Thriving cultures honor and celebrate the artistic impulse as part of community behavior, and as a way to strengthen community identity and cohesion.  We seek to strengthen both individual and institutional cultural assets, contributing to vibrant communities.

Culture is not found in only one place in a community, but rather everywhere-from individual and group artistic expression, to patterns of habitation, to food systems, to education, to architecture, to uses of outdoor space, to cultural districts, to ceremonies (celebratory and mourning), to museums and performance spaces, to media.  Culture helps people connect over time, inviting them to build and sustain the vibrant places they call home.

We will fund work in two related thematic areas.

• Weaving a Community's Fabric

  In a just and sustainable community, thriving cultures are social groups bound together by shared concepts, values, beliefs, customs, traditions and activities. These groups have fair access to social goods such as rights, opportunities, power, and dignity.
  
  Cultural organizations and programs often act as catalysts for the building of just, sustainable communities. Cultural practices and cross-sector collaborations can motivate community cohesion and vibrancy, and can provide direction, as well as support for the development of assets. Catalysts can include cultural assets, cultural drivers, and cultural education. (see Evolving Guidelines and Lines of Work).

• Building Capacity

  Within this theme, we will help build capacity for individuals, organizations and networks to participate effectively in the creation and sustaining of just communities.

The work will provide access to sustained opportunities for learning and participation, and will continue to include a focus on teens. We anticipate close collaboration with Surdna's Strong Local Economies and Sustainable Environments program areas.

Please note that we are not accepting letters of inquiry in these new lines of work at this time. For complete information about our new directions, please check back with us in early 2010 when we plan to release our new program and funding priorities.

In the interim, current Arts Program grantees that are eligible for grant renewals in their current funding cycle, please click here.
Arts Teachers in arts-focused public high schools interested in applying for Surdna's Arts Teachers Fellowship Program (SATF); please click here.