Minority Arts and Education Fund announces 2019 grant recipients

More than $350,000 awarded to 34 minority-led organizations to assist with capacity building

Release Date: 2.28.2019

CLEVELAND – The City of Cleveland’s Cable Television Minority Arts and Education Fund (MAEF), a supporting organization of the Cleveland Foundation, has announced that a record 34 Greater Cleveland organizations will receive more than $350,000 in support of capacity-building and artist fellowships at their respective organizations for 2019.

Established in 1994, MAEF today strengthens and builds the capacity of organizations that promote the arts and cultures of communities of color and provides meaningful creative opportunities for artists of color. Grants range from $5,000-$20,000 for organizations that serve, engage in, and promote the arts and cultures – both traditional and new – of communities of African, Latinx, Asian, Pacific Islander, Indigenous and Middle Eastern descents.

For the first time, the Cleveland Foundation contributed to the normal annual disbursement from the fund after the MAEF board approved new guidelines that focus on providing resources to organizations led by people of color. In recognition of the need for equitable funding across systems, the foundation’s $200,000 grant allowed for the largest number of recipients in the fund’s history.

“As we mark the 25^th anniversary of the program, the Fund board was extremely encouraged by the 50 percent increase in applicants,” said Courtenay Barton, Cleveland Foundation program manager for arts and culture. “While people of color make up 37 percent of our country, arts organizations led by and serving people of color receive only four percent of institutional funding. We believe increasing the dedicated financial resources available for arts organizations and artists of color will enrich, enliven and energize our region.”

MAEF is an endowed fund with assets of nearly $4 million that provides grantmaking in the local community from investment income.

2019 Minority Arts and Education Fund Recipients

Aradhana Committee – Support for a world-class annual South Indian classical music and dance festival and artist intensive.

ATNSC Center for Healing & Creative Leadership –To support the start-up of an urban retreat space and arts & culture project centering the experiences of Black, Indigenous, and Latinx people.

BorderLight: Festival of International Theatre Cleveland – To incubate and debut the work of Powerful Long Ladder, the new theater company created by director Terrence Spivey.

Burten, Bell, Carr Development, Inc. – To commission an artist to develop a public art strategy for the Kinsman and Central neighborhoods.

Cleveland Municipal Court – To support an arts therapy intervention program for people referred to the mental health court docket.

Cleveland Public Theatre, Inc. – Artist fellowships for Masrah Cleveland Al-Arabi, a new Arabic-language theater ensemble.

CollectivExpress Inc. – Programmatic capacity for youth musical composition, songwriting, and audio recording workshops.

Collinwood Nottingham Villages Development Corp – Fiscal agency for organizational capacity to produce an original musical written by participants in the Reading RAMM program led by Edward “DJ Phatty” Banks.

Djapo Cultural Arts Institute Inc. – In support of the 10^th annual Juneteenth Festival, which celebrates the abolition of slavery.

Duffy Liturgical Dance Ensemble – To create a documentary video promoting the work of this liturgical dance organization.

East End Neighborhood House Association – Fiscal agency to support Hip Hop Therapy youth engagement program of the My Brother My Sister program.

Errin Ministries – To support a praise dance choreography incubator and festival.

Fairfax Renaissance Development Corporation – Fellowship for artist Augustus Turner to create public art for Playwright Park as part of the Innovation Square Development.

Foluke Cultural Arts Center, Inc. – Programmatic support towards a production of “for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf” to be directed by SAG-AFTRA director/actor Dale Ricardo Shields at Tri-C in April 2019, featuring equity actors.

Food Strong – Fellowship for Brazilian musician Moises Borges to produce Afro-Brazilian music, dance, and food cultural programming.

Gordon Square Arts District – Fellowship for fashion designer and entrepreneur Valerie Mayen to create public programming around fashion design, construction, and textile reuse.

Greater Cleveland Urban Film Foundation – In support of strategic planning and festival staffing capacity.

Harvard Community Services Center – To commission two artists to create an exhibition on the premises and/or pop up installation spaces.

India Festival USA – To support the 10^th annual Indian cultural festival, with cross-cultural collaborations.

Karamu House – In support of transitioning the production manager position from part-time to full-time.

Kent State University Foundation – Fellowship for musician Christopher Coles to create, record, and stage Nine Lives, an original full-length jazz ensemble suite about the Charleston church massacre.

Kings & Queens of Art – In support of staffing for programmatic capacity and contracting grant seeking assistance.

LAND studio Inc. – Fellowship for artist Malaz Elgemiabby to create a large-scale outdoor, public exhibition of portraits of Riverview Terrace residents in Ohio City.

LatinUs Theater Experience Company – Towards start-up of the first local exclusively Spanish language theater group.

LYLESART – Programmatic support for Cleveland-wide community photographic portraiture project, expanding upon a similar project in East Cleveland.

Mount Pleasant NOW Development Corporation – Fellowship for artist Dawn Mayes to create outdoor public art installation in collaboration with neighborhood youth.

Open Tone Music, LLC – Staffing capacity for youth Afro-Caribbean music instruction programming in conjunction with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Cleveland.

Sankofa Fine Art Plus – In support of board development, staffing capacity, and strategic planning.

Slavic Village Development – Artist stipends for the Visit Arts Collective artists to curate public art exhibitions.

St. Clair Superior Development Corporation – To commission Cleveland Skribe Tribe to create public art in St. Clair-Superior.

Suite 1300 Services, Inc. – Fellowship for Carol Malone to write and produce Season 3 of Neighbor Up Spotlight podcast.

Tender Hearts Crusades Inc. – Programmatic capacity for youth African dance, drumming, and theater summer camp in conjunction with Karamu House.

Twelve Literary Arts – Fiscal agency for The People Poetry Slam, a biweekly series of spoken word poetry for performance poets.

West Side Community House – Stipends for dance and theater teaching artists for the Summer of Sisterhood girls arts summer program.