The East Bay Community Foundation (EBCF), Akonadi Foundation, and the City of Oakland’s Cultural Affairs Division announced a new funding opportunity for artists to partner with community organizers through the third round of funding from Belonging in Oakland: A Just City Cultural Fund.
Donor Name: East Bay Community Foundation
State: California
City: Oakland
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 07/31/2023
Size of the Grant: $100,000
Grant Duration: 3 years
Details:
The Fund seeks creative, mutually beneficial, and equitable collaborations working to build pathways to a more just Oakland to help break down old, racialized tropes and envision and test new narratives, social agreements, structures, and systems that lay the groundwork for freedom and liberation for Oakland communities. These collaborations seek to imagine and create a racially just and equitable Oakland where everyone belongs.
By providing resources to BIPOC-led collaborations that blend artistic innovation with social change, the Fund encourages the reimagining of power relations and the challenging of oppressive policies. Its ultimate goal is to inspire a broader sense of belonging and equity in Oakland, demonstrating the pivotal role of the arts in achieving racial justice and systemic change.
Funding for Belonging in Oakland: A Just City Cultural Fund is provided by major contributions from the Surdna Foundation’s Thriving Cultures program, alongside additional support from the Akonadi Foundation and East Bay Community Foundation. The Surdna Foundation’s program, Radical Imagination for Racial Justice, is a national regranting initiative aimed at enabling BIPOC artists in partnership with communities to reimagine policies and practices to advance justice for those most impacted by systemic racism.
They should also have a proven record of shaping racial and social justice-oriented policies or practices in sectors such as community development, economic justice, educational equity, environmental justice, sustainability, climate change, food justice, health & well-being, and housing rights, immigrant & refugee rights, land use & spatial justice, participation in the civic realm, public safety, and workers’ rights. The Fund seeks such organizations to form or continue collaborations with civically-engaged, Oakland BIPOC artists/cultural practitioners who are deeply rooted in communities that have borne the brunt of systemic racism and social and economic inequality.
Beyond critiques of injustice, the Fund seeks visionary collaborations with the purposes of:
- Generating radical imaginings that counter oppressive racialized policies with transformative approaches and/or practices for building a more just and equitable city;
- Supporting self-determined and deeply culturally-informed action by those most impacted by systemic racism; and
- Lifting up lifeways and value systems that cultivate greater belonging in Oakland.
The Fund seeks creative, mutually-beneficial, and equitable collaborations working to build pathways to a more just Oakland. Oakland’s BIPOC, civic-facing cultural workers and artists must be critical partners in funded collaborations to help break down old racialized tropes and envision and test new narratives, social agreements, structures, and systems that lay the groundwork for freedom and liberation for Oakland communities.
Funding Information
- Three-year grants of $100,000 per year will be awarded to three collaborative partnerships.
- In addition, each partnership will also receive:
- An annual stipend of $12,000 (12% of the grant amount) for life sustaining expenses of the participating artist(s) or cultural practitioner(s)—for example, to cover healthcare, childcare, student debt, restorative time or activities, or other such expenses—as a modest recognition of the hidden costs of maintaining cultural practices in Oakland’s communities of color.
- An annual stipend of up to $25,000 will be available for the purpose of documenting the learning and outcomes resulting from the collaboration–particularly with regard to new narrative changes, policy arguments or frameworks, or community structures to share with the field. The amount of the documentation stipend will be negotiated with each collaboration based on the scope of their plans and their capacity or desire to carry them out. The Fund will be able to assist with documentation should the collaboration not be able/willing to take that on.
Eligibility Criteria
To ensure transparency and fair allocation of funds, the application process is open and straightforward. The lead applicant of any collaboration applying for funding must be an Oakland-based, BIPOC-led organization with 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) status, or with a 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsor in good standing with the IRS. They must be either a cultural organization that collaborates with civically oriented artists/cultural practitioners or a social change organization. It is also expected that they should have an operating budget of $500,000 or more.
For more information, visit EBCF.