By Sara Beth Williams–
The Citrus Heights City Council recently approved the reallocation of Non-Profit Community Support grant funding that was awarded to Citrus Heights Arts in September 2025, to be used for other art projects and events the nonprofit is hosting than originally planned.
Previously, Citrus Heights Arts was awarded $12,000 in grant funding which was designated to go toward the third annual ArtBeat festival that the nonprofit had planned to hold last year.
Due to rainy weather, the ArtBeat festival was postponed until a later date. Later, the nonprofit announced ArtBeat would take place on June 13.
But due to lower than expected vendor commitments, and “shifting economic conditions,” Citrus Heights Arts submitted a request to the city in early June to ask for the reallocation of funding that was supposed to be designated for ArtBeat, to be allocated toward other projects that the nonprofit is currently working on.
The nonprofit submitted a letter of request, along with an itemized list of two projects for which the funding would be reallocated toward.
“An event of this scale requires strong alignment among municipal partners, vendors, sponsors, and supporting infrastructure. When those critical elements are not fully in place, the most responsible course of action is to pause, reassess, and protect the integrity of the event’s vision rather than deliver a diminished experience,” the nonprofit wrote in its letter request.
One project Citrus Heights Arts has been working on launching for the second year is Citrus Heights Arts, which is scheduled to open on July 9. The nonprofit requested $6,000 from the $12,000 original funding be allocated to Art at City Hall.
Secondly, Citrus Heights Arts asked for $6,000 of the $12,000 to also go toward helping complete a large-scale community mural project, which will be installed along a sound wall on Auburn Boulevard. The community mural project will feature the message ‘Welcome to Citrus Heights’ in large letters each individually painted in squared off sections of the wall. The mural project will also include other artwork outside of the lettering.
The project was intended to begin last year, and at least one square was already painted, and letters stenciled out, but Citrus Heights Arts announced on social media in February that a local resident who plants flowers along the wall every year for the last 20 years requested that Citrus Heights Arts wait until the poppies he plants die out in the summer before the nonprofit resumes the art project.
The Non-Profit Community Support Fund provides limited one-time funding to nonprofit organizations that deliver programs and services benefiting Citrus Heights residents, the city states.
