At their January meeting, the City of Santa Cruz Arts Commission approved the pilot program now called the City Arts of Recovery Design (CARD) Pilot Grant Program. The three main priority funding themes are (1) Economic Recovery, (2) Restorative Justice (Projects that support community healing, reduce disparities in representation and access in the arts advancing social and racial justice issues in our community), and (3) Public Health & Safety. This initiative is modeled on a similar program recently launched by the City of Santa Monica. This grants program is being sponsored as a means to harness the creativity and vitality of the arts community to contribute to the economic, community, and health recovery of our City.

The CARD pilot grant program will be implemented in two phases in collaboration with the Arts Council Santa Cruz County. A first phase will be the issuance of a Call for Letters of Intent (LOI). The LOIs will be competitively evaluated by a proposal review panel and presented to the Arts Commission for approval. In this pilot funding round, a maximum of 20 proposals will be selected.

For the second phase of the program, stipends of $1,500 will be awarded to top applicants by the Arts Council. Both City Arts and the Arts Council will work with applicants in groups and individually to develop the applicants’ LOIs into full project grant proposals and to match the applicants with potential project partners, local businesses, and City priority locations. Final project grant proposals will be completed by December 2021 and be presented to the Arts Commission for funding consideration. These proposals will be prioritized based on the funding that is available, the capacity of the City staff to manage the grants, and alignment with City priority projects. The grant funding in the second phase of the program will be awarded based on percent for arts fund balances that will be available (Water, Storm Water, Parking, Refuse) and on available funding for the City Arts programs. It is also possible that the grant proposals will be submitted to external organizations for partial or complete funding.

For more information, check out Artist Opportunities at this site:

https://art.choosesantacruz.com/jobs/city-arts-recovery-design-pilot-grant-program

Grants Application Portal: bit.ly/artscouncilsc-grants

Artist Orientation Recording: https://vimeo.com/523532996

Application Questions: [email protected]

To volunteer as a Review Panelist: [email protected]