(Sarasota,
FL) Celebrating its 25^th anniversary, 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 2020
outdoor exhibition celebrating diversity, which runs January 18 through April 5
at Bayfront Park in downtown Sarasota. The grant will also be directed to
empower EOD’s annual educational outreach programs and initiatives.

“Embracing Our Differences has a clear mission to promote
diversity through the power of art and education,” says Wertheimer. “Gulf Coast Community Foundation has
supported our mission since the beginning—and we’re deeply grateful. Their
profound commitment has played a pivotal role in our growth and will empower us
to celebrate the amazing spectrum of human potential in the years to come.”

Wertheimer says that the grant will also provide
vital resources for Embracing Our Differences’ annual outreach initiatives,
including its Make-A-Day-of-It! program, which provides free bus transportation
for thousands of students and teachers to visit the outdoor exhibit and other
arts and cultural venues. She adds that a portion of 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.

“This grant opens up a universe of life-changing possibilities
for students and educators throughout the area. Students come away from our
initiatives with practical, positive strategies. They learn to reject
destructive attitudes and embrace the full potential of inclusion and
diversity. Last year, more than 950 teachers and 43,000 students participated
in our programs. With the support of the Gulf Coast Community
Foundation, we can build on that in the school year ahead. It makes all the
difference in the world.”

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.

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 $340 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.