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PROFILES: Arts Midwest
David J. Fraher, Executive Director Member States Arts Midwest: Connecting Arts to Audiences Arts Midwest connects the arts to audiences throughout the nine-state region of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. One of six non-profit regional arts organizations in the United States, Arts Midwest’s history spans more than 25 years. Arts Midwest’s mission is to enable individuals and families throughout America’s heartland to share in and to enjoy the arts and cultures of our region and the world. Annually, cultural programs initiated by Arts Midwest reach close to a million people, enhancing the quality of life in hundreds of cities, towns and rural areas. Arts Midwest brings performing artists, educational outreach activities, conferences and visual arts exhibitions to performing arts centers, arts councils, colleges and universities, primary and secondary schools, community centers and museums and art centers. Arts Midwest’s high-quality cultural activities, in a spectrum of artistic genres, reach schoolchildren, university students, families and adults of all ages. Current programs include The Heartland Project, a series of touring visual arts exhibitions exploring culture in the Central United States and Central Europe; Midwest Arts Conference, one of the largest performing arts trade shows in the country; Heartland Arts Fund, supporting and initiating tours by regional, national and international performing artists; international cultural exchanges with Mexico and Japan; Midwest World Fest, an international education and outreach performing arts program, and Shakespeare in American Communities, a national initiative designed to provide American access to excellent theatrical productions of Shakespeare, which is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. Based in Minneapolis, Arts Midwest is governed by a volunteer board of directors composed of 14 business, arts, and community leaders. In addition, we work with advisors who help shape our programs and services to fit the needs of the hundreds of artists, organizations and communities we serve. Arts Midwest’s partners and investors include the National Endowment for the Arts, our nine member state arts agencies, foundations, corporations and individual supporters. Arts Midwest also has several strategic alliances, extending the geographic reach of key programs into Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Texas. |
