Amplifying the power of Midwestern creativity

Arts Midwest supports, informs, and celebrates arts organizations and creative communities in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin, the Native Nations that share this geography, and beyond.

Learn About Arts Midwest

Photo by: Mia McGill

Joyful, loud, and Midwest proud

Read about creative ideas, people, and projects happening in our region and beyond.

Midwest Strong: What Recent Economic Data Tells Us About the Region’s Creative Sector

Mar. 15. 2023

What’s the economic value of Midwestern creativity? $109 billion, according to new research from the National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Strengthening Community, One Love Letter at a Time

Mar. 14. 2023

Step aside, Paris: New Bedford, Massachusetts is the new city of love. Residents created a city-wide letter-writing campaign that inspired an internationally successful documentary.
- National
For the Community, by the Community: Mizna and Masrah

Feb. 28. 2023

Midwestern arts organizations Mizna (Minnesota) and Masrah Cleveland Al-Arabi (Ohio) aim to share nuanced perspectives and experiences of artists from the SWANA (Southwest Asian and North African) region with Arab…
- Minnesota
- Ohio
Over 100 Years in the Making: The Lakota Song Repatriation Project

Dec. 12. 2022

The Densmore/Lakota Song Repatriation Project is about reclaiming Lakota culture, traditional art, knowledge, and religious freedom. Alicia Hegland-Thorpe writes about the project that took over a century in the making…
- North Dakota

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Grant Opportunities and Programs

We support efforts that connect people, ideas, and solutions through creativity. Learn more about our grantmaking initiatives and our community programming.

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A dancer in full Native Amerian regalia performs for a crowd in a packed library.

Photo by: Chase Castor

Call for Creatives

Arts Midwest is launching a new multimedia storytelling initiative that celebrates arts, creativity, and culture in our region. If you are a creative invested in your community, the region, and its peoples, fill out the form below and help us kick off this exciting initiative.

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Shot from above of a person seated at a yellow desk, with yellow sleeves, with an empty notebook open.

Meet the Spring 2023 GIG Fund Recipients

100 organizations recently received a total of $400,000 as part of the GIG Fund. These awards will support creative projects and educational events in Spring 2023, helping Midwestern organizations present artists in their community and offset the costs of programming and touring.

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A group of Black dancers in a dance classroom crouch low to the ground with arms extended at an angle

Photo by: DANCECleveland

Choreographer Stephen Petronio leads a workshop for 25 high school students at the Cleveland School of the Art as part of a Fall 2022 GIG Fund activity.

Announcing Phase Two of We the Many

Midwestern organizations Sacred Pipe Resource Center, For the Love of the Arts, and La Luz Centro Cultural are taking part in the second round of Arts Midwest’s community-based artist-in-residency program.

Photo by: La Luz Centro Cultural

Youth and community members gather at Dia de Los Muertos cultural celebration held at La Luz Centro Cultural in November of 2022.

Joyful, loud, and Midwest proud

Midwest Strong: What Recent Economic Data Tells Us About the Region’s Creative Sector

Strengthening Community, One Love Letter at a Time

For the Community, by the Community: Mizna and Masrah

Over 100 Years in the Making: The Lakota Song Repatriation Project

Grant Opportunities and Programs

Call for Creatives

Meet the Spring 2023 GIG Fund Recipients

Announcing Phase Two of We the Many

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