Our Town is a creative placemaking initiative administered by the National Endowment for the Arts. Through project-based funding, the program supports activities that integrate arts, culture, and design into local efforts that strengthen communities. Our Town projects advance local economic, physical, or social outcomes in communities, ultimately laying the groundwork for systems change and centering equity
Culture Works, the Dayton Region’s local arts agency and united arts fund, has been awarded a $50,000 Our Town Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). This is the second grant Culture Works has received from the NEA in less than 12 months. Our Town Dayton will mobilize local artists to create a community-developed art installation at the Edgemont Solar Garden in West Dayton. Culture Works will use Our Town funding to train a core team of regional artists and financially support their efforts to physically transform a neighborhood amenity into an icon of community pride that fosters connections with the people and businesses surrounding it. These artists will also gain valuable planning and business skills that will enable them to benefit economically from their creative work as they move forward in their professional careers.
Are you a pre-professional artist who wants to earn a living through your creative work? Our Town Dayton is an ideal opportunity for you to learn from other local professional artists while participating in a community-based art project. You will gain valuable insight into the business-side of being an artist, and you will help transform a part of our community. Space is limited, so sign up today!
Applications for this program will be accepted through the end of business on Thursday, December 15. Artists who are selected to continue with the program will be notified by January 8, 2023.
Opportunity: Travel to France for the 2020 Conference on James Baldwin for academics, artists, and activists celebrating the 50th anniversary of Baldwin’s arrival in Saint-Paul de Vence. Bean will be engaged in scholarly exploration of all things Baldwin and social justice, developing his skills in creative writing under the facilitation of Cornelius Eady, a co-founder of Cave Canem.
Opportunity: Attend the Algonkian Writers Retreat for five days of intensive work with established authors on a work in progress.
Opportunity: Create a body of work, an interactive workshop, and a gallery show inspired by the events in Dayton, Ohio, in the summer of 2019 focusing on the healing and resilience of our community.
Opportunity: Travel to the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture in New York, NY, to attend the Drawing Marathon and study under acclaimed artist Graham Nickson.
Opportunity: Attend the 2020 Glass Art Society Annual Conference in Smaland, Sweden to study new techniques and technological advances in glass blowing.
Opportunity: Create an exhibition of new, original oil paintings reimagining Norman Rockwell’s four freedoms paintings that will be exhibited in conjunction with Peace Dayton 2020 to promote community, thoughtful dialogue, mutual understanding, healing, peace, civil engagement, and civic discourse.
Opportunity: Study with the artist Amira Rahim through her intensive eight-week painting e-course in order to develop skills to transition block prints into strong collectible paintings.
Opportunity: Travel to New York City and Los Angeles to conduct on-camera interviews with four crucial interview subjects for “We Will Not Turn To Stone”–a feature-length hybrid documentary that re-conceptualizes Medusa, one of the most infamous mythic females of all time, through a non-patriarchal lens. Too quick to decapitate, too fearful of turning to stone, we finally look up to meet Medusa’s gaze.
Opportunity: Stage a one-woman show that brings Lifelines and Legacies–an autobiography of short stories and poetry–to life in a dramatic, theatrical way.
On Thursday, Sept 11th from 6-8pm you’ll have the chance to sample and select Dayton’s Best Martini. In the second year for ARTINI, this fundraiser for Culture Works, will take place at The Grande Hall. Local mixologists have been challenged to create an art inspired martini for the event.
Culture Works has announced a new logo and brand as the organization prepares to enter its 45th year serving the Dayton Region.
Culture Works invites you to join us in celebrating the start of the 2018 Campaign for the Arts! On Tuesday, March 6th at 4pm, the community is invited to join us in the Flight Deck at UD Arena to celebrate the start of the 2018 Arts Campaign.
Next week, join Culture Works for the first ever Eat.Drink.Arts—a collaborative effort bringing together culinary, visual, and performing artists to cultivate and enhance resources for our visual and performing arts community.
Fifteen Montgomery County artists have been selected to receive grants in 2018 through the Artist Opportunity Grant program, which is funded by the Montgomery County Arts & Cultural District (MCACD) and administered by Culture Works.
The Culture Works Leonard P. Roberts Scholarship was established in 1993 in honor of Mr. Roberts, who was Chairman of the Dayton Performing Arts Fund (now Culture Works) at the time of his death. Since the first scholarships were awarded in 1994, $392,600 from the Leonard P. Roberts Scholarship Fund has been provided to 186 students to assist them in their educational pursuits.
