Gulf Coast Community Foundation Awards Substantial Grant to Embracing Our Differences

(Sarasota, FL) – Gulf Coast Community Foundation recently awarded Embracing Our Differences a $40,000 Arts Appreciation grant, which offers unrestricted funding to area arts organizations in support of their artistic missions. According to Sarah Wertheimer, Embracing Our Differences’ executive director, the grant will help fund the organization’s 2021 outdoor exhibition, which promotes awareness of diversity and proclaims the values of inclusion, kindness, and respect. The grant will also be used to fund EOD’s year-round outreach programs and initiatives.

“Embracing Our Differences is committed to an important mission—keeping the value of inclusion and diversity in the public eye,” says Wertheimer. “We accomplish this through the power of art and education. Millions of people around the world are rejecting hate and seeking common ground. For the past 17 years, tens of thousands of these people have shared this message of hope with us. Year after year, we’ve passed that message on to our local community. We’re deeply grateful that Gulf Coast Community Foundation has been with us every step of our journey.”

Wertheimer says that the grant will provide vital resources for Embracing Our Differences’ annual outreach programs. Wertheimer adds that the grant will also be directed to Embracing Our Differences’ annual teacher workshops and intensives, which provide area educators with skills, strategies and resources relating to arts appreciation, character building and diversity education.

“With 1,032 teachers and 36,147 students participating in EOD’s initiatives in 2020 alone, this grant has a tremendously positive impact on our regional community,” says Wertheimer. “Gulf Coast’s support is a game-changer when it comes to diversity education in the Sarasota-Manatee region.”

Since 2004, EOD’s outdoor art exhibit, celebrating the theme of “enriching lives through diversity,” showcases the art and words of thousands of artists and writers from around the world, including hundreds of area-based students and educators. Embracing Our Differences’ annual outdoor exhibits are the heart of a year-round program of activities designed to use art as a catalyst to create awareness and promote diversity. The 2021 exhibit will run January 20 through April 1 at Bayfront Park in downtown Sarasota.

For more information about Embracing Our Differences, call 941-404-5710, or visit www.embracingourdifferences.org.

About Gulf Coast Community Foundation
For 25 years, together with its donors, Gulf Coast Community Foundation has transformed our region through bold and proactive philanthropy. Gulf Coast is a public charity that was created in 1995 through the sale of the Venice Hospital. Since then, it has become the philanthropic home of nearly 1,000 families, individuals, organizations, and businesses that have established charitable funds there, and has invested over $390 million in grants and initiatives in the areas of health and human services, civic and economic development, education, arts and culture, and the environment. Learn more at GulfCoastCF.org.

About Embracing Our Differences
Embracing Our Differences is a not-for-profit organization that uses the transformational power of art and education to celebrate and promote the diversity of the human family. It accomplishes this through an annual, large-scale outdoor juried art exhibition and a comprehensive series of educational initiatives, programs and resources designed for teachers and students. Visit www.embracingourdifferences.org.