Two Detroit arts organizations are one step closer to turning their artistic visions into reality.
Leveraging Investments in Creativity (LINC), a national arts organization, awarded $50,000 to the Heidelberg Project in Detroit, and $100,000 to the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD).
Heidelberg will use the money to build an outdoor public art project on Detroit’s east side. MOCAD will use the money to create an outdoor space for art and community engagement.
Judilee Reed is executive director of LINC. She says the two projects are "emblematic of solutions that, if successful, will really bode well for other projects around the country. So we see them as important examples."
LINC awarded Space for as part of its Space for Change and Pre-Development grants to a total of 12 arts organizations around the country:
The 12 winners were chosen from nearly 700 applicants from 49 states as well as the District of Columbia. They responded to a call last April from LINC, in partnership with Ford, for letters of interest from nonprofit arts organizations intending to buy, construct, renovate, help develop, or become anchor tenants in an art space or cultural facility. Full proposals were invited from organizations with strong track records of artistic excellence, diverse leadership and active community engagement. The projects that proved to be outstanding were rooted not only from the internal needs of the organization, but also took into account the role of the cultural facility as an essential community asset. A total of $1 million was distributed through this program. Grantees received planning and predevelopment support up to $100,000.
Reed says the two Detroit projects were inspiring because of "the level of disinvestment, the spirit of renewal and the enormous hope that’s held within the community."
The other recipients of Space for Change Planning and Pre-Development Grants include Brooklyn's 651 Arts, Washington D.C.'s Dance Place, and Intersection for the Arts in San Francisco.
