Grants Totaling More Than $1 Million Awarded to KCETLink

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Grants Totaling More Than $1 Million Awarded to KCETLink

BURBANK, CA--March 4, 2015--KCETLink, a leading national independent non-profit broadcast and digital network, has announced that it has been awarded grants totaling $1.175 millionto fund arts and culture programming from two major foundations: The California Endowment and The James Irvine Foundation. This also includes a generous multi-year grant from the California Community Foundation KCETLink received in 2014.

"We are extremely grateful to have received support from these distinguished California institutions," said Juan Devis, Senior Vice President, Content, Development and Production. "Their generous gifts, many of which are increases from previous years, go a long way in demonstrating their commitment to our programming that spotlights the remarkable and vibrant cultural landscape of our region."

The gifts will help support DEPARTURES, KCETLink's award-winning multidisciplinary media studio for community engagement, creative placemaking and social advocacy; ARTBOUND, KCETLink's EmmyÒ award winning transmedia series that reports on the thriving and underrepresented creative and artistic cultures in Southern California; as well as other select programs that inspire and educate viewers through the arts.

Since its launch in 2007, DEPARTURES has explored diverse neighborhoods in Southern California with more than 50 multimedia installments. Through meaningful partnerships with local nonprofit organizations, DEPARTURES and its educational component YOUTH VOICES, empowers citizens to change their community narrative by highlighting local cultural assets and fostering engagement and rejuvenation. To date DEPARTURES has developed over 200 community partnerships in over a dozen Los Angeles area communities.

Since its inception in 2012, the Emmy Award winning transmedia program, ARTBOUND, has worked with over 100 Southern California cultural journalists to serve more than 500 nonprofit arts groups, by providing articles and videos that illuminate and publicize their work. In addition to nonprofit groups,ARTBOUND has explored the work of hundreds of individual artists and collectives.

ABOUT KCETLINK MEDIA GROUP

KCETLink Media Group, formed by the merger between KCET and Link Media, is a national independent, nonprofit, digital and broadcast network that provides high-quality, culturally diverse programming designed to engage the public in innovative, entertaining and transformative ways. With a commitment to independent perspectives, smart global entertainment, local communities, and opportunities for engagement and social action, KCETLink depicts people and the world through a lens unavailable elsewhere in U.S. media. A viewer-supported 501(c)(3) organization, KCETLink content is distributed nationally via satellite on Link TV - DIRECTV channel 375 and DISH Network channel 9410 - and on KCET in Southern and Central California via broadcast and cable, as well as through various digital delivery systems. For additional information about KCET and Link TV productions, web-exclusive content, programming schedules and community events, please visit kcet.org or linktv.org.