Grant applications will open in September 2021

Improving access to capital for small-scale arts activity in Southeast Michigan

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
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.

Eligibility

Creators of Culture to be supported in 2020 are artists and venues. Applicants may apply to ONE category and all applicants must be in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Washtenaw, Livingston, Monroe, or St. Clair counties.

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.

Priority consideration will be given to venues that go beyond presenting or exhibiting work to support the creative people or projects they are hosting, such as providing business coaching, space for storage or to create, promotion (beyond promoting the performance, exhibit, reading), or access to tools, equipment, supplies, and professional contacts.

Apply

Grant applications will open in September 2021.

Thank you for your interest in applying to the Creators of Culture grant program. You may submit only one application, choosing to apply either as an artist or a venue. If you are applying in the artist category as a multi-generational team, we expect that both artists will share the award equally or use it to pay for joint expenses.

Previous Grant Recipients

QUESTIONS?

Please see our responses to Frequently Asked Questions here.

If you have additional questions about eligibility and application content, contact CultureSource Resource Services Coordinator Adam DesJardins: adesjardins@culturesource.org or (313) 831-1151.