The California Arts Council on Friday announced the award of grants totaling $32.7 million to 856 arts non-profit and state-run arts organizations throughout the state. San Diego County-based organization received $2.2 million in total grants.
This year’s grants represent the highest amount of grants ever issued by the state agency.
“In this last year, the California Arts Council has been working diligently to listen to our field, to be responsive to the moment, and to do our best to make our investments strategic and equitable,” said California Arts Council Executive Director Jonathan Moscone said, in a statement. “I am proud that we are able to disperse more than 850 grants throughout the state so that the arts can continue to have a deep and positive impact on the vast and diverse communities of California.”
In San Diego County, there were 67 grantees, with individual grants ranging in size from $14,501 to $66,000. Six arts organizations received two grants, one for general operating expenses and the second for its impact programs.
The Aja Project received a combined $81,250 in grants. The City Heights organization promotes youth development through the documentary art of photography. ArtReach received $74,501 in combined grants for its programs, which use visual art in schools and the community to promote the advancement of social, racial, and economic equity.
New Village Arts received a combined $79,000. The Carlsbad theater offers theater education and performance opportunities for the neurodiverse and it promotes diverse hiring for its live theater productions. Disco Riot received a combined $72,250. It connects dancers with audience for live events that promote community, justice, and movement as a form of radical expression.
Healing Rhythms, which offers drum and recreational therapy, received a combined $72,250. And Positive Community Action is a theater group in Encinitas that provides performance opportunities for people on the Autism spectrum.
The City of San Diego Commission for Arts & Culture received $66,000.
Grantees receiving $60,000 were Get Empowered Today, Transcendance Youth Arts and the Voices of Our City Choir. Grantees receiving $51,000 were ArtHatch, Lambda Archives of San Diego, San Diego Women’s Chorus, Tap Fever Studios, Tierra Caliente Academy of the Arts, Unscripted Learning and Wheelchair Dancers. The San Diego Museum Council received $50,000.
Other grantees were: A Reason to Survive; Art Produce; ArtHatch; Asian Culture and Media Alliance; Ballet Folklorico el Tapatio de San Dieguito; Banding Together; Bocon; California Center for the Arts Escondido Foundation; Center for World Music; Classics for Kids; Cooper Family Foundation; Diversionary Theatre; Escondido Arts Partnership; Fern Street Community Arts; Highsteppers Drill Team; Litvak Dance; Media Arts Center; Mid-City Community Music; Mo Rhythm School of Percussion; the Old Globe Theatre; OnStage Playhouse; Outside the Lens; and Playwrights Project.
Also receiving grants were Poetic Justice Inc.; Positive Action Community Theatre; Putnam Foundation; Renaissance Institute of Music; Sacra Profana; Samahan Filipino American Performing Arts & Education Center; Samuel Lawrence Foundation; San Diego Gay & Lesbian Pride; San Diego Opera; San Diego Symphony; San Diego Underground Arts; So Say We All; the Veterans Art Project; La Jolla Playhouse (Theatre & Arts Foundation of San Diego County); TuYo Theatre; Vanguard Culture; and Villa Music.