Arts and culture-driven enterprises are catalyzing positive impact in communities across the U.S., from increasing resource access for underrepresented artists to stewarding culture in changing neighborhoods. Many need capital beyond grants to sustain or scale their work but face both perceived and lived barriers that constrain investment potential. There is an incredible opportunity to listen to and learn from arts/culture practitioners about what kind of capital they need, while also spotting signals from those who are testing leading-edge investment approaches and models.
ImpactPHL and SMU Meadows School of the Arts collaborated on a new resource that surfaces potential investment pathways into arts and culture-driven entrepreneurs and enterprises beyond grantmaking. (The report will be released this fall.) The findings are informed by an examination of the intersection of art, culture building, and impact/mission-aligned investment in Dallas and Philadelphia, and across the United States.
Practitioners are invited to join a conversation and explore how we might think and act differently for investment in the arts and culture sector. Participants will hear examples of challenges and opportunities for arts and culture-driven enterprises creating change, and explore how they can collaborate with investors and other aligned stakeholders in their local communities to create investment opportunities and build long-term relationships that center values such as justice, equity, transparency, creativity, and trust.
