We believe that visionary artists are vital in turbulent times such as these. They push the boundaries of creative expression to illuminate diverse stories, help us transcend divisions and reconnect us with our shared humanity. At this critical juncture for American society, the Kenneth Rainin Foundation seeks to support and elevate the voices of these artists.

In response to the Bay Area’s ongoing affordability crisis, we intensified our work to secure affordable space for artists and arts organizations. In November, we invested an additional $3 million in the groundbreaking Community Arts Stabilization Trust (CAST). This grant will help CAST realize its ambitious goal to acquire 100,000 square feet of workspace for the arts by the end of 2018.

Our commitment encompassed further steps to equip a multi-sector response:

• We launched the Rainin Arts Real Estate Strategy website to share our cutting-edge real estate strategy. We were invited to present our strategy to Bay Area art-makers, city officials in Denver, and the national Board of Grantmakers in the Arts.
• We deepened our partnership with the Oakland Arts Workspace Group to stabilize, support and sustain arts and cultural organizations in Oakland. Our partners include CAST, City of Oakland, Northern California Community Loan Fund and East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation.
• We co-funded the 2017 report, Creative Places & Businesses: Catalyzing Growth in Communities, to capture new insights on how impact investments can shape a more inclusive, equitable and sustainable creative economy.

Honoring San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee

We mourned the sudden passing of Mayor Edwin Lee, who championed the arts as essential to San Francisco’s unique social fabric. His legacy lives on in our work to ensure permanently affordable, safe spaces for arts and cultural organizations.

Keeping Space–Oakland mobilizes a cross-sector partnership to safeguard the city’s vibrant and distinct arts landscape. A blend of technical assistance and direct funding aims to ensure that Oakland’s arts groups are “real estate ready.” CAST is piloting this initiative with funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and Rainin Foundation.

In 2017, six organizations received professional real estate training and consulting services valued at $90,000 through Keeping Space–Oakland. Additional, free trainings offered another 20 groups indispensable tools for building financial and workspace stability. And in November, the program awarded $350,000 to 14 vulnerable arts groups to underwrite acquisitions, planning, tenant improvements, or rental and moving costs.

The most accessible art is free and open to all in public spaces. In 2017, the Rainin Foundation announced its first public art grants, advancing our vision of art fully integrated into the fabric of civic life.

The Open Spaces Program invests in temporary public art created in response to the Bay Area sites and communities in which they unfold. We aim to fuel diverse artistic practices, innovative explorations of timely issues and deep processes of community engagement. The collaboration between artists and nonprofits is central to co-creating energized public spaces with each community. The temporary nature of their projects emboldens artists, and working in the public realm allows them to reach broader audiences.

Our inaugural round of Open Spaces Program awards in January totaled $400,000. Community meals, networked sound sculptures and aerial dance performances addressed resilience in communities of color, climate change and neighborhood transformation.

For our second round, we selected ten finalists in September, reflecting a wide interplay of artistic practices and issues. Each finalist received a grant of $5,000 to further develop their proposal. In addition to funding, the Foundation also hosts a symposium and workshops for artists to gain inspiration, knowledge and skills for working in public art.

Since 2009, our partnership with SFFILM (formerly the San Francisco Film Society) has supported nearly 70 narrative film projects. At more than $4.5 million, our grantmaking to independent filmmakers is the largest in the United States. Our funding elevates social justice themes and Bay Area voices that are typically underrepresented in the commercial film world.

In 2017, SFFILM / Rainin Filmmaking Grants awarded $550,000 to 15 projects, and launched discretionary loans to filmmakers in post-production.

Grantees have gained national and international visibility. Geremy Jasper’s breakthrough film, Patti Cake$, was one of the biggest buys of the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Three grantee projects screened at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, including Monsters & Men, Reinaldo Marcus Green’s exploration of police violence, racial profiling, and the power of perspective.

The Rainin Foundation has an abiding commitment to uplifting Bay Area communities through the arts. In 2017, our Impact Program awarded $405,000 to three arts organizations for multi-year capacity-building. These and previous grantees have achieved important short-term outcomes. But attaining true sustainability is an enduring challenge for many organizations. We put this program on hold in April as we embarked on a new strategic planning process that will explore leading edge support systems for artists.

In July, we welcomed Ted Russell as Associate Director of Arts Strategy and Ventures. Adding Russell’s decades of expertise to the Arts team was timely. His deep understanding of the arts ecosystem has been instrumental to analyzing strategies for supporting visionary artists and organizations.

Accelerating technological and economic change has defied conventional understanding of best practices, and created systemic challenges to nonprofit vitality. Many small to mid-size arts nonprofits are stymied in their quest to remain financially stable or grow. Our year-long strategic investigation revealed three problem-solving touchstones:

• Change will require innovation and challenging old philanthropic paradigms
• Building partnerships will be essential to achieving systemic change
• Unfettered creativity springs from support systems that are cost-effective, reliable and resilient

Stay tuned for a 2018-2021 strategy snapshot coming in Spring 2018.

The Rainin Foundation is committed to creating opportunities for independent artists and arts organizations that push the boundaries of creative expression.

NEW & EXPERIMENTAL WORKS (NEW) PROGRAM

Supports cutting-edge, contemporary productions and those that give voice to current cultural issues or unique communities of the Bay Area. View more information about these grants.

RENEW PROGRAM

Provides multi-year grants to ongoing programs that support the creation and presentation of new and experimental work. Invitation only. View more information about these grants.

IMPACT PROGRAM

Provides multi-year, capacity-building support to small and mid-size dance, theater and multidisciplinary arts organizations. View more information about these grants.

OPEN SPACES PROGRAM

Supports nonprofit organizations to partner with artists to create temporary, place-based public art projects in San Francisco and Oakland. In January 2017, the following teams received Open Spaces Program grants. View more information about these grants.

In September, these teams received project development grants to further develop proposals for our 2018 Open Spaces Program grant cycle. View more information about these grants.

OPPORTUNITY FUND

Provides one-time grants to respond to opportunities aligned with our strategic framework that fall outside of established programs. Invitation only. View more information about these grants.