The Department of Public Transformation (DoPT) seeks 5 rural Minnesota communities to participate in a 2-year Learning Lab for cultivating welcoming and creative places.
Donor Name: Department of Public Transformation
State: Minnesota
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Program Project
Deadline: 02/23/2023
Size of the Grant: $25,000
Grant Duration: 2 year
Details:
The Department of Public Transformation (DoPT) believes in working with artists, cultural workers, and connectors to strengthen rural places by supporting the role of community assets—social, cultural, and built—as a lens to help communities investigate and celebrate their collective story: past, present, and future. From creative taprooms and gathering places to multi-use community hubs and knowledge centers, Activate Rural supports creative building activation projects that inspire, motivate, and open up possibilities for rural communities across Minnesota.
The Activate Rural Learning Lab is a cohort-based peer network, workshop series, and resource hub which supports community leaders and artists in cultivating welcoming and creative physical places of connection in rural communities. Activate Rural’s artist-led asset activation framework, provides an accessible, replicable, and scalable approach to building design and development for those who have a passion and vision for working with their community.
Five building activation projects in Minnesota communities with a population under 10,000 will be selected. Ideal projects will (1) be creative and community-focused, (2) be ready to try something new, and (3) demonstrate the potential to build local capacity for creative approaches to building activation. Priority will be given to projects located in communities with growing diversity in their residential demographics and/or BIPOC-, women– or gender non-conforming-, and LGBTQ2IA+-led projects. The Activate Rural Learning Lab is a 2-year commitment from May 2023 through May 2025.
Selected projects will receive:
- $25,000 for artist-led community engagement projects and participation stipend
- One-on-one technical assistance
- Supportive cohort peer network
- Project promotion and documentation support
- Access to Activate Rural Learning Lab resource guides and workshops
- Travel and lodging costs for 3 core team members to attend 2 in-person cohort gatherings
Eligibility Projects
Eligible building activation projects are:
- Focused on designing a gathering place for community connection through creativity Located in a Minnesota rural community, or Native nation that shares this geography, with a population of around 10,000 or less
- Led by a committed core team of 1-2 artist leads and 2-3 activators
- Safe and viable for active engagement and public events in the idea phase, construction phase, or operational phase
- Moving forward in an identified building currently or soon-to-be under contract or ownership by member(s) of the core team and/or project partner(s) with eligible organizational structures (tribal government, municipal government, county government, 501c3 nonprofit, fiscally sponsored group, cooperative)
For more information, visit Department of Public Transformation.