Arts Midwest Incorporated

Regional Prosperity: Arts Midwest's Regional Prosperity programs support artists, arts leaders, organizations, and communities throughout the Midwest. Efforts include giving grants for arts events, activities, and projects that advance equity; supporting artist tours; partnering with communities to create artist residencies; and providing services to our member State Arts Agencies.

Celebrating Midwestern Creativity: Arts Midwest seeks to amplify Midwestern creativity. To that end, we honor, celebrate, and reward innovative artists and leaders in our region through a series of award programs. These awards recognize folk arts practitioners and culture bearers, disabled visual artists, and entrepreneurial arts administrators. We are also home to the Creativity News Desk, a cultural reporting and storytelling initiative that amplifies Midwestern creativity. Through the News Desk, we commission and publish stories that go beyond traditional arts coverage and celebrate creativity in all its forms. We also support partnerships, grants, and learning opportunities for the media field.

National Initiatives: Arts Midwest serves the national arts sector through partnerships with the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and our five sister U.S. Regional Arts Organizations (USRAOs). We manage two programs on behalf of the NEA: Shakespeare in American Communities and the NEA Big Read. Through these programs, we issue grants to organizations to connect young people with the work of William Shakespeare and conduct community reading programs - bringing high-quality arts activities to communities across the nation. We also work closely with the other five USRAOs to design and implement programs that collectively reach organizations across the United States. Additionally, we provide financial support to the USRAO collective to support our shared leadership model.