The City of Newport Beach distributes funds to arts organizations, enabling them to expand arts programs offered to the local community. Grants typically range from $500 to $7,500. To apply, arts organizations are required to meet the following criteria:
- Only arts organizations are eligible - grants are not awarded to individuals
- Arts organizations must propose programs for funding that directly benefit citizens of Newport Beach
- The Arts Commission funds only arts programs, not general operating expenses
- Arts organizations that received previous cultural arts grants will not be considered unless they have completed and returned a completion report
- All applications must be typed and complete with requested attachments.
Grant awards for 2009/10 funding will be announced after the July 14, 2009 City Council meeting. Please call (949) 717-3870 for more information.
BACKGROUND: City Council Policy I-10 recognizes the importance of promoting culture and the arts within the City and establishes a Reserve Fund for Culture and Arts. The sum of $55,000 is provided each year for specific cultural or artistic planning or projects as approved by the City Council. The City Arts Commission has the responsibility to review all programs and requests for support from arts groups and make recommendations for funding to the City Council for final approval.
Past Cultural Arts Grants Awarded Include:
Baroque Music Festival
The Baroque Music Festival, a locally produced fully-professional musical performance venture in the City of Newport Beach , will present five concerts in eight-day sessions, utilizing two venues in Newport Beach : The Parish Church of Saint Michael and All Angels, and the Central Patio Room of the Sherman Library and Gardens. In 2007, the series will call attention to the continuing celebration of the 100th anniversary of the City of Newport Beach . The festival will perform works by Johann Sebastian Bach that were written for civic events in his time. They will use rare period instruments played by musicians from San Diego , Los Angeles , and the Bay Area.
City Arts Commission
The City of Newport Beach Arts Commission is dedicated to providing a range of free cultural programming that enriches the entire community, especially children and families. The Arts Commission sponsors multidisciplinary arts programs funded by the Cultural Grant Program such as the Concerts in the Parks Series, arts lectures and visual art exhibitions mounted in Central Library and at City Hall. The Arts Commission intends to extend the range of arts programming by funding the Shakespeare by the Sea festival held each summer at Grant Howald Park in Corona del Mar, Imagination Celebration of Orange County and with one additional concert in the Concerts in the Parks Series, 2007.
Festival Ballet Theatre
Festival Ballet Theatre will bring its “Ballet to Schools” program to two Newport Beach Elementary Schools in November/December 2006. They will perform a narrated, abbreviated version of the Nutcracker, tailored for children ranging in age from five to fourteen years old. The presentation will include pre-performance dance demonstrations complemented with interesting facts about ballet and the arts. Immediately following the actual performance, children will have the opportunity to converse with the professionals through a post-performance question and answer section.
Newport Beach Film Festival
The Newport Beach Film Festival is planning a one-day educational industry seminar program, similar to the 2006 series, to be held on the first Saturday during the Festival, tentatively scheduled for April 21, 2007 at the Newport Beach Central Library or at another venue, such as a Newport Beach movie theater. Past seminar topics have included directing, screenwriting, production design, cinematography, film music composer, animation and special effects. Artists of past seminars include Elmer Bernstien (To Kill a Mockingbird,) John Waters (Polyester,) Don Burgess (Castaway,) John Landis (Twilight Zone,) and Judiann Makovsky (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone). The Festival Seminar Series attracts a wide variety of people with a strong representation of students, seniors, film experts, avid fans, and novice filmmakers. Ages span from 13 to 85. The seminar program intends to serve approximately 800 people. In 2007, the Festival intends to expand its outreach to colleges and high school students.
Orange County Museum of Art
The Cultural Art Grant will help support the School and Tour Programs, and provide interactive first-hand experiences with original works of art for children of all socio-economic backgrounds. These outreach programs complement and expand upon arts experiences available to Newport Beach students, teachers, families and adults, as part of the museum’s efforts to make the visual arts more accessible and meaningful for people of all ages in the community. The School and Tour program supports art education in schools and consists of curriculum resources; pre-visit activities; gallery activities; hands-on studio art projects, lesson extensions and “Art & Music” collaborative programs with the Philharmonic Society of Orange County. The School and Tour Programs also provide professional development resources and training for educators with: curriculum materials, “Art + Text” and “Imagine and Imagining California” interdisciplinary lessons for elementary students.
Orange County Pacific Symphony
The Symphony’s “Community Concert Series” was launched in the year 2000, in order to expose new and diverse audiences to live orchestral performances in an environment that is welcoming and accessible to all. The September 2003 Newport Beach Community Concert was the official launch event of the Symphony’s 25th Anniversary Season, and its success led the way for the scheduling of additional concerts. This year’s grant request will support one live “informance” of chamber music by a quintet of Pacific Symphony professional musicians (woodwind, string, brass and/or percussion). The Symphony would like to propose either a performance as part of the Newport Beach Central Library’s “Sunday Musicales” afternoon concert series; as a component of the Imagination Celebration family event at the Library; or as a presentation for older adults at OASIS Senior Center.
Philharmonic Society of Orange County
Meet the Musicians is a program designed for 4th – 6th graders. In Meet the Musicians, professional brass, woodwind, string and percussion groups visit elementary schools to perform for the students. Musicians also give demonstrations of their instruments and finish each performance with a question and answer session. The duration of each program is 45 minutes. Ensembles on Tour is a similar program, but it is designed to appeal to middle school students. This program features professional groups performing for the whole student body a variety of music styles and instrumentations. The Meet the Musicians and Ensembles on Tour programs are brought to the children of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District . Each school is on a rotating groups schedule so that each year the students will have the opportunity for a new experience.
South Coast Repertory
South Coast Repertory Theatre will provide eight Educational Touring Performances free of charge to five elementary schools within the city limits of Newport Beach , exposing an estimated 2,000 students to a professional educational theatre experience. Each year, SCR commissions an original play that addresses an important topic in the elementary school curriculum while entertaining and educating children. In 2007, SCR’s Educational Touring Production will revise “Bad Water Blues,” a production that was a favorite among students, parents and teachers. This production teaches one of the most important lessons in today’s world: the fragility of our oceans and how to help save them. “Bad Water Blues” delivers a valuable lesson in ocean ecology with bluesy jazz music in a lively theatrical performance with professional actors.
Southland Opera
Southland Opera proposes to perform one performance of “Stories Come Alive” in each of the elementary schools in the City of Newport Beach , along with one performance at another Newport Beach public venue. Fairy tales and stories, which are highlighted, are Cinderella, Romeo and Juliet, Little Red Riding Hood, Beauty and the Beast and the new addition of Hansel and Gretel. The programs encourage reading and introduce young people to opera and musical theater and also demonstrate how composers often used children’s fairy tales as the story line for their opera or musical.
STOP-GAP
STOP-GAP is seeking funds to support the tour of three of their most requested plays to schools in Newport Beach . The plays are: “KEEPING SECRETS,” which explores situations where silence can be harmful; “KILLER PAIN,” which deals with substance abuse prevention and family relationships; and “Y DUI T,” which deals with the serious consequences of underage drinking and driving. These plays have been continuously requested by the schools in Orange County , who indicate that the subjects are of particular challenge to their youth. Funding from the City of Newport Beach will allow STOP-GAP to perform 10 plays reaching at least 500 students.