Theatre of Yugen

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support Yugen's documentary project which includes digitizing archival materials and interviewing Yugen's founder Yuriko Doi along with the Kyogen ensemble members. The funds will also be used for the inaugural year activities of the new Kyogen training program with master artists from Japan.

To Be Announced

Applications for this San Francisco Arts Commission grant category are currently being reviewed. Grant awards will be announce in early 2023. Visit the grants information page for the latest updates.

African-American Shakespeare Company

San Francisco Art Commission funds will be used to support the planning for the acquisition of the Alcazar Theatre as a permanent home for the African-American Shakespeare Company. It would serve as a space for rehearsal and performances, as well as a central place of engagement for the community we serve. We have had a capital campaign and feasibility assessment; and will put in place the recommended needs before starting to raise funds.

Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support the planning phase of a new arts space that will be co-managed by Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center (APICC) and KULARTS. The new space will be a 120 seat professional theater on 490 Brannan St. The planning support will go towards hiring a capital campaign consultant. 

Cultura y Arte Nativa de las Americas  

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support our expenses for Fixtures, Furniture & Equipment (FF&E) for the performing arts space for Carnaval San Francisco at the 681 Florida community development project.

Cutting Ball Theater 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support the remodel of Cutting Ball Theater's backstage area, creating access for individuals with disabilities and adherence to COVID-19 social distancing advisories. This construction project will enable Cutting Ball Theater to engage a greater number of diverse artists, arts-workers, and Tenderloin community members and will ensure equity in Cutting Ball Theater's physical workspaces.

The Roxie Theater 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support the pre-planning, creation and implementation of a capital campaign to assist the Roxie in raising enough funds to obtain permanent control of the Roxie Theater site and its adjacent storefronts (Dalva and Little Roxie.)

ABADA-Capoeira San Francisco

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support lead artist staff salaries and rent for its Capoeira Arts Center facility. These foundational expenses are essential to the continuation of programs and organizational stability. Funding will strengthen ACSF's constitution, increasing its capacity to conduct and expand outreach and activities; meet strategic goals; and successfully adapt and recover from the pandemic.

Accion Latina 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support the hiring of a full time Cultural Arts Manager to reactivate our Juan R. Fuentes gallery (dormant since March 2020 due to the pandemic) and strengthen signature programs such as Paseo Artistico, Encuentro concert and special projects through in person and virtual programming.

Brava for Women in the Arts 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support a leadership transition as Brava's current Executive Director plans to leave by June 2024. In preparation for this transition, the staff and Board will work together to ensure the artistic planning, program infrastructure will sustain the organization through the changeover and that the building remains the essential community asset it has come to be known as. infrastructure will sustain the organization through the changeover and that the building remains the essential community asset it has come to be known as. implementation, building and property systems, operational systems and staffing.

California Lawyers for the Arts 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to provide general operating support and strengthen our core preventative legal educational programs for San Francisco artists and arts organizations with a focus on marginalized communities, as well as our Arts and Community Development programs, which will continue to serve youth with paid arts internships while expanding a re-entry program to provide paid internships and job training services for previously incarcerated persons who were engaged in the arts while incarcerated.

Chitresh Das Institute 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support CDI's ability to deepen and expand engagement with the South Asian community, particularly in San Francisco, by conducting research of our constituents, and then creating a marketing and communications campaign with marketing consultant Reena Karia and video creative Kritika Sharma, both of whom are powerful storytellers closely connected to the Bay Area South Asian and Indian classical arts communities.

Circo Zero 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to sustain Circo Zero's day-to-day operations and expand our grassroots community impact following the devastating impacts of COVID. Over two years, CEI funds would be used to support our two administrative staff and to hire an Associate Artistic Director who would instigate new projects, develop their own creative work, and collaborate to enhance Circo Zero's mission.

CounterPulse 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support the core operations and services of CounterPulse through supporting the salaries for the staff who support our core programs to artists. All of our staff are themselves practicing artists and represent the following groups: African American (1), Asian (1), Middle Eastern (1), Pacific Islander (2), white (4); Queer (6), Trans/Non-binary (2); TL Residents (2); Disabled (1).

Cubacaribe 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support core personnel overseeing artistic programming and organizational capacity building activities that include the CubaCaribe Festival of Dance and Music in 2023 and 2024, which will feature local artists working in cultural traditions from Cuba and the Caribbean Diaspora; a world premiere by the artistic director for CubaCaribe's resident company; and ongoing institutional and individual donor fundraising activities that strengthen long-term support for operations and programming.

Cultura y Arte Nativa de las Americas 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support direct artist fees for performers on Carnaval San Francisco 2023 and 2024 cultural stages and will pay the partial salaries and benefits of a new Event and Media Coordinator and a new Arts Program Manager needed as we move into our permanent space in October 2022 with 16 other grass roots arts groups.

Detour Dance (Fiscal Sponsor Dancers’ Group Inc.) 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support Detour Dance's capacity building efforts including coaching, administrative salaries, fund development efforts and implementing a bookkeeping system to ensure financial and artistic sustainability.

Diamond Wave (Fiscal Sponsor Intersection for the Arts) 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support core operations and annual programming for Diamond Wave, a queer arts organization offering artistic and cultural events that focus on bringing together disparate segments of the LGBTQ+ community. The grant will contribute to maintaining the Artistic Director's salary, hiring a new assistant staff position, and operations of our 2022 and 2023 programs, including: the MASCellaenous creative workshop series and the THEYFRIEND nonbinary performance festival.

Eth-Noh-Tec Creations 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support the archiving of our repertoire and to publicize its free availability to the public, with a focus on Asian American orgs, schools, libraries, public radio/TV stations and Asian and Ethnic Studies programs throughout the nation and the world. Awarded funds will support the Co-Artistic Director's salaries and the fees of any contractors needed to enhance our website's marketing and broadcasting capacities and the archive's artistic quality. 

Fresh Meat Productions 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to expand Fresh Meat Productions' management and administrative infrastructure. In recent years, our organization's rapid artistic, programmatic and budgetary growth has outpaced the capacity of our staff. This initiative will expand our current Production Coordinator position into Production & Communications Manager; support this position with a new seasonal/project-based Production Assistant position; establish a new Digital and Social Media Manager position; and establish a new Sean Dorsey Dance Program Manager position.

Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Historical Society 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support high quality arts programming and historic exhibitions at the first stand-alone museum of LGBTQ history and culture in the United States.

Golden Thread Productions 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support core operating expenses, including staff and artist salaries, payroll taxes, benefits and worker's compensation insurance

Idris Ackamoor and Cultural Odyssey 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used for core operating support for CULTURAL ODYSSEY's TOWARDS 50: Re - Envisioning the FUTURE!  Priority 1. Multi - Year earned income initiative to allow the company to rebound from the pandemic that has reduced earned income by more than 80%! PRIORITY 2. Re - Envision the organizational structure of Cultural Odyssey with a focus on what it could mean to emerging and established African-American artists and organizations of the future.

Kearny Street Workshop 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support KSW's work to strengthen organizational capacity, in order to better serve our artists and audience members. This includes hiring an Events and Community Director, increasing hours and compensation for the existing co-directors, and increasing efforts to engage KSW's base of supporters and funders for long-term sustainability.

Lenora Lee Dance (Fiscal Sponsor Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center) 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support a $100,000 two-year CEI grant for Lenora Lee Dance's Expanding Impact Initiative supplementing staff, consultant, and artist fees: 1) A paid 1/3 FTE Artistic Director. 2) A paid ¼ FTE Project Consultant. 3) A paid ¼ FTE Marketing/Outreach Consultant. 4) A paid Organizational/Development Consultant, who will work with LLD artists, collaborators, organizational partners, and community participants expanding its 2022-2024 seasons to include film screenings, virtual programming, performances, and touring.

Magic Theatre Inc. 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support general operating costs over two years for: 1. Salary support for Magic's leadership (Managing Director and Artistic Director), 2. Support of our artistic programming. Funds will be applied to support artist fees for Magic's new Artist Residency program and the commission of a new play by Star Finch (our playwright-in-residence), 3. Rent for our theater at Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture.

Marigold Project Inc. (Fiscal Sponsor Intersection for the Arts) 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support our annual event (Permits, Medical Tent, Portable Toilets, Altar Supplies) and year round programing that includes various workshops offered free of cost to the community including schools. Presenters will be BIPOC individuals whenever possible, and offer workshops that highlight our indigenous wisdom, and narratives that typically are not centered. Funds will also go to pay for supplies at the workshops and altar supplies.

Nā Lei Hulu I Ka Wēkiu Hula Halau 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support Nā Lei Hulu i ka Wēkiu Hula Halau's core programs of Hawaiian cultural performance and instruction, reflecting our organizational mission dedicated to the preservation and education of the Hawaiian culture through the art of hula. CEI support would provide important additional momentum to our efforts as advocates for a vibrant cultural heritage, even as we look forward to creating new traditions which reflect an ever-evolving multicultural world.

Nava Dance Theatre 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support Nava Dance Theatre's production of bharatanatyam dance works as a medium for artistic reflection and discovery by supporting the hiring of additional administrative staff, increasing capacity to rent rehearsal space, and establishing a salary for long-time organizational leadership. This will allow programmatic staff to spend more time focusing on the creation of art while expanding organizational capacity to further its mission.

Queer Rebels Productions (Fiscal Sponsor Intersection for the Arts) 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support Queer Rebels' leadership and access services for disabled people. Strengthening our infrastructure and better supporting our disabled constituency, funds will support the hiring of a Finance and Operations Manager, a pay increase for our Artistic Director, and support access services, thereby, positioning QRP to support our growth with a robust staff to maintain current workloads and the increases needed to improve access for our constituency of QTBIPOC.

Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support QWOCMAP to build strategic capacity through expansion of organizational infrastructure through new staff, which will be supported by the creation of new recruitment and hiring strategies, the first-ever employee handbook, and systems and structures for employee onboarding and training. QWOCMAP will also document its social justice queer feminist of color ethics, values and practices in order to maintain organizational culture amidst growth.

San Francisco Transgender Film Festival (Fiscal Sponsor Fresh Meat Productions) 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to expand the San Francisco Transgender Film Festival's staff infrastructure and capacity, to position us to be well- resourced in this critical moment for Trans communities. The initiative will raise the Artistic Director's annual compensation, expand the current Festival Program Coordinator position into Director of Programs with increased compensation, support the Director of Programs position with a seasonal part-time Production Assistant, and support the costs for expanded disability access accommodations.

Southern Exposure 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support Southern Exposure's 2022- 2024 programming, staffing, and operational costs as the organization develops new projects and exhibitions, offers dynamic youth arts programming, and enacts upcoming rounds of their regranting program. Across these three core program streams, Southern Exposure is focused on presenting the work of historically marginalized communities, specifically, Black and Indigenous artists, artists of color, and LGBTQIA+ artists, and immigrant artists.

The Cultural Conservancy Sacred Land Foundation 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to strengthen and expand our Native Media production, education, and resource-sharing network across the SF Bay Area with a focus on the Native community. We will hire a new Native Media Associate and grow our Library in order to expand video projects in response to community requests during COVID including: documenting elders' stories and celebrating SF's Native community; deliver youth trainings; and safely reopen our media hub in the Presidio.

The Dance Brigade A New Group From Wallflower Order 

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Write Now! SF Bay (Fiscal Sponsor Intersection for the Arts) 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support Write Now! SF Bay by providing general personnel costs necessary to sustain San Francisco-based workshops, public events, and publications for BIPOC writers and artists. Write Now! will work with consultants on grant writing, a hiring plan for independent contractors, and compensation for independent contractors providing a dministrative and communications support.

Peekaboo 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support my debut EP "TRANSCRIPTIONS," an experimental cello soundscape dedicated to my grandmother and my childhood experiences of growing up on Guam. This four track composition is a spiritual awakening, sharing memories of living alongside the Pacific Ocean, typhoons that caused community destruction and how my grandmother's lullabies acted as protection spells for my family to find peace within the storm.

Alexandria Palos 

San Francisco Arts Commission Funds will be used to support the expenses and materials needed to create "Holding Space" an outdoor chair sculpture. The funds will also cover expenses associated with the installation and implementation of public events connected to this project.

Andrea Nicolette Gonzales 

San Francisco Arts Commision Funds will be used for the creation of a multi-media photography exhibit titled "Currency." This work will celebrate Latinx educators in the San Francisco Unified School District while highlighting the need for more equitable racial representation. Each educator will tell their unique story of their personal experiences in education, how they have managed to take care of their students during the pandemic while taking care of themselves and what price we pay by not having equitable racial representation.

Anoushka Mirchandani 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support a research and visual arts project revealing the untold stories of Sindhi-Hindu women impacted by the 1947 Partition of India under the British colonial rule. This research in collaboration with an oral historian will inform a new body of paintings by San Francisco based, Indian immigrant artist, Anoushka Mirchandani to be exhibited publicly in San Francisco, alongside archival materials collected during the research phase.

Bryan Pangilinan (Fiscal Sponsor Brava for Women in the Arts) 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support the third developmental workshop and presentation of the world premiere of "Larry" the first musical about the life of Filipino American labor leader Larry ltliong in October 2023 at Brava Theater in San Francisco.

Camille Mai

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support the creation of a graphic novel about my grandmother's childhood in southern Vietnam, living under French colonization, Japanese occupation, and the Franco-Vietnamese war before emigrating to France in 1954. This inter-generational project draws upon hundreds of anecdotes I have transcribed from my grandmother over the course of my life, providing a primary source from a pivotal time in history told from an Asian woman's perspective.

Caroline Julia Cabading 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support "Sugilanon-Sarita", a filmed Filipino­ American epic poem patterned in the aesthetic style of the Philippine Kalinga epic poem, "di Ullaim" and featuring a suite of original music and verse compositions that fuse jazz with indigenous pre­ colonial Philippine musical motifs, instrumentation and dance. The film will tell the stories of the Filipino-American community that contributed to San Francisco's dynamic history during the 1940s- 1980s.

Celeste Chan 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support Celeste Chan to create Not Vanishing, a hand bound zine of creative nonfiction, erasure poetry, lyric fragments, and visual collage. Not Vanishing comprises 6 new essays and stories recovering immigrant and familial resilience despite Chinese and Jewish cultural erasure. Chan will present her zine in a public reading and facilitate a free zine making workshop at San Francisco Public Library's Hormel Center in June 2023.

César Cadabes 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support a new project, Decolonizing (My)Self (working title). The vision for this project is a solo theater performance that encompasses a self journey of discovery, of unlearning, of revelation, of humility, and finally of belonging.

Cheryl Derricotte 

San Francisco Art Commission funds will be used to support the creation of a new body of work entitled "Friend of John." Mary Ellen Pleasant was once the richest Black woman in San Francisco, a self-proclaimed "capitalist" on the 1890 census. A central figure in both California politics and the Underground Railroad. She reportedly gave John Brown 

Crystal Vielula

San Francisco Arts Commission Funds will be used to support the Choose your Own Utopia Project. This project will combine ceramic sculptures, collage and assemblage on hinged wooden portals that will open to reveal videos of dance interpretations of utopia performed by a diverse group of paid local queer dancers. The project will culminate in a showing of art objects, videos, live performances and a month-long window installation at Artist's Television Access.

Daniel Riera 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to create new songs documenting the experiences of the Latinx community in the Mission District in the midst of displacement, pandemic, and climate change. I will build upon my previous work as musical director of Soltr6n, and feature many of the same collaborators. This new suite will incorporate the City's traditions of Latin Rock, Hip-Hop and protest songs to create "music with a message." The music will be performed in a fundraiser for the Mission Food Hub.

Scrabbel

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support composer Dan Lee's musical project, Scrabbel, in the creation of new work that blends traditional Korean instruments with western ones. The compositions will focus on San Francisco through the eyes and ears of a Korean American. This (musical) love-letter to San Francisco will incorporate ambient sounds from around the city and use it as building blocks for music that represents the city by the bay.

Danny Duncan (Fiscal Sponsor San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company) 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support the development of a new musical play entitled "Every Saturday Night," my semi-autobiographical homage to the vibrant Fillmore district in San Francisco in the 1950s. Told through the eyes of a 12-year-old boy whose mother runs an after­ hours club for the Black community out of their basement, "Every Saturday Night" is a story of family, personal discovery, and a neighborhood that once was.

David Herrera (Fiscal Sponsor Dancers’ Group Inc.) 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support Orale, a 75-minute dance performance by Director and lead choreographer David Herrera in collaboration with Chicano singer "El Vez" (Robert Lopez). The production also includes participation from 6 other guest Latinx co­ choreographers. Orale explores intersectional, intergenerational, and diverse U.S. based Latinx identities and politics as lived by the artistic team and found in the lyrics of Lopez's songs.

David James 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support the composition and development of the second half of a multi-part work of music for instrumental-ensemble-with-vocals, and the presentation of the complete composition. The composition will be my interpretation of memories and writings from and about my father, Reverend Jesse James, founder of the Mission Rebels, a youth empowerment­ and-employment organization. Part Two will have two work-in-progress performances; the complete work will premiere in fall 2023.

Christian Figueroa

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support post-production costs for the documentary film I am proposing, "Flowers of May." This film represents the testimonies from survivors of the most devastating massacre of civilians during the war in El Salvador. I am planning to hire a professional editor to work on the montage of the film. Also, some of the funds will help cover expenses related to professional sound mixing and color correction services.

Beth Stephens 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support the development, production editing, and sound post-production costs of the 75-minute environmentally-themed documentary FIRE! The film investigates the intertwinement of the natural environment and the nation's social fabric; and demonstrate how what affects one impacts the other. The destructive ecological effects of wildfires intensified by global warming reciprocally impact the federal government's failures to effectively regulate the fossil fuel industry and protect the planet for future generations.

Erina Alejo (Fiscal Sponsor Filipino-American Development Foundation) 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support "700 Sq. Ft.", a photography, archival, and performance project unearthing the iconography and narratives of artist Erina Alejo's past and current neighbors, and landlords in their apartment complex of 17-years in San Francisco's Excelsior District. Alejo will present works-in-progress through an artist talk, performance, and neighborhood tour in Excelsior. The photographs and in-depth interviews will be edited into a photography book.

Erwin K. Berk 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support and help produce a feature film called KINTSUKUROI - a Japanese concept that means "finding the beauty in something that has been broken." This term is apropos to the ltos, a Japanese American family in San Francisco struggling to rebuild after their lives are shattered by the traumatic events of World War II.

Genny Lim 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to write an original children's book about a nine­ year-old Chinese immigrant boy detained in the Immigration Detention Station on Angel Island, during the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1915. The historical-based story will be written in collaboration with my nine year old grandson, Tyson, who will illustrate the story about a boy his same age, who in his lonely confinement, composes a poem on the wall of the men's dormitory.

Georges Lammam 

San Francisco Arts Commissions funds will be used to support the development of a new multidisciplinary work, featuring local musicians and dancers from Arab and Latin cultures, DREAMING THE DIASPORA: An Arab Immigrant's Musical Journey from Dubai to San Francisco, inspired by the rich diversity of San Francisco's cultural music traditions. Planned San Francisco performances in 2023: world premiere in the Mission Cultural Center, the Arab Cultural Center and Pena Pachamama.

Guillermo Gómez-Peña 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support the development of my new solo Mex Files Live: The Pandemia Chronicles - a "living archive" of text and literary work from over 35 years of my work dealing with border issues, post-colonial theory and US/Mexico relations culminating in two public performances.

Guillermo "Yiyo" Ornelas 

San Francisco Arts Commision funds will be used to support Theater Producer Guillermo "Yiyo" Ornelas, for the production of the play "Fantasmitas, Cinco Suenos Regresando al Sur" by Mexican writer Oz Jimenez, an adapted theatrical play in Spanish for a San Francisco audience, with a national premiere. Yiyo Ornelas will produce and perform in the theatrical play in the spring of 2023 at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts (MCCLA).

Simone Bailey 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support the creation and exhibition of Hometraining (Bagpipe Piece), a video installation included in a 2023 solo exhibition at Southern Exposure. Hometraining (Bagpipe Piece) is a 10-minute video installation featuring a cast of Black Americans with Scottish ancestry wearing custom tartans made to represent them as an individual clan. The project explores transcultural genetic linkages and cultural hybridity as a byproduct of the transatlantic slave trade, as well as the Scottish origins of the Ku Klux Klan's cross burning tradition.

hien huynh 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support the creation and performance of "lemongrass & anise" a live performance experience of dance, Vietnamese storytelling, and culinary arts; between a trio of mother, father, & son. It is dedicated to those who left home in search of a new home but could not make it to their final destination

Hyo-shin Na (Fiscal Sponsor Earplay) 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support, "FROM KOREA TO AMERICA - 120 YEARS AND BEYOND." San Francisco based Wooden Fish Ensemble will present a concert of music from Korea - old and new in celebration of the 120th year of Korean immigration in the US. The program will consist of traditional music of Korea and two works by Hyo-shin Na, the Korean-born creative artist who later came to the US and became a very active San Francisco composer.

Javier Stell-Fresquez 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support the creation of a radically evolved version of Mother the Verb (MtV), a collaborative multimedia performance. MtV’s new form will center California fire, and the themes of death and regenerative destruction with a virtual performance of the piece broadcast from a recently-scorched landscape. My creative process will expand to include thematically connected workshops focused on the needs of Bay Area Native and QTPOC communities.

Jenn Ban

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be utilized to execute "Dito Lang", a multi-sensory interactive art installation focused on creating a safe space for the community to promote self-care and activate collective healing. Inspired by "Co-Exist" (2020) that was created as a response to the emotional, mental, and physical uncertainty experienced from the COVID-19 lockdown. My vision is to bring "Dito Lang" to schools, galleries, and community spaces in and around the San Francisco area.

Jerome Reyes 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support "The horizon toward which we move always recedes before us," a new body of work that combines intricate architectural drawings, public art banners, and archived interviews to champion the student social justice legacy of the Bay Area.

Jess Curtis 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support the development, production, and presentation of Into the Dark, a new ensemble work conceived, instigated, and directed by Jess Curtis for premiere by Jess Curtis/Gravity at CounterPulse in 2023. Into the Dark will be a multi-genre, multi­ disciplinary work aimed at deepening the artists' innovative exploration of the aesthetics of "extra­ visual" access practices such as Audio Description as sources of both formal innovation and cross­ cultural dialogue.

Jessica Maria Recinos 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support the creation of 10, 7-10 minute online video lessons focused on BIPOC families and children to learn about Afro-Latinx culture through dance, music, art and storytelling featuring BIPOC Bay Area teaching artists. This project will provide an opportunity for youth and professional artists to expose and archive their art on a digital platform preparing work samples for future work opportunities on Television and streaming networks.

Jocelyn Reyes 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support a live dance performance at Joe Goode Annex exploring the link between early childhood traumatic experiences and chronic illnesses. The live event will be composed of a dance installation, three short dance films, and a 30 minute live dance performance.

John Calloway 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support a rendering and reflection of themes, cultures, narratives, and musical styles based on events and the social interactions of individuals and characters during and after the Philippine-American conflict that took place from 1899-1902. These participants include African American buffalo soldiers, their white American officers, and the Filipinos on the island. Funds will be used for the composing and arranging of music, collaborators, recording, studio and engineer time, plus live performances and any video documentation.

Johnny Huy Nguyen (Fiscal Sponsor Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center) 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support the creation and performance of Mother(LAND), a full-length solo multimedia dance theatre work exploring Vietnamese matriarchal herstories within the body folding together myth, legend, and family stories to access dimensions of expansion, possibility, and futurity for the diasporic body.

Joseph Abbati 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support my work in expanding the narrative of queer identity. In life, and in social media in particular, queer men often need to censor themselves to fit into heteronormative norms. This self-censorship may bring shame to queer men when they cannot express who they are. This exhibit is a means for queer men to celebrate body-positive expressions of their identities and desires.

Kar Yin Tham (Fiscal Sponsor Bay Area Video Coalition Inc.) 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support the completion and neighborhood-based exhibition of a documentary film. A portrait of San Francisco through the lens of five residents living in Single Room Occupancy Hotels, HOME IS A HOTEL is a character driven documentary that bears witness to the struggle of staying housed in America's most expensive city.

Keith Hennessy (Fiscal Sponsor Anne Bluethenthal & Dancers) 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support Tell, a performance project by Keith Hennessy in collaboration with Sarah Crowell using both dance and community process to explore racialized harm and potentials for racial healing. Tell will be developed and presented in both San Francisco and Oakland with SFAC funds supporting rehearsals and performances in San Francisco.

Kim Requesto 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support the creation and production of "Pangalay Circle," a series of workshops that lead up to an event with performances that focuses on sharing and celebrating the traditional and contemporary styles of the pre-colonial Philippine dance form known as Pangalay. This will be led under the direction of Kim Requesto and these events hope to connect community members with seasoned practitioners who specialize in Pangalay dances.

Kurt Rohde 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support "4:30 Movie," a 20 minute micro-opera using poems from Donna Masini's "4:30 Movie." These funny, touching, ruthless poems take the reader through the diagnosis, treatment, and death of the author's sister from cancer. Using the language of how movies are made and consumed, Masini tells the story of her sister's struggle, and of grieving during her treatment and after her death.

Lauren Ito (Fiscal Sponsor National Japanese American Historical Society) 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support the convening, creative collaboration and publication of a co-created "love letter to ancestors: past present and future" by visual artists and poets from the Japanese diaspora. The love letter will be a co-created work inspired by the Japanese poetic form of renshi, or "linked" poetry. Visual artists and poets will create pieces in relationship with and sparked by one another's works.

Lily Cai 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support my development of new choreography in collaboration with Indra Mungal, the Senior Educator for Public Programs for the Asian Art Museum/ Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art & Culture. My work will be created in response to the Museum's exhibit "Lost Kingdoms" an archeological exhibit whose goal is to recover Chinese cultures lost to us, which will take place from August 2022 through January 2023.

Linda A. Jackson 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support the progress of my novel, HER GOOD NAME, a crime story about an African American woman who leaves the South and her nefarious past behind, reinventing herself in San Francisco by the late 1930s. Inspired by the collection of San Francisco photographer, Steve Jackson, Jr., the novel is historical fiction and incorporates stories of the Second Great Migration generation.

Mabel Jimenez

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support the production of a bilingual (English/Spanish) photojournalistic book, documenting the experiences and preserving the history of San Francisco's Latinx community during the pandemic. Through photographs and text, my book will weave together a storytelling narrative portraying how San Francisco's Latinx communities leaned on their cultural knowledge to provide aid to their communities while coping with the economic, health and spiritual impact of the pandemic.

Maria Judice 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support the completion of A Certain Grace, an hour-long feature film about the failings of America's social safety net to address the needs of homeless individuals living on the street in San Francisco and in California's Central Valley.

Maurya Kerr (Fiscal Sponsor Dancers’ Group Inc.) 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support "beloved comet falling up," a dance­ theater performance premiering September 29th - October 1st, 2022 at ODC Theater. The work features a live, site-specific iteration of a film I collaborated on this summer that brought drag aesthetics to the dance-theater genre. Additionally, the work reengages with an existing durational duet, and the presentation of a responsive drag duet that lives in both adjacency and collision.

Megan Kurashige (Fiscal Sponsor Dancers’ Group Inc.) 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support the creation of a new evening-length dance theater piece co-directed and co-choreographed by Megan and Shannon Kurashige for their company, Sharp & Fine. The piece will be created through a process that aims to foster meaningful human relationships through small community gatherings. It will invite both performers and audience to explore how remembering the past and envisioning the future are inextricably connected acts of imagination and hope.

Megan Wilson 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support Megan Wilson's artistic work for "Manifest Differently," a multifaceted project co-conceived by Wilson and poet Kim Shuck, co­ presented by CAMP, ATA, and Minnesota Street Project. "Manifest Differently" uses the history of Manifest Destiny as a launching point to narrate the power of resistance, resilience, and the belief it is possible to rise together to demand and create a world rooted in compassion, justice, and equity.

Melissa Lewis Wong 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support part 2 of' 花和霧 flowers and fog' a new intergenerational performance work between Melissa Lewis Wong and her mother Joy Chenyu Lewis - exploring ancestral healing, language and familial relationship. Funds will also support a cohort of queer and Asian American/POC artist peers in conversation with the project, via commissioned artistic responses, public dialogues, and dramaturgical support.

Mabel Valdiviezo 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support "Prodigal Daughter," a feature documentary film on family reunification and immigrant well-being. The film reflects on the nuanced Latina immigrant experience and tells my own story as an undocumented artist reconnecting with my Peruvian family after 16 years apart. The grant will cover late stage post-production expenses for the documentary, and to implement art workshops for immigrant audiences watching the film. The completion date is December 2023.

Natalia García (La Favi)

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support the creation of original work and a series of participatory song writing workshops for women in SE San Francisco affected by domestic violence culminating in a show led by San Francisco born and raised singer songwriter and multidisciplinary artist Natalia Garcia (La Favi).

Natalia Roberts 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support the pre-production and production of a 40-45 min dance film. I will be taking a 60-minute dance piece, originally created for the stage, and adapting it into a 45-minute dance film. The piece is called "The Bridge" and is named after -- and inspired by -- a Shel Silverstein poem of the same name. I will then present this piece in a series of small, intimate, live showings.

Oliver Saria 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to research, write, and workshop six episodes of "Zuli & Talas", a web series for children, rooted in Philippine folklore, designed to inspire Pilipinx children to embrace STEM learning.

Oscar Peñaranda 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support established Filipino American writer and five decades Bay Area educator Oscar Penaranda's new multi-genre writing book, Here's To Life, alongside a set of new research videos/literary readings. Penaranda traces his historic past through new writing that takes place across California and the wider United States. He will partner with current collaborator South of Market Community Action Network/SOMCAN as the media and research support.

Osvaldo de Leon

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support the production of Donizetti's comedic opera Francesca di Foix. During the grant period I will write an arrangement of the original orchestra manuscript for a smaller orchestra ensemble. The production will be performed at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts (following all CDC health guidelines) to attract audiences of color in general and Latinx, in particular. SFAC funds will support my commission and the project's production costs.

Tricia Rainwater

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support my time processing the history of the forced removal of Choctaw people and many other tribes from Mississippi to Oklahoma. As a current urban Indigenous person or Urban NDN, I have spent a great deal of time reckoning with where I fit in this city's ever changing racial and socio economic climate. This project is an effort to process these large ideas and wonderings through my art practice.

Pireeni Sundaralingam 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support the creation of the poetry project "Blue Space, Green Space: Resilience and Reclaiming in San Francisco's Public Spaces." The project consists of a series of themed poetry cycles that will explore the ways in which communities of color have been silenced and erased from our beaches, parks, and other open public spaces, and seeks to lift up the hidden stories of POCs in these spaces.

Preeti Vangani 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support a two-pronged project "Singing in the Dark," a full-length poetry manuscript developed in synchrony with offering free generative creative­ writing workshops to San Francisco residents grieving loss of loved ones, community, work and health to COVID. Together we will reimagine grief and rebuild from loss by writing into rebellious joy. The project will culminate in public readings of poems from my manuscript and works by workshop participants.

Ramon Abad 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support the development of "Mabuhay, Friend!" a series of interactive art installations that will encourage people to use puppets in fun, creative play. "Mabuhay" in Tagalog can also mean "Welcome," so the pieces will welcome everyone to interact. This multidisciplinary project will be designed for easy assembly in community spaces where the public will be motivated to make the puppets move, dance or talk.

Rizal Adanza 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support new work: writing, development, stage reading, marketing of the full length play -- Mermaid in Saint Malo. A mermaid's eggs are being sold on the black market as a food in 1800s Saint Malo, the first settlement of Filipinos in the states. Directly exposes the horrors of human trafficking and how this exploitation mirrors conscious and unconscious acceptance of self for the Filipino American.

Robbie Sweeny 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support Work Sample 2023: a performance photography project and exhibition aimed at showcasing emerging Bay Area performers, while undercutting costs of developing and sharing new dance and performances. Over 18 months, photographer Robbie Sweeny will provide 23 photography shoots to artists developing performance works. Outputs from these photoshoots will be provided to artists to use as work samples for future funding opportunities and be featured in a four-week photography exhibition at Space 124, Project Artaud.

Rodney Earl Jackson Jr. 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will support the development and staging of Sign My Name to Freedom: The Unheard Songs of Betty Reid Soskin. I will develop and direct this musical theater piece at the New Roots Theater Festival in October 2022 and premiere the production at Brava Theater in May 2023. The musical will celebrate the original songs and the life of African American Betty Reid Soskin: at 100, she's the USA's oldest active National Park Ranger.

Sandy Cressman 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to create the concert "Cantos do Povo: The Music of Milton Nascimento." Milton Nascimento has been compared to Fela Kuti and Bob Marley in his artistic work. Nascimento's body of work celebrates working people and gives voice to resistance to political oppression. New works will include original arrangements and new compositions inspired by Nascimento's music and by our current social and political climate.

Sean Dorsey 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support the creation, development and premiere of my new full-length dance-theater work THE LOST ART OF DREAMING. Created through participatory community residencies, THE LOST ART OF DREAMING investigates and imagines transgender, gender-nonconforming and queer Futures, disrupting fatalistic constructs that deny us space to dream about our futures. Performed by Sean Dorsey Dance, the work will premiere at San Francisco's Z Space in April 2023.

Jun Yang 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to produce "From SF with love, A love-letter to the gay community" by artist Jun Yang, a series of 6 acrylic paintings centering narratives of LGBTQ+ people who have forcefully migrated from their homeland in search of safety and refugee, many of whom -like myself- have found a home in San Francisco. The series will be showcased at Harvey Milk Center for the Arts, the first day of Spring 2023.

Shelley Wong 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support a book-length poetry collection that considers early Chinese American history in the San Francisco Bay Area as a response to the anti-Asian pandemic present. Starting with my great grandparents' gathered history, I will investigate historical records and intersect this work with present-day research on place and environment. I will build upon and deepen my practice through a hybrid poetry-nonfiction form to imagine desire within sustainable futures.

Silk Worm (Fiscal Sponsor Jess CurtisGravity Inc.) 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support a performance piece called "The jaws of all are red with gore." Borrowing scenes of hunting from the cartoon Looney Tunes, the piece reimagines familiar characters like Elmer Fudd, Daffy Duck, and Bugs Bunny as archetypes of predator and prey. Situating these iconic depictions of hunting within a broader exploration of violence, the show will facilitate communal meaning-making around gender-based violence and transmisogyny.

StormMiguel Florez 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support the development of "WELCOME TO ROSWELL," a feature narrative mockumentary film about a trans filmmaker who returns home to Roswell, NM to document coming out to his family. His plans are derailed by his partner's obsession with the 1947 UFO incident. Funds will partially support the Lead Artist StormMiguel Florez and the project's lmprov Acting Coach, actor's fees, and a Casting Director.

Tamu 

San Francisco Arts commission funds will be used to support "Cocoon Ceremonies"; inentional happenings using the sculpture of female busts to create breast cancer awareness and promote body positivity. Through plaster-casting women's breasts directly, I am to honor that women in all our forms are works of art. "Scultp + Sip" aims to harness art, ceremonial tea and comunity to empower women and raise breast self-awareness through the celebration of the feminine form.

Theresa Calpotura 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support the composition, recording and performance of "Musikang Halo-Halo: Starting to Mix"---a work in 8-10 parts that reflects the artist's mixed Filipina American musical/cultural heritage by combining Philippine traditional instruments (including the kudyapit, kubing, gabbang and guitar), electronics, vocals, and spoken word narrative in both English and Tagalog. Moments from her grandmother's life taken from interviews will be paralleled with folk riddles and legends from Pangasinan.

Therese M. Davis 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support the production of the SF Songbird Music and Film Festival in June 2023. I will perform/artistically curate throughout the festival with community music event professionals, crucial to my development as an artist. The festival's music events, presentations, panel discussions, opening and closing night receptions will explore social justice issues such as white supremacy, cultural equity, police violence, and economic justice.

Truong Tran 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support a writing and teaching project entitled Breaking Silence-Writing Race in a Time of Reckoning. I will write a full-length manuscript of lyric essays exploring the complications, confrontations, and challenges of existing as a Brown body writing in the English language existing in white spaces.

Valerie Soe 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support WE GO DOWN SEWING: THE AUNTIE SEWING SQUAD, a feature-length documentary, including an artist's fee and partial funding of research assistants, production crew (camera, sound, grip, production assistants), equipment rental, and editing a work-in-progress.

Veronica Blair

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support the creation of COLORED GRRLS, a re­imagining of playwright Ntozake Shange's For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf, expressed through the lens of Contemporary Circus. Using aerial arts, dance, and original text, COLORED GRRLS peers into the lives of seven women of African descent as they share intimate stories of existing in a world shaped by patriarchy, sexism and racism.

Yayoi Kambara (Fiscal Sponsor Dancers’ Group Inc.) 

San Francisco Arts Commission funds will be used to support Yayoi Kambara's newest immersive dance project to be performed at GLIDE Memorial Church in 2023. IKKAI means once: a transplanted pilgrimage is a live performance with community engagement and a film that weaves together modern dance, Japanese American (JA) Obon folk dance, and a musical score with taiko drums that uplifts San Francisco (SF) arts culture and honors Janice Mirikitani, second poet laureate of SF.

To Be Announced

Guidelines for this San Francisco Arts Commission grant category will be released in fall 2022. Visit the grants information page for the latest updates.