Open Spaces Program - Kenneth Rainin Foundation

Open Spaces Program

The Open Spaces Program supports partnerships between nonprofits and artists to create temporary, place-based public art projects.

The Open Spaces Program will reopen in spring 2024.  We will update this page in early May to include program details, eligibility and grant requirements and important application dates. 

About The Open Spaces Program

The Open Spaces Program supports partnerships between nonprofits and artists to create temporary, place-based public art projects that are responsive to issues relevant to communities in San Francisco and Oakland. This grantmaking program supports projects that:

  • Are visionary, timely and relevant to the communities they seek to serve
  • Include an artist-initiated process of community engagement
  • Expand the boundaries of public art and support artists in advancing their practices
  • Leverage civic and neighborhood resources and cultural assets

The Open Spaces Program prioritizes:

  • Mutually beneficial and authentic partnerships between organizations and artists
  • Collaborations across various disciplines, diverse media and technology
  • Projects taking place outdoors at sites accessible by public transportation and in accordance with current public health guidelines
  • Projects that compensate artists at a significant level. Projects are required to designate at least one-third of the grant funds to the artistic project team and their direct expenses for creating the work
  • Timely, compelling projects that are relevant to the community and consider the unique context of where they take place
  • A thoughtful approach to community engagement
  • Projects that expand the boundaries of public art and support artists in advancing their practices
A Black woman wearing a face mask and holding a lantern, leading a procession in the dark.
Amara Tabor-Smith and Ellen Sebastian Chang’s “House/Full of BlackWomen.” This episode is “The New Chitlin Circuitry: Reparations Vaudeville, ‘an act of insistence of black female original genius.’” Photo credit: Robbie Sweeny

Visionary Public Art

Click the icon in the top right corner below to scroll through a gallery of videos featuring Open Spaces Program grantee projects.