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Tracy McCormick, Rosalina Cardenas, Julia Rodriguez-Elliott, and Ken McCormick (Photo credit: Pasadena Community Foundation/Camille Stemmons Photography)
Phoebe Ray, Manager of Mt Lowe Chamber Players, shares remarks at the Pasadena Community Foundation Arts & Culture Grants Reception (Photo credit: Pasadena Community Foundation/Camille Stemmons Photography)
Reception hosts Rosalina and Frank Cardenas (PCF board member) (Photo credit: Pasadena Community Foundation/Camille Stemmons Photography)
Phoebe Ray (center left), Manager of Mt. Lowe Chamber Players, joins members of the Mt. Lowe Chamber Players and Jeannine Bogaard (center right), Program Director of Pasadena Community Foundation (Photo credit: Pasadena Community Foundation/Camille Stemmons Photography)
Pasadena Community Foundation's Arts & Culture Grants Reception, celebrating the grantee recipient organizations (Photo credit: Pasadena Community Foundation/Camille Stemmons Photography)
Pasadena Community Foundation President & CEO, Jennifer DeVoll, shares remarks at the PCF Arts & Culture Grants Celebration, June 15, 2023 (Photo credit: Pasadena Community Foundation/Camille Stemmons Photography)
Kristan Browne Swan, Phil Swan, and Emily Hopkins, Executive Director of Side Street Projects (Photo credit: Pasadena Community Foundation/Camille Stemmons Photography)
Karen Lang and Chrystal Johnson (Photo credit: Pasadena Community Foundation/Camille Stemmons Photography)
Julia Rodriguez-Elliot, Producing Artistic Director of A Noise Within, shares remarks at the Pasadena Community Foundation Arts & Culture Grants Reception (Photo credit: Pasadena Community Foundation/Camille Stemmons Photography)
Jeannine Bogaard with Katsy Chappell, Arroyo Repertory Theatre (Photo credit: Pasadena Community Foundation/Camille Stemmons Photography)
Danny Feldman, Pasadena Playhouse, and Julia Rodriguez-Elliott, A Noise Within (Photo credit: Pasadena Community Foundation/Camille Stemmons Photography)
Pasadena Community Foundation (PCF) is proud to announce funding to 18 local nonprofit organizations as part of its inaugural Arts & Culture Grant Program. The recipients range from emerging to established organizations, and the grants, totaling $335,000, provide flexible support to help each organization address ongoing challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic. Arts patrons and PCF supporters Terri and Jerry Kohl augmented PCF’s support with a $100,000 gift, which helped extend funding to additional organizations. See complete list of grantees on page 2.
PCF’s funding will help the organizations with post-pandemic adaptations like innovative program delivery, new audience curation, and organizational changes. Among the projects planned are the creation of literature and music education programs at several PUSD schools, technology upgrades, the expansion of family-centered and emerging artists programs, hiring staff for marketing and audience engagement, and exploring works from traditionally underrepresented playwrights and composers to create new performance opportunities.
The Arts & Culture Grants are part of a long history of the Foundation’s support for the arts. PCF’s first arts grant was in 1973, and since that time, with the help of PCF donors and endowment builders, it has awarded more than 500 grants totaling more than $3 million to local arts and cultural organizations. Learn more about PCF’s impact in the arts.
Since the onset of the pandemic, PCF has channeled additional resources to local arts organizations. In 2020, PCF partnered with the City of Pasadena to support its emergency Art & Culture Relief Grant Program. In 2021, the Foundation disbursed an additional $100,000 in unrestricted funding for arts recovery.
Those initial efforts led to a “listening tour” in 2022, during which PCF visited 16 nonprofit arts organizations and arts leaders to learn how the pandemic had created unique and enduring challenges within the sector. These included a shift in audience demographics, attendance, and expectations; a dramatic rise in operation costs due to the supply chain and national inflation; and an urgent need to invest in new technologies to support hybrid programming and more sophisticated multimedia productions. Conversely, the organizations also recognize that this period offers a great deal of opportunity to strengthen capacity, diversity, and audience support. They are eager to tackle this new reality creatively and will use PCF’s funding to do so.
PCF President & CEO Jennifer DeVoll notes that PCF’s new grant program responds to similar issues that just led the Mark Taper Forum to announce its temporary closure. “PCF is terribly saddened by news of the Mark Taper Forum. We keenly understand that the Forum’s challenges are shared by many arts organizations. We feel that expanding PCF’s commitment to arts and culture provides recognition of the important role that these organizations play in the vibrancy of our community.”
2023 Arts & Culture Grantee Organizations
A Noise Within Parson’s Nose Theater
Armory Center for the Arts Pasadena Conservatory of Music
Arroyo Repertory Theatre Pasadena Heritage
Boston Court Pasadena Pasadena Master Chorale
Harmony Project Pasadena Photography Arts
Light Bringer Project Pasadena Playhouse
Los Angeles Children’s Chorus Pasadena Symphony Association
Mt. Lowe Chamber Players Side Street Projects
MUSE/IQUE Synchromy
Founded in 1953, Pasadena Community Foundation (PCF) is a tax-exempt public charity created by and for the people of Pasadena. Managing more than $140 million in charitable assets, PCF works with individuals, families, and organizations to establish philanthropic funds, create and build endowment funds, and distribute charitable gifts to nonprofit organizations. In 2022, PCF granted $2.2 million to 116 Pasadena-area nonprofits in six areas of interest.
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