These grants will support programming centered around a book from the NEA Big Read Library, with the goal of inspiring meaningful conversations, celebrating local creativity, elevating a wide variety of voices and perspectives, and building stronger connections in each community.

Community programming during this cycle of the NEA Big Read is focused on the theme “Our Nature.” Using their book selection as inspiration, grantees will offer book discussions, writing workshops, and creative activities that explore our relationship with the physical environment. In addition, all NEA Big Read grantees are hosting an event in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Grantees are from 33 states, plus D.C. and Puerto Rico, with 38 percent of the recipients receiving their first NEA Big Read grant this year. Each NEA Big Read grantee will receive a matching grant ranging from $5,000 to $20,000 to support their project.

The NEA Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.

Photo Credit: Julie Umberger

Organizations interested in applying for an NEA Big Read grant in the future should visit Arts Midwest’s website for more information; guidelines will be released in Fall 2025.

The post Announcing the 2025-26 NEA Big Read Grantees appeared first on Arts Midwest.

Now in its 22nd year, Shakespeare in American Communities is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest. The initiative brings high-quality Shakespeare productions and educational activities to communities across America, with a new addition this cycle: theater apprenticeships for early-career professionals.

“Investing in apprenticeships today helps ensure the theater field has the talent and expertise it needs for the future,” says Arts Midwest President & CEO Torrie Allen. “By pairing the timeless works of Shakespeare with hands-on training, we aim to help young people build the real-world skills that will support lasting careers.”

Grants were awarded through three distinct tracks:

• $447,500 to 17 nonprofit theaters offering apprenticeship programs for early-career administrators and technicians working across theater sectors.
• $435,000 to 18 professional theater companies partnering with schools to present productions and education programs rooted in the works of William Shakespeare.
• $171,300 to 7 nonprofits providing theater education for students in juvenile justice settings.

Shakespeare in American Communities: Aprenticeships

Grants to supports paid apprenticeships for early administrators and technicians working at theaters throughout the United States.

Shakespeare in American Communities: Juvenile Justice

Grants to support theater education programs in juvenile justice facilities that illuminate the works of Shakespeare and addresses his work in modern context.

Shakespeare in American Communities: Schools

Grants to support performances of Shakespeare and related educational activities for students from five or more schools.

The post Announcing the 2025-26 Shakespeare in American Communities Grantees appeared first on Arts Midwest.

Dear valued member of our community,

On Friday, many active and pending grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) were abruptly terminated. This comes alongside the president’s proposal to eliminate the NEA entirely in the FY26 federal budget. Together, these actions will have devastating impacts on communities throughout the country. 

We at Arts Midwest, along with the national collective of US Regional Arts Organizations, strongly urge Congress to restore the grant funding in support of the arts, culture, and creativity that was passed during the last budgetary approval process, in addition to maintaining its broad bipartisan commitment to funding the NEA in next year’s budget. As the landscape of support for our cultural infrastructure continues to be eroded, we remain steadfast in our commitment to stand with you in defending and preserving our nation’s artistic and cultural agencies. 

When Congress passed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965, it declared that “the arts and the humanities belong to all the people of the United States.” Since its inception, the NEA has played a critical role in broadening access to the cultural, educational, and economic benefits of the arts in every Congressional District. In fact, federal arts funds support thousands of communities across the nation, including 678 counties that private foundations do not reach. 

Collectively, the NEA, Regional Arts Organizations, and State Arts Agencies serve thousands of communities across the country. And yet this work is funded by just 0.004% of the federal budget—less than 62 cents per American per year. 

This low-investment, high-return model is a shining example of good government—federal funds are successfully leveraged many times over by states and private funders to increase the impact of public dollars. Federal dollars don’t replace private investment—they attract it. 

Without seed support by the NEA, many states, cities and towns would struggle to secure the additional public or private funds that enable them to deliver programs that serve their constituents. And sadly it is rural communities, which often lack access to private funding sources, who will be disproportionately impacted by a loss of NEA funding and will lose the power to shape their own cultural infrastructure. 

The NEA is critical to ensuring that every citizen, in every corner of our vast country, receives the economic, cultural, civic, educational, and health benefits of the arts and creativity. Now is the moment to act to fully restore the NEA and its fellow cultural agencies, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences (IMLS), so that they can fulfill their congressional mandate and ensure that communities across the country benefit from the many advantages that arts engagement provides. 

Thank you for all that you do to support arts, culture and creativity in your community. We stand shoulder to shoulder with you and all of the advocates fighting to ensure that your vital work continues for generations to come.

In solidarity,

Torrie Allen, Arts Midwest President & CEO

Christian Gaines, Creative West (formerly WESTAF) President & CEO and USRAO Chair

Todd Stein, Mid-America Arts Alliance President & CEO

Juan Souki, Mid Atlantic Arts Executive Director

Harold Steward, New England Foundation for the Arts Executive Director

Susie Surkamer, South Arts President and CEO

Shannon Daut, USRAO National Director

Important Actions for Current NEA Grantees 

If Your NEA Grant Has Been Terminated 

Here are some resources to support your appeal: 

• What to do When Your Federal Grant or Contract is Terminated (National Council of Nonprofits)
• Sample Appeal Documents (Film Festival Alliance) 
• Guidance for NEA Grantees Facing Termination or Withdrawal of Funds 

To submit an appeal, email grants@arts.gov and provide documentation that your project supports one of the NEA’s priorities, projects that: 

• Elevate the Nation’s HBCUs and Hispanic Serving Institutions
• Celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence
• Foster AI competency
• Empower houses of worship to serve communities
• Assist with disaster recovery
• Support Tribal communities
• Foster skilled trade jobs
• Make America healthy again
• Support the military and veterans
• Make the District of Columbia safe and beautiful
• Support the economic development of Asian American communities.

Many of the cancelled projects likely provide health benefits for participants. If you plan to appeal based on the health priority, here are some resources related to arts and health that may help: 

• Arts Engagement as a Health Behavior (University of Florida)
• The intersection of art and health: How art can help promote well-being (Mayo Clinic)
• Ground-breaking research series on health benefits of the arts (WHO)
• Lancet Global Series on the Health Benefits of the Arts (The Jameel Arts & Health Lab) 
• Arts and Health (NEA)
• The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on the  Healing Effects of Social Connection and Community

If Your NEA Grant Has Not Been Terminated 

Out of an abundance of caution, we strongly urge all grantees to stay current on reimbursement requests and to submit final reports as quickly as possible. 

Speak Up for Federal Cultural Funding 

If you’ve benefited from NEA support or seen the impact of public funding for arts and culture in your community, now is the time to share your story. Hearing from constituents helps legislators understand the real-world value of the National Endowment for the Arts.

Reach out to your Senators and Representatives to let them know:

• What public funding for the arts looks like in your community;
• How federal support for the arts has helped you or your organization;
• Why continued investment in the NEA, NEH, and IMLS matters.

Your voice helps ensure that every community can continue to benefit from the educational, cultural, and economic power of the arts. Need a place to start?

• Use this tool to find your legislators.
• Check out nonpartisan templates from Americans for the Arts

Get Involved in National Campaigns

Below are additional national campaigns and advocacy tools you can use to speak up for federal cultural funding. 

National Endowment for the Arts: 

• Americans for the Arts – Save the NEA
• Americans for the Arts Action Fund – Arts Action Center
• Americans for the Arts’ National Pulse Survey (Deadline: May 9)

Institute of Museum and Library Services 

• American Alliance of Museums – Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Campaign
• American Library Association – Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Campaign

National Endowment for the Humanities 

• National Humanities Alliance – National Endowment for the Humanities Campaign
• Federation of State Humanities Councils – National Endowment for the Humanities Campaign

About the US Regional Arts Organizations

The United States Regional Arts Organizations (USRAOs)—Arts Midwest, Creative West (formerly WESTAF), Mid-America Arts Alliance, Mid Atlantic Arts, New England Foundation for the Arts, and South Arts—are a collective of six nonprofit arts service organizations committed to strengthening America’s infrastructure by increasing access to creativity for all Americans. The USRAOs partner with the National Endowment for the Arts, state arts agencies, individuals, and other public and private funders to develop and deliver programs, services, and products that advance arts and creativity. Together, the USRAOs work to activate and operate national arts initiatives, encourage, and support collaboration across regions, states, and communities, and maximize the coordination of public and private resources invested in arts programs. In 2024, they invested over $33.6 million across the United States and Jurisdictions, through nearly 3,000 grants that reached more than 1,300 communities. Learn more at usregionalarts.org.

The post U.S. Regional Arts Organizations Joint Statement on the National Endowment for the Arts appeared first on Arts Midwest.

Founded during the Great Depression, they got their name from their policy of allowing theatregoers to “buy” admission with fresh produce, livestock, or dairy—in its early days, 4 out of 5 patrons traded their way to a ticket, valued then at 35 cents.

Even though times have changed, the theatre hasn’t—everything Barter does continues to be rooted in community, and their philosophy that theatre is for everyone.

It remains the beating heart of Abingdon, a rural town in Southwest Virginia. It’s one of the country’s oldest professional resident repertory theaters—meaning their plays throughout the season are performed by has their own full-time, paid theatre troupe based out of Abingdon itself.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Barter Theatre

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Barter Theatre

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Barter Theatre

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Barter Theatre

Their current production of Hamlet, funded in part by Shakespeare in American Communities, is a perfect example—while their performances are open to all, Barter has long-standing connections with the region’s schools to bring in hundreds of students to performances every year.

“Because of this partnership, almost every kid who’s grown up here has seen Shakespeare,” says Producing Artistic Director Katy Brown.

Every show opens with a lightning round-style summary of the show with the cast explaining major plot points and characters, without spoiling the final act.

What started as a teaching aid for their student matinees eventually became so widely requested by their adult audiences that it’s now baked into all of their Shakespeare performances.

“I think there’s some sort of idea that [Shakespeare is] broccoli, and that’s never the experience that people have,” says Brown. “He wrote for everybody, and our goal from the beginning has been to make sure people know that Shakespeare is theirs.”

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Barter Theatre

Photo Credit: Mia McGill

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Barter Theatre

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Barter Theatre

Students and adult audience members alike can participate in talkbacks after every show with the director and cast members, which further brings the text to life.

“I’ve had grown-ups speak to me and say, ‘I thought that I was too dumb for Shakespeare, but I understood absolutely every word,’” says Brown.

But what makes Barter special is that the place is just as important as the people—as a company, they’re successful not despite being in small-town Appalachia, but rather because of their unique rural setting.

They not only keep Abingdon alive and thriving in terms of tourism—bringing in over 120,000 visitors a year to a town with a population of around 8,500—but also provide an incredibly rare opportunity for their performers and creative team to make a real living out of their work.

With Barter presenting around 20 shows per season, their company is kept plenty busy; during their peak in the summer, they have as many as five shows running at a time. 

“You might be in Shakespeare while you’re rehearsing the musical, while you’re rehearsing a new work,” says Brown. “So many times when you work in theater, you move and move and move, and you don’t get to put down roots—but our artists get to have a life, a home, and a family here, and really get to know the people that we’re serving.”

Shakespeare in American Communities is a theater program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest. It provides grants of up to $30,000 for programs that connect young people across the country to Shakespeare’s plays.

The post Shakespeare for All in Rural Appalachia, Rooted in Soil and Soul appeared first on Arts Midwest.

The award is considered the highest honor in folk and traditional arts in the country. It is given to those with “artistic excellence, lifetime achievement, and contributions to our nation’s traditional arts heritage,” according to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).

Ambassadors for Ukrainian culture, music, and the bandura (a many-stringed lute-harp folk instrument), the men’s choir—known as UBC—is the only collective in the cohort this year alongside seven other individual folk and traditional arts practitioners.

“As stewards of cultural memory, they bring us ‘home’ with dances and songs passed down from one generation to the next. They adorn everyday expressive life with artistry in manual arts, costume, and regalia that animate traditions within communities across America,” says Leia Maahs, NEA Folk & Traditional Arts Director.

Photo Credit: Andrew Zwarych

The UBC’s 50 or so members, of all ages between 16 through 70, are based in the Great Lakes region but travel the world to perform. Compiled of both singers and bandura players, the group sings in Ukrainian and wears traditional clothing.

The stringed folk instrument was traditionally played by a solitary traveling musician—known as kobzar— who shared songs about Ukrainian history and issues of the times. These lone musicians were often seen as a threat to oppressive regimes.

In 1918, bandurist Vasyl Yemets united multiple individual performers to start the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus in Kyiv, Ukraine.

The press release stated, “During political shifts in the Soviet regime in the late 1920s, bandura music was banned because of its religious, historical, and Ukrainian patriotic repertoire.”

Displaced by war and fear of persecution, UBC musicians and families were sponsored as one artistic unit to emigrate to the United States in late 1940s, from a refugee camp in Germany. Most of the 17 families settled in Hamtramck, Michigan, where they lived and worked alongside existing Polish and Ukrainian immigrant communities.

Photo Credit: Stefan Iwaskewycz

Conductor Oleh Mahlay has been the group’s artistic director since 1996. Its recording repertoire includes over 40 albums, and in 2022 the group also received the Michigan Traditional Arts Program’s heritage award.

Other heritage fellows, announced April 17, include: Arizona-based Mexican folk costume maker and dancer Carmen Baron; New Yorker and Haitian dancer, drummer, and artist Peniel Guerrier; California-based Bon Odori artist Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga; bit and spur maker and silversmith Ernie Marsh from Wyoming; Texas-based Creole musician Edward Poullard; and traditional Lakota artist and educator Steven Tamayo (Sicangu Lakota) in Nebraska.

The post Midwest-Based Ukrainian Chorus Receives National Heritage Award appeared first on Arts Midwest.

Becket Athenaeum, a community library serving two small towns in Massachusetts’ Berkshires, has explored themes of coexistence and survival with its members for the last seven months. The book-inspired programming was organized, in part, with the help of an NEA Big Read grant.  

Photo Credit: Nicole Schulze / Becket Anthenaeum

It kicked off last October with a ‘Homesteading 101’ workshop. Twenty-five or so participants and readers of the book (ages 2 to 70+) gathered on the Becket, Massachusetts, property where Tarcisio Ramos Dos Santos, or Taz for short, homesteads.

Born in Brazil, Taz has been homesteading for practically his entire life, from his childhood in South America to his adulthood in the Berkshires.

“It comes very easy to me—I’ve practiced my whole life,” said the homesteader, who appeared in Season 10 of the survival-themed reality show Alone in 2023. “But here in the U.S. it’s more like I’m choosing to do this instead of I have to do this.” 

Now a local in Becket, he’s been involved in previous initiatives at the library. Athenaeum’s Executive Director Nicole Schulze said that Taz was a natural partner for the workshop because surviving off the land is a “really major theme in The Bear.” Plus, the idea of a homesteading workshop came up because it’s of interest in Western Massachusetts, she added. 

At the half-day event, the workshop participants divided into three groups and worked on the day’s typical homesteading tasks. They gathered acorns to feed the donkeys, tended to the fence that encircles the pigs, harvested squash, peppers, and eggplant, and learned how to start a fire without modern accoutrements.

“The fire-making especially resonated with people in relation to the book because that was such a huge part of what helped keep the two people alive,” recalled Nicole Schulze, Athenaeum’s Executive Director. She’s also the lead organizer for its Big Read program, which concludes with a visit from author Andrew Krivak in April.

Photo Credit: Nicole Schulze / Becket Anthenaeum

Photo Credit: Nicole Schulze / Becket Anthenaeum

Photo Credit: Nicole Schulze / Becket Anthenaeum

Photo Credit: Nicole Schulze / Becket Anthenaeum

“The experience of working together in a multi-generational group to accomplish common and human goals felt like a jolt of nurturance and safety that are hard to come by in our modern existence,” said Elizabeth Heller, a participant.

At the end of the day, with a fire roaring, attendees enjoyed homemade pizzas and roasted s’mores as they discussed the book.

“When people are reading [The Bear] and then now they’re on a homestead, it feels like stepping inside the book in a way,” Taz said, referencing the characters’ survival in a much more natural world.

For participants like Heller, the time together was “a reminder of how simple it can be to feel connected to each other as part of the natural world.”

Becket Anthenaeum’s programming related to Andrew Krivak’s novel, The Bear, was made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Arts Big Read program. The NEA Big Read provides grants ranging from $5,000 to $20,000 to help bring communities together around the shared activity of reading and discussing the same book.

The post Homesteading 101 from a Survival Show Star, Inspired by a Book appeared first on Arts Midwest.

Though numbers are slowly trending upward. In 2023, 35% of artists on the Billboard Hot 100 year-end charts were women—a 12-year high. 

The Midwest is rich with historic music from artists like Aretha Franklin to Tracy Chapman. Here are the stories that have inspired a love for music, in small towns and big cities across the Midwest (if not the world). 

Photo Credit: National Park Service

Photo Credit: Minnesota Music Hall of Fame

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Gwen Matthews The Artist Facebook

Photo Credit: South Dakota Rock & Rollers Hall of Fame

Photo Credit: Courtesy Tracie Spencer Instagram

Photo Credit: Discogs

Photo Credit: Wisconsin Area Music Industry

Photo Credit: Michigan Rock and Roll Legends

Photo Credit: Michigan Rock and Roll Legends

Photo Credit: Tiara Thomas Instagram

Photo Credit: Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

Photo Credit: Newspapers.com by Ancestry

The post Midwest Women Who’ve Made Music History  appeared first on Arts Midwest.

Fitting all that into bits of fabric is Ohio-based Carolyn Mazloomi, whose middle name might as well be “Master Quilter.” 

Forty years ago, she noticed a lack of community among artists like herself. So, she founded the Women of Color Quilters Network in 1985. The national organization has grown from just nine women to over 1,500 at its peak. 

“I founded the organization because I felt that, at the time, there needed to be a guild or an organization that would support African-American quilt makers,” she says. “They were not members of regular quilt guilds, and it was because their work wasn’t so much accepted within the larger white quilt community.” 

Mazloomi says she wanted to find a place—maybe the place—in American quilt history for Black makers.  

“Quilts tell the stories of the struggles and the survival and the triumph of Black people, and they reflect the lived lives of their makers,” she says. 

They serve as records of personal and collective history, Mazloomi says, from slavery to civil rights, race relations to simply day-to-day stories.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the artist

‘A Visual Voice’

Mazloomi says Black communities tend to utilize unique patterns: vibrant colors and improvisational styles.

Sometimes this caused friction and criticism, if it was even looked at in the first place. But more than anything, the style became a community. A home.

“That gives us a sense of identity and solidarity and pride in our quilt-making. So quilt-making has long been a visual voice for marginalized people,” she says.

“And this, to me, is wonderful. And it’s very inspiring for future generations of Black quilt makers.”

Women in Mazloomi’s network skew older; the average member age is somewhere between 75 and 103, she says. Some teach youth around the country in an effort to reach younger folks.

And quilting remains relevant in visible spaces (see a current exhibit featuring works by Mazloomi’s quilters network at Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Art Museum). But like the quilting process itself, shifting demographics take time.

“It’s coming along slowly,” says Mazloomi.

Stitching Stories 

Less than half of Americans identify as book readers. Luckily for us, we can glean stories in art, too, not just through vocabulary. 

“We are not a nation of readers. So I think it’s an easy fix to tell these visual stories because we’re basically visual learners,” Mazloomi says, adding dozens of states have limited African-American history in schools. 

Enter story quilts, visible in Mazloomi’s work. They portray Black history—even (especially) the traumatic stuff. 

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the artist

“It’s a way to tell difficult stories visually in places that are safe, where you can have a safe conversation about these difficult topics and talk about them,” Mazloomi says.  

“But these stories have to be preserved. This history has to be preserved. Even though it is difficult, they have to be preserved.” 

The post A 40-Year-Old Quilting Community Creates a Patchwork of Stories appeared first on Arts Midwest.

In a new-to-the-internet hair and makeup class, the two have come together via the University of Michigan. 

Free and accessible to anyone with decent Wi-Fi, the goal is simple: 

“That no matter who is sitting in the chair, that the person who is applying the makeup understands how to work with whatever skin tone is in front of them, and they understand how to work with whatever hair texture is in front of them,” says Sarah Oliver, the U Michigan professor who created this Equitable Stage Makeup and Hair course. 

From 8 Chairs to Hundreds 

Oliver, who teaches costume technology and design, knew she needed to broaden her students’ understanding of on-stage presentation.  

There are over 250 performers at the school at any given time—from opera and dance to musical theater. 

The catch? They can’t all fit in an eight-seat makeup room backstage. So the idea was born: Film demo videos and put them online.  

In a matter of months since its March 2024 launch, over 1,800 people have taken the course, which includes lessons in aging, special effects, hair, and drag. Special guests collaborated (read: TV star Alexis Michelle) to bring expertise to the table. 

Photo Credit: Courtesy Sarah Oliver

That expertise, colleague Christianne Myers says, has too long rested on the shoulders of performers themselves. 

“For us, [this course] really was about hair and makeup and meeting performers’ needs,” says the University of Michigan costume designer. “Particularly Black performers have so often been called upon to be the experts of their own hair in a really specific way in regional theaters.” 

In addition to equity concerns, having unnatural makeup or hair takes viewers out of the show, as does a performer who isn’t their best self on stage. 

“Maybe your performance is suffering because you’ve haven’t had as long a break because you had to go and do your own hair instead of knowing you were going to hair appointments that everybody else did, or that someone doesn’t understand the hair texture that you have and they don’t have the proper wig for you,” Oliver says. 

“You don’t even realize that those performers are wearing a wig except for you because you have a wig that clearly doesn’t work for your hair texture or your skin tone,” she adds. 

Accessible Across Stages 

The Coursera modules are truly for anyone, performers and instructors alike. 

People having makeup done in these instructional videos have a range of skin tones; ages across the spectrum are represented. 

“Inclusivity is sort of baked into all the teaching modalities,” Myers says. 

Photo Credit: Courtesy Sarah Oliver

The videos, three years in the making, are high-quality and broken into sections—you don’t need to take them all. Click, watch, learn.  

Then, take your whole self, and go perform. 

The post Blush, Blend, and Break Barriers One Makeup Course at a Time appeared first on Arts Midwest.

These are just a few of the artworks in Terrain Biennial’s six-week, pop-up public art exhibition in 2023, which invited artists to respond to the theme “mycelium connection.” Terrain Exhibitions, the group behind the project, draws on the myriad sustaining connections between creativity and community.

Photo Credit: Presley Martin / Courtesy of Terrain Exhibitions

Photo Credit: Veeresh Rudraswamy / Courtesy of Terrain Exhibitions

Traversing Artistic Possibility

Since 2011, Terrain Exhibitions has grown organically from an informal artist-run project in Oak Park, Illinois. It’s now a nonprofit advocating for art experiences outside of private spaces. Founded by the late artist Sabina Ott, the project began as a way to share art and socialize. What sets the initiative apart? The artworks were accessible 24/7. The element of discovery and surprise was available to anyone in the community who happened to take notice.

“Something [Ott] used to talk about was the passerby—the importance of the person… going about their day-to-day life and experiencing these moments with artists away from the white cube,” says artist and vice president Tom Burtonwood.

Ott called the space—a versatile combination of her lawn, porch, and home—Terrain, an ode to both the literal and figurative idea of physical place and what Burtonwood describes as “the terrain of artistic possibility.” Ott passed away in 2018, but not before formalizing Terrain Exhibitions as a nonprofit organization so that it may continue to uplift and connect artists around the nation and the world.

Photo Credit: Gina Lee Robbins / Courtesy of Terrain Exhibitions

Photo Credit: Ian McMahon / Courtesy of Terrain Exhibitions

Photo Credit: Nanzi Jin / Courtesy of Terrain Exhibitions

Photo Credit: Jesse Malmed / Courtesy of Terrain Exhibitions

Photo Credit: Ziba Rajabi / Courtesy of Terrain Exhibitions

Art as Connector

Every other year, the organization hosts an open call for voluntary “terrains” around Chicagoland, the greater Midwest, and further afield. Last year’s program saw pop-ups in 14 states around the U.S. and in Wales, Canada, India, and Taiwan. The 2021 edition featured more than 600 participants, and the team is excited to see what the 2025 edition will bring.

“It’s all very much about where the artists are,” says Stephanie Graham, co-chair of the 2023 biennial program committee. “We have a board member who is in India, and she takes on a whole cohort. We call them ‘super hosts,’ where it’s someone who might take on their own block—like Sabina did—or they might pick a few houses, and they’ll coordinate themselves.”

Now managed by a 12-member board of artists and a team of volunteers, Terrain Exhibitions keeps many of the original tenets of the project alive. A block party still marks the opening of each biennial. And between the shows, the group organizes a range of collaborative events around Chicago, like pop-up shows, poetry readings, and an annual fundraiser.

The post The Chicagoland Initiative Bringing Art to Your Neighborhood appeared first on Arts Midwest.