Ruth Foundation for the Arts invites applications for its inaugural Special Project Grants program, awarding project funding to small and mid-size nonprofit visual arts, performing arts, and arts education organizations situated on land presently known as Wisconsin. The new grantmaking initiative awarded $950,000 this year in support of arts and culture organizations in this state.
The program aims to build a robust and equitable arts ecosystem by investing in projects that have long-term cultural and structural impact for their communities. Of particular interest are initiatives that rethink and reimagine past practices, bring an expansive range of voices into public and artistic discourse, and contribute to a more complex and abundant understanding of the histories, lived experiences, and futures of this region.
Special Project Grants provide support at $100,000 or $200,000 over two years for successful applicants and are eligible to arts and culture organizations with operating budgets under $2 million.
Through LAB^4: A Community Curation Project, interdisciplinary teams of artists, writers, performers, community advisors, and students will each develop 8 weeks of cultural programming. Fostering intersectionality and welcoming diverse voices, this initiative restores the role of curators as caretakers.
Bad River Ojibwe Artist in Residence Program offers two Ojibwe artists an opportunity to share traditional artistic methods, and two Ojibwe artists an opportunity to share contemporary artistic methods, with the Bad River Ojibwe community, providing cultural enrichment across generations.
Academia Bembé is a community-based, public, cultural arts academy that inspires music and dance performance skills, intergenerational connection and cultural identity exploration through Afro-Latino musical culture.
Cactus+ Accessibility Initiative centers those we haven't been able to serve or host, braiding infrastructure improvements into artist resourcing and community programming. Think: ramp to the front door, multimedia residency, an expansive understanding of accessibility, skill shares and beyond.
Featuring Dylan Bizhikiins Jennings (Bad River Ojibwe), Joe Rainey Sr. (Red Lake Ojibwe), S. Carey, and Finn Ryan—Bizhiki: Unbound will develop and tour a multidisciplinary music and video performance, engaging audiences throughout Wisconsin about contemporary Ojibwe culture.
GEEX continues Wisconsin’s glass art history by broadening and redefining the medium’s story through GEEX Shorts—bite-sized videos of BIPOC and queer artists sharing their knowledge and creative practice—to expand a crucial archive and new paradigm of representation.
Hmoob Zaj Dab Neeg aka The Hmong Story aims to promote inclusivity within the SEA community by addressing cultural preservation. We will focus on preserving Hmong culture & language through programs, including language classes, traditional dance, & music lessons using cultural experts.
Wažookį Hosto (Family Gathers) creates new artistic and cultural learning opportunities by offering seasonal arts and traditional skills workshops with Ho-Chunk community members and creates teaching resources that amplify Ho-Chunk ingenuity for multiple audiences.
Disability Theater – Expanding the Canon is a multi-year initiative that will result in the creation of up to 20 new plays focusing on representation, community and a commitment to expanding the theater canon to include Disabled Actors and Artists on and off stage. Essentially, creating art that reflects our community.
The (W)here in the World Dance Festival invites choreographers from five unique world dance traditions both to present work and to collaborate across genres. Set for spring 2025, the festival presents both work that upholds cultural traditions and traverses those boundaries.
We recognize that cultural production can take many forms, and we support arts and culture organizations that embrace the unconventional and experimental and whose activities are rooted in the communities in which they operate. We welcome proposals for new artistic commissions in the public realm, archival projects (including the creation of databases and the digitization and diversification of collections), publications, cultural revitalization projects, and capacity building and planning initiatives that improve the structural conditions of your organization. Organizations, initiatives, or collections that represent the contributions of underrepresented communities are highly encouraged to apply.
The application portal for the 2025 Wisconsin Special Project grants will open in Fall 2024. Application deadline will be in January 2025.