Arts and Community Development

The Culture & Community Power Fund seeks to invest in, connect, and amplify efforts to help build community power through arts and culture.

The Fund is a lab to broaden and deepen the understanding of how art and culture can contribute to community power building. We experiment with ways to support organizations, individuals, and networks doing this work. We’re committed to sharing our learning with practitioners, investors, public officials, researchers, and others to help advance art and culture as a critical tool to support community power building.

From SMU DataArts: Support for Local Arts Agencies (LAAs) gets called into question on an all-too-frequent basis. Just recently, the Charlotte, NC city council voted to make the Arts and Sciences Council (ASC) of Charlotte ineligible to receive operating dollars to support the personnel, technology and other resources necessary to do its work for the broader cultural sector. Last year in Philadelphia, Mayor Jim Kenney proposed a $1 million cut to funding for the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, though funding levels were restored in the final budget after significant advocacy from local arts communities and their supporters. Do funding cuts have consequences for a community's arts vibrancy?

From Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors: Philanthropy has the power to create meaningful and lasting change in the world. However, to do so, we must center people and communities in our work. Join us for the first session of our webinar series where we will explore the importance of centering the voices of impacted communities in philanthropy as we work towards a just world. 

From Bloomberg Philanthropies: Bloomberg Philanthropies announced today that all cities in Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. can apply for $25,000 USD Asphalt Art Initiative grants to help improve street safety, activate public spaces, and engage community residents. The expansion of the Asphalt Art Initiative to Canada and Mexico builds upon three rounds of previous Asphalt Art Initiative grants made in 2020-2022, supporting a total of 64 projects spanning 41 U.S. cities and 22 European cities. The initiative invites Canadian, Mexican, and U.S. cities of any size to apply by June 12, 2023. Up to twenty winning cities will be announced in the fall with selected projects planned for installation throughout 2024. In addition to grants, the selected cities will receive technical consulting provided by Bloomberg Associates in partnership with tactical urbanism firm Street Plans Collaborative. 

From The Lewis Prize for Music: We are thrilled to announce that The Lewis Prize for Music, a philanthropic music arts organization committed to advancing systems change through Creative Youth Development, is now accepting applications for its 2024 Accelerator Awards.

Launched on March 21, 2023, the $250 million Yield Giving Open Call is an initiative focused on elevating organizations working with people and in places experiencing the greatest need in the United States: communities, individuals, and families with access to the fewest foundational resources and opportunities. The registration period is now open.

Join Unbound Philanthropy for the second session of our Narrative Learning Series March 27, 2023 from 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM EDT featuring Ai-jen Poo (National Domestic Workers Alliance), Cristina Jimenz (United We Dream & United We Dream Action), and moderator Bridgit Antoinette Evans (Pop Culture Collaborative).

From ASC: Last night, Feb. 27, 2023, Charlotte City Council approved a policy framework for its Arts and Culture Advisory Board. The framework makes ASC ineligible to receive operating dollars to support the personnel, technology and other resources necessary to do its work for the broader cultural sector.

From Hyperallergic: "Last week, the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture opened applications for its new grant program Creative Recovery LA. The regional initiative will distribute $26 million to nonprofit arts organizations hardest hit by the pandemic — the “largest investment we’ve ever received at the County level for the arts,” according to Anji Gaspar-Milanovic, director of grants and professional development for LA County Arts and Culture."

"The Bori-Corridor, a project that will increase the presence of Puerto Rican artists in the eastern United States and connect them with the main cultural centers of the diaspora, received a $700,000 allocation from the Mellon Foundation for its development beginning next year," said Sin Comillas on behalf of Mellon Foundation. "The Mellon Foundation is the leading funder of the arts and humanities in the United States. The proposal was presented by Elsa Mosquera Sterenberg and Zeida García Casillas from Ágora Cultural Architects."