Arts Initiative: Communities Advancing the Arts
Overview
Arts funding in Sonoma County has shifted dramatically in the last decade. State arts funding plummeted from more than $17 million in 2002-03 to $1 million in 2003-04. California ranks last in the nation for state per-capita arts funding, spending less than three cents per person annually. The national average is $1.10 per capita for public arts funding, while Europe averages $5 or more per capita.
We believe that a healthy, flourishing arts sector is essential to a vibrant community and that the arts can bridge diverse groups of people by affirming our common humanity. Our goal is to create a strongly-aligned, cooperative arts community for Sonoma County and to increase individual donors’ support of all arts in general.
What Community Foundation Sonoma County is doing
In 2004, we were awarded a grant from the James Irvine Foundation to participate in its Communities Advancing the Arts (CAA) initiative. This partnership inspired our own Arts Initiative and spawned local partnerships, attracted funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, gained CAA Phase Two funding from Irvine and resulted in numerous county-wide projects in the arts sector.
1. County-wide Arts Festivals
In partnership with Arts Council of Sonoma County (ACSC), we produced three county-wide arts festivals: Sculpture Sonoma (2005), Performance Sonoma (2007) and ArtsSonoma (2009). These included participation from most local arts organizations and created the infrastructure for repeating a festival format. It also stimulated public appetite for the development of an annual, signature Sonoma County arts festival. Follow events as they develop at ArtsSonoma.
2. Artist Awards program for Sonoma County
From 2007 - 2011, we also partnered with ACSC to create and support the Sonoma County Artist Awards program, spanning the visual, performing and literary arts. Three individuals were selected annually to receive awards of $5,000 each in acknowledgment of their work. ACSC links with arts professionals and educators throughout the county and state to juror the award selections. These collaborative relationships draw statewide and national attention to Sonoma County and strengthen our arts sector as a whole.
3. Artist Awards Endowment Fund
In order to fund individual artists in our county, we created an Artist Awards Endowment and have made substantial progress towards the $300,000 goal. The Endowment will provide support for an artist awards program permanently into the future. For information on how to contribute to this Endowment Fund, contact J Mullineaux, Vice President for Development at 707.579.4073 x20.
4. County-wide Arts Portal
Another collaborative project with ACSC produced a singlular arts website for Sonoma County, ArtsSonoma, which collects, consolidates and posts all arts-related events and news in Sonoma County.
5. Arts Conversations
In 2007 and 2008, we created a free series of Arts Conversations, co-hosted at Sonoma State University, to inform and engage artists and arts supporters. Experts on topics ranging from best marketing practices for artists to the emergence of alternative art spaces led panel discussions and answered questions. The convenings served to bring our art community together as a focus group to address relevant issues.
6. Public Policy
We advocated for a downtown Arts District, resulting in the passage of a 1% for arts in Santa Rosa in 2008.
7. Responding to the Economic Downturn
In 2009 we made a strategic decision to respond to the current economic crisis by changing our plans to fundraise for the Artist Awards Endowment Fund. We re-purposed planned fundraising event instead to raise general operating support for five major performing arts organizations. In March 2009, we offered a $50,000 challenge match to encourage their donors to increase support. The organizations succeeded in raising a total of $110,000.
Learn More
Arts Council of Sonoma County
James Irvine Foundation /Communities Advancing the Arts
Please contact J Mullineaux at 707.579.4073 x20
We are committed to ending family homelessness in this community. The great majority of homeless families are headed by single mothers who are poor and vulnerable; most are victims of violence. We believe the cycle of multiple-generation homelessness can be broken. The Community Foundation, in partnership with COTS, Catholic Charities, YWCA, CAP and Women’s Recovery Services provides these mothers effective and meaningful programs to make their current episode of homelessness their last. Through our innovative approach, families will have the tools to break their cycle of poverty and homelessness and the resilience to sustain their hard-earned gains.
In 2004, we were awarded a grant from the James Irvine Foundation to participate in its Communities Advancing the Arts (CAA) initiative. This partnership inspired our own Arts Initiative and spawned local partnerships, attracted funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, gained CAA Phase Two funding from Irvine and resulted in numerous county-wide projects in the arts sector.