This Friday, June 1, is the deadline for applications to two of our Arts grantmaking funds: the Exploring Engagement Fund and the Exploring Engagement Fund for Priority Regions. We are excited to see what ideas the state’s arts community will bring forth as they experiment with new ways of engaging Californians in meaningful arts experiences.

This will be the first batch of applications for the Exploring Engagement Fund for Priority Regions, which we set up specifically to support nonprofits located in the Foundation’s priority regions of the Inland Empire and San Joaquin Valley. These two regions are vastly under-resourced by philanthropy and have great needs as a result of the recession. Our fund seeks to provide support for nonprofits with new ideas for how to bring residents in their communities together through arts experiences.

As part of our outreach to encourage applications, I partnered with various Irvine colleagues to hold informational sessions about the fund in the two regions earlier this spring. You can read my earlier post about what kind of reaction we received during these two sessions. The fund’s eligibility requirements are similar to the statewide Exploring Engagement Fund, but it is only open to nonprofits located within the ten counties of the San Joaquin Valley and the two counties of the Inland Empire.

It is well known that the Inland Empire and San Joaquin Valley have experienced rapid population growth followed by a severe economic downturn that left both regions struggling. The Irvine Foundation has prioritized these two regions for support because they are so drastically under-resourced by philanthropic dollars and have so much need. Within our Arts program, we created our new Exploring Engagement Fund for Priority Regions as part of our commitment to these two regions, and I was pleased to see the enthusiasm for the fund during two recent meetings I attended in Fresno and Redlands to answer questions about the fund.

The Exploring Engagement Fund for Priority Regions will enable us to work with local arts nonprofits to increase the engagement of Californians in these areas of the state. It is similar to our statewide Exploring Engagement Fund but is only open to nonprofits located within the ten counties of the San Joaquin Valley and the two counties of the Inland Empire. These nonprofits will fill out a slightly different application than the statewide fund and will also receive additional technical assistance in filling out the applications, if so desired.

For the information session in Fresno, we partnered with the Fresno Regional Foundation. Senior Program Officer Sandra Flores and Foundation Support Specialist Sarah Soberal helped coordinate the session and helped spread the word about the sessions to local arts groups. Irvine's Senior Program Officer Jeanne Sakamoto joined me in Fresno on April 12 for the San Joaquin Valley information session that was attended by more than 40 arts leaders in the region.