Arts, Culture and Education

Goal

To support education, arts, and cultural institutions as critical forces for positive change, and key determinants of the community’s quality of life and economic well-being.

Objectives

Arts and Culture: To strengthen the capacity and broaden the participation base of Flint area arts and cultural institutions.
Community Education: To improve the quality of education for Flint-area students.
Higher Education: To encourage Flint’s development as a regional center of higher education while broadening the user base.

Funding priorities for Arts and Culture

Active engagement in the arts and cultural experiences can be an effective tool for revitalizing cities and enriching school curriculums. Cultural institutions often serve as safe and neutral settings for residents to engage in dialogue and community planning, thereby becoming trusted centers for community life. To nurture a vibrant arts community, we:

Make capital, program and endowment grants to build the capacity of the institutions within the Flint Cultural Center;
Support community-based projects by smaller arts and cultural organizations, using the arts as a component of economic development or civic engagement initiatives; and
Fund schools and other organizations to improve arts education and opportunities for young people.

Click here to view the 10 most recent grants for this program area.

Funding priorities for Education

Students attending the Flint Community Schools are of special interest and concern in our overall funding for local education initiatives.

Community education

Before- and afterschool programming, also known as community education, has been an area of particular interest to us locally, nationally and internationally for many years. As part of an overall effort to improve the quality of education for students in Genesee County, we:

Fund school-based community education activities that provide academic support and productive activities for children and young people; and,
Support efforts to build the capacity of these programs and their staff; evaluate program quality and effectiveness, and diversify their participation and funding base.

Funding in this area currently is directed toward support for Bridges to the Future, a countywide before- and afterschool program.

Higher education

Flint’s institutions of higher education are major “centers of strength” for the community. These four colleges and universities serve as powerful resources to assist in the region’s economic and civic recovery efforts. Our grantmaking focuses on:

Providing capital, endowment, planning and programmatic support to build the capacity of local colleges and universities to serve increasingly diverse student populations.

On a more limited basis, funding is available for college preparation, curriculum development for non-traditional students, and academic and social support systems for minority and low-income students.