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The Rainin Arts Fellowship

The Rainin Arts Fellowship recognizes and celebrates Bay Area artists working in dance, film, public space, and theater, who push the boundaries of creative expression, anchor local communities, and advance the field.

A group of dancers are dramatically lit on a stage. They wear matching dark blue scrubs and imitate the motions of the man standing in front of them. He faces the dancers, away from the camera, with his arms and hands shielding his face.
The Rainin Fellowship logo.

Deaf’s IMPRISONED directed by Antoine Hunter and choreographed and performed by Urban Jazz Dance Company, 2018. Performance, 70 minutes. Performed at CounterPulse in San Francisco.

Photo by Robbie Sweeny.

Overview

The Rainin Arts Fellowship is an annual program honoring visionary artists and collaboratives working in dance, film, public space, and theater for their significant contributions to the Bay Area’s cultural ecosystems. Each year, the Rainin Arts Fellowship awards four artists annually with unrestricted grants of $100,000, as well as supplemental support tailored to address each Fellow’s specific needs and goals, including financial planning, communications and marketing help, and legal services.

How We Collaborate

The Rainin Arts Fellowship was born out of the Kenneth Rainin Foundation’s desire to address some of the challenges faced by Bay Area-based artists, including rising costs of living and a limited number of unrestricted funding opportunities. USA engages artists, nominators, reviewers and panelists from a range of backgrounds and works with community leaders to ensure the applicant pool includes artists of color, immigrant artists, disabled artists, LGBTQIAP+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual, Pansexual +) artists and others who have historically been excluded from funding support.

Duration: 2021 - present

Services: Program design, administration