This year, we were honored with a grant award of $27,000 by California Arts Council (CAC), joining the third cohort of the Cultural Pathways grant program.

On May 4, 2020, the California Arts Council announced a grant award of $27,000 to Stay Arts – under the nonprofit title ‘Downey Art Vibe’ – as part of its Cultural Pathways grant program. Cultural Pathways provides two years of operating support and a host of technical assistance and professional development tools, resources, and training to small, new and emerging organizations rooted in communities of color, recent immigrant and refugee communities, and tribal or indigenous groups.

Stay Arts is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides arts programming for the city of Downey and surrounding Southeast Los Angeles communities. The organization’s creative space, Stay Gallery, is recognized for housing a variety of public art exhibitions, workshops and events that amplify the creative expression and voices of local youth, families and artists.

For seven years, Stay Gallery has served as a creative hub for communities of colors and marginalized groups in the city of Downey, extending into Southeast Los Angeles. Stay exists to represent and hold space for the region’s rich historic, cultural and artistic diversity by engaging and empowering its local community members.

Due to the pandemic, Executive Director Gabriel Enamorado’s monthly stipend to run the organization has been decreased from $3,000 to $1,125. The Cultural Pathways grant award of $27,000 will be used to maintain the $1,125 monthly stipend until May of 2022.

Stay was featured as part of a larger announcement from the California Arts Council of more than 1,500 grants awarded to nonprofit organizations and units of government throughout the state for their work in support of the agency’s mission to strengthen arts, culture, and creative expression as the tools to cultivate a better California for all. The investment of nearly $30 million marks a more than $5 million increase over the previous fiscal year, and the largest in California Arts Council history. 

Organizations were awarded grants across 15 different program areas addressing access, equity, and inclusion; community vibrancy; and arts learning and engagement; and directly benefiting our state's communities, with youth, veterans, returned citizens, and California's historically marginalized communities key among them. Successful projects aligned closely with the agency's vision of a California where all people flourish with universal access to and participation in the arts.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the California Arts Council recognizes that some grantees may need to postpone, modify, or cancel their planned activities supported by CAC funds, due to state and local public health guidelines. The state arts agency is prioritizing flexibility in addressing these changes and supporting appropriate solutions for grantees.

"Creativity sits at the very heart of our identity as Californians and as a people. In this unprecedented moment, the need to understand, endure, and transcend our lived experiences through arts and culture is all the more relevant for each of us,” said Nashormeh Lindo, Chair of the California Arts Council. “The California Arts Council is proud to be able to offer more support through our grant programs than ever before, at a time when our communities’ need is perhaps greater than ever before. These grants will support immediate and lasting community impact by investing in arts businesses and cultural workers across the state.” 

The California Arts Council is a state agency with a mission of strengthening arts, culture, and creative expression as the tools to cultivate a better California for all. It supports local arts infrastructure and programming statewide through grants, initiatives, and services. The California Arts Council envisions a California where all people flourish with universal access to and participation in the arts.

Members of the California Arts Council include: Chair Nashormeh Lindo, Vice Chair Jaime Galli, Larry Baza, Lilia Gonzales Chavez, Jodie Evans, Kathleen Gallegos, Stanlee Gatti, Donn K. Harris, Alex Israel, Consuelo Montoya, and Jonathan Moscone.