When the
Michigan Humanities Council receives grants, the giving just keeps going. For example, $85,000 the organization recently received from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs will assist with the funding for both Poetry Out Loud, and the Arts & Humanities Touring Program, which provides job opportunities for cultural entertainers and helps Michigan non-profits feature those entertainers at events.
The Arts & Humanities Touring Program offers grants up to $4,000 for non-profits that wish to utilize cultural entertainers from the MHC’s Arts & Humanities Touring Directory. This is a special year for the organization as the adjudication process is now underway to for the 2012-2015 directory.
“This is a great resource for the Greater Lansing area,” says Katie Wolf, MHC executive director. “Any non-profit can get up to $4,000 per year to help pay for these performers. They are all Michigan performers, they’ve all been adjudicated to make sure they are authentic, and most of them are affordable.”
During this adjudication year, performing artists, storytellers, writers, folk artists and more apply to be included in the guide. Their applications are evaluated, and then in March, humanities experts formally evaluate each applicant before including them in the guide.
“One of the things we’re looking forward to,” says Wolf, “is once we have the new directory come out we’re looking to do a showcase at the capitol and people come from all over the state can come and scope things out and see what could work well for their events.”
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