WHAT WE DO
WHAT WE DO
Provide resources to our membership
Connect creatives with jobs and grants
Offer training for seasoned and rising leaders
Collect and share cultural sector data
Help philanthropists distribute funding
Facilitate artistic use of digital tech
WHO WE SERVE
Our resources are accessible to arts organizations, artists, and collaborators in the seven counties of Southeast Michigan: St. Clair, Macomb, Oakland, Livingston, Washtenaw, Wayne and Monroe.
HOW WE WORK
Our core focus areas are supported by three pillars around which we
center our programmatic focus: Convening, Funding, and Research.
We Connect Leaders, Organizations, and Ideas
Through regular professional development and leadership convenings both virtual and in-person we bring people, organizations, and ideas together to build skills and foster collaboration among the sector.
With discussions on special topics, regular roundtables with arts leaders, and biannual member meetings, our programs provide a space for members to share commonalities in their work and develop new strategies for advancing their missions.
We help fund creative projects and people
Through funding, regranting and fiscal sponsorship initiatives, we collaborate with partners to expediently provide needed funding to bring people, organizations, and ideas that will support our vision of a flourishing cultural sector in Southeast Michigan and beyond.
We have partnered with funders in the sector to provide audience-building opportunities to art organizations, and relief grants to artists suffering financially due to Covid-19. We are also the Wayne County regrantor for the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs minigrants program.
We share knowledge to advance the sector
We regularly engage in practices of research and learning in order to build field knowledge and enhance our work of convening and grantmaking.
In our portfolio of research activities, we are partner of the AEI Lab at Indiana Universtity and have partnerships with arts research firms locally and nationally, including WolfBrown, with whom we participated in the Audience Outlook Monitor of Southeast Michigan.
Our Big Next Step
To better position arts organizations to embrace the difficult demands of adapting to complexity, we’ve acquired the national consulting nonprofit EmcArts. We’re excited to bring their unique program model to Southeast Michigan and empower our peers to create sustainable structure to realize new models of programming.
CultureSource and EmcArts have previously offered learning experiences centered around building the skills needed for adaptive re-imagining through our Innovation Week symposium, and workshops for organizations that train them to do mission-driven work in tandem with rigorous reflection, and strategic investment.
FOCUS AREAS
TECH + ARTS
In an effort to prepare for and thrive in blended artistic environments, we have outlined a programmatic response to address challenges that come with curating hybrid arts experiences.
Through our Digital Access for the Arts program, in partnership with Rocket Community Fund, we issued 20 grants to member organizations to fund their digital evolution and investment. The program also included a research component that surveyed the needs of arts organizations as they work to adapt their programming to online environments, and recommendations for integration.
CREATIVE EXPRESSION
Creative activity of all scopes and scales is fundamental to the vitality of our communities. We aim to nurture a more diverse ecosystem in which a wider variety of creatives are able to craft new narratives about culture.
Our Creators of Culture and Flourish Fund programs are designed to fund artist-led projects that are experimental, embrace contemporary and creative possibilities for the future of arts and culture. By improving access to capital and funding grassroots creative initiatives, we hope to counterbalance access possessed by large, established institutions.
CULTURAL COMPETENCY
We believe in uplifting voices historically oppressed by privilege, and working with our sector partners to develop more equitable practices.
With our partners at Team Dynamics, we convened arts leaders to explore the challenges of creating inclusive workplaces and support them in building skills and practicing application. And we collaborated with the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation to launch CultureMakers, a program for young leaders of color to explore contemporary practices in the arts sector and shift dominant narratives about culture.
PRESS
Press Inquiries
Contact our communications director, Robert Swetlic, at rswetlic@culturesource.org.
Stay in Touch
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