Which national funder is pausing support for local arts organizations because of Measure P turmoil?
By Doug Hoagland
As City officials grapple with Measure P’s future, the executive director of Arte Américas said a “national funder” is pausing investment in Fresno arts organizations until it sees the community get “its stuff together.”
Arianna Paz Chávez offered that news almost as an aside while addressing the Cultural Arts Subcommittee of the City’s Parks, Recreation and Arts Commission on May 13. She did not name the “national funder” in her remarks, and she declined to reveal the identity to The Munro Review.
The saga of Measure P: Reporter Doug Hoagland won a 2026 Gruner Award for best news story for staying on top of Measure P. See past coverage in The Munro Review’s comprehensive archive
Chávez’s statement makes clear that the controversy and questions swirling around Measure P have reached beyond Fresno. At least one other Fresno arts organization – Arts Enrichment For All – has experienced a wait-and-see stance from a national donor because of the $1.8 million embezzlement of taxpayer money at the Fresno Arts Council.
Chávez’s revelation – not quite a bombshell but significant – could add tension to the next meeting of the Parks, Recreation and Arts Commission on Monday, May 18. At that time, Commissioners will hear proposed guidelines from City parks staff on how to give out nearly $6.5 million to successful grant applicants in 2026-27. Some members of Fresno’s arts community already oppose key parts of the guidelines, raising the specter of more controversy.
To the Subcommittee, Chávez said: “I had a conversation with a national funder who’s been keeping an eye on what’s going on here. And so just to assuage any concerns that maybe we’re moving too fast, they told me they’re pausing all funding in the City of Fresno until they see some movement with Measure P and that they see that Fresno’s got its stuff together.”
In an email interview following the Subcommittee meeting, Chávez said a “healthy arts ecosystem” – one in which arts organizations move beyond “survival mode” – will exist when Fresno can show national funders that it’s safe to invest here. She added the national funder seems “to be waiting to see what we do next and how our arts community grows from this moment.”
STORY CONTINUES AFTER SPONSORED CONTENT
Chávez is the daughter of Lilia Gonzáles Chávez, the longtime executive director of the Fresno Arts Council who retired in the wake of scandal. Suliana Caldwell, former operations manager at the Arts Council, pleaded guilty in April to one count of wire fraud in connection with the embezzlement.
‘Ripple effect’
One possible national funder is The Kresge Foundation, based in Michigan, which supports some Fresno arts organizations. Kresge is a private philanthropic foundation that offers grants and investment in arts and culture, education, environment, health, human services and community development efforts. In recent years, Kresge has made about 400 grants to nonprofits totalling about $160 million, with $15.6 million donated to arts and culture in 2024, according to its website.
A Kresge Foundation official told The Munro Review that the following Fresno-based arts organizations have received funding: Alliance for California Traditional Arts, Arte Américas, Centro Binacional para el Desarrollo Indígena Oxaqueño, Dulce Upfront Labs and Radio Bilingue.
Is Kresge pausing arts funding in Fresno? A Kresge spokesperson told The Munro Review in an email: “We are closely monitoring the situation regarding Measure P, as we do with all civic matters that impact our grantees, but it has not altered our funding decisions or commitments. We continue to make funding decisions as a part of the normal course of our strategic work. They are entirely unrelated to the Measure P transition.”
That transition is occurring as the City’s parks department takes over administration of the Measure P arts grants in 2026-27. The Fresno Arts Council administered the grants in 2024-25 and 2025-26, but the City took control after law enforcement began investigating the embezzlement in February 2026.
In the case of Arts Enrichment For All, the embezzlement at the Fresno Arts Council has created an obstacle with one potential corporate donor. That donor said it would not help sponsor the annual gala of Arts Enrichment For All if the Fresno nonprofit is affiliated with the Fresno Arts Council.
Even when Arts Enrichment Executive Director Erin Burd offered assurances that there is no partnership, she got no guarantee of a donation. Burd declined to identify the corporation, which had previously helped sponsor the gala.
The corporation said it would revisit the matter this summer. “They said they would still need to go through channels and talk to upper management, something that had not been an issue in the past,” Burd said. “So yes, it is national news what’s happening here, and it’s having a ripple effect here. You have national corporations that want to give back, but they’re reluctant because of the scandal.”
More controversy
At the Subcommittee meeting on May 13, the City’s parks department introduced numerous grant guidelines proposed for the next round of funding. Two proposals, in particular, generated opposition from different quarters of the arts community.
That opposition apparently produced different outcomes as the parks staff modified draft guidelines that the Parks, Recreation and Arts Commission will consider during a hearing at the May 18 meeting.
One of the proposals reviewed on May 13 would limit fiscal sponsors to sponsoring a maximum of five grantees. Parks staff removed that provision from the proposed guidelines scheduled for consideration at the May 18 hearing.
In the first two rounds of funding, there was no cap placed on fiscal sponsors. Measure P restricts arts grants to nonprofit organizations, but arts groups and individual artists that don’t have nonprofit status can seek Measure P money with sponsorship from eligible nonprofits.)
The other proposal reviewed on May 13 would limit arts organizations with annual total revenue of $1 million or more to applying for a maximum of $150,000 in general operating support. That provision remains in the proposed guidelines scheduled for the May 18 hearing. In 2025, the maximum of $400,000.
Ome Lopez, cofounder of Dulce UpFront, spoke out forcefully on May 13 in opposition to a cap on sponsorships. Lopez said that fiscal sponsorship involves more than paperwork and accounting but is also relational and cultural. Using that criteria, Lopez said, fewer fiscal sponsors exist that could adequately serve the queer, trans and immigrant communities.
“Many emerging artists and organizers seek out sponsors who are culturally congruent because historically they have experienced exclusion, tokenization, discrimination or harm within mainstream institutions,” Lopez said.
Meanwhile, Michele Ellis Pracy, executive director and chief curator of the Fresno Art Museum, spoke on May 13 against limiting larger arts organizations to $150,000. She told the Subcommittee that Measure P is intended to stabilize Fresno’s arts organizations for 30 years and that a $150,000 cap on institutions like the Art Museum makes stability impossible.
With an annual budget of more than $1 million, the Art Museum needs $100,000 a month to operate. “We are actually struggling, and we have always struggled,” Pracy told the Subcommittee.
Another reality is that Measure P grant applicants in previous years have received only a percentage of the amount they applied for, Pracy said: “So really, we would probably only see $80,000 or 90,000 out of a $150,000 cap.”
Even split
On May 13, the Subcommittee also reviewed a guideline from the parks department that would evenly divide the $6,498,200 available in the next funding cycle. That amount would be split between two categories: project support and general operating support – each receiving $3,249,100.
That provision remains in the draft guidelines scheduled for the May 18 hearing.
The even split, if adopted, could make more money available to emerging or grassroots arts organizations, which includes individual artists with eligible fiscal sponsors. Many applicants in that category sought project support in 2025-26.
In the 2025-26 funding cycle, emerging applicants received roughly $1 million while established organizations got roughly $5 million. In the view of grassroots artists, that uneven split proved their contention that established arts organizations receive favorable treatment in the allocation of Measure P money.
