Program/Grant: GIG Fund

An Arts Midwest GIG Fund grant will support Accent Pontiac in hosting Sean Dobbins, renowned jazz drummer and educator, to work with and perform for students in Pontiac, Michigan. Dobbins will spend multiple days in Pontiac, leading workshops with students in 2nd-12th grade followed by an interactive performance at a school in the Pontiac School District.

APG Audio Visual Mentoring and The Buzz Cafe and Marketplace partner together to create a monthly platform for local, regional and national artists to perform.

ACT will contract with an artist to paint a floor mural with Special Education students using wheelchairs and other adaptive tools and equipment. Separately, at the ACT studio, the artist will teach the public how to create smaller art pieces from the original mural such as cards, boxes, and windsocks. The artist will be present at both events to provide creative education and support.

Awards Celebration on May 17, 2025. The CREATIVE POWER Awards Celebration will highlight Wisconsin artists with disabilities through performances in violin, dance, and song, amplifying and affirming the creative voices of diverse artists from around the state.

ARTSiE's literacy through the arts project focuses on Evanston's Fleetwood-Jourdain Community Center where we will work with local artists to create its first community mural and provide year-round enrichment programming to under-represented students in Evanston’s 5th ward. This public mural will celebrate cultural diversity, environmental stewardship and intergenerational collaboration.

Courtney Owens is a celebrated poet whose work has been featured in numerous literary journals and anthologies. Known for her ability to capture complex emotions and experiences in her writing, Owens will use her words to inspire young voices at Unity Elementary School, nurturing the next generation of poets.

The Ashland Chamber Music Society is an all-volunteer organization that brings six diverse chamber music performances to communities in rural Wisconsin every year. This grant will help fund an evening concert and an educational program for middle and high school students, performed by the Wisconsin Brass Quintet, from the Mead-Witter School of Music, UW-Madison.

Arts Midwest Gig funds are being requested to assist the Community Council in hiring an Appalachian artist to paint a mural in East Dayton, celebrating the community's history and diversity. The artist will work with Montgomery Preparatory Academy, Belmont High School students, and community volunteers to create a mural that contains a QR code connected to personal stories and histories.

We will work with area artists and local clays to build a clay oven and work with traditional Ojibwe clay forms.

Black Arts MKE’s Black Nativity celebrates the timeless work of Langston Hughes story of the Nativity retold through a combination of poetry, dance & song from an African American perspective, with a twist of being set in MKE & highlighting culturally relevant issues. Project includes: Community Night w/tickets 50% off, cast/crew talkbacks, FREE student matinees w/resources, ASL performance& more.