CITY FOCUS:

Chris and Michele Hoff have been big names in the local art world for their support of creative endeavors, from the experimental art space the Office to Chris’ popular Orange County Art Blog. But with his gallery shuttered last year, Chris Hoff decided with his wife to use the money running it to help artists more directly — with cold, hard cash.

That’s why the Huntington Beach couple has unveiled the Hoff Foundation, which will offer thousands of dollars in grants to artists throughout the county and Long Beach. Every three months, they plan to give away $3,000 in grants to artists, performers, writers and organizations that support them.

Community artists don’t always have enough of a financial network in Orange County that can keep them working and growing, Chris Hoff said.

“There’s no real support structure in Orange County of that kind,” he said. “We wanted there to be that structure for visual artists. Sure, people donate to the Orange County Performing Artscenter and the big institutions, but a lot of times money never really finds its way down to the artists.”

He points to that lack of support structure as one of the reasons his four-and-a-half-year-old venture, the Office, was shuttered last year. It had great word-of-mouth and drew plenty of students and culture hounds, but there weren’t enough collectors buying art, he said.

“It was all very new, fresh, contemporary work,” he said. “We did not have a lot of the collectors. We had more of the up-and-coming people. We had the contemporary art collectors come up from Laguna Beach, but it was primarily the students.”

This time, they’re aiming straight at artists’ wallets and planning to make it easy, Hoff said.

“We didn’t want to put a lot of hurdles in their way,” he said. “There doesn’t have to be a specific project attached to it. It can be just, ‘Hey, I need some canvases.’”

Considering the expense of materials, direct grants might help the community better than running a single space, Michele said.

“They’re called starving artists because the art supplies are so expensive,” she said.

The couple has already been informally helping out friends, she added. Now, however, they can do it more officially.

Applicants can go to www.thehofffoundation.com for instructions. The deadline for the first round of grants awarded April 1 is March 15.