Grant applications accepted through Wednesday, December 20, 2023.
Los Angeles, CA (Nov 14, 2023) – Artists and arts organizations from throughout the Eastern Los Angeles County region are invited to apply for grants totaling up to $150,000 through the Eastside Arts Initiative (EAI), a grantmaking program aimed at furthering the visual and performing arts. The Fall/Winter 2023 Grantmaking Cycle open through Wednesday, December 20, 2023, will award individual grants, ranging from $2,500 to $25,000, through a competitive process and based on EAI’s key priorities.
Applicants are required to attend a virtual orientation meeting about the EAI’s grant guidelines, application and funding priorities. To register for the meeting and to access the grant application, please visit: www.eastsideartsinitiative.org.
“EAI grants support a wide range of visual and performing arts programs that speak to the cultural diversity, history, and lived experiences of the neighborhoods of eastern Los Angeles County,” said EAI Chair, Lupe Arriola. “The EAI’s investment in our local artists and arts organizations is an investment in our community.” she added.
Programs awarded for the Spring/Summer 2023 grant cycle included:
- Aging: It Does Not End Well, produced for digital online experience, Dan Guerrero’s improv solo play brings humor and poignant moments, looking at aging from all angles;
- Art as Activism-Self Help Graphics & Art: A Quarter Century of Activism & Passion in Art, 1972-97, a documentary produced by Gloria Westcott and written by filmmaker Antonio Ogaz;
- Art Shift: From Creation to Curation, a project by Plaza de la Raza that offers first-time curatorial experience to artists and artists groups;
- Artist Residency Program, by Art Share Los Angeles offers stipends, free studio space, inclusion in gallery exhibitions and professional development to emerging and underrepresented artists from the Eastside;
- Estrada Courts Mural Restoration and Celebration, by Norma Montoya, an effort to restore an existing mural, offer four paid high school internships, and teach middle and high school students about mural restoration;
- Giving Back Through Film, workshops by The Ortega Brothers connects aspiring filmmakers from the region to Chicano/Latino professionals in the film industry, and includes production of a short film to be submitted to film festivals;
- Impacted, a theater production by Minerva Garcia giving voice to the impact of police brutality on the victims’ families and L.A.’s Latino population;
- Maqueos Music Academy Scholarships, a free music program by music maestro Estanislao Maqueos for children living in underserved communities;
- Poet Laureates of Tomorrow, students will learn poetry writing from internationally renowned, Chicano Poet Matt Sedillo and Pomona Poet Laureate Ceasar Avelar and their work will be displayed throughout Pomona Valley;
- Rocket Ship, short film by Iris Almaraz, about a day in the lives of two kid sisters and their mentally ill mom, who wants to escape to the playground and ride the rocket ship – emerging Latina filmmakers will be mentored during all stages of the film’s making;
- Roque, a short film by Alci Rengifo about Salvadoran poet and activist Roque Dalton;
- Tacos La Brooklyn Theatre Production, part of the Latino Theater Company’s Circle of Imaginistas Initiative, Boyle Heights-raised playwright, Joe Ulloa’s ten-character drama follows a Korean American orphan from LA’s Eastside, as his dreams of opening a taco eatery is threatened by complaints about cultural appropriation;
- Ten-Minute Theater Festival, a theater program by SINERGIA Theatre Group is comprised of a variety of plays by local playwrights with help from a “Creators Roundtable”, which includes guidance on pre-production, casting and performance.
- The Gloria Molina Story, a new play by Casa 0101 based on the life of Gloria Molina;
- Todas Somos Luz, a series of Spanish-language monologues by Blanca Araceli Soto about postpartum depression, domestic violence and intergenerational trauma;
- Trans Los Angeles, a short film by Kase Pena about the struggles of four individuals from L.A.’s transgender community.\;
- 10th International Mariachi Women’s Festival & Youth Mariachi Showcase, by the Mariachi Women’s Foundation, celebrating mariachi music and giving LAUSD teachers the tools to offer standards-based mariachi music education for girls.
- Unsung LA, a documentary by multimedia artist and musician Rudy Torres delves into the lives of struggling artists and focuses on the lives in transition of a father and son.
- Yes, My Love Film, a cinematic “visual love letter” by Pablo Simental features two Latino boys from Southeast Los Angeles forced to hide their true love for each other.
“The Eastside Arts Initiative gives artists an opportunity to bring our creative work to life and make an impact in our community,” said grant recipient and filmmaker George Ortega of The Ortega Brothers. “The grant helped me complete a film project and has helped advanced my career. The EAI uplifts artists from underserved communities showing the rest of L.A., the country, and the world that talent isn’t only found in Hollywood or the Westside. It’s very much alive in Eastern L.A. County,” added Ortega.
