State: MI

Dayton Contemporary Dance Company (DCDC) Mini Tour will host DCDC for three performances, two talk backs, and a minimum of two workshops November 12- 15, 2024. Performances include a Detroit Public School Community District school-based performance with talkback and workshops, youth performance for community youth, and an evening performance open to the general public.

Funding supports the artist fees associated with the Oct 2024 concert and events featuring piano soloist Henry Kramer and composer Jennifer Higdon. Pulitzer Prize and three-time Grammy-winning composer Higdon will lead a discussion of her work. The concert week also includes a young professionals networking event, open rehearsal, masterclass, pre-concert talk, and artists meet-and-mingle event.

Mackinac Arts Council will host a Latin Celebration concert to deepen engagement in the arts among some 20% of Mackinac Island, MI seasonal summer employees who identify as having a Latin cultural heritage & are underserved in the arts. With this grant, MAC will hire a Latin musician(s) who will offer artist talk/back, performance & cultural education at a free & accessible community hall event.

We will collaborate with Rootead and other organizations for promotion, venue and outreach events to bring Ugandan musician Samite to Kalamazoo for a free public concert and outreach at Rootead and the Juvenile Home.

Striving to provide outreach programs to our local schools and community, the Erickson Center for the Arts will host "The Spirit of Harriet Tubman" featuring Leslie McCurdy. Using words said to have been Harriet Tubman¹s own, Leslie McCurdy recreates both familiar stories and some rarely told in a passionate portrayal of Harriet Tubman's entire life, the famous Underground Railroad conductor.

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.

Charlie Reynolds is one of nine winners of the 2024 Midwest Award for Artists with Disabilities. This award is designed to support accessibility in the arts and celebrate the exceptional work of disabled Midwestern visual artists.

Peter White Public Library's NEA Big Read --based on Roz Chast's "Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?"--consists of community-wide events focused on the people who shape/have shaped/will shape WHERE WE LIVE. Emphasizing inter-generational communication, our diverse programming encourages dialogue and interaction between young and old through art, writing, interview, and performance.