Irvine Foundation gives $4.1 million to Valley arts groups

In an unprecedented shift in focus and resources onto the Central Valley, the James Irvine Foundation has awarded $4.1 million in grants to be divided among 15 arts organizations, including five in the Sacramento area.

Those five are the Sacramento Philharmonic, the Sacramento Ballet and the Crocker Art Museum, which will each receive $325,000; the Sacramento Opera, which has been awarded a $250,000 grant; and the Magic Circle Theatre of Roseville, which was selected by the foundation for a $200,000 grant. The $1.4 million in grant money is to be used over a three-year period.

"We see a real opportunity in the Central Valley to support its arts organizations and increase the vitality of its art sector," said Martha S. Campbell, vice president for programs for the San Francisco-based Irvine Foundation.

The foundation is one of the largest private organizations that gives grants to nonprofit arts groups in the state.

The local awards come after a recent county-by-county Irvine Foundation report, which found that the fast-growing Central Valley has been deeply under-served by foundations.

Some Central Valley counties received less than $10 per capita in annual foundation giving, the report said. In Sacramento County, it is $68 per capita. The state average is $102 per capita.

The per capita figure reflects the amount of grant dollars divided by the total population of a county or region.

"The need to fund in the Central Valley is very present," Campbell said.

That sentiment is echoed by Ruth Blank, chief executive officer of the Sacramento Region Community Foundation.

Blank oversees nearly $100 million spread out among 375 local grant funds. However, most of the funding the community foundation dispersed last year went where donors dictated -- namely health and human service organizations and youth programs. Only 3 percent went to the arts, Blank said.

"I think it is exciting that Irvine looked where foundation monies were going in California and realized that the Central Valley was being left out," she said.

Until now, most of the grant funding by the Irvine Foundation has been to organizations in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

But as a result of the report, the foundation invited 30 Central Valley arts organizations to apply for funding.

"This is one way to help these arts organizations to meet evolving changes and to build their capacity to reach more audiences," said John McGuirk, the foundation's director of arts programs.

For their part, reaction from local recipients was one of elation.

"Getting a grant from the Irvine Foundation -- it's just like getting a Good Housekeeping stamp of approval," said Rod Gideons, executive director of the Sacramento Opera.

The grant will be used to hire a development director and will also be leveraged to raise funds from other foundations, he said.

Indeed, the grant money is not intended to fund programming. Instead, it is meant to help strengthen the administration of each organization, with most funds slated for staffing and board development. In turn, it is expected that this will assist a group's ability to expand its audience base.

For the Sacramento Ballet, the monetary award represents the largest one-time grant the organization has ever received from a foundation in its 53-year history.

"It's extraordinary, to get this kind of funding for capacity building," said Kerri Warner, the ballet's executive director.

The money, she added, will be used for developing a strategic plan, including a business plan for its new Center for Dance Education.

The Sacramento Philharmonic intends to use some of its grant money to help brand the organization. "One of the things that we identified during this grant process is that people in the community were not aware of us," said Marc Feldman, the director.

For the Crocker Art Museum, which recently broke ground on an ambitious $85 million expansion project, the $325,000 grant will go a long way toward strengthening its position as a leading visual arts institution, said museum director Lial Jones.

Jones said the grant will be used for board and staff development, as well as for increasing audience numbers and audience diversity.

"What's unusual about this grant is that the Irvine Foundation did a survey of arts organizations throughout the state and they talked to us about what would be most beneficial for us, in the long term," Jones said.

"And overwhelmingly, the arts organizations and cultural organizations said the No. 1 challenge was capacity building."

Up until it was chosen as a recipient by the Irvine Foundation, the largest one-time grant that the Magic Circle Theatre had ever received was a $50,000 grant from the city of Roseville, said Kris Hunt, head of public relations and a grant writer for the regional theater.

Now, they will be able to use the foundation funds to do training for its board of directors and allow the company, which has a yearly budget of nearly $1 million, to hire two new employees, Hunt said.

Magic Circle was chosen over other theater applicants because of its large children's theater component, said Ted Russell, the Irvine Foundation's senior program officer.

"We were impressed with their artistic leadership and their community connectedness," Russell said. "We looked at the theater as a whole and what it means to the immediate community, and we saw that this organization is important to Placer County."

About the writer:

• The Bee's Edward Ortiz can be reached at (916) 321-1071 or eortiz@sacbee.com.