The Kenneth Rainin Foundation’s Arts program provides funding to artists to push the boundaries of creative expression, to elevate the artist’s voice to help transcend divisions and to reconnect us with our shared humanity.
We are approaching this work with a spirit of inquiry and desire to learn. To better achieve our goals, we are adapting our strategies to reflect the realities of today’s arts economy, the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and our focus on advancing equity in the arts.
Changes To The Open Spaces Program
The Rainin Foundation is committed to supporting artists working in place and in community. Our Open Spaces Program has been an important part of that strategy. We will be taking the rest of this year to explore how to deepen our support of artists doing this work and our commitment to the field of temporary public art. As part of this process we will relaunch the program in 2023.
About The Open Spaces Program
The Open Spaces Program supports artists to create temporary, place-based public art projects that are responsive to issues relevant to communities in San Francisco and Oakland.
To date, we have awarded $2,800,520 to 58 organizations under this program.
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
New Opportunities To Launch In 2023
In 2023, we will announce new funding opportunities for artists working in temporary public art. The work that we have done through the Open Spaces Program has been extremely successful. Our goal is to make sure that we find ways to provide as much value as possible to artists, their audiences and their communities. We are very excited to continue our support of temporary public art and will continue to provide updates about this work in the coming year.
As always, we welcome your input and ideas as we look forward to strengthening our support for arts and artists.
