CITY OF CATHEDRAL CITY
FISCAL YEAR (FY) 2025/2026
COMMUNITY ARTS GRANT PROGRAM
APPLICATIONS ARE DUE BY 5:00PM FRIDAY, APRIL 18, 2025
Submit application to: [email protected] -Describe: How Requested Funds Will Be Used: (Include artistic concept, intended audience, community engagement strategies. Do you have community partners that will be involved in implementing this project? If so, please list along with their roles) The core mission of GRTCCV is to bring traveling productions to the public in nontraditional and accessible locations – community centers, libraries, bookstores, churches, even the Coachella Valley Cemetery. We respectfully request a grant of $5,000 to bring a weekend of performances of our Spring Shakespeare Festival to Cathedral City in 2026.
Funds would help provide professional acting and direction; costumes and makeup; and props, sets, lights, and sound for a fully professional rendition of these classic but timely works for Cathedral City audiences. (Please see full attached budget). -Budget: (Provide a comprehensive budget for your project. Budget should include total grant funds requested, all project expenses including artist fees, materials, installation costs, rentals, advertising, travel costs. Do you have other funding that will be leveraged/used with these funds? If so, please include
The $5,000 requested would be allocated across the aspects of bringing the performance to Cathedral City, to include professional acting and direction; costumes and makeup; and props, sets, lights, and sound for a fully professional rendition of these classic but timely works for Cathedral City audiences. (Please see full attached budget).
The total cost of production will be $43,000 and other funds will be leveraged from RAP Foundation, other grant funders, community donations, and two planned autumn fundraisers.
Briefly Describe Your/Your Organization’s Background. (Describe your/your organization’s background and experience. Provide examples of any relevant work, images, or links to online portfolios that have relevance to the project being proposed. Describe your/your organization’s capacity to execute the proposed activities
Green Room Theatre Company Coachella Valley creates new works, reinvented classics, musical theatre, touring productions, and site-specific performances for the Coachella Valley. It directs its education programs toward young people and underserved communities with a focus on social-emotional and mental health and the power of storytelling.
Over 16 consecutive seasons, GRTCCV has built increasing success with varied professional arts offerings. In 2022, we began working with school districts to offer Ballet Folklorico Classes:
Learning Story and History through Music and Dance. This continuing program has served several hundred students with direct instruction at 12 schools and entertained more than 4,000 audience members young and old.
In 2024, GRTCCV garnered widespread media praise, 14 award nominations, and three Desert Star Awards from the Desert Theatre League. The production, Displacement: Stories from Section 14, was an original play funded by the Inland Empire Community Foundation and developed by a team of directors, playwrights, and actors including youth. It provided background - and put a human face - on the claim for reparations by survivors of the 1960s forced evictions on “Section 14” in Palm Springs.
Access to performing arts such as GRTCCV provides is especially essential for desert residents who have lower-than-average access to begin with. While Palm Springs and Cathedral City have major arts venues, other areas of Eastern Riverside County suffer from a severe lack. Many of our attendees, in post-viewing surveys, report that they had never before seen live theatre.
Participation is inhibited both from lack of venues and from cost of attendance, which is not possible for families and individuals living at poverty level or below. Residents of Thermal, for example, with median individual income of $15,565, many of whom do not own a car, cannot afford to attend typical desert theatre performances where tickets run from $40-$100 per person.
Our tickets are pay-what-you-can and are even made free for the asking. By bringing productions to people, within blocks of their homes, we provide professional theatre access. By keeping our ticket prices flexible, GRTCCV completely removes the barrier of cost. Any individual who wishes to attend one of our performances should be able to – and able to reap the multitude of individual health and social benefits that the arts provide. -Timeline: (Provide a timeline outlining key project milestones and activities from conception to completion.)
April 2025 - Shakespeare works have been selected for the festival and rights secured May 2025 - Director and Producer hired
June 2025 – Valley-wide auditions held to cast actors. Hiring crew and designers.
February 2026- March 2026 – Rehearsals: Sets and costumes designed/purchased.
April 2026 – Professional lighting and sound equipment and truck reserved and rented.
April 2026 – Performances begin through Eastern Coachella Valley April-May 2026 – Three weekends of Spring Shakespeare Festival performances occur in accessible, convenient locations throughout Coachella Valley. One weekend of performances takes place in Cathedral City, potentially in the Cathedral City Community Ampitheater. -What Do You Ultimately Hope To Accomplish Through Your Proposed Art/Program/Event? How Will It Enrich Cathedral City? (Describe your goals and objectives and how many people you hope to impact as a result of your project.
Coachella Valley comprises an area with many residents identified as high-need. Portions contain an overall poverty rate of 14%, 35% higher than Riverside County as a whole. And up 97% of some districts have students qualify for Free or Reduced Lunch. A growing body of well- designed research studies find that access to the arts offer mental, social, and physical health benefits for both children and adults. By having access to, engaging with, or participating in performing arts, the quality of life for individuals in the Coachella Valley and specifically in Cathedral City can be greatly improved.
For this grant, Cathedal City would enable GRTCCV to offer a weekend of accessible Shakespeare performances, potentially impacting as many as 1,000 Cathedral City residents.
Organizations as diverse as the World Health Organization and National Endowment of the Arts are creating policies to promote arts offerings to the public with a focus on combatting mental health issues and noncommunicable diseases, a leading cause of death and disability worldwide, such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, Parkinson’s, diabetes, and more. A report put out by the WHO in 2019 cited “…global evidence on the role of the arts in improving health and well- being. Results from over 3,000 studies identified a major role for the arts in the prevention of ill health, promotion of health, and management and treatment of illness across the lifespan.” Research has shown that access to performing arts can greatly increase quality of life and greatly decrease risk of long-term disease, improve symptom and pain management for chronic conditions, improve healthy aging, improve social-emotional wellbeing, protect cognition, and potentially decrease Parkinson’s and dementia risks.
If Your Art/Program/Event Costs More Than You Are Requesting From The Community Arts Grant Program, How Do You Plan To Pay For The Additional Costs? (What Steps Have You Already Taken To Get Additional Funds Or In Kind Support If Necessary?) The total cost of production will be $43,000 and other funds will be leveraged from RAP Foundation, other grant funders, community donations, and two planned autumn fundraisers.
GRTCCV has strong relationships/partnerships with artists and others from Latino, LGBTQ+, Indigenous, Asian, and African American desert communities, particularly focused on East Coachella Valley. In 2024, we partnered with Inland Empire Community Foundation, RAP Foundation, NPOCentric, Desert Recreation District, Coachella Library, public schools, City of Coachella, Thermal, River Shopping Center in Rancho Mirage, Revel Active Senior Community, Old Town Artisan Studios, United Methodist Church Palm Springs, St. John’s Episcopal Church, Rotary Club East Coachella Valley among others.
Do You Plan To Continue This Art/Program/Event Beyond The Period For Which You Have Requested The Funds? If So, How Do You Plan To Continue Paying For It? (Describe the types of efforts you will undertake to raise funds as well as your/your organization’s history of maintaining services/programs.)
We do plan to offer the Spring Shakespeare Festival for a minimum of two weekends more than the Cathedral City performances for which we are requesting these funds. We are also seeking funding from other cities who may host other weekends of the festival as well as from other funding sources as described above. The total cost of production will be $43,000 and other funds will be leveraged from RAP Foundation, other grant funders, community donations, and two planned autumn fundraisers.
As GRTCCV becomes more successful in seeking funding and expanding our program scope, we want to be intentional and make sure that we are building a broad base of community and funder engagement that will be able to permanently and consistently support our programs so that we can have a consistent and maximum impact in the Coachella Valley.
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Can you imagine yourself as a talented child or teenager who desperately desires to become an artist, but has virtually no access to theatre or dance performance or training? Sadly, this is the case for many families in our beautiful desert. Adults and children cannot access live performing arts due to financial and geographic limitations. A growing body of research shows that the arts are a major contributor to overall social-emotional health and well-being from cradle to grave.
Those who lack access to the arts, just like those who suffer from homelessness and food insecurity, are subject to more frequent and severe mental and physical illnesses. Communities without a healthy performing arts scene also miss out on the economic benefits of “downstream” spending that creates jobs and civic revenues. With your help, Green Room Theatre Company Coachella Valley is attempting to solve this problem.
Your consideration of this request is deeply appreciated. We would love to answer any questions you may have and discuss our offerings in further detail. Thank you. **************************************************************************