PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT
We reimagined the 2020 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 this year’s 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.
APPLYING
Thank you for your interest in applying to the Creators of Culture grant program.
Applications open September 15, 2020. The first grantee decisions will be made on September 30, 2020, and after that, we will make funding decisions in the order that we receive applications until all funding has been allocated.
You may submit only one application, choosing to apply either as an artist or a venue.
This year’s Creators of Culture funding will total $150,000. Grants are expected to range from $3,000 to $5,000 each. All awards will be for the same amount.
If you receive a grant, you will be required to give CultureSource your Social Security Number or Tax Identification Number on a W9 form.
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.
