Community Foundation and CultureSource Announce $275,000 from COVID-19 Arts and Creative Community Assistance Fund
The Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, in partnership with CultureSource, has announced that five organizations will each receive $55,000 for projects through the COVID-19 Arts and Creative Community Assistance Fund to creatively connect with their audiences while adhering to social distancing regulations.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the arts and culture sector,” said Mariam Noland, president, Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan. “We are pleased to partner with CultureSource and provide support to help arts and culture organizations innovate and shift their business models to address needs in their communities.”
“These arts projects represent creativity and ingenuity in serving communities,” said Omari Rush, executive director, CultureSource. “We can all be proud that organizations like these awardees exist throughout southeast Michigan and are undeterred in helping keep our region vibrant and prosperous.”
The COVID-19 Arts and Creative Community Assistance Fund was launched in 2020 to help nonprofit arts and culture organizations relieve financial pressures generated by the COVID-19 pandemic and plan for and pivot to new mission-related opportunities.
The Fund is supported by the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, DeRoy Testamentary Foundation, Ford Foundation, Kresge Foundation, Leinweber Foundation, Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation, Peck Foundation, and William Davidson Foundation
The five organizations and projects that recently received funding include:
Michigan Opera Theatre: To produce a boundary-pushing outdoor theatre experiences that deliver live performance opportunities by the Michigan Opera Theatre and other partner organizations for a COVID-compliant summer season.
Detroit Historical Society: To develop, in collaboration with Design Core Detroit, a replicable and scalable model that blends community engagement, technology, and design to create revolutionary ways to experience Detroit’s history in public spaces.
Accent Pontiac: To implement the Porch Lessons program, an outdoor, socially-distant music lesson initiative at students’ homes, along with offering wraparound support to Pontiac students throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
Heritage Works: To create new sites of community connection, wisdom, and regeneration by combining the innovations of digital and web-based community building and creative placemaking with West African culture traditions and arts.
Young Nation: To construct a casita in southwest Detroit that facilitates arts-based popular education sessions to build neighbor relationships and create art that activates conversation and collective responses to community needs and challenges.
About the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan
The Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan is a full-service philanthropic organization leading the way to positive change in our region. As a permanent community endowment built by gifts from thousands of individuals and organizations, the Foundation supports a wide variety of activities benefiting education, arts and culture, health, human services, community development, and civic affairs. Since its inception, the Foundation has distributed more than $1.2 billion through more than 79,000 grants to nonprofit organizations throughout Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Monroe, Washtenaw, St. Clair, and Livingston counties. For more information, visit www.cfsem.org
About CultureSource
CultureSource is a Detroit-based membership association that supports the vitality and sustainability of the Southeast Michigan creative community. Incorporated in 2007, over 175 arts and culture nonprofits now comprise its membership, which it serves by facilitating convenings and networking activities, managing funding/grantmaking initiatives, collecting data, and sharing knowledge. Additionally, CultureSource uses its expertise to serve artists, policymakers, and philanthropists striving to have creative and cultural expression benefit the public across the seven-county region. For more information, visit culturesource.org