Welcome, everybody.
Thank you for joining us in today's program
featuring Arts Connection Executive Director Jennifer
Kane.
Presented as part of the Wignall Museum's Home Edition.
A series of curated artists talks, workshops,
and discussions featuring artists and cultural workers.
My name is Rebecca Trawick pronouns, she-her-hers,
and I'm the director and curator of the Wignall Museum.
The Wignall Museum is a teaching museum and interdisciplinary
arts space that introduces Chaffey College students,
faculty, and staff and community members
to innovative contemporary art objects and ideas.
By fostering critical thinking, visual literacy, discourse,
and empathy, the museum seeks to enhance
the intellectual and cultural life of our community.
We want to take a moment to recognize that we're situated
on the Rancho Cucamonga Campus of Chaffey College, which
resides on the traditional and unceded lands of the Tongva
people.
We offer our recognition and respect
to the elders both past, present and future.
And Hello.
My name is Roman Stollenwerk, I'm
the assistant curator at the Wignall Museum.
All sessions of Home Edition will
be recorded, when possible recordings will be
made available on our website.
An announcement will post to our email subscribers
on social media when new videos are available.
All recordings of Home Edition will include captions and audio
descriptions as options.
Visit us at www.chaffey.edu/wignall
to access recordings and our full schedule of programs.
Thank you.
Yes and hello, everyone.
My name is Andy Hadle, I am the preparator
at the museum in the studio tech for the studio arts department
Chaffey College.
Along with Rebecca and Roman I'll
be assisting in today's Zoom session.
Briefly, let me share a quick breakdown of today's program.
In a moment we'll have Jennifer Kane present for about a half
an hour or so.
And then with the remaining time available
that will be available for Q&A
Thanks Roman and Andy.
So today we're pleased to introduce Jennifer Kane.
Jennifer Kane is an artist, arts organizer, and teacher
from Los Angeles, California, and currently resides
in Joshua Tree.
She serves as the Executive Director
of ArtsConnection, the Arts Council of San Bernardino
County.
Jennifer received her BA in fine arts
from Mount st. Mary's College, and her MFA in public practice
from Otis college of Art and Design.
She is a recent graduate of Arts for LA activate cultural policy
fellowship program.
Jennifer Kane has directed Arts Connections since early 2018,
and has launched three new programs
regionally to help the organization better serve
artists and Arts Cultural Organizations across San
Bernardino County.
The arts innovator, pardon me, Microgrant offers $500 grants
to individual artists living and working
in San Bernardino County.
Through peer to peer fundraising and sponsorships,
ArtsConnection is able to sustain this annual grant
program launched in 2019.
The teaching artists training program
builds a supportive learning network
for practicing artists who want to take
the next steps towards teaching their craft in community
and after school programs.
This program launched in fall 2020
with a cohort of 16 artists from across San Bernardino County.
Arts for IE is another new initiative
that Jennifer helped to create in response to the pandemic.
This by County arts advocacy collaborative
seeks to change the funding narrative
for the Arts in the inland Southern California region.
So please welcome Jennifer Kane.
Hi, everybody and thanks for having me Rebecca.
Thanks for the warm welcome.
Thanks for being here.
Friendly faces and new faces.
And I hope that each of you learns something new today.
Many of you have lots of experience
in this field as well.
So at the end if you have anything to add
I'll look forward to hearing that too.
So in talking about a Skillshare around funding
and individual artist resources, I
felt we oftentimes get really stuck
on how do I fund my practice?
But it's not always about funding although it really
does help.
So I'm going to talk about some things that
are interconnected in building artistic support
for your career that have been vital to me
in the last four or five years and then
we'll get to also talking about funding as well.
So that will be a part of the conversation.
Just really briefly about me.
I'm an artist but I'm also a active guide in the Sierra.
In the summer times I love being outside,
playing is what keeps me connected and excited.
So that's a little bit about me.
One of the first projects that I got involved
with after graduate school was helping
to develop the artist program in the Joshua Tree National Park
as part of the Joshua Tree innovation laboratory.
Which was the idea and project of artist Rebecca Lowry.
I love creating platforms and spaces for people
to come together in unique and interesting environments.
I feel like it's first conversation
in a way that doesn't happen inside
doesn't happen in the classroom.
And it does-- it allows us to make these connections that we
might not see otherwise.
So that's just an example of a project
I've worked on recently.
Social practice is a form of art that, we often
say it combines--
it takes art from the studio and addresses community identified
needs or social justice issues in a way that utilizes art
as a vehicle.
And so thinking about your practice
and finding your particular niche is also really important.
Do you want to work in a studio?
Do you want to work with people and community?
Do you want to work as a teacher in a classroom?
So knowing about yourself and where you want to work,
is a really important first step.
Because that allows you to find yourself where you want to be
and everything evolves from there.
I will say one thing that, there is a lot
to be said for the people and relationships in your life.
So I would say that, the networks that you build
are probably one of the most important things.
And you can develop your networks
through a lot of different ways.
ArtsConnection is one of those networks
that I feel really strongly about.
Let's just say that your particular passion
is environmental issues, you're going
to find groups of people who agree
or have that same passion.
And that would be a local niche network.
OK, so if we think about a place like San Bernardino
County as a series of locations, you'll
see on ArtsConnection cultural asset map here on our website,
we've started to plot like where does arts and culture happen
in the County?
Each of those dots represents something
like a school, an outdoor site, a museum, a place
that a large festival happens, or there's
a gallery, or exhibition site, there aren't a lot of them,
that's actually all open space.
So what we started to do in terms
of thinking about networks, is where do people gather?
And then what do they gather around?
And why do they gather?
So the one on the left there is actually the plotted location
of where the Wignall Museum is.
You're going to think about where
you physically find yourself.
I always like to start there, so you
start with the broader regional network or location
that you find yourself embedded within.
And then where do you find yourself locally?
I start by doing a lot of research when I go to a place,
like what exists there already.
If that's a museum, if it's a cultural institution,
if it's an Art Association, and then I
try to figure out what events that they're doing,
who's doing what?
What are the people already doing things there?
I try to attend their events making connections
with them via whether it's personal introduction
at an event in person, or it's just
going to their shows meeting folks.
That's how you get more and more hyper local.
So the first time I actually moved to Joshua Tree, in 2000--
when I moved to Joshua Tree in 2010 and I
went back and forth because I'm a Los Angeles native.
And I was like well, what's going on
in San Bernardino and Joshua Tree specifically?
And one of the things that actually popped up
was ArtsConnection, their website and their conference.
And so I was like OK, well, that's
a great way for me to start building a network
and building network connections.
So I went to their conference in 2015.
There was a keynote speaker Maria Jackson
and just she blew me away, and then the people
that I met there started to help me find the next step for me.
Long story short, then I ended up
working for the organization.
But that all started because I first found them
by searching locally or regionally online,
went to one of their events and started
connecting with the people who are part of the organization.
So that's the one thing that I would
say is like the important is knowing your area,
knowing what's there and then going and participating.
Eventually, volunteering for those organizations,
serving on the boards.
I know a few of you here already do
all of that in a very intimate way, so in some ways
I'm preaching to the choir.
But this might be new for some folks
just getting started out of graduate school
or your undergraduate degree.
So these are just some of the regional examples,
I've pulled really quickly from--
I did a search, what kind of pops up
in terms of what I would call their own hyper local networks.
Of course, the Wignall Museum being one of them.
ArtsConnection is a regional networking site as well as
organization.
The ones if you want to ask more specifically,
about what some of these are High Desert Test Sites--
What the acronym there on the upper left.
What they do-- each of these organizations
is very specific to I would say a city or a specific community.
In which they've served for the last--
some of them for decades, some of them are very new.
Two or three years old.
And what they do is, they tend to be
a landing point for artists coming to an area,
or a jumping off point to find resources,
to find what's going on.
They oftentimes put out calls for artists.
I know Chaffey Community Museum of Art
offers the artists in the airport program.
And each of them I would say, pulls together
their local government, city officials,
they do hyper local projects.
And so that's one way that you can find your local connection
points, and each of these is going
to be regionally specific.
And they're not all included because there's
a lot out there, I just wanted to throw a few in there
to give examples.
In addition to knowing the landscape of where you are,
and who, and what exists, I don't
want to forget about how important it
is to have mentors.
To make those local connections with someone
who has years and years of experience in an area
that you're interested in.
I suggest reaching out to those artists,
to work directly with them as an intern,
as a volunteer, maybe even as a studio assistant.
I can't really stress that enough,
as probably one of the most important things that
has helped me along in my career is
making those personal connections with artists
who have been doing this kind of work or the work
that you want to do for years and years and years.
One of those amazing women is on this call, Sant Khalsa who
is still one of my mentors and working
alongside Rebecca Lowery as well for the Joshua Tree Art
Innovation Lab.
So I just want to stress how important that is.
Wherever you went to school like keeping those mentors
and those networks alive.
Even if you move outside of the area,
I still keep in touch with the mentors
I have from graduate school.
And those folks even though, they live in Los Angeles,
they have helped me find the next step
in finding the community, the teachers, the mentors,
in my own region.
So that's something you never want to lose connections with.
So even if you moved outside of an area, with our virtual world
you can keep things connected in ways that we couldn't two
decades ago.
Some of our most prevalent professional resource
websites as well as organizations in California,
the state arts agency being California Arts Council.
Their website as well as the resources and opportunities
that they post on a daily basis, but they also
send out a newsletter at least twice a month.
They have calls for artists, jobs, internships, exhibitions,
summits, conferences, all on their website.
It's an amazing collection of resources
from all across the state.
Something that I highly recommend
do signing up for their newsletter going
back to frequently becoming acquainted with what they do.
The Center for Cultural innovation
is based in the Bay Area in Los Angeles in terms
of their primary audiences.
However, they do have some funding programs
and online workshops and resources
that I have gone to repeatedly over the last five years.
And are accessible to artists in the whole state.
So I'll get into that a little bit further.
And ArtsConnection also is an amazing resource
for professional development workshops resources
as well as a place to connect with organizations and artists
in the San Bernardino County area.
The Center for Cultural Innovation, just to reiterate.
Their upcoming workshops are all available online.
They're either free or really, really affordable.
They touch on everything from grant, writing, tax, tips.
Their upcoming workshop in February
actually talks about their hiring practices and artist
contracts for artists.
I highly recommend that one particularly, especially,
considering some of new legislation
around independent contractor laws.
How to make sure that you're getting
paid correctly, whether you're as an employee
or as a contractor.
And making sure that you're getting paid a living wage.
The woman offering that workshop actually,
she runs an Instagram site called The Artist's office
and she puts out a monthly curated newsletter that
offers artist opportunities and grants specifically
to your region.
So that's something that I also highly recommend
that you sign up for.
The Quick Grant is something that
funds Bay Area organizations and individual artists
in the whole state.
So some folks I've talked to say, Oh, that's not for me
it's at Bay Area because they didn't
read through the rest of it.
But it actually is a Quick Grant program
that's available every month, due by the 15th of the month.
And it varies year to year from 600 to $1,000
depending on their funders.
And you can get support for professional development
activities to attend conferences to hire a mentor.
That's one thing that I really recommend, especially
right now.
Or if you're trying to learn online marketing
skills, business skills, all of that
are all funding opportunities through that program.
The CALI Accelerator Program was really great,
but they're moving away from that program starting
next month, so I'm not going to talk too much about it.
But they're funding opportunities are always
in flux I highly recommend just staying
in touch with their website, their opportunities.
The next one is this open source document
that they've created because of the pandemic.
I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to put
that direct link in the chat.
But it'll be sent to you, to everyone
who signed up for the workshop.
And it is an amazing document that I didn't even
attempt to recreate it this during the pandemic
because there's some organizations who
have a lot of staff who have been keeping
this document up to date.
It includes grant, relief opportunities,
and other resources workshops, et cetera,
to help with artists and freelancers.
So yeah, keep that on your bookmark
tab for the next, well, who knows how long,
but it's always good to know about opportunities
for release and resources.
So I've talked enough about the Center for Cultural Innovation.
I want to talk the next little bit about ArtsConnection
and some of the opportunities, and the California Arts
Council.
But ArtsConnection is-- we recently
redesigned our website to make it a little more user friendly.
We offer a lot of resources on the site
as well as different services.
So I wanted to highlight those to make sure
that you knew that was a location that you can go to.
The resources that we have there talks
a lot about accessibility issues in the arts, resources
to help you build your own accessibility platform.
There's a funding document Also that we created
that's an open source document.
Not as extensive as the other one that I just gave you,
but it's something we try to make
that's very specific to San Bernardino County.
Research publications, you can download stuff specifically
for teachers, parents, and schools.
So that's always changing, so you want to check back often,
if you're not already on a newsletter we do send that out
to let you know when things are updated
or new opportunities pop up.
Public art opportunities, exhibition opportunities,
et cetera.
Other services that we offer.
I'll get into the Microgrant program
that we just launched this week.
We do offer physical sponsorship program for arts projects
or artists that need physical, or that needs 501 (C) (3)
status to apply for grants.
So that's something that you need or are interested in,
there is an interest form there and we
can send you an application to get that started.
Other things that we do is, offer grant
writing support and project consulting
for cultural planning, as well as for program development.
And honestly the thing I've been doing every day this week
has been grant writing support for partner organizations
for the California Arts Council grant programs--
that are going to be due starting next week.
For individual artists, funding is important.
And the opportunities actually are
growing for not only San Bernardino
but also for the state.
And for the first time in over 18 years
the California Art Council will be offering individual Artist
Fellowship.
They will also be continuing their individual artists
relief program, which they--
I forget which month it was but it was earlier this fall
they had $1,000 grants available for across the state
that was administered by the Center for Cultural Innovation
again.
So there will be a whole another round of $1,000 relief grants
for individual artists again.
We don't have an application for that yet,
because what's going to happen first
is, during this first round of granting the CAC or California
Arts Council will select one administering
organization to administer those $1,000 grants.
So let's just say CCI wants to administer that again.
They have to reapply to be the administrative organization,
so right now we don't have anything yet but just
stay tuned for that.
So I want to reiterate the quick grant
and then, highlight the research grants which
is the artists safety net.
And I believe actually, Rebecca you
turned me on to that, that grant that just came out
with its third cycle.
Those will be due February 3rd.
Thank you, Rebecca, for putting a link and a chart for those.
The Quick Grant program is going to be-- the next round
will be due February 15th.
Check out their website they also
have suggestions for how to find a one on one coach.
If you are interested in being a coach
or maybe connecting with their network to try to do that,
I highly recommend that as well.
That's something that you've done in the past,
there's been folks on this call that I
think would be wonderful coaches and mentors
through that program, so something to look into as well.
ArtsConnection, we not only support
arts organizations and applying for grants,
but we do a lot of grant writing support for pretty much anyone
interested in applying for something.
Later today, I'm going to meet with someone
who wants to apply for a $600 fellowship
to help her become a End of Life Doula as an artist,
as part of her practice.
For instance, I'm going to write a letter of recommendation
and help her with her application.
We're pretty dynamic and honestly everything that I do
is custom to the person that I'm working with.
So the fellowship's, again, in case anyone
sees this at the CAC we are so excited about this program I
know a lot of artists are--
They have now opened the grants for this.
You do not need a fiscal sponsor,
you can apply directly as an individual.
And there is the three categories there.
So emerging artist fellows $5,000,
established so that's between 4 and 10 years of practice,
$10,000 and then legacy fellows for those
who are very well established artists
with 10 or more years of practice.
And they're going to give approximately 10
of those awards to artists across the state.
You do have to select one category,
if you find yourself in the middle of two
you can't apply for both.
So again, knowing where you are in your own practice.
And I highly recommend reaching out
to program officers that have been assigned to this program.
You can find out through the CAC's website.
They have 15 minute consultation that, you
can sign up for the 15 minute consultations as many times
as you want.
And I highly recommend taking advantage of that
because it allows the staff to get to know you.
It eases your fears about maybe applying,
because you've gotten a real person on the phone
and you're not just looking at a grant application.
And the questions and not getting anybody
to give you feedback about any of those questions.
So that's one thing that I highly, highly recommend,
especially people who have never applied through the California
Arts Council Program.
One thing to do right away is to go to their website
to just familiarize yourself with their platform
and to get a profile set up.
That way you've gotten the first stage done,
you have that ready, you've got your login,
your password saved.
These grants I believe are due April 1st.
So you have some time on the fellowship programs
which is great.
And I want to see some fellowships from Inland Empire
artists specifically, because one of the things that
is on my advocacy agenda all of the time
is the fact that, we are always underfunded from state.
But it's also because we're not applying.
So building up confidence and skills for artists to apply.
I'm here to help with every stage of that process.
One thing I am so excited to end the first part of my Skillshare
is to talk about the Arts Innovator micro grant program
that ArtsConnection launched last year.
So this will be the second year that we're
offering this program.
I have to give props to all of the board members past
and present, who built ArtsConnection
from the ground up because they knew that the county of San
Bernardino needed an advocate, needed someone building funding
resources and to have a voice for our artists
communities in the County.
So after I got started ArtsConnection
I was going through a lot of the documents
about why ArtsConnection got started.
And different arts councils across the state
and what they do.
And I thought, one of the biggest ones
was being a granting or re-granting agency.
And ArtsConnection didn't necessarily--
we don't have funding from the County at this point.
We're going to change that, don't worry.
But we said, what's stopping us from starting
with something small.
To build the case, to give a resource
locally just for artists living and working
in San Bernardino County.
So, last year we started just through crowdfunding
we raised $2,500.
and we gave out five awards.
That to me, that was huge.
The artist who received that money each of them
has expressed how pivotal that $500
was at that particular moment in their career,
as well as for the project that they had intended
to do for their community.
Some of them are on hold because of COVID, but that's OK.
Some of them have gone forward, we've all
been adapting to the last year.
So we just relaunched the applications
with a few additions, a few things
to make it more accessible, to make it a little bit clearer
about what the program does.
It's intended to be open, it's intended
to be accessible to artists of all backgrounds and experience
levels.
What we want to hear in the narrative,
there's really one major question, which
is what is your project idea?
And why is it important right now in your career
to have this funding?
And then how does it directly address
either, a need in your own career at this moment
or in your community?
So if your project is intended to serve a particular group
of people, students, work with your local network
if it's intended to support your like an emergent project,
or a gallery.
Why is this money, particularly important right now?
And, so that's why the innovator idea is in the title.
It's not just about I need this $500 to go to this workshop,
it's explaining why that one workshop that you
need to go to right now, is pivotal in your career
at this exact moment.
Or hosting that one community event at that one location,
or if it's two or three locations.
Why is that important to the community
specifically that you want to work with?
It's an invitation to get really, really detailed
and to understand where you're going in your own practice.
And clearly explain it to the panel.
But also just explain to me if it's a community oriented
idea, to elaborate on your connections with the community.
We've tried to make this a what I call an entry point
grant, to give you background and experience on questions
that you're going to have to answer in any other grant
application.
Basically, describe your idea, describe why it's important,
and not just why it's important but, how it's connected.
[AUDIO OUT] back to the community [AUDIO OUT]
or your practice.
Work samples are always going to be
required, so where you can find the application itself is--
there's a link directly in our Instagram profile.
We actually have quite a bit of engagement through our online
social media channels, so if you're not following us already
on Instagram and Facebook, I highly recommend it.
But our website has all of the information
as well, so you would go to the homepage.
Earlier, when I showed you under Services,
it would be Micro Grants.
And then there are these four tabs,
so you can find out what is a micro grant, who is eligible,
and how do I apply.
Under How Do I Apply?, you'll get two options.
You can either apply online, or you
can download a paper copy of that and then mail it in.
Key timeline stuff is that the deadline is March 15,
and you can do a streamline application online.
It's easier for us if you can apply online,
although to make it accessible to folks
who aren't that tech savvy, you can also
email us for a paper copy.
And we will send you a paper copy.
We don't want that to be the limiting factor for people
to apply.
Please also make sure that your application is complete--
send in all of the requested information--
and that you proofread your responses.
I would say that these are sort of the bare minimum of--
when you apply for grants or other sort of funding
opportunities, workshops, et cetera, the quality
and attention to detail that you put into your application
reflects your work.
And so take the time to spend with the information
that you're submitting, as well as
the choices that you've put for your images and in your resume
that you'll have to submit as well.
This is what the online application form looks like.
It gives all of the summary background information,
and you'll get distinct categories.
What is your project idea?
It is a 300-word limit.
300 words is actually a lot of space, and so just be concise.
And choose those words as if you are
writing a well-crafted poem.
Highlight the most important part.
Choose your words like you were going
to choose the form of your painting or your drawing.
And again, how will this project impact your practice
or the communities served?
So we wanted to make it open to folks--
if this is just for your individual practice and say
you need to go to a workshop, or you
need this professional budget support, or--
we also funded last year an artist
who needed to purchase tools at a very
pivotal moment in her career.
It's just explaining why that's important.
If it's going to be an event, where will it take place?
Are you collaborating with anybody else?
The contingency plan portion of it
is just for us to better understand
how you're thinking about the project or the idea.
If you don't have a contingency plan, it's OK.
We just sort of wanted to give you that opportunity of like,
are you going to do this regardless
of if you get this money?
Or if you don't get this money, this won't happen?
And why?
All of that is an opportunity to give us the full picture
of your idea, of your request.
So again, this is for all artists, writers, designers,
performers, organizers, teachers,
and creative entrepreneurs that live and work in the county.
This is important to us that you live, work, and benefit
the communities that you are a part of, so this is not
open to folks who have a second home in the county
but work in Los Angeles.
You do need to live and work specifically in the county.
But other than that, it's open to anyone who
considers themselves an artist.
I put arts organizers in that category as well.
There's a list of things we won't fund,
but I'll let you get into that with the guidelines
on the website, mostly related to political activities.
We're not going to fund the paperwork for starting
a new organization, and it can't be for scholarships or for you
to re-grant that money to someone else.
It has to be specific to fund you, or your project,
or a collaborative endeavor.
I hope it didn't go too quickly or skim over anything that you
all wanted more information about, but I will pause there.
And I'm happy to go back into depth around anything else.
I have a question about the Arts Innovators Micro Grant.
I know recently you sent out a newsletter to subscribers,
and it actually featured the 2020 inaugural recipients.
And I'm wondering if there's a location where
we can find that online, and if not, if perhaps you
could speak to the breadth and diversity of those recipients.
I thought it was an interesting group.
Well, first question, to find it online,
we have a link under the tab Who is Eligible?
There's a link to the past recipients,
the PDF that did recently go out in the newsletter.
So you can read the really descriptive project summaries
that we put out as part of our PR in April of last year.
I might have to rack my brain a little bit for the five,
but one of them is Amy Robbins.
And the reason I know Amy so well
is because she helped us film a video promo recently.
So she purchased, actually, some woodworking tools
to help her move her business forward.
So she's not only a fine artist in terms of sculpting.
She collects wood that has been--
I'm not going to describe it that well.
It's not new growth.
It all tends to be parts of trees that have fallen over
from natural disasters, and she carves and sculpts them
into new works that she sells, as well
as she carves in designs.
And that helps her as one of her forms of income.
And since then, she's been able to make hundreds and hundreds
of dollars.
I'm not going to say thousands because I don't actually
know the amount, but it spurred her career forward
in a way that she just--
and she sends me emails all the time like,
thank you, thank you, thank you.
Let's see.
Candace Pearson actually got funded to run
a series of pop-up poetry workshops
for the students in her community in Crestline,
and you can read further about that.
[INAUDIBLE] in the Morongo Basin--
I'm not going to remember the exact details,
but it was to start up a local chapter kind of supporting
the LGBTQ population in the Morongo Basin,
specifically through performance and--
was it Ryan Perez?
Because I don't have a list in front of me--
to work on a photography project and book and Jasmine Chan
to work on a series of photographs.
She was from the city of San Bernardino.
Is that all of them?
Did I miss someone?
Oh, and then Ryan's the Chaffey College one.
I did not know that, but that's awesome.
What we loved about the process and sitting on the review panel
was that, without even making sure
that we represented the geography of the county,
each of the artists selected represented
a really different part of the county
in terms of the geography.
And that was really important to the board when we reviewed
these applications, and it happened organically
by how the recipients scored.
So we'll continue with that.
We have a really nice rubric to be able to make sure
that the funding is fairly distributed across the county,
also making sure that we're funding,
I would say, Black and Latinx artists, specifically,
coming up this year.
We have a [INAUDIBLE] program that is new,
so organizations, board of supervisors,
individuals can sponsor a grant and sort of say, hey,
I'd like this grant to go to an artist from the city
or from this region.
So we have one being sponsored by the Morongo Basin Cultural
Arts Council, so we'll for sure at least
have one artist funded in that region.
We have two artists sponsor from the city of San Bernardino
because of the gracious donation from doctors
Ernie and Dottie Garcia and then also from District 2
from Janice Rutherford's office, so just specifically.
And then our general donations go into the pool
that can go to everybody.
So we're trying to make it--
to get the community involved.
If we see how our funding is directly
supporting artists, that's Art Connection's mission,
to literally connect the artists, funders,
and the community to say, this is really important,
and how can we do this on our own
until we get county support?
And we've gotten a lot more movement because we've always
been grassroots and saying, we can do this,
but we're slowly getting the attention
from some larger funders, as well as from the county.
Jenny, you talked about the value and importance
of mentors, which I wholeheartedly agree.
I'm wondering if there's anything formalized that I'm
not familiar with or plans for the future
to formalize any kind of mentor-mentee program
through Arts Connection.
I was trying to come up with a funny response.
I was going to say, yes, my assistant will get right
on that.
No, it's something that I've heard
since I got started that is a very, very important need.
I haven't quite figured out how to do it yet,
but it's something that's always sort of like, I would like
to be able to do that outside of just me
because I feel like I do a lot of that on one on ones.
But we haven't figured out how to connects the, I would say,
experiences and mentors that exist with the more emergent
arts leadership in the county.
I think that we're--
one thing that we have started to do
that I think is sort of a first step
is that we recently were granted money
by the state to re-grant as part of the CARES funding,
and that funding went to specifically arts and culture
organizations serving Black, Indigenous,
and people-of-color communities.
We had a lot of responses, over 35,
and I would say that at least half of those
were organizations and young, emergent organizations
and projects that we didn't even know about
or we had no contact with before.
The top applicants that did not get funded--
there's about 10 of them--
we actually reached out to create
what I'm calling sort of the beginnings of an emerging arts
leadership cohort, which we now--
it's not public because it started from the applicants
that we weren't able to fund.
So I said, well, what else can we
do if these folks have amazing projects that aren't getting
funded from any state funding?
They don't have a lot of resources.
They're mostly volunteer-run.
What can I do there?
It's like, OK, so we're going to start with those leaders
that we identified through that project, kind of do a needs
assessment based off of, what do they want to focus on
as the grant writing?
Do they want to mentor?
Where do they want to start first?
And then the next step after that
was going to be, how do I find the mentors who want
to work with these leaders?
I know a few of them right now, and I
think the next step is going to be asking the people I know,
who else should we be asking?
I'm not sure yet how to make that more
public in terms of a process.
I'm just being really transparent,
but if anybody here has ideas or wants to be involved in that,
right now it's still working with the emergent leaders
that I've already identified.
But we just haven't figured out the next step with the network
connections piece.
Yeah, Emerging Arts Leadership Los Angeles
is a model that I know has been really
powerful for a lot of folks.
I just don't personally have the capacity to do that.
I'd love to see that in our county, and I know it's a need.
So if anybody here knows someone who
wants to start a new project, hit me up.
Regarding the CAC, Jenny, do you have a sense
of how many individual Artist Fellowships have
come from artists in San Bernardino County in the past?
From the CAC-- well, they haven't offered this program
in 18 years, so I don't know how many of the relief grants that
they offered in--
I think it was October.
I don't know how many of those grants went to artists in San
Bernardino and Riverside.
I think I could probably get it, but I don't have
access to that data right now.
But I do know that there was at least three
that were artists that I had worked with
to apply that got it, but I don't have the total numbers
on the relief grant.
Sant?
Yeah, I just want to respond to Steve.
The grant program, the Artist Fellowship program
that CAC is offering--
like Jenny said, they haven't offered any Artist Fellowships
in 18 years, but the program 18 years ago was really different.
They only had a single grant, and it was one amount.
I think it was like $5,000 or something like that.
I was a recipient back then.
So this grant is really different in that they have it
in these three categories, and it's a lot of money
at the highest level.
It's more than a Guggenheim Fellowship.
It's really a big grant.
Personally, I'm surprised that it's
only 10 years for that level of grant.
I personally think it should be 20, or 25,
or something like that.
So that's a lot of funding.
That's incredible that they're doing this.
Definitely apply.
Apply.
All the artists, apply.
I'm definitely going to be a cheerleader
and encourage other people to do it as well.
No, you apply.
I'm working on it.
Thanks, Sant.
All of you on this call can apply in different categories.
Yeah.
I think you've alluded to this, Jenny,
but I just want to make it extremely clear
that you actually do offer one-on-one support to assist
individuals and organization representatives to apply
for grants, yes, which is extremely gracious of you.
I know you're a very busy woman.
Arts Connection is supported by the network that exists,
and so it's one of the benefits of joining the network.
Organizations get one-on-one support,
which-- you have to pay, usually, at least $50 to $100
an hour.
And it does, in the benefits, say you only get one session,
but honestly, folks honestly get a lot more than
that because that's the way that I am.
And that goes for individual artists.
We either do everything, lately from how
do you even start writing it to editing
if you're in the final stages.
And that's been very gratifying because I want
to see those numbers go up.
That's the most important thing for me is,
even though we started it at the beginning
that funding is not the most important, it really helps.
If you've been doing something all volunteer your whole life,
or you don't have the--
funding really, really helps, and that can
come in the form of a grant.
It can come in the form of mentorship,
or professional development, or connecting you
to someone who can.
It doesn't happen overnight, but I
feel like there are these steps along the way that it's
like making the connections first
by-- even if you don't end up applying [AUDIO OUT]
by reaching out and saying, I'd like to,
and getting that conversation started
means the next round you can.
And even if you apply this year and you're not successful
but you were rated pretty high, that's a huge success for me.
Oftentimes, if you don't get funded, folks get discouraged,
and they don't do it again.
But you, oftentimes, have to apply two, three, four times.
So yes.
And if I'm not available, oftentimes I
can connect you to grant writers that you could hire
that can support you as well.
One other thing, that on the site,
if you're not already a user--
because we had to switch platforms.
You have to start a new profile.
You can put yourself on there as a professional service provider
if you like write grants or if you have a professional skill
set, you can put your [AUDIO OUT] in the directory
there.
And there are three options to do that.
You can also be a paid member.
Because we recently switched over,
we don't have profiles yet, really,
because we're having to kind of build those directories back
up.
But if you know someone who is a grant writer,
or offers tax incentives for artists,
or is a workshop presenter, put yourself on there
because folks will then go to those lists,
and they'll say, oh, I need an artist in this area.
I need to find someone to help me with this particular issue.
So that's also the way that we're trying to connect folks.
And then I know we're almost out of time,
but I really wanted to ask you--
again, I know you're extremely busy.
I know you're really gracious with your time and energy
to the residents, and artists, and arts communities
of the Inland Empire.
And so I wanted to ask a self-care question.
And also, what are you finding inspiration from?
So how are you caring for yourself?
I'd say you, and the organization, and the board.
Like how are you all caring for yourselves
during this really difficult pandemic time, everything
moving online?
And then where are you finding inspiration,
whether it's nature, or media, or art, or whatever?
That's a great question.
I appreciate that.
Can I make a comment?
I've been observing Jennifer's artwork during this time,
and it has grown amazingly fast.
And I'm just so excited.
I'm hoping this is some of your self-care.
But you're sharing it with us, and I just thank you for that.
Yeah, I was going to say--
other than YouTube workout videos,
the time I've been able to spend in the studio
has been an extreme gift of time.
I used to spend so many hours in the car.
I can't even tell you.
So the time that I now don't drive as much,
I just spend more time on Zoom.
I have more time to talk to people
and help them than I did before because I'm not
driving so much.
And I get to live and be with my boyfriend
here, which is awesome.
And yeah, the painting and personal practice, I think,
has kept me very engaged.
I didn't have time for that for the first couple of years
of this job, and I started to feel really sad.
And I forgot why I was doing it, and recently I've
rediscovered, through the connections
that I made through this job, the inspiration
to start making again and actually, I think, most of you
all on the call that have helped that along.
And also, I just wanted to say thank you to Rebecca Hamm
because she's part of that re-inspiration
for me, too, as the painter.
Thank you.
That's beautiful.
It is all about the network and the people.
That's why I wanted to start with that.
It goes from these vague abstractions of maps,
and resources, and who's there, and what's there to just like
an internal map of the people that you see love and support,
and they support you back.
And that's going to look really different for each person,
and I really encourage mapping that out for yourself.
Just like, what does your local community look like?
What do they need?
And what do you have that's unique to offer
to that particular landscape?
That's going to take you far.
It's going to set you apart in your job
applications, your work relationships,
as well as in grants, et cetera.
But you got to have that first before you can, I think,
do those other things, so yeah.
That's really important.
It's a beautiful note to end on, Jennifer.
We thank you so much for your time, energy.
Thank you, attendees.
I love seeing you all, appreciate your time
and that you carved out some time
to spend with us this afternoon.
So be well, stay safe, and we'll see you next time.
If you have questions or want to follow up with me,
too, thank you so much.
Great to see all of you.
Thanks for joining.