Today the City of Long Beach announced details for its Creative Economy Grants Program, funded by the Long Beach Recovery Act, including $900,000 in funding to support local arts and cultural organizations. This program will provide funding to local arts, culture and history nonprofits and professional artists to be utilized for operational recovery, public murals, community projects and professional artist fellowships. The City is partnering with the Arts Council for Long Beach (ArtsLB) to administer a portion of the grants.
“Long Beach is a community rich in art and culture,” said Mayor Robert Garcia. “These grants will provide local artists and organizations the necessary funding to recover from pandemic hardships and celebrate the diversity of our city.”
The Creative Economy Grants Program includes the following four grant opportunities, administered through ArtsLB:
- Organizational Recovery Grants: Grants will be available to support the operational recovery of large arts, culture and historical non-profit organizations in the city. Priority grants will be provided to organizations previously supported by the CARES Act, based on guidance from the Long Beach City Council, which include: Long Beach Symphony, Musical Theater West, Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach Museum of Art, Camerata Singers of Long Beach, Long Beach Playhouse, Musica Angelica, International City Theatre and Long Beach Opera. Organizations not on this list may also apply for operational recovery funding through ArtsLB’s Operational Grant (OPG) process. All organizations submitting applications must be registered and active on ArtsLB’s Long Beach artist registry and be established arts, cultural or historical organizations that support the operations and production of arts and culture programming citywide.
- Public Mural Program: The Creative Economy Grants Program includes funds to support a public mural program, for which the Departments of Public Works and Parks, Recreation, and Marine have created a list of sites at public facilities citywide that will be made available to artists for mural artwork. Selection will be prioritized to artists proposing murals in areas of the city most impacted by COVID-19. These grants will be administered by ArtsLB through a phased artist application process.
- Community Project Grants: These grants will support one-time projects by arts, cultural and historical organizations in Long Beach, through ArtsLB’s existing Community Project guidelines. Operating Grantee Organizations are also encouraged to apply.
- Artist Fellowships: Professional artists who live, work or actively create in Long Beach and demonstrate and active exhibition and/or production record will be eligible to apply for Artist Fellowships through ArtsLB’s existing Professional Artist Fellowship selection guidelines.
The application period for all programs begins May 2, 2022, and closes June 10, 2022, with the exception of the Public Mural Program, which will be open through August 5, 2022. Additional information regarding the application process and eligibility requirements can be found on the ArtsLB website.
Additionally, under the Creative Economy Grant Program, the City will provide direct funding to support the development of cultural centers citywide through the Cultural Center Grants, administered by the City Manager’s Office. Applications will be accepted May 2 through June 10, 2022, on the City’s LB Recovery Act webpage.
- Cultural Center Grants: Three grants of $25,000 each will be allocated for seed funding and/or development activities of three existing cultural centers in Long Beach: the African American Cultural Center, the Latino Cultural Center and Cambodian American Cultural Center. To be eligible, the organizations must have 501c3 status or fiscal sponsorship and submit a work plan describing the planning and development activities that the funding will support; and will also be required to provide regular reports to the City on uses of funds.
“The Creative Economy Grants acknowledge the massive impact that COVID-19 had on our community,” said Arts Council Executive Director Griselda Suarez. “The City’s ongoing commitment to support our sector is crucial for strengthening the creative economy. So many of our colleagues, partners and artists showed up to do essential work that gave people hope and relief.”
As part of the City’s ongoing efforts to provide application assistance for Recovery-related programs, the City is also partnering with ArtsLB to offer free assistance to artists applying for grant programs. To learn more about how to receive free application assistance, artist can contract the ArtsLB at 562.435.2787 or email grants@artslb.org. The following are the technical assistance workshops dates and times for the Creative Economy Grants:
Community Project Grant Technical Assistance Workshop
Tuesday, May 10, 2022
Time: 6 to 7 p.m.
Location: Virtual
RSVP on Eventbrite.
Professional Artist Fellowship Workshop
Tuesday, May 17, 2022
Time: 6 to 7 p.m.
Location: Virtual
RSVP on Eventbrite.
Artist Registry: Muralist Technical Assistance Workshop
Wednesday, June 29, 2022
Time: 6 to 7 p.m.
Location: Virtual
RSVP on Eventbrite.
OPG I & II Orientation
Required for all new Operating Grant applicants.
By appointment only, May 2 through June 1, 2022
To request an appointment, please contact Lisa DeSmidt, ArtsLB Director of Programs, at lisa.desmidt@artslb.org.
This opportunity is made possible by the Long Beach Recovery Act (Recovery Act), a plan to fund economic and public health initiatives for residents, workers and businesses critically impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of $900,000 has been allocated from the Recovery Act to support the City’s arts and culture organizations. Additional information about the Long Beach Recovery Act is available at longbeach.gov/recovery.