Nearly $9M in Fresno’s first arts grants approved

The Fresno Arts Council has announced its intent to award nearly $9 million in arts and culture grants as part of a first round for a long-anticipated tax measure.

The Arts Council will for the first time disburse Expanded Access to Arts and Culture grants funded by the Measure P sales tax, which sets aside 12% of collected funds to support cultural arts in Fresno for 30 years.

The arts council received 137 applications, totaling a funding request of $15.5 million.

On May 20, the Parks, Recreation and Arts Commission recommended that 98 applicants receive funding for a total of $8.6 million — about 72% of applications.

Since the spending plan was approved by the Fresno City Council and the Arts Council in August 2023, the city fulfilled an administrative contract to manage the application process and solicit feedback to develop grant guidelines.

“In our first year, we learned a lot about Fresno’s arts ecosystem. We are enthusiastically looking forward to observing and participating in the many amazing projects that were funded through this process,” said Fresno Arts Council Executive Director Lilia Gonzáles Chávez.

The review panels were conducted in early May, with 25 community volunteers serving as scoring panelists.

The recommended applicants were put into four different categories:

• Emerging organization, operating support
• Emerging organization, project-specific support
• General operating support
• Project-specific support

The Arts Council recommends awarding $37,514 to the Shinzen Friendship Garden, $49,862 to Jazz Fresno, $209,692 to Arte Americas, $225,000 to Valley Public Television, and $180,000 to Youth Orchestras of Fresno.

To view the complete lists of the 98 recommended applicants visit: https://www.fresnoartscouncil.org/artsandculturegrants