For large and mid-sized organizations (over $1 million)

Grants will be made to enable Chicago area organizations to push their project to the next level of artistic or cultural excellence on a onetime basis.

Through its grantmaking in Artistic and Cultural Excellence, the Trust seeks to:

• Encourage innovative ideas for productions that showcase Chicago as a global city
• Make excellent art accessible through the selection of productions, venues and price points that, in the aggregate, reach the broadest possible audience
• Encourage collaborative artistic endeavors
• Empower Artistic Directors to pursue more innovative and complex projects
• Enhance the Trust’s visibility with large and diverse audiences

Grants will be made to support productions that will occur during the one-year grant period.  Applicants will be expected to develop artistic projects with specific outcomes that are strategic, measurable, actionable, realistic and timed. Grant recipients will be expected to report, in detail, on these outcomes at the conclusion of the grant period. All applicants in this focus area will be asked to provide a Communications Plan for the production that outlines its strategies for marketing, media relations and Trust recognition.

For large and mid-sized organizations (over $1 million)

This focus area is aligned with a four-year collaboration with the Wallace Foundation that began in late 2006. The Trust is participating in this national research project that includes six cities and nine Wallace Excellence Awardees, along with the community foundations and another partner organization in each city. The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs is the Trust’s partner in this network, dubbed the Arts Engagement Exchange. Trust grant recipients in Arts Engagement will be included in this collaboration and will be expected to participate in its knowledge-sharing opportunities. Its goal is to advance knowledge, both locally and nationally, by sharing research and best practices in the area of arts engagement.

“Arts Engagement” is defined as a reciprocal relationship in which the grant recipient identifies a project designed to increase participation by learning about what drives audience decision-making and implementing strategies that are tested and measured.

Through its grantmaking in Arts Engagement, the Trust seeks to:

• Increase participation in the arts throughout the Chicago region
• Expand access to arts and cultural experiences to new and diverse audiences
• Identify promising Arts Engagement projects and support research and the development of best practices that will inform not only the grant recipient, but colleagues throughout the arts industry
• Build the Arts Engagement Exchange, a “community of learners”, as a convener of experts and source of knowledge on reaching Chicago-area residents from all backgrounds
• Create new demand for the arts by fostering more sophisticated arts engagement techniques
• Validate and showcase effective engagement strategies within the formal, informal, community-based and ethnic arts
• Capture and document data regarding effectiveness in reaching target audiences
• Initiate new research to move the local field forward in planning for future arts engagement efforts.

Applicants will be expected to identify projects with specific outcomes that are strategic, measurable, actionable, realistic and timed (within the one-year grant period). Grant recipients should report in detail on these outcomes.

For organizations of all sizes

Arts Learning was developed in response to the 2001 study Arts Education in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS). With continuous leadership by the Trust, a funder collaborative was formed that led to the creation of the CPS Office of Arts Education. This Office is responsible for the development of the Chicago Guide to Teaching and Learning in the Arts, which will guide CPS in arts curriculum for students K-12.

Through its grantmaking in Arts Learning, the Trust seeks to promote: 

• Coherence in arts learning pathways in all Chicago Public Schools
• Equitable access to effective arts education for all students in these schools
• More efficient and effective partnering of supporting arts organizations with the school district
• Utilization of teaching artists and arts teachers in the schools in ways that support continuous improvement of programming and resources in all schools.

The focus area will also develop expanded efforts to enable children with a particular artistic interest to pursue their passion beyond the school day.

For service organizations and Trust initiatives

The Trust supports capacity building for the sector through grants to initiatives that serve the broader arts community.  The Trust believes that the health and vitality of arts and culture in metropolitan Chicago benefits from collaborative efforts that promote advocacy, regional planning and support for building the capacity of the informal and community-based arts sector.