Monterey Jazz Festival Receives $300,000 Grant from James Irvine Foundation

The Monterey Jazz Festival and the James Irvine Foundation have announced that Monterey Jazz Festival is the recipient of a $300,000 grant.

The Monterey Jazz Festival’s award is part of the James Irvine Foundation’s $3.7 million in grants to 13 arts institutions on the California Central Coast. The organizations selected this year for the Arts Regional Initiative are planning to use the grants to advance financial sustainability within a challenging economic environment and to increase cultural participation from underrepresented communities.

“The Monterey Jazz Festival is honored to have been selected to participate in the James Irvine Foundation’s Arts Regional Initiative,” said Chris Doss, Managing Director of the Festival. “Our participation in the program will allow the Festival to diversify our audience and re-engineer our systems for long-term financial sustainability, affording Monterey Jazz Festival the opportunity to enrich life on California’s Central Coast through jazz.”

The Central Coast organizations represent a mix of artistic disciplines, including music, dance, opera, theater, visual arts and multidisciplinary arts. The grants will be awarded over three years and grantees will share resources, best practices, and lessons learned.

“These Central Coast arts organizations are vital anchor institutions within their communities and provide an array of important opportunities for people to engage with the arts,” noted Josephine Ramirez, Arts Program Director for the Irvine Foundation. “These grants represent our continued commitment to them as they explore new ways of achieving financial sustainability and attracting culturally diverse audiences.”

While each institution is developing specific plans, initiative participants are implementing operational changes to recalibrate for the current economy, strengthening and diversifying board leadership, and developing culturally relevant artistic programs to attract diverse audiences and deepen their relationships with existing audiences.

The Monterey Jazz Festival celebrates the legacy of jazz and expands the boundaries of and opportunities to experience jazz through the creative production of performances and educational programs. The Festival recently completed its 54th edition with 38,000 fans visiting the Monterey County Fairgrounds, September 16 – 18. The 2012 Monterey Jazz Festival will take place September 21 – 23, 2012.

The James Irvine Foundation is a private, nonprofit grantmaking foundation dedicated to expanding opportunity for the people of California to participate in a vibrant, successful and inclusive society. The Foundation’s grantmaking focuses on three program areas: Arts, California Democracy and Youth. Since 1937 the Foundation has provided over $1 billion in grants to more than 3,000 nonprofit organizations throughout California. With $1.6 billion in assets, the Foundation made grants of $65 million in 2010 for the people of California.

For more information about the James Irvine Foundation, please visit www.irvine.org