This week the City of San Luis Obispo announced the final three nonprofits that will receive grant funding for their arts and culture events until June.
The City is now accepting new grant applications for events scheduled from July to December.
The City’s Cultural Grants-in-Aid program has already awarded $15,000 in funding to 23 local non-profit organizations.
In the last round of grants, the program awarded funds to three more organizations: City Farm SLO for their Sheep Shearing Shindig happening on May 6, the Greek Festival on June 3 and the Bridging the Gap restorative justice event on June 23.
Tourism Manager for the City of SLO Molly Cano said the program is meant to support unique local events.
“The intent of the Cultural GIA program is to be able to help support the nonprofit organizations here within the City of San Luis Obispo that put on events and activities to help drive social, cultural and special events,” Cano said.
Cano said the City’s Cultural Grants-in-Aid program aims to fund a wide range of events promoting community connection and entertainment.
“If you are interested in the performing arts, there's options that are supported by the city to be able to go and enjoy performing arts events in our community,” Cano said. “If you are looking for cultural experiences like the Greek Fest, through the grant funding, these types of events are able to take place in the community.”
If you’re part of a non-profit organization with a local arts and culture event coming up, there’s still time to apply for the grant. The next round of applications for events happening from July through December opened Monday.
Cano said the city hopes to fund a variety of arts and cultural events to create a more diverse and welcoming community in San Luis Obispo.
“It is important that we can be a diverse community by being able to offer arts and cultural experiences,” Cano said.
These events play a crucial role in San Luis Obispo’s identity and economy as a major driver of tourism.
“Although we're a small community, the wide array of cultural arts and experiences that we have here in our community are really to be rivaled,” Cano said.
Applications for the city’s arts and culture grant program are open until noon on June 15th.
The city is hosting an informational webinar on Monday, May 8th. You can register to attend the webinar at slocity.org/culturalgia.
