The Arts Get an Emergency Lifeline In Oakland
Written by Sarah Hotchkiss for KQED, originally published on July 16, 2025
Chapter 510, a youth writing center, is one of 24 arts and culture nonprofits whose Oakland city grant is now supplanted by an foundation-supported emergency fund. (Robbie Sweeny)
Nine philanthropic foundations have joined forces to fill a funding gap created by mid-year budget cuts to Oakland’s Cultural Affairs Division. The $600,000 emergency fund will channel one-time grants of up to $28,500 to 24 local arts and culture organizations to support their summer programming.
The grant recipients initially received funds from Oakland’s Organizational Assistance Program in 2023, expecting the two-year grant to renew for the fiscal year 2024–25. When the city council eliminated the Cultural Affairs Division’s general fund allocation, Acting Cultural Funding Coordinator Pamela Mattera and former Cultural Funding Coordinator Raquel Iglesias led the effort to replace the missing funds.
Donations to the emergency pool come from the Akonadi Foundation, East Bay Community Foundation, Fleishhacker Foundation, Gerbode Foundation, Hellman Foundation, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, San Francisco Foundation, Stupski Family Fund and an anonymous source. The East Bay Community Foundation will coordinate the dispersal of funds.
The grants are for general operating funds, a rare and valuable category of funding that allows nonprofits to spend money as they see fit. “They can pay for insurance, pay for those programs and community engagement work that they all do,” says Iglesias. “These grants really support everything as opposed to being earmarked for something specific.”
The list of 24 grantees includes Creative Growth, EastSide Arts Alliance, the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir and the Oakland Theater Project. Collectively, the grantees support over 600 Oakland-based artists and 10,000 arts and cultural activities, according to today’s announcement.
Moving forward, there is no allocation for such grants in the city’s budget. “The future of cultural funding in Oakland is unknown,” Iglesias says.
This is not the first time private foundations have stepped in to help fill gaps left by recent cuts to public funding. The Mellon Foundation announced $15 million in emergency funds for state humanities councils after the National Endowment for the Humanities eliminated funding. The Andy Warhol Foundation and Helen Frankenthaler Foundation committed to fund 80 community arts organizations affected by the end of the National Endowment for the Arts’ Challenge America Grant.
Meanwhile, locally, artists and arts advocates like Iglesias remain committed to advocating for the job of Oakland’s cultural affairs manager, last held by Roberto Bedoya, who retired in October. (Lex Leifheit is serving as interim manager of cultural affairs through November 2025.) The city council cut the position by adopting Oakland’s latest budget on June 11.
Today’s announcement, Iglesias points out, shows just how important it is to have someone advocating for Oakland arts and culture to private foundations. “By allowing that position to come back, it gives the city a chance to raise this money moving forward,” she says. “Without that type of leadership in place, it’s just not possible.”