Twenty-five years ago, Casey-Dale Bowman wasn’t sure about his future and dabbled in the construction business, while pursuing his love of photography as a hobby.

However, when he tore his rotator cuff, the Downtown Eastside resident decided to turn his hobby into a career. He attended courses at a local college and relentlessly documented his surroundings.

“Photography is in my blood,” Bowman told the Straight over the phone. Still, Bowman struggled to find funding to help his career change.

Two decades later, the new Downtown Eastside Small Arts Grants Project is finally helping him to realize his goal. Bowman was one of 68 artists to receive the funding last April. A partnership between the Vancouver Foundation and the Carnegie Community Centre, the program emerged as a one-year pilot project in 2009 from the need to provide local artists with a funding source. The artists were chosen by a committee of residents and other artists and given amounts ranging from $500 to $1,000, based on their applications.

The project’s main objective was to help emerging artists advance their careers. Those who applied had to indicate in their applications that they would use the grants for business purposes, such as professionally framing their pieces for an exhibit.

“It’s difficult for artists to receive funding unless they are already established,” says Meriko Kubota, the manager of grants and community initiatives at the Vancouver Foundation. “They usually have to be able to present a résumé listing numerous shows and exhibitions.”

The project will launch its Web site on Thursday (June 24), an on-line gallery of the artists’ works. “Not all the artists have the means to share what they’re doing,” says Kubota. “The Web site will give more leverage for them to develop their profiles.”

As individuals instead of established groups, artists aren’t eligible to apply directly to the Vancouver Foundation. It was able to provide funding through the Carnegie centre by allocating $100,000 to the program, of which $65,000 was given to the artists in small grants.

“There’s a real freedom in this neighbourhood,” says Louise Francis-Smith, a photographer who also received a grant. “Everyone is so accepting, but it also has its problems. So in a place with incredible freedom and suffering, creativity flows.”

Francis-Smith’s photographs are intimate vignettes depicting the lives of the residents in Chinatown.

Meanwhile, Bowman now has a telephone and business cards to promote his work because of the grant money.

Another recipient, Colleen Carroll, bought canvases and professional framing, which enabled her to display her work in a show. Carroll paints colourful streetscapes, finding beauty in the architecture and the community of the Downtown Eastside. “I want people to realize that it [this neighbourhood] is not all about what they depict on TV,” says Carroll.

The project ended in April and is being evaluated to determine if it will continue. Although the fate of the program is uncertain, it allowed the Vancouver Foundation to re-examine its funding systems, says Kubota.

The Web site and the work displayed on it will be showcased at an event on Tuesday (June 29) at Centre A Gallery, beginning at 6 p.m.