For many arts and cultural professionals, they’ve attended a grant workshop, thoroughly reviewed the guidelines to submit a multi-page narrative which explains their organizations mission and project in which they seek funding, and likely spent many hours laboring over an application with the hope that it would raise funds for their critical daily work.

In Michigan, that process has changed.

Known as the State of Michigan’s conduit for arts and culture information, granting and more, the Michigan Arts & Culture Council serves as the statewide agency providing professional support and resources to the cultural sector. But as the organization reflected on its granting programs, they found ways to update the application to make it more accessible and efficient for professionals working in the field.

“We wanted to start looking at what are we doing? What have we done since the agency was created in 1966? How have we changed? How have we evolved? How are we keeping up with the times?” described Alison Watson, Director of the Michigan Arts & Culture Council.

“And essentially, our programs hadn’t changed all that much since 1966, and yet, the times have changed.”

These questions started a conversation that happened internally with the agencies staff and leadership, “that became the start of the conversation of how would we continue to evolve as an agency, still serving the people of Michigan, but better serve the field,” said Watson.

“We started working with the state’s Office of Continuous Improvement. We went to the field to ask them what was working with our systems and what doesn’t work. Asking them to be open and honest with us and getting an understanding of how long does it take you to do this work.”

What did the agency discover? Some folks were spending over 40 hours to complete an application. “By them being focused on our grant application, that takes away from their time that they should be focused on their work.”

Today, the granting programs have consolidated to streamline funding opportunities that may have been asking redundant information across multiple applications. It allowed the council to eliminate inefficiencies and allow for a review process that was based on compliance rather than a subjective peer review.

An additional key factor that was considered when looking at how the program could be more effective, was geographic location. “We need to do the best we can to get arts and culture out into the largest geographic area. We want it in ever county, we want it in every house district, every senate district, every congressional district.”

As the funding plans are developed, that will be a critical part of the reviewing process. Asking the questions: what counties are not being reached? The council has committed to holding a second round in the review process for those communities that haven’t been reached through a grant award.

But when looking at funding agencies around the country in the arts and cultural space, Michigan appears to be ahead of the curve in crafting programs that are effective and efficient for the field, allowing practitioners to focus on what they do best, making their community vibrant through arts and culture.

“The Michigan Arts & Culture Council’s new granting process is a pivotal step forward. It allows cultural leaders to focus on creating, performing, and educating without bureaucratic hurdles. This system ensures fairer, more efficient access to financial resources, enabling high-quality services statewide,” stated Lauren Ward, Program Coordinator for the Cultural Advocacy Network of Michigan.

For arts and cultural organizations seeking funding to support the vital work in their community, you can learn more about the grant opportunities with the Michigan Arts & Culture Council, here.

Written by Josh Holliday