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We Rebuilt Our Resources. Here's What's New.

by Alana Horton

A quilt-style graphic made of alternating rectangles and triangles in Arts Midwest brand colors of coral, yellow, and lavender. Dozens of small photos fill some of the shapes, showing scenes of Midwestern creativity: musicians playing, dancers performing, and kids participating in cultural activities.

Find resources and research made for the creative Midwest faster than ever, thanks to new website improvements.

If you ever thought, “I know Arts Midwest probably has a helpful resource for this, but I don’t have time to dig for it,” we have a website update for you.

Thanks to the Bloomberg Philanthropies Digital Accelerator Program (DAP), we’ve spent the last year expanding and reorganizing our online resources for artists and arts organizations across the Midwest.

Read on to learn what’s changed and what’s yet to come.

What’s New?

TL;DR: We’ve made three major updates to the Explore Resources section of our website:

  1. Guides + Tools is the new name of the Ideas Hub. This resource library for artists and arts organizations now offers more content types in one place with improved filtering.
  2. Topics is a new way to explore everything Arts Midwest publishes. You can navigate through 18 subject areas that span best practices for finance and programming to deep dives on rural arts, arts and wellness, and more.
  3. Research + Data is a new dedicated home for arts data, research briefs, and charts illustrating information about the creative economy in the Midwest.

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How We Got Here: Amplifying Learning Through Curation

For the last year, thanks to a grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies DAP, we’ve been working with creative agency Briteweb to dig into a deceptively simple question: What do Midwestern artists and arts organizations actually need from us online to learn and grow?

Across conversations with focus groups and stakeholders, the answer that kept surfacing wasn’t just more content. It was better organization, clearer pathways, and less friction to help you find what you need.

With that principle guiding us, we set off to make some website updates.

A collage of seven photos showing artists and community members engaged in live performances and creative activities.

Power Up Your Work with Guides + Tools

Back in February 2022, we launched the Ideas Hub, a free library of curated articles for arts organizations inspired by our ArtsLab curriculum. Since then, it’s doubled in size and expanded to include tools for artists.

As the collection grew, so did the opportunity to make it even more useful, intuitive, and welcoming for visitors. We saw a chance to bring our articles, webinars, podcasts, and tools into a more unified experience—one that makes it easier to explore and discover resources in one place. We also wanted to better support both arts organizations and individual artists with clearer pathways and improved filtering.

The result is a more streamlined, user-friendly resource designed to help you quickly find what you need.

Meet the new Guides + Tools.

Here’s what you’ll find:

  1. 1

    More Formats in One Library

    Guides + Tools now holds six formats of practical content all in one place, from webinars and worksheets to podcasts and case studies. Our new filtering options help you explore by the kind of resource you need or the subject you want to know more about.

  2. 2

    Built for Individuals AND Organizations

    We’ve added more content for artists and new filters for audience. Whether you’re a solo creative or running a team, you can now narrow down to what’s actually built for you and filter further by topic to go even deeper.

Explore Guides and Tools

Guides and Tools

Follow the Thread with Topics

Learning is rarely linear. In person, unplanned moments lead to unexpected connections and ideas. Topics is our attempt to make online space for that kind of organic discovery.

This new website addition organizes everything Arts Midwest publishes (stories, guides, research, and curated outside resources) into 18 subjects you can wander into from multiple angles. There’s no wrong place to start, and no prescribed path through.

Maybe you come in looking for documentation tips and leave with a new approach to social media. Maybe a story about memory care and quilting in Wisconsin opens up a new way of thinking about your organization’s programming.

You don’t always know what’s going to spark something until it does.

Here’s what you’ll find:

  1. 1

    Content That Connects to the Big Picture

    Each topic page pulls together every piece of content we publish about a subject, so you can see how these themes show up across the Midwest, in all kinds of communities and contexts.

  2. 2

    Learning That Continues

    At the bottom of each page, you’ll find curated links to outside organizations doing work on the same themes. So when you’re ready to go deeper, we’ve already done the legwork.

Explore by Topics

Making Midwest Arts Data More Meaningful

Numbers matter when you’re making the case for the arts. But finding arts data that is accessible, relevant, and specific to your region? That can be challenging, especially in the Midwest.

We’ve been working to change that.

Over the past year, we’ve built a database of 300+ data points pulled from national research, translating them into top facts relevant to the Midwest that are ready to drop into a grant application, article, or board presentation. You can sort facts by state and theme, or click to learn more about the report they’re from.

We’ve also partnered with I/O Research to publish monthly research briefs that break down what new national studies mean for artists and organizations in our region. We do the work of reading dense reports so you don’t have to, and surface what actually matters for the Midwest.

The result is our new Research + Data hub, a home for facts, briefs, and analysis relevant to the creative Midwest.

Here’s what you’ll find:

  1. 1

    Facts You Can Actually Use

    Sortable by theme or state, data facts pull from national research and translate it into findings that are actually relevant to your area. Use them for case making or just to understand the creative landscape where you work.

  2. 2

    Briefs Breaking Down Arts Research

    Monthly briefs break down what new national studies actually mean for artists and organizations in our region, aided by interactive charts designed to make the data clear and accessible.

Explore Research Facts

See More Research Facts

What’s Next?

This is just the beginning. As the needs of the creative Midwest shift, we want to be here with the resources and tools that support your work right now, and as it evolves.

We’re currently building out part two of expanded online resources, which will include a grants explorer, a funder database, and more. We’ll share updates as those pieces come together this spring.

Have thoughts, feedback, or a topic you’d like to see? We’d love to hear from you at [email protected].

Explore the New Functionality

Dig into the updated Guides + Tools and Research + Data sections to explore what’s new.

Research + Data Guides + Tools

Thank You to Bloomberg Philanthropies

This project was developed with the support of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Digital Accelerator for Arts and Culture. The program supports leadership development and infrastructure investment that builds audiences, increases fundraising, drives revenue, delivers dynamic programming, and helps us work more efficiently and effectively in support of our strategic objectives. The program supports development of best practices to share across a network of nonprofit cultural organizations.