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• Mar 7, 2008 1:52 pm US/Pacific
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  Bay Area Community Groups Get $3.2M Arts Funding

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Bay Area Community Groups Get $3.2M Arts Funding

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) ― Two Bay Area community groups are receiving grants from the James Irvine Foundation as part of its Communities Advancing the Arts initiative, officials said.

The East Bay Community Foundation and The San Francisco Foundation are among eight community foundations in the state that received grants totaling $3.2 million from the Irvine Foundation, a private nonprofit that awards grants in the areas of arts, youth and state issues.

The two Bay Area groups will receive a total $400,000 over three years. Some of their money will be used for local artists and art organizations to create new work, and to challenge individual donors to give more money to local artists, officials said.

The grants were awarded as part of the second phase of the foundation's Communities Advancing the Arts initiative.

The first phase, which ran from 2004 through 2007, provided about $325,000 jointly to The San Francisco Foundation and the East Bay Community Foundation to help small arts organizations institute a base of individual donors, officials reported.

The two Bay Area organizations were able to regrant money received from the Irvine Foundation to 37 nonprofit groups during the first phase, officials said.

The Irvine Foundation's Board of Directors took notice of the successful first phase and Wednesday approved $3.2 million in Phase Two grants. The grants will be used to further the work started in the first several years of the initiative, officials said.

"The Irvine Foundation is committed to supporting vibrant artistic and cultural communities throughout California," foundation President James Canales said. "We are pleased that our support is enabling community foundations to foster sustainable funding streams for arts organizations in their communities."

(© CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Bay City News contributed to this report.)