One mission of Innovation 80 is to act as a catalyst to spark connections and collaborations for our grant recipients. We are successfully serving that end in a number of ways, including the following:
Apprenticeship Program
We offer grantees the opportunity to choose a recent graduate of ChiArts to serve as a part-time apprentice to help further their organization’s mission. The grantee crafts a job description, ChiArts advertises for applicants to be interviewed and selected by the grantee; Innovation 80 provides a stipend. Several of our grantees have taken advantage of this initiative.
Springboard Foundation Grant Extension
Springboard’s mission is to give grants to very small start-up organizations, usually supporting them for a five-year cycle. They have agreed to notify Innovation 80 of those arts organizations that are completing their fifth year so that we can consider funding them. One of our 2022 grantees, MUSIC, is the first to be selected from among their graduates.
FreshLens Event Photography Opportunities
FreshLens, an organization that teaches the art of photography to teens in underserved communities has conducted an advanced course in event photography. Innovation 80 has offered funding to its grantees who are hosting events for their organizations to hire FreshLens students who have successfully completed this course to photograph their events. Several grantees have signed on to take advantage of this opportunity.
Partnerships facilitated with Grantees
Innovation 80 sparked Ignition Community Glass to partner with Storycatchers Theatre to create a summer program in 2021 for Storycatchers youth to be introduced to the basics of glass blowing. It was so successful, they planned to repeat it with other participants in 2022. Additionally, each organization plans to seek out another collaborator.
Innovation 80 convened a meeting for all their grantees that run programs in North Lawndale, in order for them to learn about each other and to explore opportunities to collaborate.
The Kedzie Center, a mental health clinic, partnered with 2nd Story to engage DACA students to tell their stories. Innovation 80 funded the initiative.
Green Star Movement is partnering with North Lawndale’s Pop-Up Spot to create a mosaic statue that will serve as a Welcome sign to beautify and attract interest for the site’s museum. Innovation 80 is funding the project.
Innovation 80 has introduced MUSIC to the Stone Temple, which has agreed to house their new Suzuki violin program beginning fall, 2022.
Innovation 80 has encouraged ReinventAbility to spearhead DisFest, their initiative for an annual festival that features arts by people with disabilities. This will involve our grantee A.B.L.E., among many others.
Ignition Community Glass asked Innovation 80 founders to help interview the final four candidates for their new Executive Director position. We were happy to do so.
We have put our Operations Manager, Michael Dias, who is a trained actor specializing in physical aspects of theater, in touch with Theatre Y. He briefly participated in their pilot puppetry program.
Innovation 80 fosters collaboration between organizations engaged in different art forms, stimulating people to expand their horizons. Two I80 Founders, Carol and Arnie Kanter, have used this type of collaborative approach, pairing Arnie's photography and Carol's poetry in three books, to deepen the contributions of both.
For more information, please visit dualartspress.com
Habanera
Invited to dance
Glide with grace beyond measure
Slow, sexy, in sync