New grant program funds 41 arts groups across metro Detroit

From the restoration of an important Detroit techno artifact to theater recasting images of women in power, 41 arts groups, projects and collectives across metro Detroit will receive grants of $3,000 each through a new foundation-backed initiative to bring such projects to fruition.

Creators of Culture is administered by CultureSource and funded by The Kresge Foundation, Erb Family Foundation and Hudson-Webber Foundation.

Last week the foundations along with the DeRoy Testamentary Foundation announced 74 annual grants generally ranging from $100,000 to $5,000 a year for three years from organizations ranging from the Detroit Institute of Arts to the Grosse Pointe War Memorial Association. That was the latest round of the longstanding Detroit Arts Support initiative.

Those grants totaled $12.2 million and introduced a single, streamlined application process by which all four could make individual decisions following a common review process.

The new Creators of Culture grants was created as a new outreach to support smaller, younger, less formal producers who do not meet the minimum requirements of the Detroit Arts Support initiative, for instance not having any full-time staff.

Rush said that CultureSource received 191 applications from which the 41 grantees were selected.

Reviewing the applications, Rush added, “makes us even more energized to find ways to meet the great opportunity for enabling creative expression in our region.”

Among the projects are a new production, “Cleopatra Boy,” by the Detroit-based theater company A Host of People. The play uses the history of Cleopatra to illustrate how women, people of color, and LGBTQ individuals in positions of power risk losing control of their own images and histories, resulting in false narratives and misrepresentations.

Another project is Detroit Sound Conservancy’s plan to restore the legendary sound system of the gay bar Club Heaven, which was important in shaping the sound of Detroit techno, which has become renowned worldwide.

CultureSource will offer at least 25 grants of $3,000 in 2020 and 2021. Application details will be announced in the spring of each year.

CultureSource’s mission is to advance the work of organizations that cultivate creative and cultural expression in Southeast Michigan. Working within that mission includes offering programs specifically for the creators and artists who are part of or who partner with organizations.

Banner Image: A workshop with poet Franny Choi at the Room Project, in Detroit, a space for women and nonbinary writers. Photo by Christin Lee, courtesy the Room Project.