The City of Minneapolis is investing in creative healing for the community. The Arts & Cultural Affairs Department has awarded 12 Creative Response Fund grants for artist-led projects. These projects will focus on Minneapolis communities directly affected by trauma from the pandemic and the murder of George Floyd.
This year’s projects center their work in cultural practices, marginalized voices, and local Indigenous knowledge and healing practices. Each project will embed creative healing into arts activities in safe spaces. The projects include:
- A long day event to bring attention to Indigenous arts and cultures for non-Native people in south Minneapolis.
- Outdoor safe spaces for community members to gather, share time, and lean into nature for personal healing.
- Immersive walking tours through the vibrant streets of the Cedar-Riverside and East Franklin neighborhoods as exercises in memory and reflections of lived experiences in the neighborhoods.
- Making murals for visual healing and hope.
- Exploring the ways music can inform one’s interior life leading to a deeper understanding and healing of trauma.
- New film works produced by Black artists, Indigenous artists and artists of color, and new works by Black performers.
- Textile workshops focused on the Latin American folk-art tradition of storytelling through embroidery.
- Writing workshops at George Floyd Square and in Powderhorn, Bancroft and Central neighborhoods.
Grantees and their projects
- Chris Griffith and Hapistinna Graci Horne: “Before Chicago Ave: A Celebration of Native Artists.”
- Claudia Valentino and Lynda Acosta: “Copla Murals.”
- Sophia Abrams and Anna du Saire: “Kismet Malais.”
- Ashley DuBose and Cameron Mann: “Music Heals the Soul.”
- Tahiel Jimenez Medina and Nicole Donoso: “My Mama Can’t Swim.”
- Liban Kano and Bayou Bay: “Nature’s Affirmations.”
- Toussaint Morrison and DJ Stephenson: “Radical.”
- Camila Leiva and Pamela Vázquez: “Testimony Textiles.”
- Antonio Duke and Ashawnti Sakina Ford: “The Ifẹ̀ Lab.”
- Kowsar D. Mohamed and Sara A. Osman: “Tracing Our Footsteps.”
- Binyam Raba and Natian Lemesa: “Wall of Healing.”
- Marquise Bowie and Jeremy Hicks: “Writing for Recovery.”
The Creative Response Fund is a program of the Arts & Cultural Affairs Department of the City of Minneapolis. The Creative Response Fund has supported 139 artists with these resources.
