$3 million in U.S. Regional Arts Resilience Fund re-granted
Arts Midwest and the Mid-America Arts Alliance have announced grants totaling more than $3 million through the United States Regional Arts Resilience Fund in support of arts and cultural organizations impacted by COVID-19.
Launched in June with grants totaling $10 million from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to six regional arts organizations — $1.5 million each to Arts Midwest, the Mid-America Arts Alliance, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, New England Foundation for the Arts, South Arts, and Western States Arts Federation — the fund provides non-matching grants to small and midsize arts and cultural organizations struggling with the economic fallout of the public health emergency, with a focus on groups that are historically underresourced and those representing underresourced populations, communities, and art forms.
To that end, Arts Midwest used its $1.5 million to award grants to thirty organizations — including twenty-two led by and serving people of color and/or Indigenous peoples and eleven rural nonprofits — in its nine-state region (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin). Recipients include the American Indian Center ($50,000) in Chicago, Illinois; the Black Hills Playhouse ($50,000) in Rapid City, South Dakota; the Community School of the Arts ($50,000) in Marion, Indiana; the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company ($55,000) in Dayton, Ohio; Heritage Works ($50,000) in Detroit, Michigan; the Hmong Cultural Center ($50,000) in St. Paul, Minnesota; the Oneida Nation Arts Program ($50,000) in Oneida, Wisconsin; the Plains Art Museum ($50,000) in Fargo, North Dakota; and the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum ($50,000) in Decorah, Iowa.
With additional support from the Windgate Foundation, the Mid-America Arts Alliance awarded grants totaling more than $1.5 million to twenty-seven organizations in its six-state region (Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas). Recipients include the American Jazz Museum ($50,000) in Kansas City, Missouri; the Black Liberated Arts Center, Inc. ($30,000) in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Dance of Asian America ($40,000); in Houston, Texas; DeltaARTS ($50,000) in West Memphis, Arkansas; the Mid-America All-Indian Center Museum ($30,000) in Wichita, Kansas; and El Museo Latino ($50,000) in Omaha, Nebraska.
"We are honored to provide this critical support to these extraordinary arts organizations within the Mid-America region," said Mid-America Arts Alliance president and CEO Todd Stein. "In focusing on organizations led by or supporting communities of color and rural communities, we reinforce the importance of these organizations and their vital role within our arts ecosystems. The arts have the power to unite, uplift, and propel our region forward, and it is a crucial need to fund these organizations that are often overlooked and historically underresourced."
(Photo credit: Dallas Black Dance)
