Program areas at RedLine
Regranting program: Redline continues to support the relationship between arts and intersectional/cross-sector work through our regranting programs like arts in society; a collaboration that currently includes funding from bonfils-stanton foundation, Colorado health foundation, denver arts & venues, and Colorado creative industries. Insite fund; a collaboration with the andy warhol foundation for the visual arts. Safe creative space; a partnership with the office of community planning and development and denver arts & venues; and the artworks program; in collaboration with federal emergency management agency (fema) and resilience action partners. All of these regranting or funding programs are detailed on redlines website under our art grants menu. In addition, since 2020, Redline continues to be in partnership with our city and state arts agency to help facilitate relief, recovery and responsive regranting for the city and the state through a public proposal and bid process. Each of these programs fill a unique gap in Colorado philanthropy and government partnership in that without redlines partnership, oftentimes this cross-sector work would not be available to artists, collectives or organizations that are doing unique projects that go beyond the scope of just arts funding. Below is a summary of this work and the unique gap it fills with partnerships between local, county-specific and state philanthropy and government. The safe occupancy program & safe creative space fund: in 2018, Redline partnered with the gates family foundation, the office of community planning & development, and denver arts & venues to launch the safe occupancy program & safe creative space fund. This program and fund provides grants to artists and/or creative space owners to bring their spaces up to code and address any building safety concerns in relation to their creative uses. The safe occupancy program & safe creative space fund is in direct response to the growing need for artists to have access to funding and professional development resources to operate safe and creative spaces within denver county. This program has helped 13 artist-run spaces to bring their spaces up to code and remain in operation.in-site fund: in 2019, Redline became one of 13 organizations (at that time, since then the network has doubled) across the country that administers the andy warhol foundation's regional regranting program. This project-based small grants program specifically supports artists and collectives that need funding and resources for temporary and under the radar projects within a 100-mile radius of denver. Distributing up to $10,000 grants, these projects support artists that may not have an institutional relationship or opportunity but can utilize the funds to help their projects be accessible to communities and realized beyond the gallery, museum or art space context. With a continued commitment to increasing the infrastructures of support around artists careers, Redline has been responding to a growing need for grassroots organizations and artist-driven projects to have a fiscal sponsor. Since 2018, Redline has been engaging, mentoring, providing space, resources and peer support to the organizational development to important community organizations like slam nuba, Colorado native, duplessis art, hope tank, and bread & roses as well as artist-driven social justice projects.
Education program: redlines reach studio program provides a safe studio space, materials, community and professional development opportunities for artists experiencing homelessness in the five points neighborhood. This program has been instrumental in artists transitioning from financial hardship or homelessness to more selfsufficiency because of the resources, support and opportunities reach studio provides. One key partnership is for 2-3 reach studio artists to receive full ride scholarships for a bachelors degree in the arts at the rocky mountain college of art & design. Since launching reach studio, Redline has been able to facilitate this unique opportunity for 6 artists, one of which who was just awarded a residency at Redline that graduated from rmcad last year. In 2022, Redline increased partnerships to different service providers and support groups in recovery, or who experience mental or physical disabilities, as well as veterans. Our community studio, which is the physical location inside of Redline that reach studio operates, now hosts different value-aligned organizations for community art classes, in which Redline provides an open studio community art facilitator. Partnering organizations include peer 2 peer recovery, Colorado coalition for the homeless, revel (supporting young people and adults with autism), veterans to farmers, and st. francis center. In 2012, Redline launched artcorps, which places 2-3 vista volunteers in neighborhood schools to build development capacity for arts programming in title 1 schools. In 2019, Redline expanded its artcorps mentoring program by adding new volunteers in the whittier and bruce randolph schools. It is the only program of its kind in the country. Artcorps is responsible for re-introducing a choir program in whittier ece-8 school and provides one-on-one afterschool youth art mentoring through collaboration with artists for youth experiencing homelessness (grades 6 - 8th) in whittier ece-8 and bruce randolph schools. In 2021, this program was renamed youth art mentoring and has expanded from 8 artists and 8 mentees to 25 artists and 25 mentees in three schools and has added an art therapy component, which engages a weekly certified therapist.redline also continues to facilitate our epic arts program, that facilitates a collaboration between a k12 classroom, an art, social studies or history teacher, and a resident or community artist to develop a socially-engaged art project informed by student concerns. This program works 8 - 12 schools per semester and culminates with an exhibition with all of the collaborating schools in spring side by side with the culminating exhibition for youth art mentoring.
Exhibition program: exhibitions at Redline are informed by an open call for artists, curators and community members to submit proposals that help to inform a deep dive into a theme that emerges from our public proposal process. Each year redlines exhibition committee reviews proposals by visiting curators or artist representatives and then designs a calendar that situates exhibitions across a year that thematically align but highlight different perspectives on an anchoring theme.