20 Creative Ways of Making from the Midwest

The last-standing storefront of a once-expansive laundromat-bar chain in central Ohio has welcomed hardcore music lovers for the last decade.

Learning a new language can be tough. Video game playthroughs make it more accessible — and more fun — for Alex Little Horn’s students.

These Chicagoans needed money for their graphic art practice. They didn’t look to loans, but to their community. And it (mostly) worked.

Thumb Art Spark, founded in 2025, connects artists, site hosts, and supporters to execute public art projects across six counties in Michigan’s “Thumb”.

This nonprofit provides hundreds of free GED books, crafting books, and more to prisons in Illinois and beyond.

The city’s population isn’t wildly huge, but the things inside are. Meet the man creating dozens of colossal sculptures for neighbors and beyond.

Over six years, Sioux Falls’s Headlights Theater gathered hundreds of community members for distinct performances—sparking joy and sharing a world of possibilities.

Paint from this Ohio company starts out as orange sludge from a polluted creek.

With its own arts education nonprofit, the ever-creative Cactus Club provides an accessible place for all to gather, grow, and rock out.

Empty Bowls started in Michigan in the ‘90s and has expanded across the region to fill neighbors up with tasty soup, financial support, and artful community.

On these Minneapolis, Minnesota, grounds, four artists in residence host events and create work throughout the year-long program.

The Oyate Health Center in Rapid City, South Dakota, is just as much a place of healing as it is a place for connection, Native art, and rooting in place.

Residents of East Canfield stress that any art brought to their neighborhood should address issues they are facing instead of just beautification.

Artists have turned an abandoned 32,000 square-feet retail space into an immersive, playful experience like no other.

This is the first group of its kind in Iowa. It’s for guys who love lifelong learning, community service, and picking up projects.

Nicholas Harrier, a childhood cancer survivor and above-knee amputee, creates custom, free-of-charge “jackets” to be slipped over patients’ artificial limbs. Study shows that this type of engaged process leads to positive outcomes.

These ‘secret river shows’ are a floating, grassroots musician network atop the once-heavily polluted waterway.

Through CultureALL’s Open Book program, Iowans can “check out” real people who share their personal stories and spark conversation.