The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has issued a Call for Applications for the 2018 round of its five-year Hewlett 50 Arts Commissions initiative. The last date of submission of application for the 2018 awards is April 20, 2018. Applicants will be notified of their status in June.
Reflecting the foundation’s longstanding commitment to the performing arts in the San Francisco Bay Area, in 2018, ten local nonprofit organizations will receive grants of $150,000 each to commission significant new works of theater, spoken word, and musical theater and premiere them in the Bay Area. Nonprofit organizations will receive funding to achieve their creative vision in partnership with the commissioned artists, who may be based anywhere in the world.
Required Eligibility:
Nonprofit organizations with 501 (c)(3) public charity tax status and based in the eleven counties of the greater San Francisco Bay Area are eligible to submit an LOI—those in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, or Sonoma counties. The nonprofit does not need to be an arts producer or presenter. Individual artists may not apply for a grant. Artists must partner with a Bay Area nonprofit as the lead applicant.
Awardees will be selected based on four criteria: artistic excellence; community engagement; collaboration and leadership; and financial capacity. Finalists for the awards will be nominated by a panel of outside experts. The Hewlett Foundation’s Performing Arts Program staff will select this year’s ten recipients from among the finalists.
Launched in 2017 in celebration of the Hewlett Foundation’s fiftieth anniversary, the Hewlett 50 Arts Commissions is a five- year, $8 million commissioning initiative that is the largest of its kind in the United States.
