Space and Infrastructure

Playwrights Foundation
Playwrights Foundation offers critical resources to playwrights in the development of new work. Photo courtesy of Playwrights Foundation.

Regardless of their size, in order to thrive, performing arts organizations need spaces they can call home, and they need access to information about how they are doing. The Performing Arts Program worked to address both these needs in 2007. The Program funded four projects that added 36,650 square feet of new performing arts space in the San Francisco Bay Area, with plans for 252,000 square feet of additional performing arts space for twelve projects by 2013.

In 2007, a number of foundations collaborated in planning the California launch of the Cultural Data Project, a national effort of the Pew Charitable Trusts to create standardized databases of information about nonprofit cultural organizations. Working in partnership with the James Irvine Foundation and other California funders, the Program will involve 2,000 nonprofit arts organizations in California, for the first time providing vital information about their performance and contributions to the state’s economy, among other useful data. It also aims to streamline requests for funding by creating a single, standard application that would be used by participating donor organizations.

Space and Infrastructure Grants authorized in 2007.

2008 Goals
 
  • Continue support for the creation of additional performing arts rehearsal and performance spaces throughout the Bay Area
  • Launch the California Cultural Data Project and support its adoption by all California nonprofit cultural organizations

For more information, please visit the Foundation Web site.