Grant Applications Now Open for the 2018 Hewlett 50 Arts Commissions
Thanks to the Hewlett Foundation run by William and Flora Hewlett, 10 local non-profit organizations will receive $150,000 grants to commission significant new works of theater, spoken word, and musical theater and premiere them in the Bay Area.
Applications for this year’s awards are due by April 20 and applicants for the 2018 awards must be nonprofit organizations with 501(c)(3) public charity status based in one of the 11 Bay Area counties (Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, or Sonoma).
Awardees will be decided based on four selection criteria:
1. Artistic excellence
2. Community engagement
3. Collaboration and leadership
4. Financial capacity
Visit the foundation’s website for more information about the Hewlett 50 Arts Commissions. For information about the 2018 grant application process, please visit this link.
The foundation encourages nonprofits working on diverse issues and those that serve disadvantaged or historically marginalized communities to apply. Finalists for the awards will be nominated by a panel of outside experts and the Hewlett Foundation’s Performing Arts Program staff will select 10 recipients from among the finalists. The $8 million commissioning initiative is the largest of its kind in the United States. It reflects the foundation’s longstanding commitment to the performing arts in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Since 1967, the Hewlett Foundation has generated more than $335 million in grants to arts organizations. The initiative was launched in January 2017 to celebrate the foundation’s 50th anniversary. The remaining three years of the initiative will focus on dance, traditional arts, and film, ending in 2021. The new works created with this year’s awards will premiere in Bay Area communities over the next three years.
