. I'm taking the opportunity of this unplanned time off to connect with the many artists and creators in this wonderful city that I love. Come with me on my 100-day odyssey of art and creativity in Long Beach. I call it .
I sat down today to talk with Molly Gardner about the Arts Council for Long Beach (ACLB) which is currently seeking to expand its Board of Directors. Molly had some great news to share!
Thanks to the grant writing efforts of the Arts Council for Long Beach, the city of Long Beach will benefit from a large grant ($150K) from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The grant will be used to create public displays of art and performances in spaces in all 9 districts of Long Beach. The specifics of how the grant will be administered are still being discussed.
August 22nd was Day 52. I talked to Molly Gardner about the ACLB's purpose, its search for new board members and more.
About the Arts Council for Long Beach
Before you can even think about considering a board position with an organization you should know, and care, about the organization's purpose.
The Arts Council for Long Beach was started by the City of Long Beach and operates as an independent 501c3 organization. It receives funding from the city in the form of contracts, as well as support from individuals, corporations and foundations.
From the ACLB website:
"Our purpose is to organize, encourage and enhance the cultural environment in the City of Long Beach. By supporting the artists in our community, together we create cultural opportunities and experiences for the people who live, work and play here.
The Arts Council for Long Beach acts as a coordinating and educational organization to foster, promote, encourage and increase the knowledge, appreciation and practice of the arts in the City of Long Beach."
My intent today was to tell you about what the ACLB does, and then to tell you about the search for new board members. It's too much. My plan is changing. Today, I will write about the grant writing and grant making that is done by the ACLB for the City of Long Beach.
Grant Writing
Grant writing is something the Arts Council is good at doing. The ACLB has benefited from grants from Bauer, BNSF Railway, Boeing, the California Arts Council, Southern California Edison, the Getty Museum, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, the Miller Foundation, the NEA, the Port of Long Beach. This is important to the infrastructure provided by the Arts Council, as it enables something else the organization excels in doing. Grant making.
Grant Making
Grant making is a primary activity of the ACLB. Some of the arts organizations that have benefitted from large ACLB grants ($20K+) are the Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA), the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra (LBSO), the International City Theatre (ICT), Musical Theatre West, Khmer Arts Academy, the Long Beach Playhouse and the Long Beach Opera.
But it doesn't stop there. The ACLB encourages anyone with the desire to create art, those who want to implement creative opportunities, to apply for a grant. There are Community Project grants (to $4.5K), Professional Artist fellowships and my personal favorite, Monthly Micro-grants (to $1K).
You see, it was the Monthly Micro-grant that gave me the ability to keep the Art in the Park program, which I had coordinated for multiple years, going last year. It was a fun program, with professional artists Heidi Knechtel, Carla Tome and Kim Dwinell presenting topics of their design. Community creatives and my honey dearest Don Schmidt (Bujinkomix) also presented topics to the youth in the program. Support for the activity was provided by a friend of many volunteer opportunities, Jackie Taylor. The micro-grant ensured that there would be sufficient income to guarantee the artists an appreciative rate. This was my goal, and it is the goal of the Arts Council. Artists are often undervalued in our society.
To ensure a fair grant-giving process, the Arts Council reaches out to a wide network of people interested in the arts. Anyone can apply to be on a panel, and participants come from Long Beach, but also from distant lands like Los Angeles and San Diego.
A Call for Board Member Applications
You may have seen a call for board members in one of our local Long Beach papers, one of the local websites or from the ACLB itself. Molly explained to me that outreach for board members has not previously been done at this level by the Arts Council. The why is this. The ACLB knows that there are people who care about the arts... people who care about Long Beach... that are not yet involved. It seeks to broaden the board. They're looking for folks excited and energized about what can be. People who bring new ideas to the table, people who can help to get the word out that Long Beach is an arts and culture destination. People who can help to continue the growth of the arts in Long Beach.
There's much more to the Arts Council, I will continue tomorrow.
A personal thank you to ZPizza Bixby Village for many, many years of sponsorship of the Art in the Park summer programming. Thank you also to the Alamitos Heights Improvement Association (AHIA) for it's years of sponsorship to 2010.
And a disclosure: I have a Micro Grant application submission to the Arts Council for some internet art that I would like to create. The opinions expressed in this and upcoming posts are, of course, unaffected by the outcome of that grant application.
Want more lemonade?
And Tomorrow...
I talk a bit more about the Arts Council for Long Beach.
If you would like to contact me, please email me at info@handmadepenguin.com
Trish Tsoiasue writes as herself about creative and maker topics for and as Handmade Penguin for the Handmade Penguin Blog.
