Community Engagement

Community Engagement believes that supporting artists and community-engaged art projects are critical to fostering a vibrant, more connected society. We are committed to providing grants that support independent artists and creatives and their community-engaged projects. One of our primary initiatives is our artists & creatives grants, which awards funding to those particularly in minority or lgbqt communities making or presenting creative work relating to or encouraging Community Engagement. These projects are diverse and impactful, such as public murals that express a Community's voice, videos and photos that capture a Community's stories, and innovative workshops and events where communities can connect through shared creative experiences. In 2023, Community Engagement awarded 20 artists/creatives with individual grants of up to $2,500 each. Since our inception, we have awarded individual grants to over 250 artists and creatives in its communities, including many who have historically had less access to traditional arts funding. These talented independent creatives and artist collectives are presenting art that engages communities in new, distinct and imaginative ways.

Our creatives-in-residence program, conceived in cooperation with grand central art center, broadens the traditional definition of Community building and artist residencies. The program placed our creatives in low-income communities and invited residents of those communities to participate in creative placemaking collaborations with artists, families and neighbors. Community Engagement supports the growth of this movement by providing an apartment and a stipend to our creatives as we work together to develop place-based programming. A shared art experience can be a powerful way to connect and heal. In 2023 in phoenix, the kids at this Community painted a food and friends anime inspired mural in the property. We celebrated major and minor holidays throughout the year as well as marked the known birthdays of participating kids. The teens installed humming bird feeders to create a pathway throughout the property. The kids worked to enlarge the painted rock garden. We helped to send high school students to prom by purchasing tickets and formal wear. We celebrated multiple high school and 8th grade graduations. We promoted exercise through group play of pokemon go in the neighborhood. The succulent garden was re-fenced and re-planted. Teens participated in a collaborative social Engagement project with mesa arts center and phoenix office of arts and culture. We had a field trip to the phoenix ballet to see the nutcracker. We had weekly game night of bingo and exploding kittens.

Community Engagement funds the work of a creative in san jose, ca who directs and engages outside artists for murals and other in-person & virtual Community events at several affordable apartment properties in the city. Among the monthly events she curated in 2023, she worked with a local yoga instructor to provide free outdoor classes during june and july. These weekly classes allowed attendees to slow down, enjoy the beauty of nature, heal their bodies and engage with their local Community. The yin yoga classes included a conversation about healthy lifestyle tips and advice, and training on meditation techniques.in 2023, Community Engagement provided a grant to the frida cinema, orange county's only non-profit arthouse theater, that delivers a wide array of educational and film programming opportunities each month. Our support included specific support for artwalk, a free for all-ages, community-based arts showcase that takes place throughout downtown santa ana, 5pm-10pm on first saturday of each month. Friends and neighbors meet for live art, outdoor vendors, live music, dancing under the stars, and visits to over twenty art galleries and studios featuring rotating exhibitions and performances of all types.community Engagement also supported casa bloom, a one-month popup gallery joint venture with a downtown santa ana workspace that showcases our artists on a rotating basis. Local artists jenny lynn and britt samuels were featured in their first solo shows.community Engagement's support for artists residency exchange brought mexican artists andres byack and andriana delfin to downtown santa ana for a week residency to create their own brand of murals. This was the first time either artist had been able to travel to the us and both reported the experience as life changing.