The Kenneth Rainin Foundation awarded $810,988 in grants in November through its Open Spaces Program to fund temporary public art projects. The program reopened in 2024 after a two-year hiatus during which the Foundation made improvements to the program, making it more supportive of applicants and grantees. The awards will support artist-driven, place-based public art projects that engage communities in San Francisco and Oakland around relevant and timely issues.
The nine funded projects feature generative collaborations between artists, communities and nonprofit organizations. Recognizing that temporary public art projects need support at all stages of development, the program continues to offer two tracks: the Development Support track, which funds emerging and early-stage projects, and the Production Support track, which funds fully conceptualized projects ready for implementation.
The projects represent a range of artistic disciplines, demonstrating the breadth of creative practice embedded in the Bay Area’s artistic community, from aerial dance to sculpture to soundscapes and projection installations. Large-scale and ambitious, these projects are designed to unite communities around cultural touchstones. Shipyard Trust for the Arts and 500 Capp Street will use a contemporary lens to highlight and interrogate iconic landmarks like the Hunters Point Crane and historical monuments. Two aerial dance pieces by Bandaloop and Flyaway Productions will use site-specific vertical dance to address distinct themes deeply rooted in their respective communities. Johnny Huy Nguyen and Megan Lowe Dances will develop projects in San Francisco’s Little Saigon neighborhood and both the Oakland and San Francisco Chinatowns, focusing on uplifting intergenerational relationships and storytelling.
Projects also address themes relevant to our everyday existence, like Laurus Myth’s LED mobile sculpture and performance project, which addresses the critical issue of pedestrian safety. And emerging projects from Oaklash and Weaving Spirits Festival of Two-Spirit Performance emphasize cultural empowerment and community collaboration around the topics of queer creative expression and climate stewardship. Each of these projects reflect the goals of the Open Spaces Program to support visionary and timely projects that expand the boundaries of public art and support artists in advancing their practice.
About The Jury Selection Panel
Grantees were selected by a panel of public art facilitators and practitioners, which included Sita Bhaumik, member of People’s Kitchen Collective, a past Open Spaces grantee and a 2021 Rainin Arts Fellow; Theresa Sweetland, Executive Director of Forecast Public Art; and Weston Teruya, member of Related Tactics collective and a 2023 Rainin Arts Fellow.
