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.

We are also excited to see the second round of applications for our statewide Exploring Engagement Fund after receiving such a broad range of creative proposals during the first round of applications. We will be announcing these first-round EEF grantees after our June board meeting, so stay tuned for some exciting news next month about how innovative arts groups are exploring what engagement may mean for their communities. Read more about our new Arts strategy, the Exploring Engagement Funds or watch a webinar about the fund.