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 for a sixth year. One of our new, 2022 grantees, MUSIC, is the first to be selected from among their graduates.

                                Partnerships Facilitated with Grantees

      Innovation 80 sparked Ignition Community Glass to partner with Story-catchers Theatre to create a program last summer for Storycatchers youth to be introduced to the basics of  last summer. It was so successful they hope to repeat it with other participants this summer. And 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.

      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 has introduced MUSIC to the Stone Temple, which has agreed to house their new Suzuki violin program.

      Innovation 80 has encouraged ReinventAbility to spearhead DisFest, their Initiative to feature the arts for people with disabilities. This will involve our grantee A.B.L.E, among many others.

      Ignition Community Glass has asked Innovation 80 founders to help interview the final four candidates for their new Executive Director position.  We are happy to do so.

     We have put our Operation Manager, Michael Dias, who is a trained actor specializing in physical aspects of theater, in touch with Theatre Y. He will be  participating in their puppetry program just getting under way.

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, to deepen the contributions of both.