Artists with Impact
Charlotte Arts Center promotes inclusion, independence and growth for resident artists
The Charlotte Arts Center offers adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities a means of creative expression, integrating with the community, and even earning some income. "We look at what…
Detroit Youth Volume inspires east side kids with no-cost violin lessons
Detroit Youth Volume, the only program in the city to offer no-cost violin lessons using a special training known as the Suzuki Method, has an innovative ethic that makes learning to…
Lifting Off: Mike Wird Launching Earthship Movement in Denver
How to address the environmental cost of growth in a boom time, like the one Denver is experiencing? Mike Wird, a 33-year old Colorado-born writer, rapper, educator and environmental activist, has an…
O.N.E. Mile project hopes to bring new model of revitalization to Detroit's North End
When the Oakland North End (O.N.E.) Mile Project arrived in Detroit, the revitalization concept landed seemingly from outer space—on a "Mothership," explains designer Anya Sirota, director of the…
PlaceBase Productions builds rural communities through participatory theatre
Ashley Hanson grew up spending much of her childhood in Aitkin, a small town of fewer than 2,000 people in northern Minnesota. Like many young people who grow up in small towns, she was dying to get…
Sam Rodriguez explores cultural hybridity and identity through a plurality of mediums
San Jose artist Sam Rodriguez doesn't fit neatly into any one particular category. You can't look at his body of work and say, "Oh, he's a graffiti muralist," or "Oh, he makes mixed-media pop art,"…
Denver-based Youth on Record is an innovative music education program with national relevance
Youth on Record was formed in 2007 by members of Denver hip hop and rock band Flobots as a platform for youth and youth-adult organizing. It has evolved significantly since those early days, and is…
Michael Strand affects change in social systems through pottery
Archaeologists and anthropologists alike use pottery to better understand a culture. Pottery tells us about a culture's history, from everyday domestic routines to trade practices, even rituals…
As Allah's Apprentice, Vinson Muhammad leads his 'be yourself' motto by example
Oscar Wilde once said, "Be yourself; everyone else is already taken." Vinson Muhammad embodies that ethos and lives it every single day. Muhammad is known by the stage name "Allah's Apprentice," or…
A gaffer finds her light in Pittsburgh
the gaffer lamplighter chief lighting technician the DP’s go-to guy dispenser of gaffer’s tape brute arc myths day for night & the anti-auteur theory transposer of sun/shadow nuancer of mood…
Francis Grunow leads the charge for Detroit to "blame it on the Nain"
It's an idea that was born over beers, as the greatest ideas so often are. Somewhere in the cold winter months between 2009 and 2010, Francis Grunow took a break from writing a paper…
Haleem Rasul is teaching the world to Jit
Haleem "Stringz" Rasul is a dancer, designer, and filmmaker born and raised in Detroit. The dancers in his family were on his father's side, and Rasul was inspired by his late cousin who, he says,…
Hattie Mae Williams brings guerrilla dance performances to public places with Tattooed Ballerinas
Hattie Mae Williams grew up in Miami and attended the New World School of Arts magnet high school where, she says, she learned a lot about how to use art as a way to promote social change. She then…
Liz Miller creates installations that explore the beauty in devastation
Liz Miller is a Minnesota-based artist who describes herself thusly: "I'm an artist who is currently fascinated with weapons, invasive species, and pattern/ornament/decoration. My installations…
David Swirsky has such Big Love for Akron, he's even leading an Intervention
David Swirsky is the Chapter Leader of the Akron League of Creative Interventionists, a global network that creates shared experiences in public space that break down social barriers and catalyze…
Start With Art gives Pittsburgh newborns a baby step toward culture
Most adults could tell you where they acquired their first piece of art: a local shop, a tiny gallery in a seaside town in Italy, the IKEA clearance bin. Not many people began their collections as…
Lenka Clayton, An Artist in Residence in Motherhood
Since 1860, in the afterglow of the Industrial Revolution and on the eve of the Civil War, the number of working mothers has risen 800 percent. For as long as women in contemporary Western society…
100 Words Film Festival is a democratizing film fest for the Twitter generation
In today's 140-character cultural climate, it can be quite a challenge to hold an audience's attention. The 100 Words Film Festival in Charlotte, which made its debut last November, is a film…
Joi Sears leads the Theatre for the Free People on the world's stage
Joi Sears is a lot of things; stationary isn't one of them. She started out as a dancer, starting with the Cincinnati Ballet then moving on to the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre in New York and…
Reach Studio reaches artists homeless and in transition, treating them as artists first
Art therapy is a well-established practice that uses the creative process to help improve a person’s physical, mental, and emotional well-being. RedLine Denver, an "urban laboratory" that fosters…
iMPeRFeCT Gallery celebrates artists with commitment and the collision of high and low art
The concept of "perfection" in the art world is almost impossible to attain, yet that doesn't stop artists from trying or critics from criticizing. It was the rejection of this nebulous idea of…
Sam White makes the Bard's enduring themes on the human condition relevant to Detroiters
Shakespeare…in Detroit? Sam White not only thought it could happen, but also that it should. So, in 2012, she founded Shakespeare in Detroit. White – an actor, comedian, journalist, marketer,…
Pilar Agüero-Esparza is an artist, teacher, and mother who explores themes of labor and domesticity
It is natural for artists to continuously return back to recurring themes in their work throughout their career, and Pilar Agüero-Esparza is no exception. Agüero-Esparza is a visual artist based in…
HICCUP creates positive disruption to bring visibility to Hialeah
The souvenir is as much a time-honored vacation tradition as is taking photos standing awkwardly next to world-renowned historic landmarks and tuning out the kids in the backseat as they continually…
TU Dance makes modern dance accessible to a diverse community in St. Paul
TU Dance, a professional dance company and dance education center located in St. Paul, was founded by Uri Sands and Toni Pierce-Sands in 2004. Initially called Space TU Embrace, the organization…
Antonio Cosme is a young artist, activist, and social organizer in Southwest Detroit
Antonio Cosme is working on a mural. But before any brush touches paint, before any pencil hits a pad, Cosme has…
Mother and daughter Dell and Sharon Pryor are among Detroit's earliest art and cultural ambassadors
Tulani Rose and the Del Pryor Gallery occupy the large, orangish brick corner of Willis Street…
N'Namdi Center for Contemporary Art is dedicated to enlightenment through the arts
Art doesn't follow development, says George N'Namdi. Development follows art. And he should know. In addition to…
Marsha Music is a writer, community organizer, and lifelong Detroiter
An interesting counter-story has emerged to the national cliché of Detroit-as-post-industrial-wasteland recently – one of a "new Detroit" rife with young, educated, well-off techies…
Olayami Dabls is the owner of the MBAD African Bead Museum, a major repository for African artifacts
Olayami Dabls hardly needs to give visitors directions to his MBAD African Bead Museum, although its Grand River…