Forecast Public Art’s Midwest Memory Grant Opportunity is open to rural, Midwest communities who want to express, elevate, and preserve a multiplicity of stories that prioritize the voices and experiences of BIPOC communities through monuments.
Donor Name: Forecast
State: Selected States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: (mm/dd/yyyy) 10/01/2024
Size of the Grant: $10,000 to $100,000
Grant Duration: 2 Years
Details:
Forecast Public Art is excited to welcome applications from non-profit, 501c3 organizations that are based in a rural community with a population less than<25,000 and more than 40 miles from a MSA (metropolitan statistical area), and are based in and serving the Midwest (Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Ohio, and the Native Nations that serve those same geographies).
Funding Information

$75,000 grant to realize a unique monument project.
$25,000 for capacity building.
$10,000 to pay cultural advisors.

Project Period
The Midwest Memory Grant is a 20-month-long period beginning in January 2025, and ending in October of 2026.
Eligible Projects 
Projects must:

Focus on addressing deep systemic inequities, advancing racial justice and/or indigenous visibility.
Have public memory and/or public history as its core focus.
Show commitment to amplifying the stories and histories of BIPOC and Native communities who have been silenced and oppressed in the Midwest, specifically projects that uplift the stories of Black settlers, Tribal nations and communities, and immigrants of color.

Who should be on the team?
Forecast Public Art is looking for applicants who are engaging a coalition of community members and organizations to realize their monument or memorial projects. They believe these cross-sector teams will help the sustainability of these projects, and any future efforts. BIPOC and/or Native artists will be essential to supporting these teams, but other team members could include community organizers, historians, government staff, educators, community leaders, etc. The Lead Applicant on the team must be a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that has a demonstrated commitment to addressing social and racial equity in their community. The team must be currently working on a monument or memorial project in their community.

LEAD APPLICANT must be:

a non-profit, 501c3 organization and 
based in a rural Midwest community with a population less than<25,000 and more than 40 miles from a MSA (metropolitan statistical area). 
ADDITIONAL TEAM MEMBERS must include:
a city or town staff member, Tribal leader, or community leader with responsibility over existing and future monuments and memorials
Up to 3 more team members from community groups, artists, historians, and/or Culture Bearers who are engaged in this work in their communities

Teams must: 

Be multi-racial and/or multi-ethnic.
Represent a diverse cross section of the community in race/ethnicity, age, gender, range of skills, and connections to the community.
Be committed to both learning and action.
Be working on an existing monument or memorial project, or an existing public memory issue for which they need additional support in order to take their project to the next level. This could be a new proposed permanent or temporary monument, the recontextualizing of an existing monument/memorial, removal of a monument/memorial, or the updating of policies that affect monuments and memorials in their community. Applicants seeking to launch a new project from scratch would not be eligible.
Demonstrate current involvement in work around monuments, memorials, public history and/or public memory in their community. This could include facilitating community conversations, advocating for policy change around monuments and memorials, creating artistic projects that address racial equity in monuments, research, and more.

For more information, visit Forecast.