The Buzz: Grants distributed to Petaluma artists and projects

Petaluma Arts Center among local recipients of Creative Sonoma grants: $338,500. That's how much money Creative Sonoma - a division of the Sonoma County Economic Development Board - will be distributing via its Cultural Arts Grants program. Awarded to local artists, nonprofits and arts organizations in order to fund “pop-up creativity” and “cultural arts programs,” the grants will be going to 35 recipients, including the Petaluma Arts Center, to partially underwrite its current Petaluma to the Playa exhibition. Two additional grants have been awarded to Petaluma-based artists Gio Benedetti and Rayne Madison. Benedetti's application describes a pop-up installation planned for May of 2020, featuring 10-20 “small to medium-sized, portable, non-permanent art pieces hidden in parks and high-traffic areas across Petaluma.” The pieces will represent what Benedetti calls “fantastical creatures.” Sounds like fun. Madison's project sounds similarly imaginative. Called “Superhero Unfolding,” it will be an interactive art installation, “mimicking an old Superman era phone booth.” Passersby will be offered an opportunity to be inspired, or to reflect upon and appreciate their own unique qualities and those of others. Participants can add “speech bubbles” to the booth in the form of answers to superhero-themed questions (“What is your Krytonite?”) and be photographed in a Superman Unfolding cape. For more information visit CreativeSonoma.org.

Penngrove School among recipients of Accordion Festival donation: $23,000. That's how much last August's wildly popular Cotati Accordion Festival raised this year for local youth groups. Last month, organizer Scott Goree officially presented donations to five Sonoma County organizations, projects and schools, including the 6th Grade Outdoor Education Program at Penngrove Elementary School. Other recipients receiving funds from the Festival were the music program at the Thomas Page Academy, the annual camping trip of Cotati's Boy Scout Troop #4, the Cotati/Rohnert Park Nursery Co-op and the Cotati/Rohnert Park Education Foundation. The Cotati Accordion Festival (cotatifest.com) will return to La Plaza Park in August of 2020.

CreativeSonoma.org.

(Have an idea for a good BUZZ idea? Drop a line to Community Editor David Templeton at david.templeton@arguscourier.com)