The City of Santa Ana is currently accepting applications from arts organizations for its 2025–2026 Investing in the Artist Grant.
Donor Name: City of Santa Ana
State: California
City: Santa Ana
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 03/23/2026
Size of the Grant: $10,000 to $100,000
Grant Duration: 1 Year
Details:
Investing in the Artist grants distribute small but impactful funds to arts organizations/cooperatives, serving as a catalyst to further the organization’s work while living and creating in Santa Ana, resulting in a more vibrant local art scene.
They invite submissions from artists working in various mediums—visual arts, performance, music, creative writing, digital media, and more—who will not only explore the intersection of arts & culture and economics but also design projects that involve direct participation from the residents, businesses, and communities of Santa Ana.
Funding Priorities
- Activating geographical areas in Santa Ana underserved by the arts
- Collaborations/partnerships among different entities across artistic and non-artistic fields
Funding Information
The Arts & Culture Office is seeking to award grants in the amount of up to $20,000 for arts organizations/cooperatives that will enrich and invigorate the Santa Ana arts and culture landscape with Stories That Unite US in Santa Ana and will be distributed in two (2) payments.
Grant Period
The grant period will be for 12 months.
Eligibility Criteria
- Organizations with arts, culture, design, or creative innovation focus.
- Organization must be based in Santa Ana and/or serve Santa Ana communities.
- Projects can be small in scope and do not need to serve large numbers of people as long as they positively impact the organization’s purpose or mission.
- A project may be a part of an applicant’s regular season or activities. Organizations that undertake a single short-term project in a year—a dance festival, for example—could apply for support for that event or they could identify certain components of their operations, such as securing rehearsal space, marketing activities, paying artists, etc., as their project.
- A representative from the organization must attend one mandatory Information Session.
Only one application per project will be accepted. Organizations may not apply separately for the same project. - Cannot use this grant to complete a project that has already been funded through the City (ex: Sponsorship Program).
- Grant recipients who have not completed their projects from prior grant cycles will not be eligible to apply this year. This includes completing their final reports.
- Grant recipients who withdrew from program in the prior year, will be ineligible to reapply for the following two years.
- Applicants engaged in active litigation with the City, have outstanding balances with the City, and/or have active code enforcement violations, or a history of multiple code enforcement violations are not eligible for the program.
For more information, visit City of Santa Ana.
