increasing creative opportunities for children.
Grant Amount: $15,000 [2009]
Project Web Site: www.chanticleer.org

Annually, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music prepares and places 16 college student coaches and mentors in six public elementary and middle schools. Before placement, these Conservatory in the Schools participants receive training in teaching pedagogy and classroom management. The 300 students who attend their classes benefit from focused assistance with their musicianship plus they receive invitations to both free performances at the Conservatory and low-cost holiday events.
Grant Amount: $20,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 12/17/2009 through 12/17/2010
Project Web Site: www.sfcm.edu

The San Francisco Opera is committed to the premise that opera is a living art form that can be enjoyed by anyone. Last year, the Opera's pilot programs for elementary, middle, and high school students included introductory workshops, opportunities for students to attend dress rehearsals and performances, and the creation of mini-operas in classrooms. The Fund's continued support allows the Opera to extend its menu of classroom programs so that more youth have the opportunity to interact with opera professionals and receive quality arts education.
Grant Amount: $50,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 11/23/2009 through 11/23/2010
Project Web Site: www.sfopera.com

Southern Exposure, with the support of the Fund, pairs local artists with high school students for yearlong in-school and after-school programs plus an intensive summer program. Students and their artist-mentors choose social and personal issues and use those as a focus to create projects that delve into urban planning and public art. In the 200910 school year, 22 artists with backgrounds in sculpture, digital media, publishing, photography, video, and other disciplines will act as artist-mentors. An active Youth Advisory Board oversees the Artists in Education program.
Grant Amount: $20,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 12/08/2009 through 12/08/2010
Project Web Site: www.soex.org

Fiscal Sponsor: Intersection
StageWrite uses theater games and scene-writing exercises to engage elementary students in writing drama. At the curriculum's culmination, fourth and fifth graders write their own short plays and direct professional actors in original productions. Participating students show rapid improvement in both their writing skills and reading comprehension. The Fund's grant helps this program serve three classrooms in each of two San Francisco public elementary schools, to offer shorter programs at several other schools, and to provide teachers with professional development.
Grant Amount: $15,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 03/18/2009 through 03/18/2010
Project Web Site: www.theintersection.org

Fiscal Sponsor: Z Space Studio
Part of the Z Space Studio, Word for Word theater ensemble has developed a theater and literacy program for classrooms based on the company's methods for performing short stories in a vivid, stylized manner. It is teaching its performance development techniques to teachers and their students using a newly developed Literature from the Inside Out curriculum. In 2009, the Fund will help Word for Word to evaluate and refine this curriculum so that it can increase its ability to foster students' reading comprehension and oral communication skills through theater arts learning.
Grant Amount: $25,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 10/09/2009 through 10/09/2010
Project Web Site: www.zspace.org

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts' Young Artists at Work is an intensive nine-month-long multidisciplinary program serving up to 30 high school students from diverse backgrounds. Each spring, participants choose between two disciplines, which they study with adult artist mentors twice each week along with weekly media arts workshops. In summer, participants are placed in community internships. In 2008, the Center is expanding the program to include mentoring by museum curators and support of an exhibition curated and produced by participants in Young Artists at Work.
Grant Amount: $25,000 [2008] , $25,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 03/31/2008 through 03/31/2010
Project Web Site: www.ybca.org

Fiscal Sponsor: Regents of the University of California
The Young Musicians Program successfully transforms the lives of low-income youth through music education. In 19 years, every participant in the Program has received an admission offer from a college, university, or music conservatory. The Fund's grant supports integration of the successful Scaling Up pilot project into the ongoing Young Musicians Program. Scaling Up invests more in tutors, faculty, and specialized classes and thereby better positions students to succeed in higher education.
Grant Amount: $50,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 06/30/2009 through 06/30/2010

Youth Movement Records links professional mentors with youth, helping them to develop recording industry skills. Youth Movement participants attend media literacy classes and then are offered music classes, digital media training, and, potentially, internships that expand their employment opportunities. Annually, more than 200 Bay Area teens—most from Oakland—participate in Youth Movement Records programs. The Fund's grant supports strengthening the Program's instrumental music offerings.
Grant Amount: $20,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 05/06/2009 through 05/06/2010
Project Web Site: www.youthmovementrecords.org

Youth Speaks is a nationally-recognized proponent of spoken word poetry by youth. Its workshops, in-school presentations, and performances reach approximately 43,000 youth each year. The Fund's grant is dedicated to a mainstay Youth Speaks program-after school writing workshops for which youth meet twice each week in small groups at ten Bay Area sites. Workshops excel at bringing together young people from different schools, neighborhoods, and life experiences, and enabling them to strengthen their creative and critical thinking skills.
Grant Amount: $35,000 [2008] , $30,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 03/31/2008 through 03/31/2010
Project Web Site: www.youthspeaks.org

For more than 20 years, Zaccho Dance Theatre has offered free aerial dance classes to 150 neighborhood youth and teens in Bayview-Hunters Point. Students at Zaccho learn dance skills and develop an original work based on themes relevant to their community. The Fund's grant will strengthen the Theater's neighborhood outreach and employ a consultant to help magnify and evaluate its youth development potential.
Grant Amount: $30,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 05/06/2009 through 05/06/2010
Project Web Site: www.zaccho.org

The greater San Francisco Bay Area is home to the nation's second-largest South Asian community, a population that has doubled in the last decade. The 3rd I South Asian Independent Film Festival gives these residents annual access to films that reflect their experiences and unite them as a larger community. The Fund's grant supports the festival's efforts to reach Bay Area South Asians through screenings and interpretive programs and it also contributes to sustaining the Festival's family programs and efforts to reach more South Asians under age 18.
Grant Amount: $7,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 09/03/2009 through 09/03/2010
Project Web Site: www.thirdi.org/festival

A service organization for the local dance field, Dancers' Group produces ONSITE to commission and present free, public dance performances in unexpected places. In 2010, the Fund supports ONSITE 2.0. It brings appreciation of dance to the community with a performance inside San Francisco City Hall and a dance/video piece that will travel among high traffic locations in San Francisco.
Grant Amount: $10,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 12/07/2009 through 12/07/2010
Project Web Site: www.dancersgroup.org

Since 1994, contemporary dance company Epiphany Productions Sonic Dance Theater has produced Trolley Dances. These short, site-specific performances are presented along streetcar lines while volunteers provide narration for streetcar patrons, many of whom would never otherwise be exposed to contemporary dance. The Fund's grant supports Epiphany Productions in producing Trolley Dances and helps it expand its Kids on Track educational program to 15 classes so that more San Franciscans can join in the shared experience of site-specific dance in their neighborhoods.
Grant Amount: $7,500 [2009]
Project Dates: 08/24/2009 through 08/24/2010
Project Web Site: www.epiphanydance.org

The Foundation Center, providing a resource of information on grantseeking and philanthropy, serves nonprofits and foundations nationally. The Fund's grant supported the Center's San Francisco branch in presenting Funding for Arts Month in October 2009. Programs were designed to serve a broad cross-section of the arts community and focused on developing sustainable fundraising plans, understanding foundations' priorities, conducting research into foundations, and preparing more successful grant proposals.
Grant Amount: $2,500 [2009]
Project Dates: 09/21/2009 through 09/21/2010
Project Web Site: www.foundationcenter.org

Frameline, producer of San Francisco's International LGBT Film Festival, is continuing its Generations Film Project, a program that brings together LGBT elders and youth to learn filmmaking skills and create short films that will be screened at the 2010 San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival. The Fund supports this focused, creative, community building activity that is designed to build understanding across age groups.
Grant Amount: $20,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 10/05/2009 through 10/05/2010
Project Web Site: www.frameline.org

Golden Thread Productions works to build understanding of the diverse cultures of the Middle East through theater. Its signature event, the annual ReOrient Festival, features productions of short plays, staged readings, panel discussions, a roundtable, and Webcasts exploring topics of Middle Eastern arts and identity. The Fund supports Golden Thread in its efforts to unite artists and audiences across national, religious, and ethnic boundaries through creative and educational programming.
Grant Amount: $12,500 [2009]
Project Dates: 08/06/2009 through 08/06/2010
Project Web Site: www.goldenthread.org

Grantmakers in the Arts is the only national professional organization composed of public and private funders of artists and the arts. Its major annual conference, supported by the Fund, shares information, honors exemplary programs, and provides networking opportunities. Its 2009 conference will focus on economic, political, technological, and demographic changes as they relate to the arts. Information from this conference will be widely disseminated across the arts field, allowing those unable to attend to benefit from the educational opportunities it presents.
Grant Amount: $5,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 09/03/2009 through 09/03/2010
Project Web Site: www.giarts.org

Independent Arts and Media (Indy Arts) was formed by young "Do It Yourself" journalists, musicians and artists to address a gap in services and funding for emerging artists and arts organizations. The Indy Arts signature event has been its annual Expo for the Artist and Musician, a low-cost convention featuring booths, workshops, and demonstrations. Indy Arts receives Fund support to continue engaging a broad cross-section of the arts community through both the Expo and a growing program of seminars and educational programs.
Grant Amount: $10,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 06/10/2009 through 06/10/2010
Project Web Site: www.artsandmedia.net

Intersection for the Arts produces cross-cultural works by local artists and maintains long-running partnerships with Mission District social service organizations in order to provide low-income area residents with opportunities to see its productions. To learn new ways of working with emerging creative businesses, the group now works with an international for-profit group, the Hub. Intersection for the Arts also works to build its membership and individual donor bases so it can continue to make the arts accessible. The Fund supports these and the organization's other strategic growth efforts.
Grant Amount: $40,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 12/15/2009 through 12/15/2010
Project Web Site: www.theintersection.org

Founded in the 1970s in response to the military coup in Chile, La Pena Cultural Center has developed into a nationally recognized presenter of traditional music from around the world, a forum for cross-cultural and cross-generational exchange, and a site for community members to take classes in music, dance, and theater. It fosters an array of grassroots arts efforts, from community choruses to teen hip-hop groups. La Pena's mission of contributing to positive social change by creating understanding among people of different cultures is closely aligned with the Fund's Arts goals. A core support grant helps with implementation of a strategic plan, leadership and succession planning, and piloting of arts education programming in East Bay public schools.
Grant Amount: $40,000 [2007] , $40,000 [2008] , $40,000 [2009] , $40,000 [2010]
Project Dates: 11/27/2007 through 11/27/2012
Project Web Site: www.lapena.org

Annually, the Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired curates and installs artwork by visually impaired artists in its Insights exhibit. In addition, the Lighthouse produces workshops that challenge other visually impaired artists to raise their level of arts professionalism. The Fund supports Insights' efforts to bring together the sighted and the visually impaired for a shared experience, challenging stereotypes about individuals with disabilities.
Grant Amount: $7,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 09/15/2009 through 09/15/2010
Project Web Site: www.lighthouse-sf.org

Fiscal Sponsor: Intersection
LitQuake is a lively, multifaceted celebration of the Bay Area's literary scene. Its culminating event, the LitCrawl, features 260 writers reading or discussing their work in bookstores, cafes, bars, art galleries, and restaurants along San Francisco's Valencia Street. LitCrawl succeeds in attracting people who would not normally participate in a literary event, drawing 5,363 attendees in 2008. With help from the Fund, LitQuake hopes to attract 6,000 LitCrawl audience members in 2009 and to continue to foster a sense of community through public engagement in the literary arts.
Grant Amount: $5,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 09/22/2009 through 09/22/2010
Project Web Site: www.litquake.org

The Northern California Grantmakers' Arts Loan Fund provides nonprofit Bay Area arts organizations with low-interest, quick turnaround cash flow loans of up to $50,000 and with opportunity loans to pursue promising new revenue production ideas. Artists awaiting payment of grants or fellowships also may borrow from the Fund. Since its inception in 1981, the Arts Loan Fund has awarded more than 1,200 loans totaling $14.8 million. This year's grant from the Walter & Elise Haas Fund anticipates increased demand for loans in an economic climate threatening to artists and arts organizations.
Grant Amount: $25,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 03/16/2009 through 03/16/2010
Project Web Site: www.ncg.org

The Oakland East Bay Symphony is deeply committed to engaging its community via extensive programs in Oakland's public schools, community centers, and parks. The Fund's grant supports an array of free and low-cost activities that enrich the community. These include music education in 20 Oakland public schools and extensive free programming, annually reaching 10,000 children and adults, many of them low-income.
Grant Amount: $40,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 03/23/2009 through 03/23/2010
Project Web Site: www.oebs.org

The Oakland Museum of California offers collections and educational programs focused on the arts, history, and natural sciences of California. The Museum recently presented The African Presence in Mexico: From Yanga to the Present, a fully bilingual art exhibition. Given the tensions between some area African-American and Latino communities, the Museum sought to use the opportunity to foster discussion of cultural identity issues. The Fund supported this programming, which used an art exhibit and related programs to build cross-cultural understanding.
Grant Amount: $10,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 06/11/2009 through 06/11/2010
Project Web Site: www.museumca.org

Fiscal Sponsor: Intersection
Outlook Theater Project creates original performances about timely issues from a queer perspective. The Fund's grant supports development of an original theater work involving LGBT seniors, many of whom carry vestiges of internalized shame and are isolated from their families, churches, and social groups. This project will incorporate the seniors' personal stories, raise awareness about the issues they face, and aid in building a network that will help LGBT seniors receive the care they need.
Grant Amount: $10,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 04/29/2009 through 04/29/2010
Project Web Site: www.theintersection.org

The Cultural Data Project was created in Pennsylvania by collaborating grantmaking agencies that wanted consistent, reliable information on the state's cultural sector and to reduce nonprofits' burden in applying for grants. Its founder designed a sophisticated Web-based system for collecting and organizing data about finances, staffing, volunteers, and audiences. The Fund's grant supports costs associated with bringing the Data Project to California-modifying the system to meet local funders' needs, providing extensive online and in-person training, and supporting applicants with a robust help desk. By 2010, an estimated 1,000 San Francisco and Alameda County organizations are expected to participate. This grant is supported by the Fund's Arts program at the level of $25,000 and $10,000 from Jewish Life.
Grant Amount: $35,000 [2007] , $35,000 [2008] , $35,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 11/27/2007 through 11/27/2010
Project Web Site: www.pewtrusts.org

RADAR Productions presents free, cross-generational, cross-cultural literary programs featuring queer writers. With writers matched in creative combinations, RADAR events at the San Francisco Main library and at the Castro neighborhood branch library draw an audience reflecting the LGBT community's extraordinary diversity. These programs were threatened by cuts to the libraries' budgets. Through the support of the Fund, RADAR will continue to host literary events and complete a strategic plan in order to continue to engage the LGBT community through arts events.
Grant Amount: $10,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 06/16/2009 through 06/16/2010
Project Web Site: www.radarproductions.org

San Francisco Chamber Orchestra presents an annual concert series in San Francisco, Berkeley, and Palo Alto. In 2005, the Orchestra transitioned from charging admission to concerts to offering memberships tied to reserve seating. This has resulted in greater income, more diverse audiences, and increased attendance, particularly from older adults who would otherwise be unable to attend live performances. The Fund's grant helps keep these concerts free, increasing the quality of life for low-income residents of the Bay Area.
Grant Amount: $10,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 04/29/2009 through 04/29/2010
Project Web Site: www.sfchamberorchestra.org

Shakespeare-San Francisco presents professional productions of Shakespeare's plays, free of charge, in Bay Area public parks, reaching 30,000 people annually—83% of whom report that a Free Shakespeare in the Park performance was their first experience of professional, live theater. Audiences also are culturally and socioeconomically diverse. The organization's board and staff recently completed organizational effectiveness training. The Fund's grant is helping it to invest in making improvements identified in that process, with a particular focus on board recruitment and individual donor development. A portion of the Fund's grant requires matching funds to be raised or contributed by the board.
Grant Amount: $15,000 [2008] , $10,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 09/30/2008 through 03/01/2010
Project Web Site: www.sfshakes.org

Fiscal Sponsor: Tenants and Owners Development Corporation
Sixth Street Photography Workshop trains low-income residents of San Francisco's Tenderloin and South of Market neighborhoods in photography and gives them access to equipment and facilities. With support from the Fund, the Workshop is creating a temporary portraiture studio in the Tenderloin's Senator Hotel, which houses formerly homeless adults and families. Residents and their neighbors will be invited to sit for and receive free copies of their portraits. The adjacent Luggage Store Annex gallery will present a culminating exhibit.
Grant Amount: $15,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 11/15/2009 through 11/15/2010
Project Web Site: www.sixthstreetphoto.net

Small Press Distribution serves as the United States' only nonprofit distributor of literature produced by small, independent presses. It provides critical service to a field that champions the work of new, multicultural, and experimental writers. Small Press has redoubled efforts to introduce readers in their teens and twenties to books from writers who may reflect their life experiences. The Fund's grant goes both to this effort to increase readership and towards general operating support.
Grant Amount: $25,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 12/08/2009 through 12/08/2010
Project Web Site: www.spdbooks.org

The Traveling Jewish Theater interprets the Jewish experience through drama. Its productions reflect cultural and social rifts, bringing together audiences disparate in age, sexual preference, ethnicity, and religion. Last year, the Theater entered into a formal relationship with the San Francisco Jewish Community Center. Now entering its 30th year, the group is changing its name to the Jewish Theater: San Francisco, rebranding itself, and planning to add more commercially appealing productions. The Fund's grant supports these efforts, its current season, and its mission to unite audiences. This grant is supported by the Fund's Jewish Life program at the level of $40,000 and $10,000 from the Arts.
Grant Amount: $50,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 06/30/2009 through 06/30/2010

World Arts West produces San Francisco's annual ethnic dance festival, featuring 36 companies that represent a range of cultural backgrounds and dance traditions. Company members include lifetime residents of California as well as recent immigrants. The festival and its auditions serve audiences that reflect the diversity of the performers. The Fund's grant provides operating support for this festival as well as World Arts West's education program and its services to the ethnic dance field.
Grant Amount: $50,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 03/03/2009 through 03/03/2010
Project Web Site: www.worldartswest.org

Yerba Buena Arts and Events presents an annual festival of more than 100 free public events from May through October. The program's central location and accessibility, and the cultural diversity of its programming-which includes strong threads in Latin jazz, salsa, and Western classical music along with co-productions by Asian, Filipino, Indian, African American, and Native American groups-appeals to a broad cross-section of residents and tourists. With the Fund's support it continues to strive to diversify its audience, work in partnership with an array of Bay Area arts and cultural organizations, and sustain annual audiences of 90,000 or more people.
Grant Amount: $30,000 [2008] , $30,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 03/31/2008 through 03/31/2010
Project Web Site: www.yerbabuenagardens.com/events.html

The Alliance for California Traditional Arts supports folk and traditional artists through an array of services. Many of the artists the Alliance serves are recent immigrants working to preserve the cultural traditions of their communities. The Alliance's multilingual staff targets its outreach to newcomer groups that have recently seen their income and opportunities decline precipitously. The Fund's grant supports the Alliance's grants, mentorships, and project contracts in San Francisco and Alameda counties, providing an essential lifeline for immigrant artists and contributing to the preservation of their cultural traditions.
Grant Amount: $120,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 06/30/2009 through 06/30/2010
Project Web Site: www.actaonline.org

The Arab Cultural Center addresses the social service needs of low-income immigrant women and children in the local Arab and Arab American community. The Center works to preserve cross-cultural understanding among the different ethnic groups that make up the local Arab American community and strives to pass down cultural traditions through classes and arts programming. The Fund supports the Center in its efforts to safeguard cultural traditions and to promote a nuanced understanding of Arab culture.
Grant Amount: $10,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 08/25/2009 through 08/25/2010
Project Web Site: www.arabculturalcenter.org

Folk and traditional artists who seek to break out of or experiment within traditional art forms have difficulty finding grants or securing venues for their work. Recognizing this, the Fund supports CounterPULSE's Performing Diaspora project, which provides selected applicants with subsidized rehearsal space, feedback, and festival presentations. In 2010, this program continues with additional artist support, commissions for the most promising pieces, and culminating productions.
Grant Amount: $15,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 12/07/2009 through 12/07/2010
Project Web Site: www.counterpulse.org

The Croatian Cultural Center keeps the traditional performing arts of Croatia and the Balkans alive through classes, workshops, cultural festivals, and professionally produced performances. Its core constituents encompass recent immigrants and refugees including Croatians, Romani, Bulgarians, Hungarians and Bosnians. The Center's cultural programming is extraordinary for its ability to navigate the national, ethnic and religious tensions among these groups. With assistance from the Fund, the Croatian Cultural Center expects to serve 20,000 people in 2009, preserving cultural traditions and promoting inter-ethnic understanding.
Grant Amount: $25,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 09/14/2009 through 09/14/2010
Project Web Site: www.croatianamericanweb.org

Fiscal Sponsor: Dance Brigade
The CubaCaribe Festival of Dance and Music presents visiting and local Cuban and Caribbean artists over three late spring weekends. The Festival helps expose the Bay Area's tight-knit Cuban community, one that produces a number of important figures in the local dance world. It also provides a venue for some 80% of San Francisco's Cuban-born working artists, serving as an important community resource for the preservation of Cuban traditions and culture.
Grant Amount: $7,500 [2009]
Project Dates: 04/07/2009 through 04/07/2010
Project Web Site: www.dancemission.com

Heyday Institute publishes books and magazines about the history, cultures, and environment of California. As publisher of News from Native California, the Institute provides critical services to the state's diverse native population. With support from Fund, Heyday Institute made a concerted effort to build an individual donor program, exceeding its goal of raising $100,000 from individuals. The Fund's continued support helps Heyday to institutionalize this effort so it can continue to keep its constituency informed and involved.
Grant Amount: $25,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 10/28/2009 through 10/28/2010
Project Web Site: http://heydayinstitute.com/

To continue Song Routes in a New Land, a series of artists' residencies featuring Russian, Armenian, and Bulgarian folk song traditions
Grant Amount: $20,000 [2008] , $5,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 10/31/2008 through 10/31/2009
Project Web Site: www.kitka.org

LIKHA-Pilipino Folk Ensemble presents the traditional music and dance of the Philippines in the Bay Area. LIKHA is organizing a one-day, pan-Asian performance program called "Asia on Stage" to increase the currently limited opportunities for local folk and traditional artists to present their work. The Fund supports LIKHA's work to bring artists representing Balinese, Vietnamese, Indian, Tibetan and Pilipino cultures together to share a stage and help sustain their cultural heritage.
Grant Amount: $5,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 08/24/2009 through 08/24/2010
Project Web Site: www.likha.org

Los Cenzontles Mexican Arts Center offers music and dance classes in traditional and popular Mexican genres that are attended weekly by 200 children and youth, manages a critically acclaimed group of touring musicians, and produces community events. Its Cultures of Mexico in California project uses DVDs and CDs developed by Los Cenzontles as centerpieces for community events that also incorporate live performances, lecture-demonstrations, and discussion. This project's goal is to facilitate the generational transfer and preservation of traditional art forms from Mexico within the Bay Area's Mexican American community; to bring together recent immigrants from Mexico with second- and third-generation Mexican Americans on a subject of common interest; and to educate the broader public about authentic versions of these art forms.
Grant Amount: $30,000 [2008] , $30,000 [2009] , $30,000 [2010]
Project Dates: 11/21/2008 through 11/21/2011
Project Web Site: www.loscenzontles.com

San Francisco's Museum of Craft and Folk Art presents exhibitions and operates a folk art in the schools program. In 2010, the Museum will feature art from Mali, Mexico, and other locations. For each exhibition, the Museum engages local immigrant artists from the represented countries so they can lead demonstrations of the art forms being shown. The Fund supports the Museum's efforts to increase cross-cultural understanding.
Grant Amount: $25,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 11/15/2009 through 11/15/2010
Project Web Site: www.mocfa.org

The Queer Cultural Center, during its 2008 Queer Arts Festival, addressed a significant recent increase in queer immigrant artists with Border Out!, a showcase of queer immigrants' artwork. The cross-cultural performance explored different aspects of the artists' shared experiences in San Francisco. The Fund's grant enables QCC to present a second Border Out! program at the 2009 Festival, building cross-cultural relationships within a part of the queer community marginalized by race, ethnicity, language, and culture.
Grant Amount: $10,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 04/07/2009 through 04/07/2010
Project Web Site: www.queerculturalcenter.org

The Contemporary Jewish Museum is building a new facility that will allow it to expand educational and artistic programming and engage a diverse audience in the arts and Jewish Life. Its campaign goal encompasses construction, transition costs, and endowment growth. Among the 50 Jewish museums in the United States, San Francisco's is the only one that focuses on contemporary perspectives on Jewish culture, history, art, and ideas. With programs that celebrate the diversity of the Jewish people and work to build relationships across cultures, the museum's mission fits two Fund program areas, which share the grant equally, the Arts program's cultural commons emphasis and Jewish Life's creative expression and promoting diversity goals.
Grant Amount: $330,000 [2007] , $330,000 [2008] , $340,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 11/27/2007 through 11/27/2010
Project Web Site: www.thecjm.org

Based for 30 years in the historic Winters Building in Richmond, California, the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts is one of the region's leading community cultural centers, offering classes and performance opportunities to 480 students on site and an additional 1,100 students in Richmond public schools. A $10 million capital campaign is enabling it to purchase the Winters Building, make required seismic and other safety code upgrades, and expand available theater, office, and classroom spaces within the building. The Fund's grant is awarded as a challenge to other funders for contributions in the range of $25,000-$350,000.
Grant Amount: $100,000 [2008] , $100,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 07/11/2008 through 07/11/2010
Project Web Site: www.eastbaycenter.org

ODC/SF, one of the Bay Area's largest dance organizations, is composed of a dance school, a modern dance company, and a theater. Currently it is completing the second phase of a capital project to develop two buildings in San Francisco's Mission District. The Fund's grant is for improvements to the building on 17th Street that will include a renovated theater space and two new studios for classes and artists' residencies. Among others, youth studying dance at ODC will benefit from the new studio spaces.
Grant Amount: $100,000 [2008] , $100,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 11/21/2008 through 11/21/2010
Project Web Site: www.odcdance.org

Southern Exposure is recognized for its groundbreaking visual arts exhibitions, support for emerging artists, and youth programs. In 2006, it moved to a temporary site because its 35-year home required seismic upgrades. When the building owner's work on the facility was proceeding too slowly to accommodate its needs, Southern Exposure was forced to find a new home. It leased a 4,000-square-foot Mission District space for galleries, classrooms, and offices, and launched a campaign to renovate the site and manage a move and transition. In recognition of Southern Exposure's education programs for youth, the Fund's grant supports its capital campaign.
Grant Amount: $50,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 03/03/2009 through 03/03/2010
Project Web Site: www.soex.org