OUR PROGRAMS
Through the Creative CityMaking program, we develop and manage meaningful partnerships between artists and City staff to reimagine City practices.
Jump to Creative CityMakingWe provide funds and capacity-building support to creative organizations impacted by the pandemic.
Jump to business supportPhoto: Justin Sengly
Creative CityMaking
Facilitating systems change through creative perspectives and practices.
Photo: Justin Sengly
Creative CityMaking partners community artists with City staff to redesign City practices and eliminate racial disparities in how the City serves the community. We recruit artists from underrepresented and underserved communities because we understand that representation by those most impacted by racial inequities is crucial to any effort to address those inequities.
The artists use creative methods and processes to engage staff in examining and thinking about department practices in new and unexpected ways. In Creative CityMaking, the arts and the creative process become tools to create a more responsive government that:
Imagines new ways of working
Builds new channels of engagement with the community
Broadens residents’ access to and relationships with the City
Initiates change in how the City functions
Photo: Pierre Ware
Creative CityMaking, community uprising and the Creative Response Fund
The killing of George Floyd and the events that followed in Minneapolis underscore the importance of our work. We continually advocate for inclusivity and racial equity in City practices, and we strive every day to engage and lift up underrepresented and underserved residents. This work is now more important than ever.
In the wake of the community uprising, we responded to the urgent need for community healing and relief by establishing the Creative CityMaking Creative Response Fund.
Collaboration driven by inequity and civil unrest
Listen as artists and City staff share insight into their projects and their hopes for the community. See how artists responded to community needs after the murder of George Floyd.
(15:30)
A deep dive into Dinkytown
Hear from a diverse cross-section of the Dinkytown community and learn how Creative CityMaking artists and City planners engaged people on the ground to get input for a small area plan.
(11:14)
The impact and opportunity of Creative CityMaking
We regularly engage outside evaluators to assess the Creative CityMaking program. This helps us measure our impact, focus our efforts and refine the program.
The most recent evaluation, completed in 2021, captures the many ways Creative CityMaking makes a difference for the community, for artists and for City staff.
Photo: Uche Iroegbu
What City staff are saying
“To me the biggest outcome that I can observe is that there’s been some authentic engagement in [the] community on a variety of different social and economic issues.”
“This is what I brought back and shared with my team here: It’s OK to be uncomfortable and to be pushed into different spaces and experiences.”
Photo: Alizaren Meninga
Creative CityMaking projects
Currently, there are no active Creative CityMaking projects underway. However, we’re intentionally supporting artists through our Creative Response Fund grants.
Past projects
Read about past Creative CityMaking and Creative Response Fund projects, as well as public art projects supported by the Creative City Challenge.
Photo: Sean Smuda
Creative CityMaking funding partners
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
Recovery funds for the creative sector
Supporting creative organizations impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Photo: Chris McDuffle
We received one-time federal recovery funding from the American Rescue Plan in 2021. In partnership with Artspace, Springboard for the Arts and Juxtaposition Arts, we’re providing support through capacity-building and funding to creative enterprises experiencing economic stress from the pandemic.
Our purpose is to help the creative sector and workforce recover, with a focus on the industries and Minneapolis communities most impacted. Our support will help organizations build capacity to not only return to business or improve outcomes, but also to plan for the future. We’ve selected 26 creative enterprises to receive funding support in three categories.
Creative apprenticeships – Job creation and employment
Curiosity Studio
Curiosity Studio is a community art therapy studio located in the Longfellow neighborhood; engaging audiences through exploratory art making. Makers leave with a box of tools to incorporate exploration, play, and creativity into their own daily rhythms. Curiosity Studio promotes a non-judgement zone and disarming space where messes are encouraged, and makers walk away understanding how delightful the creative process can be.
Glamor Africa Design
Glamor Africa Design is an African print inspired fashion store created to promote and highlight the importance of African cultural fashion by bridging the gap between traditional wear and everyday functional wear. Glamor Africa Design fashions celebrate African cultural heritage while cultivating a community of fashion design entrepreneurs through art and creativity.
Fireweed Community Woodshop
Fireweed Community Woodshop empowers women and non-binary makers through the art of woodcraft, a skill that is both practical and creative. Makers are introduced to tools and techniques in a workspace equipped with applicable power tools and learning materials. The act and art of woodworking builds confidence and strengthens the imagination. Working in a community setting of support, makers are empowered to flourish within the craft.
Minnesota Center for Glass Arts
Minnesota Center for Glass Arts represents a vibrant arts community as Minnesota’s only non-profit public access glass studio and education center. Exemplary educational classes and professional studio resources for all skill levels are offered and taught by locally and nationally recognized artists. Minnesota Glass Art is a safe space for all to feel welcome and engaged to create experiences that motivate curiosity, build excitement, and advance mastery.
Taiko Arts Midwest
Taiko Arts Midwest develops, produces, and promotes artistic excellence in taiko performance, using taiko to strengthen and build community in the Midwest. Taiko is the Japanese word for drum and refers to the modern style of playing these drums. Group drumming manifests as high energy performances that combine music, dance, martial arts, athletics, and culture.
Z Puppets Rosenschnoz
Z Puppets Rosenschnoz engages people of all ages and abilities into the power of playfulness, through workshops, feats of imagination, and performances that combine hand-crafted puppetry, quirky humor, and live music. Z Puppets transforms complex concepts into fun, meaningful arts experiences through four main initiatives: Arts for All Abilities, Arts and Mindfulness, STEAM of Puppetry and Cherokee Language Revitalization.
Capacity-building for creative spaces – Workspace planning and sustainability
Arena Dances
Arena Dances has been an artistic force in the Twin Cities for 28 years with a mission to make dance accessible to all through the presentation of contemporary dance, educational outreach, and community gatherings to inspire, promote dialogue and celebrate diversity.
Founded in 1995 by artistic director and choreographer Mathew Janczewski in Minneapolis, Arena Dances is an internationally renowned contemporary dance company. Janczewski has created over 50 works performed nationally and internationally to critical acclaim.
Black Table Arts
Black Table Arts is a community driven arts cooperative in Minneapolis that gathers Black communities through the arts toward better Black futures. Black Table Arts makes bold the connection between art and grassroots organizing by providing programs that invite local artists to see themselves as change makers and organizers of their collective liberation.
Founded by Keno Evol, the Black Table Arts space includes a bookstore, private meeting rooms, shared workspace, and a performance space.
Minnesota Fringe
Minnesota Fringe connects adventurous artists with adventurous audiences by creating open, supportive forums for free and diverse artistic expression. Through their summer festival and dynamic year-round programming, Minnesota Fringe is an artistic disruptor for local and national artists – to take bold risks, develop new ideas, and hoist themselves to the next rung of their artistic ladder.
Founded in 1993 by Bob McFadden, Minnesota Fringe is the producer of the largest performing arts festival in the Midwest, with the annual Minnesota Fringe Festival filling tens-of-thousands of seats with audiences viewing dozens of works at hundreds of performances by more than 1,000 artists on a variety of stages in late summer.
Northeast Minneapolis Arts Association
The Northeast Minneapolis Arts Association (NEMAA) strengthens and supports the local artist community with resources, promotion, and fellowship. Centered in Northeast Minneapolis, NEMAA serves working artists in Minneapolis and in geographically and artistically adjacent communities.
Founded in 1997 by an artist collective, NEMAA has over one thousand members and is best known for producing Art-A-Whirl – the largest annual artist open studio tour in the nation. This event makes art and artists accessible to an ever-widening audience, both locally and beyond the Twin Cities.
Roho Collective
Roho Collective is Black-owned, arts organization and a network for artists of color in the Twin Cities serving as a consolidated voice and platform for both emerging and professional artists of color. Roho Collective provides business development and professional growth for artists, curated events, and community programming.
Founded in 2015 by Christopheraaron & Cara Deanes, Roho Collective and its members have been at the forefront of leading the conversation on how to advance the voice and work of Black artists. Roho has developed community events and shows in the heart of underrepresented urban communities that educate and expose people to the power and beauty of art.
Soo Visual Arts Center
Soo Visual Arts Center (SooVAC) is a nonprofit arts space and a mainstay in the Twin Cities supporting the work and careers of emerging under-represented artists through provocative exhibitions, community programming, and partnerships.
Founded in 2001 by Suzy Greenberg, Soo Visual Arts Center has connected the community to over 3600 artists and creates innovative year-round programming, celebrating the rich diversity of the artistic community.
SPRAYFiNGER®
SPRAYFiNGER® teaches graffiti as an art form, offering a comprehensive curriculum designed to teach anyone – artist or not – the fundamentals of graffiti and street art. SPRAYFINGER® strives to increase knowledge of the craft and highlight the importance of graffiti as a benefit to society, not a detriment.
Founded by Peyton Scott Russel, SPRAYFINGER® builds partnerships with artists, teachers, business owners, arts organizations, community leaders, parents, and students to address and discuss the culture, community, expression, and process of graffiti writing as an artistic concept. The program provides curricula, outlines, and techniques that merge the language used by art teachers and street artists to deliver high-quality authentic Graffiti arts instruction.
The Somali Museum of Minnesota
The Somali Museum of Minnesota is the only Museum in North America devoted to preserving and advancing Somali culture and art. It is the home of Somali creativity in North America, presenting a one-of-a-kind collection of traditional and contemporary art and serving as an essential resource for Somali artists in the diaspora.
Founded in 2011 by Osman Ali, at the heart of the Museum is a collection of over 1500 traditional nomadic artifacts and contemporary Somali artworks, highlighting the deep roots of Somali art in nomadic society and ancient traditions. As a unique resource in Minnesota, the Somali Museum uses Somali art as a tool to build community connection.
Twin Cities Media Alliance
The Twin Cities Media Alliance (TCMA) is a BIPOC-led/centered media arts organization that develops bold storytellers and creates spaces for bold storytelling centering the voices and imagination of people on the margins. TCMA equips individuals and organizations with the power of media arts to shape narratives that advance equity and justice.
Founded in 2005, TCMA looks to create nuanced stories that cultivate understanding, shape public opinion, generate opportunities to learn and engage with each other. Storytellers excel in their practice via arts services and arts education and showcase their creativity and excellence in ways that engage community members – as participants and audience.
Voice of Culture
Voice of Culture creates and maintains Black space for Black people to engage in the study and practice of cultural arts for mental health and physical wellbeing. Voice of Culture is not a dance company or a drum class, Voice of Culture is a Black family sharing with a focus on youth and seeks to connect families and individuals of all ages. Voice of Culture creates West African rhythms and movements with a Black American twist.
Founded by Kenna Cottman, Voice of Culture is a nonbinary Black space that respects and explores spectrums of all kinds. Queer Black people, Black Trans Women are all welcome and honored at Voice of Culture.
Artist-driven marketing – Marketing plan design and implementation
Black Mamba Collective
Black Mamba Collective is a women-led cooperative with the goal to elevate BIPOC-owned, plant-based businesses and expand opportunities for all. The collective emphasizes healing, economic and racial justice. Entrepreneur and founder, Tabota Seyon hopes it can serve as a tool for building generational wealth for the women participating.
DanceCo Performance Company
DanceCo Performance Company produces original interactive dance-theatre productions for young audiences and their families. Creating new story ballets specifically for young audiences began in 2011 with Grumpy Bird - a fifteen-minute educational ballet set to music by Mozart for the American Repertory Ballet.
DanceCo is built on the creative vision of Matthew Keefe and the collective experience of he and wife Brittany Keefe. DanceCo also works with Free Arts to offer dance residencies for pre-school age children.
Hopewell Music Cooperative North
Hopewell Music Cooperative North improves access to music education in North Minneapolis through affordable, inclusive, and engaging music programs. Hopewell Music Cooperative North envisions a thriving music community, where everyone has equal opportunity to nurture and share their talents regardless of race, income, ability, or musical background.
Music education is scientifically proven to increase academic performance in children and enhance productivity and mental acuity in adults. Music has the added benefits of instilling values such as discipline, resilience, cooperation, and good communication while providing both youth and adult students with a creative outlet.
Make-a-Scene Scenario Festival
Make-a-Scene! is a scenario festival in the Twin Cities that seeks to create space where artists embody big ideas in small moments. Play is a powerful and beautiful way to express a story and in play, valuable skills are practiced such as group cooperation and as creative collaboration.
Programming places a special emphasis on scenarios by or about the lived experiences of people of color, women, non-binary individuals, LGTBQIA* individuals, and disabled individuals. Make-a-Scene celebrates the whole person and engages all people as artists.
MPLSART
MplsArt is a guiding voice in the Twin Cities visual arts community hosting an extensive exhibition calendar, gallery guide, and high-quality editorial coverage of the best local exhibitions, artists, and galleries, and working tirelessly to elevate the Twin Cities’ world class visual arts community locally and nationally.
By cultivating local collectors, strategic partnerships with established institutions, and working with local businesses, founders Katie and Blaine Garrett strive to create a more sustainable arts scene for all.
Obsidian Pause
Obsidian Pause creates assembly collages with hand-cut paper to create one-of-a-kind wearable collage jewelry. The wearable art pieces evoke stories of hope, and joy as the center of healing as expressed via mixed media including recycled paper, beads, and glass.
Founder Azania Tripp collects paper from her travels to Singapore; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Sydney, Australia; and in the United States; New York, Minnesota, and Michigan. Inspired to create wearable art that empowered and gave her personal strength, she in turn believes her pieces are full of magic and love.
Open Book
Open Book is a center for literary and book arts, inviting the community to engage with books and language in a welcoming environment through activities and programs designed to awaken interest, learning, and access, to the rich and joyful universe of the written word, especially books.
Created by The Loft Literary Center, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, and Milkweed Editions and opened to the public in 2000. Open Book has established itself as a hub for the Twin Cities literary and book arts scene.
Really Spicy Opera
Really Spicy Opera is an award-winning performing arts company based in Minneapolis. Since its’ founding, Really Spicy Opera has presented the world premieres of more than two dozen stage works. A minority and women-lead company, Really Spicy Opera specializes in creating and producing new musical and dramatic works for the stage and runs the Aria Institute for Composers and Librettists.
The Aria Institute is an online program providing free professional training for aspiring opera composers and librettists, using a uniquely performer-driven model and radical accessibility principles to break down traditional barriers to participation.
Semilla Center for Healing and the Arts
Semilla Center for Healing and the Arts works to build community through quality arts programming that integrates arts with leadership, youth development, greening and holistic health initiatives. Programs include photography, mosaic making, pollinator gardens and engaging local community to create art to transform the neighborhood. To date, 25 murals have been painted in the Phillips neighborhood and beyond.
In 2008, Semilla Center for Healing and the Arts launched the annual Taste of Phillips Art Festival celebrating the diversity of the neighborhood. Comprised of a mixed population of White, Latino, African American and Asian-American. Semilla (seed) continues to live up to its namesake by planting seeds of hope in the Phillips community.
Sharp Design LLC
Sharp Design LLC is a bespoke signing and fabrication shop. Designer and founder Kelsi Sharp infuses her brand of quality, craftsmanship, and an understanding of architecture and construction methods into every project. In the most successful scenarios, Sharp works directly with clients through concepting, construction, and installation to innovate each sign and introduce branding into the built environment in a considered and impactful way.
Sharp Design invites projects that foster the expansion of the local creative community.
City resources and tools
The City has a variety of services and programs to help entrepreneurs and business owners, including those in the creative sector.
Photo: Sean Smuda