Those grants for cultural institutions that we talked about way back in December have finally been distributed by the Small Business Administration, and over 300 Bay Area theaters, music venues, museums, movie houses, and more have been awarded grants totaling $326 million.
This welcome aid is sure to be an enormous relief for venues and institutions that remained mostly or entirely closed for the last year and a half. And many of the grants — which nationwide averaged around $769,000 — were quite generous. The SF Business Times has word of the distributions, via publicly available data, and they've put together this spreadsheet just of the Bay Area awardees.
In total, the SBA received 15,429 applications and awarded 9,844 grants. This all came out of a $15 billion pool of funds within the $900 billion stimulus package, and the grants were meant to cover six months of payroll, and pay for things like rent and maintenance costs.
The biggest grants went to Berkeley-based Another Planet Entertainment and specifically Outside Lands, which canceled its 2020 edition — and did that virtual version on Twitch called Inside Lands — and has postponed until Halloween weekend this year. They appear to have received $29 million in three separate grants.
SFMOMA and the Exploratorium are each getting $10 million. The SF Ballet and Symphony are each getting $8 million, while the Opera is getting $7 million. American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco received $3.35 million; the owners of the nightclub Love + Propaganda, RHS Partners appear to have received $1.6 million; SF Jazz received $3.7 million; and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco received $5.76 million. San Francisco Playhouse received $1 million, and the Fort Mason Center is getting $4.7 million.
SoMa nightclub Oasis, which got a windfall from a telethon earlier this year, is getting an added boost of $818,750. And the beloved Roxie in the Mission got $650,000.
Over the East Bay, the California Shakespeare Theater in Orinda is getting $900,000, and Berkeley Repertory Theatre is getting $3.3 million.
Plenty of smaller outfits, talent managers, and niche museums are getting some cash as well, including the Beat Museum in North Beach ($69,000), and Audium ($51,000). PianoFight also got a grant of $163,000.
Congrats to all, and we hope it's enough to keep the lights on and reopen properly sometime soon.
Previously: Bay Area Music Venues and Theaters Can Apply For Lifesaving Grants Under New Stimulus Bill