Phila. Cultural Fund awards $2.6M to arts organizations
More than $2.6 million was awarded Wednesday to 284 arts and cultural organizations around the city by the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, about the same number as last year.
More than $2.6 million was awarded Wednesday to 284 arts and cultural organizations around the city by the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, about the same number as last year.
Of those, 20 are receiving their first grants, fund officials said.
Since its founding in 1991, the fund has distributed $40 million in unrestricted operating funds to hundreds of groups, large and small.
The fund also announced that the Georgia E. Gregory Interdenominational School of Music is winner of the Councilman David Cohen Award, a noncash award recognizing an arts organization for its economic and social justice work.
"Our goal is to meet the cultural and academic needs of at-risk students in underserved communities through music and the performing arts," said the school's executive director, Joyce Drayton.
Located on West Allegheny Avenue in North Philadelphia, the school "offers a diverse genre of music styles with a focus on sacred music from a wide variety of denominations," Drayton said. It also offers instruction in "secular music styles that reflect today's students creating tomorrow's music."
Of the 284 grantees, 19 percent have budgets under $50,000, said Barbara Silzle, director of the fund.
"This is extremely critical money" for such organizations, she said, noting that the grants have no restrictions and can be used for any operating costs.
About 36 percent of grantees have budgets under $150,000, she said, and about 14 percent have budgets in excess of $1.5 million.
For very small organizations - which can include all-volunteer community groups and other bare-bones operations - cultural fund dollars can total up to 30 percent of the operating budget.
"Our funding formula skews toward small organizations," Silzle said.
She said that theater groups accounted for 16 percent of grantees; dance groups, 11 percent; and music groups, 16 percent. Ten percent of the groups were visual arts organizations.
Percentages of other disciplines: arts education, 9 percent; community arts organizations, 8 percent; presenter-multidisciplinary groups, 8 percent; museums, 7 percent; historic sites, 7 percent; arts-service organizations, 6 percent; literary groups, 3 percent.
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