Applications for Fresno’s city arts funding program will be available Dec. 31 as city prepares to give first $5 million in grants
By Doug Hoagland
After years of court battles and bureaucratic power plays, Measure P appears on the verge of a big – albeit unceremonious – step in realizing its promise to boost Fresno arts and culture. On Dec. 31, 2023, applications for Measure P grants are scheduled to become available on the Fresno Arts Council’s website.
Applicants will submit online the Requests For Proposals (the technical name for the applications), said Lilia Gonzáles Chávez, executive director of the Fresno Arts Council. The applicant pool will be nonprofit arts organizations as well as individual artists with a qualified nonprofit arts organization acting as their fiscal sponsor.
March 25, 2024 is the scheduled submission deadline for applications. A review and scoring process will follow, with the Fresno Parks, Recreation and Arts Commission making final decisions on which applicants will receive Measure P grants. Gonzáles Chávez said she hopes the money will be in the hands of successful applicants by July 1, 2024. The grants process will repeat every year during the life of Measure P.
At least $5 million is earmarked for Measure P’s inaugural grants, and guidelines approved by the Fresno City Council will divide the money evenly between two grant categories: $2.5 million for operations support (covering expenses such as nonprofits’ rent, utilities and staff salaries) and $2.5 million for projects (covering expenses such as artists’ fees, supplies, materials and equipment, venue costs and technical expertise). Individual artists will only be eligible to apply for project grants.
Of the $5 million, $1 million ($500,000 in each of the two categories) will be reserved for grants to newer arts organizations.
To reach this point, Measure P has traveled a long road.
In November 2018, Fresno voters approved the initiative, a 3/8-cent sales tax in the City of Fresno that over three decades will raise millions of dollars, with 88% going to parks and 12% to arts. Court battles followed before Measure P’s victory was affirmed. Then earlier this year, controversy erupted in the arts community over a proposal for the city’s parks department to run the grants program rather than the Fresno Arts Council. Further controversy followed a consultant’s proposal to create an arts division in the parks department. Both proposals eventually died but not before the arts community mobilized against City Hall.
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Kay Tolladay Pitts
For those of us so many years ago, late 70’s and early 80’s who help form the original arts council this is great news but also a reminder that things don’t change. Then there was a concerted effort to keep artist of all fields quiet while “those who knew better about funding” could prevail. As Fine Arts coordinator for FUSD I was specifically told by city or possibly county officials not to attend the organizational meeting. Naturally, I went and was also interviewed by a TV reporter. The council was formed by working artists and, surprise! They could actually think rationally. I’m delighted that, once again, art trumps bureaucracy!