Arts and Culture Program

The Kresge Foundation seeks to build vibrant communities enlivened by the presence of healthy arts and cultural organizations and creative artists that together encourage participation in and support for all forms of cultural expression.

We believe well-capitalized cultural organizations are better able to serve diverse populations with meaningful programming; that artists can more effectively engage audiences and contribute to community life if they have the skills and resources necessary for career success; and that integrating arts and culture into community building and revitalization efforts energizes localities both economically and culturally.

Well-capitalized cultural institutions + Well-resourced artists + Well-integrated arts and community building = Strong, vibrant cities, towns and communities.

Our programmatic approach

Kresge’s national strategy for the Arts and Culture program is focused in three areas:

• Institutional Capitalization – promoting sound capitalization practices and sustainable cultural facility management among cultural organizations and funders through grants for facility investments and building reserves, and working to strengthen individual organizations and the sector as a whole through other, targeted grant opportunities. We define capitalization as the accumulation of aggregate resources put to use to achieve an organization’s mission. Government and academic institutions are not considered cultural organizations. For more information, visit the Institutional Capitalization page.
• Artists’ Support Services – boosting artists’ skills and resources to contribute to community life by supporting exemplary national programs that advance artists’ entrepreneurial skills, expand live-work spaces for artists in diverse communities, and commission and disseminate useful information on the ways that artists benefit their communities. For more information, visit the Artists’ Support Services page.
• Arts and Community Building – integrating arts and culture into effective community building efforts by strengthening the role cultural organizations, artists and creative industries play in community revitalization and transformation through infrastructure support for the field nationally and grants to leading nonprofit organizations, as well as convening, research and promotion of best practices, and other Kresge-initiated, placed-based initiatives. For more information, visit the Arts and Community Building page.

The Arts and Culture Program will no longer consider traditional facilities-capital challenge grant applications. All requests for facilities funding must be made through Institutional Capitalization as outlined above.

How we work

The work of the Kresge Foundation is guided by nine values. Four values in particular, shape the grantmaking in the Arts and Culture Program. They are:

• Create opportunity and enhance access to arts and culture through authentic and relevant programs that exemplify excellence in the field; that involve people of all social and economic backgrounds; and increase participation of new and nontraditional audiences.
• Exhibit a high level of community impact through work that contributes to a vibrant arts and cultural ecosystem and exemplifies excellence in the field; benefits the broad local community and reflects the diversity of the community population; advances community building efforts; and embodies key principles of community planning to enhance quality of life.
• Stimulate innovation through work that furthers best practices in the field; uses new and possibly untested approaches; and brings multi-party, interdisciplinary approaches to problems that defy solution by a single sector.
• Support institutional transformation and the capacity to profoundly influence the overall organization and its operations; or create new business models to strengthen financial stability.

top

Beginning this year, the Arts and Culture Program is engaging in a new partnership with the Cultural Data Project (CDP). The first management tool of its kind, the CDP is a state-wide, collaborative effort of public and private funders throughout participating states and consists of an online system for collecting and standardizing historical financial and organizational data. The Kresge Foundation, along with other funders in participating states, now requires Arts and Culture applicants residing in one of the participating states (California, Illinois, New York, Maryland, Massachusetts, Ohio, and Pennsylvania) to complete a Data Profile annually through the Cultural Data Project Web site.

The Cultural Data Project will provide the cultural community with consistent, reliable, comprehensive data on arts and culture, and enable organizations to view trends in their data, benchmark themselves against peer organizations, and enhance their financial management capacity.

For more information about the Cultural Data Project, please visit www.culturaldata.org.

Funding guidelines

The Arts and Culture Program has different funding guidelines for each focus area, as outlined below:

Institutional Capitalization invites preliminary applications for its facility investments and building reserves grants twice a year, in the spring and the fall.

We are currently accepting preliminary applications begining Friday, July 30, 2010 through Wednesday, September 15, 2010, at midnight Eastern Time. In November 2010, we will post a program update on the Web site’s front page announcing the spring 2011 preliminary application period for facility investments and building reserves grants.

All other Institutional Capitalization grant opportunities are by invitation only. Unsolicited applications are not accepted.

Artists’ Support Services solicits applications on an invitation-only basis. Unsolicited applications are not accepted.

Arts and Community Building solicits applications on an invitation-only basis. Unsolicited applications are not accepted.

Eligibility

Visit the Institutional Capitalization, Artists’ Support Services, and Arts and Community Building pages to learn of any additional or differing eligibility requirements that are specific to the respective focus area.

In general, the following may apply:

• 501(c)(3) organizations based in the United States that are not classified as private foundations and have audited financial statements prepared and certified by a certified public accountant in accordance with U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles or Government Accounting Standards. In general, we do not accept compilations, reviews, or financial statements prepared on a cash or modified cash basis.
• Government entities that have audited financial statements prepared and certified by a certified public accountant in accordance with U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles or Government Accounting Standards.
• International organizations that would qualify as charitable organizations under United States law and have an independent audit prepared in accordance with their recognized local standards.

Who may not apply?

• Individuals
• Individual elementary and secondary schools

If you have questions, e-mail the Grants Inquiry Coordinator or call 248-643-9630.

 

The artist, Cie. Willi Dorner's "Bodies in Urban Spaces" at the 2008 Philadelphia Live Arts Festival. Dorner's work places human bodies in selected urban settings with the intention of provoking a response from passers-by, residents and audience members. The artwork is temporary and leaves no trace except for the eyewitnesses' memory. With Michael O'Connor Adams Berzins, Nicole Bindler, Jacelyn Biondo, Jonathan Bulack, Rick Callender, Adrianna Carey, Liza Clark, Ajja DeShayne, Carolina del Hierro, Kate Jordan, Jennifer Morley, Sara Nye, Gabrielle Revlock, Lisa Rothstein, Kristen Shahverdian, Kate Speer, Zornitsa Stoyanova, Daniele Strawmyre, Sara Yassky and James Peniston.

Photo by Jacques-Jean Tiziou