ArtsWave has awarded nearly $103,000 in grants to two of its affinity groups, raising to $1.1 million the amount granted to such groups since 2016.
Nearly $54,000 of the total will fund seven projects that promote the LGBTQIA+ community through ArtsWave Pride, the organization’s fastest-growing affinity group.
The remaining $49,000 in grants will fund arts programming designed for young professionals through ArtsWave Young Professionals.
Grant selection for both sets of projects were made by volunteer community panelists and were approved for distribution by ArtsWave’s board in November.
The grant approvals come on the heels of $200,000 approved at its September board meeting for its Circle of African Americans for the Arts affinity group, also known as “the Circle.”
These three networking and affinity groups have funded $1,107,982 in arts programming since they began, fueling 128 projects over the past six years.
In addition to these three affinity groups, ArtsWave has a Women’s Leadership Roundtable affinity group (also known as “the Roundtable), consisting of more than 450 women who together raise more than $1 million annually, while coming together through a variety of inspiring arts experiences.
The Roundtable, the Circle, ArtsWave Pride Leaders and YP Leaders form a larger group of ArtsWave Leadership Donors, who together contribute nearly $3 million to the annual ArtsWave campaign and receive leadership recognition and various event invitations as impact stakeholders for the arts.
ArtsWave in 2022 raised $11.5 million, which it uses to support 150 arts organizations, school outreach programs, festivals, community centers, neighborhoods and various collaborations through impact-based grants. These grants create thousands of concerts, shows, exhibitions, arts for school children, public art, festivals and events like BLINK.
Launched by the Cincinnati Taft family in the late 1920s, ArtsWave became the nation’s first united arts fund in the late 1940s, initiated the nation’s first arts workplace giving program in the mid-1970s and remains the nation’s largest arts fundraising organization.