The organization awarded 59 grants for organizations providing real-world experiences to help prevent mental illness.
Paul Sisson | The San Diego Union-Tribune
In its fifth year of grantmaking, the Prebys Foundation is launching a $5.2 million initiative that invests in organizations with proven track records of connecting people to the arts and nature.
The organization, founded in 2020 and powered by the annual gains of a $1 billion investment fund bequeathed by the late Conrad Prebys, the foundation supports a wide range of charitable causes throughout the region, spanning health care, science, the arts and youth, but a new slate of 59 grants to nonprofits across San Diego County is designed to follow where research leads.
While this allocation represents only about 10% of the foundation’s total expected annual awards, Grant Oliphant, the organization’s chief executive officer, said that this endeavor seeks to add to the growing pile of evidence that engaging in creative and natural endeavors appreciably improves mental health.
At first, the executive said, the plan was to simply contribute to organizations providing clinical care to people diagnosed with mental illnesses. However, the need was so vast that the foundation board began looking for what are often called “upstream” activities, those that could help prevent people from needing clinical help in the first place.
“It’s so contrary to the clinical age in which we live, but it’s not surprising because when people are doing art, they’re tapping into their sense of who they are, into a flow state that is demonstrated to produce happiness, and they’re feeling a sense of agency and expression,” Oliphant said. “It turns out to be the same story on the nature side; you know, when people are experiencing nature, they are getting into a different frame of mind, they’re feeling connected with each other and with the larger world.”
San Diego County, he added, with its year-round outdoor weather and broad mix of cultures, seemed to be fertile ground for this kind of investment. Grantee organizations engage in an eclectic mix of activities, including playwrighting, horse therapy, hiking, farming, dancing, painting and surfing. Funding amounts range from $10,000 to $150,000 per organization.
Prebys Healing through Arts Initiative grants have been awarded to the following Art-focused organizations: A Step Beyond, African American Writers & Artists Inc., Art Of Elan, ArtReach, Arts Education Connection San Diego, CCAE Theatricals, Dreams + Ducats, Fern Street Community Arts Inc., Hill Street Country Club, Ilan-Lael Foundation, Imagine, Malashock Dance, Playwrights Project, Project PAINT: The Prison Arts Initiative, Resounding Joy Inc., Rosin Box Project Inc., San Diego African American Museum of Fine Art, San Diego Craft Collective, San Diego Dance Theater, Synergy Arts Foundation, San Diego Urban Warriors, Space 4 Art, The Aja Project, The Veterans Art Project, Timken Museum of Art, Via International Inc., Viet Voices and Villa Musica.
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