Improving access to capital for small-scale arts activity in Southeast Michigan
Creators of Culture will reopen in early 2023.
Creative activity of all scopes and scales can contribute to the vitality of communities. With this as a core belief, Creators of Culture launched in 2019 as an annual funding opportunity for grassroots, informal, or artist-led creative activities in the Detroit metro.
Its genesis lies in funding partners of the Detroit Arts Support program and CultureSource realizing that a more equitable, diverse ecosystem of arts activity needs to be nurtured regionally. As such, Creators of Culture exists to improve access to capital for small-scale arts activity, specifically as a counterbalance to access possessed by large, established nonprofits.
Program Development
For our 2021 program, CultureSource began with one-on-one Discovery Sessions and a larger Program Design Meeting in collaboration with a total of 15 community members to glean insights about types of “creators of culture” to support in our region. The purpose of this program development process was to have CultureSource invest significant time on the front end to determine who, in characteristics, should be eligible for funding. This makes it very easy for that select group of people who identify with the profiles to apply for unrestricted funding, having their applications assessed using objective eligibility criteria.
Fund Contributors
The Erb Family Foundation, Kresge Foundation, Ford Foundation, and Rocket Community Fund
All images taken by Gabriella Baginski
Eligibility
Creators of Culture to be supported in 2021 are independent arts organizers and curators working on experimental, visionary arts projects.
- All applicants must be living and working in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Washtenaw, Livingston, Monroe, or St. Clair counties.
- Independent arts organizers and curators working on experimental, visionary arts projects.
- Artists who create, conceive, collaborate on, and produce successful projects that highlight artists and imagine new methods of arts presentation.
- Arts organizers and curators working outside of an institutional setting (that are not working on a project for a museum, performing arts organization, etc.) will be prioritized.
- Applying arts organizers and curators who work to present artistic work other than their own will be prioritized
Apply
Applications for the 2021 Flourish Fund have closed. Applications will reopen in early 2023.
Previous Grant Recipients
2021 Arts Organizers and Curators
- Garnette Archer
- Anita-Joyce Barnes
- Kasia Bielak-Hoops
- Sarah Blanchette
- Dominique Campbell
- Ashley Cook
- Cyrah Dardas
- Vickie Elmer
- Danya Ensing
- Taraneh Fazeli
- Hadassah GreenSky
- Flor Hernandez
- LaShaun Kotaran
- Lu Fuki
- Michael Manson
- Rebecca Mazzei
- Brian Oscar
- Steve Panton
- Joel Peterson
- Jonah Raduns-Silverstein
- Rick Robinson
- Emilio Rodriguez
- Kelsey Ronan
- Dylan Spaysky
- Karyn Stetz
- Elizabeth Stone
- Adrienne Trupiano-Stepaniak
- Benito “Mav-One” Vasquez
- Jenny Vaughn
- Karl Wenclas
- Benjamin Williams
- Danielle Wright
2020 Artists
Program Development
In 2020, we reimagined the Creators of Culture program by beginning with Discovery Sessions and a Program Design Meeting with 16 community members to glean insights about types of “creators of culture” to support in our region. The purpose of the program development process was to have CultureSource invest significant time on the front end of the process to determine who, in characteristics, should get funding, and then on the back end, make it very easy for that select group of people who identify with the profiles to apply for unrestricted funding, having their applications assessed using objective eligibility criteria.
2020 Types of Applications
Artists doing work made for others to experience that contains elements of social commentary and that is found in the brilliance of the margins or outside of dominant narratives of arts and culture. Artists in this category must also have not received a single award or grant of $3,000 or more in the past five years. Priority consideration will be given to artists meeting the criteria above who also work as a multi-generational mentor/mentee team. One member of the team must be age 55 or older, and the other be between the ages of 18 and 25.
Venues presenting arts and culture for others to experience. Prior to COVID-19 becoming a pandemic on March 11, 2020, these non-residential spaces must have been presenting work of creative or cultural expression on a regular basis (averaging at least two days per week year-round) and must have had a yearly budget of less than $100,000.
- Patricia Beard
- Asia Blaney
- Leith Campbell
- Halima Cassells
- DaTrice Clark
- Raymond Elwart Jr
- Bruce Harper
- Megan Heeres
- Gabriel Herrera-Duran
- LaShaun Kotaran
- Leo Margolis
- Lindsay McCaw
- Ulysses Newkirk
- Andre Reed
- Denise Rohde
- Frannie Shepherd-Bates
- Alexander Smith
- Levi Stroud
- Jacob Ward
- Audra Wist
- John Wood
2020 Venues
- 306 Studios
- Andy
- A2 Women Artists
- Creative Arts Center North Oakland County Cultivate
- Detroit Shipping Co.
- GIGIs
- Jo’s Gallery
- KickstART Farmington
- M Contemporary Art
- Metropolitan Museum of Design Detroit
- River’s Edge Gallery Room Project
- St. Clair Art Association
- Starkweather Arts Center
- Trinity House
- Theatre Trinosophes
- We Are Culture Creators
2019 Awards
- A Host of People
- Arab.AMP
- Aratani・Fay
- Ballet Edge Detroit
- Bandhu Gardens
- Cooper Holoweski
- Dearborn Community Fund
- Detroit Composers Project
- Detroit Sound Conservancy
- Detroit Theater Organ Society
- Digital Arts Film & Television
- Emily Kokay
- Friends of Historical Hamtramck
- Iman Saleh
- Imani Mixon
- Jennifer Harge
- Kathleen Parks
- Kristi Faulkner Dance
- Maamoul Press
- Mack Alive
- Marion Hayden
- Markita Moore
- Marlynne Willingham
- Matthew J. Green (Jaye Green)
- Mexicantown Community Development Corporation
- Motor Signal Reading Series
- The Motor City Singers’ Space
- New Music Detroit
- Northville Art House
- Noura Ballout
- Opera MODO
- PuppetART
- Rick Robinson
- Room Project
- Stitches Women’s Initiatives
- The Detroit Suzuki Academy of Music
- The Society for the Re-Institutionalization of Storytelling
- The Village Theater at Cherry Hill
- Thistle Rose Academy of Arts
- Tiff Massey Studios
- Women of Banglatown
QUESTIONS?
Please see our responses to Frequently Asked Questions here.
If you have additional questions about eligibility and application content, contact CultureSource at adesjardins@culturesource.org