{"id":17237,"date":"2020-06-25T12:00:37","date_gmt":"2020-06-25T19:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/?p=30000012148"},"modified":"2020-06-25T12:11:30","modified_gmt":"2020-06-25T19:11:30","slug":"1-million-in-grants-awarded-to-long-beach-arts-groups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/1-million-in-grants-awarded-to-long-beach-arts-groups","title":{"rendered":"$1 million in grants awarded to Long Beach arts groups"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly two dozen Long Beach-area arts organizations will share $1 million in emergency grant funding to provide ongoing education and programming to students during the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n

The grant funding comes from the RuMBA Foundation of Long Beach<\/a>, which was founded to help K-12 students in the Long Beach Unified School District gain access to local arts education and programming.<\/p>\n

RuMBA was created in 2014 when a local family\u2014Josephine Molina, Heather Rudy and their children\u2014were looking to support LBUSD\u2019s comprehensive arts program. <\/strong>(The foundation’s name is derived from the last names of the blended family members, Rudy, Molina and Battiste.)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe coronavirus crisis presents many challenges with connecting LBUSD\u2019s students to the arts, so we wanted to find a way to support local art nonprofits which have new ideas for reaching children,\u201d said RuMBa\u2019s Heather Rudy. \u201cThis grant program will specifically help local arts organizations continue their work during this unique period when students and patrons have limited ability to visit facilities, meet in-person, or attend large-scale events.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe received an array of inventive proposals from the city\u2019s cultural arts, performing arts, visual arts, fine arts and arts education institutions,\u201d Molina said. “We are thrilled that organizations are envisioning new ways to engage audiences through virtual events, digital programming, online lectures, expert-led educational efforts, small scale programming or other creative solutions that support the RuMBa Foundation\u2019s mission to expand local access to the arts.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the funding it will receive, the\u00a0Pacific Island Ethnic Art Museum plans to create a small production and streaming studio within its walls for \u201cPasifika Transmissions,\u201d a program that will invite indigenous artists to visit the archives and develop a video \u201ctransmission\u201d geared toward Long Beach’s K-12 audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cPasifika Transmission is our way of enhancing cultural competency and acknowledging the vibrant talents and histories of our local artists,” said museum director\/curator Fran Lujan.<\/p>\n

Daniel Smith, founder and director of the Infinite Stage, <\/a>a recipient of one of the grant awards, said the money will allow his organization to continue to make the arts more accessible than ever before.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are obvious losses we feel because we cannot share musical experiences with our friends, family, and communities in person, but this is also a huge opportunity to invest energy in the belief that visceral artistic experiences will always exist, just now in a different way,\u201d Smith said. \u201cWe each have our very own concert halls now, in the form of our Facebook, Instagram and YouTube feeds that we scroll through all day. With this new mindset, the stage is set for the production of an infinite number of new and exciting forms of artistic experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

The RuMBa Foundation partnered with a local media organization, the Long Beach Post<\/a> and Long Beach Business Journal<\/a>, to coordinate grant communication, application submissions and award announcements.<\/p>\n

Local organizations receiving grant funding from the RuMBa Foundation include:<\/p>\n