Artists with Impact
Stephanie Pruitt puts poems in vending machines and makes her art her business
Stephanie Pruitt loves finding ways to get poems in unexpected places. That's why she puts poems in vending machines and places those vending machines at various locations around Nashville. Pruitt is…
FEAST Miami brings together the community to support new and emerging creative projects
Nothing brings a group of people together quite like the dinner table. Sharing a meal gets to the core of what a "community" is, a great social equalizer in ways few other everyday experiences can…
LaCa Projects celebrates Latin American contemporary arts while challenging misconceptions
LaCa Projects, which stands for "Latin American Contemporary Art," was founded nearly three years ago by an Argentinean businessman, Walter Dolhare, who was born and raised in Argentina but moved to…
Cado Dos Santos shares his Brazilian culture with the world through his world music
Ricardo "Cado" Dos Santos plays Brazilian music, but it's not the kind of Brazilian music you might be imagining. This is not bossa nova or samba; Cado's music is soulful, gentle, guitar-driven…
Alex Gilliam is Building Heroes
Public Workshop started in Philadelphia in 2009, but is really an outgrowth of the work Alex Gilliam has been doing teaching design and architecture over the past 17 years. With Public Workshop and…
Macon Roving Listeners shares voice through listening
There is an art to listening, and that is the art practiced by the Macon Roving Listeners. A common struggle experienced by neighborhoods in the midst of change – "gentrification," if you want to use…
ArtsWave Cincinnati is the oldest and largest united arts fund in the country
Funding sources for many arts organizations tends to be a hodgepodge of foundation, government, corporate, and patron support, which makes ArtsWave Cincinnati remarkably unique – it is the Greater…
Bryce McCloud wants all of Nashville to be neighbors
There is a tab for "Art Projects" on the Isle of Printing website where all of their various public art endeavors are listed. One is called the "Mr. Rogers' Sharing is Caring Project." The project…
Verb Ballets is a dance company for the community
Verb Ballets is a contemporary ballet company based out of Shaker Heights – just north of Akron – and performing all over Northeastern Ohio. A repertory-based company without a…
ARTLAB J moves with Detroit
Detroit might not be the first city you think about as having a significant dance presence, but you should really think again. Between major performance theaters like the Detroit…
PearlDamour sees the way home in the stars over Milton, America
The North Star is how travelers have found their way home for thousands of years. Located on the handle of the Little Dipper, the most recognizable constellation in the sky, the North Star points…
Mad King Thomas are the most earnest postmodern dance group probably ever
There is a pretty hard line between the high brow and lowbrow in art and culture. Postmodernists like to toy with that line. Mad King Thomas likes to play jump rope with it. …
OG (Organic Gardener) DJ Cavem Raps about Kale
Hip-hop and healthy eating are twin inspirations for Denver's DJ Cavem, who deftly melds music and food justice with both rhymes and activism. If you've ever met Ietef Vita, it was probably no…
A Cartoon Garden: Kenny Be's Denver Neighborhood Seed Company
The cartoonist most associated with Denver, Kenny Be has planted 60 of the city's neighborhoods as seed packets for a fictional brand. He's a fixture at the annual Denver County Fair, held this year…
Teatro Visión celebrates Chicano culture and identities through theater
San Jose's Teatro Visión is a 31-year-old Chicano theater company. Co-founder and Artistic Director Elisa Marina Alvarado explains, "We use that term because the Chicano movement,…
City of Asylum/Pittsburgh offers writers in exile sanctuary alongside expansive creative placemaking
"Asylum" – A place offering protection and safety; a shelter. “Silence is death. If you are silent you are dead, And if you speak you are dead, So speak and die.” –…
YEPAW encourages youth to pursue lifestyles of excellence through the arts
Youth Excellence Performing Arts Workshop (YEPAW) got its first start when founder and artistic director Leslie Barnes had a conversation with a friend who claimed that the youth…
Swim Pony uses science-minded experimentation in artistic exploration
It might seem that science and the arts are at odds with each other – "left brain" vs. "right brain" thinking, facts and stats vs. thoughts and feelings, lab coats and calculators vs.…
Arab American National Museum is the first and only museum of its kind
The metro Detroit area is an area rich with cultural institutions that celebrate the heritage, history, legacy, and continued contributions of artistic, cultural, and intellectual…
Denver Urban Gardens: Growing a garden, growing a community
Denver Urban Gardens (DUG) has been serving the five-county area of Metro Denver for 30 years and manages about 150 community gardens. "Our mission is to create community one…
Field Note Stenographers want you to watch less TV and more live music
When Chris Nylund and Jared Wright started Field Note Stenographers in Macon, they didn't do it with the intention of making big-time blog money or becoming Internet famous (anyone…
The Kelly Strayhorn Theater welcomes the community into their home
The Kelly Strayhorn Theater is a performing arts and cultural center in Pittsburgh's East Liberty neighborhood. Named for two of Pittsburgh’s most celebrated talents in the last…
Reading between the Thin Blue Lines with poetry
This is the fourth in a series of artist profiles featuring the work of artists around social justice, policing, and activism. Click on the links to read previous stories…
Arts for Learning teaches valuable life skills through paid arts internships
Miami's Arts for Learning (A4L), a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing teaching and learning through the arts, launched nearly 15 years ago with a vision of connecting…
Empire Seven Studios breaks down the barriers to putting art on walls
Empire Seven Studios in San Jose started because Juan Carlos Araujo wanted his own art studio. He envisioned the space at 525 N. 7th Street as his own personal art space, but…
DIY Printing stays true to its name & ethos while supporting the local arts community in Cincinnati
Artists as a species tend to exhibit a certain kind of do-it-yourself-ness. Generally dissatisfied with the world as it is presented to them, they follow their own paths and figure…
Kyle Rosfeld builds boots the cowboy way
Kyle Rosfeld wears a cowboy hat and cowboy shoes. His friendly face sports a neatly-trimmed mustache that is reminiscent of men's turn-of-the-century shaving ads – the 19th century,…
People's Paper Co-op rewrites the narratives of those with criminal records through papermaking
This is the third in a series of artist profiles featuring the work of artists around social justice, policing, and activism. Click on the links to read previous stories on Detroit's…
Theatre of the Oppressed NYC uses theatre to address social justice issues
This is the second in a series of artist profiles featuring the work of artists around social justice, policing, and activism. The first, on Detroit's Allied Media Conference, can be…
Karen Walters reinvented herself by reinventing Cuyahoga Valley's independent music scene
Karen Walters is a lifelong resident of Peninsula, Ohio, located in the heart of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. She worked in advertising for 17 years before her job got sent to the Dominican…