Flexing our adaptive capacity building skills, we’re embracing complexity and shaping our Spring Biannual Member Meeting as a series of vignettes with the same goal of sharing knowledge and bringing our members together. Events will take place during the week of March 21–25.
Daily Music Moment
About Thursday’s Guest
DeLashea Strawder
Executive Director, Mosaic Youth Detroit
A champion of arts and culture and its inherent ability to motivate, empower and mobilize, DeLashea Strawder celebrates every opportunity to inspire individuals and communities to embrace the arts as vehicles for positive change. She is the Executive & Artistic Director of the internationally acclaimed Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit, a creative youth development organization that uses the arts to increase equity. As an artist and arts administrator working at the intersection of education, arts & culture, and social justice Strawder knows firsthand how music and theater can foster engagement, transform communities, increase opportunity, and promote equity.
Music Moment – Wednesday, March 23
About Wednesday’s Guest
Maggie Cocco
Digital Programming, Girls Rock Detroit
Maggie Cocco is an American musician, composer, activist, educator, and performer based in New Zealand. Maggie works with singers, schools, and organizations on facilitating authenticity, awareness, and connection through music. Current performance projects include Science for Sociopaths, The Maggie Cocco Band, and The San Detroit Band.
Music Moment – Tuesday, March 22
About Tuesday’s Guest
Ben Will
Executive Director, Motor City Sings
Ben Will serves as the Executive Director of Motor City Sings a 501©3 non-profit organization that utilizes music as a vehicle to remove stigma from the topics of mental health and suicide prevention within the Black/African American community of Detroit. As a singer-songwriter himself, Ben operates in the purpose-work of spreading joy through music production, cultural curation, and psychoeducation advocacy.
Born on Detroit’s eastside, Ben has been making music his entire life. Ben immersed himself in music and performance from his early studies of voice and theory as a Mosaic Singer and Renaissance High School Varsity Chorus member to studying arts and sciences at Cornell University, New York University, University of Detroit Mercy and Wayne State University. As an International Cultural Ambassador with the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Ben produces music and cultural events such as The Motor City Singers’ Space, The HAM Slam, WordPlay and Boa Me: A Community Songwriting Project.
Music Moment – Monday, March 21
About Monday’s Guest
Maury Okun
President of Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings, and ArtOps
Maury Okun (he/him) is President of Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings (and a co-founder) and ArtOps, LLC, and the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival. In this capacity, he has overseen the remarkable growth of a number of the area’s strongest mid-size arts organizations, a number of which he has played a role in founding. Previously he was the Director of Development at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. He retired as principal trombonist of the Michigan Opera Theatre five years ago and is active in the nonprofit community through his roles as a board member of Culture Source and Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Musically, he has been a faculty member at both Michigan State University and the University of Toledo.
TUESDAY, 10:00 A.M. – 12:00 P.M.
Cutting Edge: Immersive Art & Digital Experience
via Zoom, with Alan Brown of WolfBrown
Commercial ventures are surging investment in live and digital immersive entertainment. How can the nonprofit arts and culture sector keep up? This highly visual hybrid workshop explores the current state and future of immersive entertainment as inspiration and a provocation to make change.
THURSDAY, 1:00 – 3:00 P.M.
Grab a Coffee on CultureSource!
in person, at three cafes in Southeast Michigan
We’re partnering with three local coffee shops to offer a free drink for our members who stop by to network with CultureSource staff! Join us on Thursday from 1 – 3 p.m., at either lab in Ann Arbor, Narrow Way Cafe in Detroit, or Alley Cat Cafe in Pontiac. Keep an eye on your inbox for instructions on claiming your free drink.
Updates & Resources
Strategists-in-Residence now available
As our sector works to recover from the pandemic and build resiliency in preparation to face new challenges, CultureSource members voiced their need for guidance when planning their cultural competency and digital technology strategies. To meet these needs, CultureSource has engaged professionals with that expertise to share their knowledge and co-think with you on demand.
Capitalization Needs Assessment out now
To measure the changing needs of the Southeast Michigan arts sector during the ongoing health crisis, CultureSource commissioned WolfBrown to compile a capitalization needs assessment that will support data-driven decision making at organization and systems levels. The report is out now, along with CultureSource’s plan to respond to the recommendations.
Fundraising Workshops
We’ve been hosting a monthly fundraising workshop series to discuss trends in arts fundraising, each featuring special guests we’ve asked to join us and share their insights.
Registration is now open for April’s session: Trends in Giving with Aly Sterling, of Aly Sterling Philanthropy. Aly will share new trends in giving, donor expectations, and how to build the case for “why” to your team. We’ll also hear from a panel of local leaders who said “yes” to change in their development program trajectory, what worked, and what surprised them along the way. Events are free to CultureSource members and $10 for nonmembers.
MACC Minigrants Available
The deadline is approaching for Michigan Arts and Culture Council Minigrants. Grants are available for PreK-12 educators to fund the purchase of arts supplies, or arrange transportation for a cultural field trip.
Late Registration
Forgot to register? It’s not too late! Sign up here and we’ll be in touch with event information.