SLFRF-Funded Program Overview

The Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture received $5 million from the City Council to support relief programs for individual artists and arts and culture nonprofits. Funding was used for grants, technical assistance and professional development programs, and to contract artists to develop art projects to activate a wide range of public spaces, including parks, trails, community centers, and neighborhood areas not usually defined or programmed as cultural spaces. 

The agency’s SLFRF Nonprofit Arts and Culture Stabilization Grant program helped Phoenix’s arts and culture organizations of varying sizes manage their operations, personnel, and programming as they welcomed back audiences. To qualify, grantees were required to demonstrate intent, commitment, and strategies to sustain their operations well beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. For ​Nonprofit Arts and Culture Stabilization Grants, $2,750,000 was allocated to provide one-time emergency recovery grants to Phoenix-based nonprofit arts and cultural organizations with awards ranging from $7,500 to $75,000 based on organizational operating budgets. (Program website) 

Advocacy

The Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture has long advocated for the city’s creative sector, providing briefing documents to city council members on the impacts of the sector and even leveraging successes from the allocation of CARES Act funds to support ARPA SLFRF allocations. 

Process

Administering the grant program internally, the Office of Arts and Culture prioritized quick and efficient distribution of funds, only requiring organizations that received Community Arts Grant funding in FY22 to submit a very simple application. Other organizations were considered on a case-by-case basis. 

Equity

The Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture has an equity strategy that aims to identify and eliminate barriers that have prevented marginalized groups' full participation in the agency’s programs and to strengthen equity, diversity, and inclusion in the arts and culture sector for all Phoenix residents. The program is committed to a just and equitable distribution of the Coronavirus Relief Funding. To that commitment, the Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture considered racial and geographic equity as part of their outreach strategies and worked to expand the reach of grant opportunities to a broad, diverse community of nonprofit arts and culture organizations.

Through the agency’s equity strategy, the Office of Arts and Culture ensured outreach to all areas of the city and targeted applicants from all disciplines, budget sizes, underrepresented populations, and ensured all City Council districts were represented. Ninety-four organizations applied for funding, and eighty-eight were recommended for funding. (Equity notes) 

Moving Forward

The Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture is forward-looking coming out of the pandemic. By cultivating stronger connections throughout local government and city council, the Office of Arts and Culture is now included in new task forces and other government initiatives. It also is working with Bloomberg Associates to plan for the next three years of operations to serve the Phoenix area better. The Office of Arts and Culture also continues to innovate new support mechanisms that grew out of the pandemic, including a competitive individual artist grants program and a student employment program where currently enrolled college students and recent graduates can gain valuable experience working in Phoenix’s arts and culture sector. 

The ​Office of Arts and Culture champions, promotes, and supports​ Phoenix’s arts and culture community to make Phoenix a great place to live, work, and visit. The Office works by investing annually in grants to nonprofit arts organizations and artists to ensure cultural services and opportunities are accessible to Phoenix residents of all ages, managing an award-winning public art program that works in neighborhoods with local, national, and international artists to create a more beautiful and vibrant city, overseeing eight cultural facilities, promoting professional development opportunities​ for individual artists and administrators to help sustain a healthy cultural workforce, and by supporting arts and cultural learning programs and events for students and young artists to help develop their personal, social, and intellectual skills that are critical to success in life, school, and work. (Agency website)