Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley— a nonprofit organization created to raise art appreciation in the community—received a pair of grants equaling $1.25 million from the David and Lucille Packard Foundation.

The first grant of $1 million will be applied toward the nonprofit's creative education program, which provides customized technical assistance in the arts per school in the form of trained teachers and educational materials. The other $250,000 will be for unrestricted expenses, such as maintaining office staff at the organization's Lincoln Avenue headquarters.

The creative education program continues for five-years and is aimed at public elementary schools within Santa Clara County. The schools also receive $10,000 in grant money for four of the five years. The creative education portion of the grant provides a teacher liaison and instructional training in the arts for the full five years.

Each five-year period is called a "cohort." These cohorts were given to numerous elementary schools throughout Santa Clara County that applied for a grant through the nonprofit to help with their art programs.

"The foundation has been extraordinary to us," said John Kreidler, the organization's executive director. The foundation has been a major supporter of the nonprofit since Cultural Initiatives established the creative education program in 1999.

Booksin Elementary is the only Willow Glen public school that applied and received a Cultural Initiatives grant. The school is part of the first cohort, whose cycle ends in 2004.

The foundation has made generous donations annually to the organization, Kreidler said.

The new grant from the foundation will go toward maintaining the first two cohorts, but not toward creating a third five-year cohort, Kreidler said. Creating a new cohort would cost approximately $3.75 million.

With the economy in a slump, it may be unlikely anytime soon that a third cohort can begin, he said. Just as cohorts are temporary, so is Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley.

"We were designed to last about 10 years and then disappear," Kreidler said. "Our job was to implement the Regional Cultural Plan, so in 2009 we'll probably just dissolve.

In 1997, the Arts Council Silicon Valley worked with the city of San Jose and the Office of Cultural Affairs to create the plan to raise awareness of arts and culture in the South Bay. The outcome of this original collaboration was Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley.