On Monday, November 13, Cuyahoga Arts & Culture’s Board of Trustees will announce grants for 2018 at its
regular Board meeting at 4 pm at the Cleveland History Center, 10825 East Boulevard, Cleveland, 44016. View the
agenda and handout materials.
Here are a few things you can expect at Monday’s meeting:
General Operating Support and Project Support Grants Announced. November’s meeting is centered on celebrating our new and returning cultural partners. This year, CAC's Board will be asked to approve more than $12 million in grants to more than 250 organizations through our 2018-19 General Operating Support and 2018 Project Support programs. We look forward to welcoming 25 new partners—who will receive CAC funding for the first time—and to celebrating all applicants. The work each of our partners to connect Cuyahoga County residents to art and culture makes our community a vibrant place to live.
Don’t Forget. The Support for Artists Planning Team has been hard at work since June exploring ways to support artists in Cuyahoga County. The team will hold “Engage: A Forum for Strengthening Support for Artists” on Tuesday, November 14 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Jerry Sue Thornton Center in Cleveland. At the event, the planning team will present recommended approaches and use feedback to refine its final recommendations, which will be presented to Cuyahoga Arts & Culture’s Board of Trustees at its public meeting on December 11. Learn more at
www.cacgrants.org/artists.
Public Comment Period. CAC's Board meetings are always open to the public, and all members of the community - including our cultural partners - are welcome to attend and make public comments (see CAC's
public comment policy for more information). We expect some folks will want to make their voice heard about the allocation to general operating support, which was approved at the Board's October 16 meeting. In response to recent public conversations, we recognize that we need a better and more consistent mechanism for community input, ideas and questions.
To that end, we will hold a regular series of community meetings throughout 2018 at locations around Cuyahoga County. Next year, in addition to the Board’s six regular, public Board meetings, we are planning for a series of 3-4 community meetings to gather community input. The first meeting, tentatively scheduled for late January, will be focused on how the Board makes grant allocation decisions.
Background on General Operating Support Allocation. At its last meeting, CAC’s Board approved a $10.2 million allocation for general operating support in 2018- 2019. You can read more about how we arrived at this decision
on our blog.
We want to reiterate: CAC’s commitment to General Operating support is unchanged and will continue to receive the majority of funding per CAC’s allocation policy. CAC is the largest funder of arts and culture in Northeast Ohio and one of the largest funders of arts & culture in the nation. Our funding is a difference maker for many organizations, and our responsibility to be transparent stewards of public funds is one we take seriously.