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organizational capacity in the coming years to ensure our festival's <br />sustainability. <br />How many Orange <br />County residents <br />does the organization <br />serve? <br />Approximately 300 people attend the festival's four programs of film <br />screenings and its live-cinema event. <br />Has your <br />organization <br />undergone any <br />Diversity, Equity, and <br />Inclusion (DEI) <br />training? If so, <br />please explain. If not, <br />please explain any <br />barriers that have <br />prevented you from <br />receiving this <br />training. <br />Despite our limited budget, we have been able to benefit from the wealth of <br />DEI resources available online. These have helped immensely as we've <br />worked to clarify and augment our diversity efforts over the years both in <br />terms of artistic programming and audience outreach, and especially over <br />the last two years as we've transitioned from an artist-run festival to a <br />nonprofit organization. Of particular help has been the University Film & <br />Video Association's EDIT Media (Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in <br />Teaching Media) initiative. Edit Media's online resources provide useful <br />frameworks for programming media work, as well as educational resources <br />that provide insight into ways we can discuss and expand our thinking <br />about media art and media art education. <br />Inspired by these DEI resources, we have sought to make DEI fundamental <br />to the way we program art work, reach out to audiences, and structure our <br />organization. Some tangible initiatives have been our ongoing effort to <br />reach out to a wide diversity of voices and communities during <br />programming, especially filmmakers who might be unable to submit work <br />through our annual call or who may be unaware of the call; a special focus <br />on promoting the festival to HBCU's, community arts organizations, and <br />other venues that tap into historically underrepresented communities; and <br />online and word-of-mouth outreach that helps us reach beyond reflexive <br />channels of communication and circulation. W e are especially proud of our <br />efforts to keep submissions fees low and to pay filmmakers who participate <br />in the festival a screening fee, a practice that is rare among film festivals in <br />the United States, but something we feel is crucial in our effort to create <br />artist equity. <br />In recent years, we have sought to increase the diversity of our screening <br />committee, a key part of the process by which we discover and program <br />work from a wide variety of makers. Each year, we also integrate <br />conversations about diversity, equity, and inclusion in our training meetings <br />with the committee, emphasizing the fact that Cosmic Rays is founded on a <br />mission to explore, support, and promote film and media art that comes <br />from the rich and wonderful variety of artists who are working in the field <br />today. <br />Since the festival’s founding, we have been cognizant of the ways access <br />to artwork can be limited by geographical distance, limited financial <br />resources, physical disability, and a range of other factors. In addition to <br />responsible in-person festival screenings, we continue to explore online <br />streaming platforms that will allow us to reach audiences who remain <br />socially distanced or have limited mobility. Our recently inaugurated touring <br />program was conceived as another opportunity to connect with new, <br />expanded, and diverse audience communities beyond our three-day <br />festival event. <br />Docusign Envelope ID: 678936C8-E900-4A07-925F-E6D2CC7A910E