NONPROFIT + ARTIST DEVELOPMENT
In 2020, CACHE and Mid-America Arts Alliance teamed up to lead a two-year professional and organizational development program called ARt Connect. It brought together a cohort of 10 small to midsize arts and culture organizations in Northwest Arkansas. Over the course of two years, CACHE paid each organization a stipend to pay for the participants’ valuable time to participate in monthly workshops and one-on-one consultations with professional development coaches and topic-based experts. All learning was focused on three pillars of learning:
- Community engagement
- Finance
- Governance
To turn this learning into meaningful action, CACHE awarded each organization with a $10,000 grant.
The ARt Connect program is generously supported by the Walmart Foundation.
THE FIRST COHORT OF ARTS AND CULTURE ORGANIZATIONS INCLUDE
Bridge Fund Grant
Grant opportunities for small to mid-sized Northwest Arkansas arts and culture nonprofits impacted by COVID-19
In 2020 and 2021, CACHE distributed a total of $750,000 through The Bridge Fund to thirty small and mid-sized Northwest Arkansas arts and culture nonprofits. Supported through a grant from the Walton Family Foundation, the funding provided support for organizations to rethink their audience needs, reimagine their future, and develop long-term strategies around operations, infrastructure and creative production in response to the ongoing and dramatic changes within the arts and culture sector due to COVID-19. Many of the grantee organizations serve the region’s most vulnerable communities, and it was critical to support them as they stabilized and planned for the future.
