The California Arts Council (CAC) has awarded the San Francisco Early Music Society its largest-ever grant. SFEMS will receive $17,600 for the coming year, more than a third above last year’s grant.
President Joyce Johnson Hamilton conveyed her delight at the award and the gratitude of SFEMS’s board. “On behalf of the board of directors of The San Francisco Early Music Society, I want to express what an honor it is that the California Arts Council has chosen to increase its support of the work of our organization through their generous grant for the coming year.”
The grant is part of the Statewide and Regional Networks program (SRN), rooted in the CAC’s commitment to supporting arts service organizations reflective of California’s diverse populations. SRN provides general operating grants for arts service organizations’ networks with regional or statewide reach.
SFEMS will use the grant to support Affiliate development and expand our community program offerings. In the past few years, the Society has awarded small grants to a number of Affiliate groups whose projects are closely aligned with SFEMS’s goal of strengthening regional early music networks.
Last year’s recipients were the East Bay Recorder Society, in support of its Headlands Workshop; early music historian John Prescott for his public lectures; Vajra Voices for its “Eve of the March” project, an inspirational opening to the third annual Women’s March; the New Esterházy Quartet (with bass player Kristin Zoernig) for outreach concerts for junior high and high school students, and the Laudami Ensemble for outreach concerts for hospital patients and retirement center residents in the San Francisco Bay Area.
“We are very grateful to the California Arts Council for the increase support and vote of confidence, said SFEMS Executive Director Derek Tam, “and we look forward to reinvesting the money in the Bay Area to create an ever-more vibrant early music scene.”
