Special Initiatives

The Exemplar Program

The Exemplar Program will provide two years of support totaling $150,000 each to 12 small to midsized arts and cultural organizations nationwide. The organizations are being recognized for outstanding cultural work in their communities and in the field based on their participation in the Animating Democracy program of Americans for the Arts and the Working Capital Fund. Supported by the Ford Foundation, the two-year Exemplar Program aims to foster a holistic and integrated approach to organizational health, institutional growth, civic engagement, and aesthetic investigation.

The exemplar Program awardees are:


Arte Público Press in Houston, TX, is the nation's largest and most established publisher of contemporary and recovered literature by U.S. Hispanic authors. Its imprint for children and young adults, Piñata Books, is dedicated to the realistic and authentic portrayal of the themes, languages, characters, and customs of Hispanic culture in the United States. Based at the University of Houston, Arte Público Press, Piñata Books, and the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage project provide the most widely recognized and extensive showcase for Hispanic literary arts, history, and politics.

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Cornerstone Theater Company of Los Angeles, CA, is a multiethnic, ensemble-based theater company. It commissions and produces new plays, both original works and contemporary adaptations of classics, which combine the artistry of professional and community collaborators. By making theater with and for people of many ages, cultures, and levels of theatrical experience, Cornerstone builds bridges between and within diverse communities in its home city of Los Angeles and nationwide.

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The East Bay Center for the Performing Arts in Richmond, CA, is an educational institution that unites the rigor of a nationally recognized arts training and producing center with a commitment to the people and integrity of its community. It recognizes the arts as a vehicle for social reconciliation and social change. The Center’s programming is informed by the art forms of the new majorities and immigrant populations that make up its diverse community.

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Intermedia Arts of Minneapolis, MN, is a multidisciplinary, multi-media arts center, a gathering place where stories are shared through visual arts, theater, dance, music, media arts, and literature—from folk arts to hip-hop culture. Acting as a focal point for collaborations among artists and organization since 1973, Intermedia has helped develop new art forms that are artistically, socially, and politically challenging. Intermedia is expanding its digital resources for arts production and presentation and community dialogue.

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Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, NM, is a multitribal center of higher education dedicated to the preservation, study, creative application, and contemporary expression of American Indian and Alaska Native arts and cultures. Since 1962, IAIA has empowered Indian People as they strive for education, economic self-sufficiency, and the expression of their artistic and cultural traditions. The Institute offers four-year degrees in studio arts, visual communication, creative writing, and museum studies.

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The Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, based in Takoma Park, MD, has pursued a broad definition of dance as a multidisciplinary art form that encompasses movement, music, imagery, and the spoken word since its start in 1976. Dance Exchange is known for groundbreaking new dance works performed by a cross-generational company on major stages internationally, as well as local and national projects that engage individuals, institutions, and communities in making and performing dances.

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The Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum in Chicago, IL, stimulates and preserves knowledge and appreciation of Mexican culture through events and exhibitions that exemplify the rich variety of visual and performing arts in the Mexican culture. Now the largest Latino cultural organization in the United States, it maintains a 4,000-piece permanent collection of Mexican art, presents festivals, runs youth programs including the Yollocalli Youth Museum and a youth radio station, and develops culturally based programs that address social and civic concerns in its local Pilsen/Little Village community of Chicago.

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The National Black Arts Festival (NBAF) in Atlanta, GA, brings together visionaries from all arts disciplines and in traditional and contemporary forms to incubate, commission, and present groundbreaking ideas that give voice to the collective challenge and triumph of people of color, particularly those from the African diaspora. Through the annual festival and year-round educational and humanities programs, NBAF aims to advance the work of emerging and renowned artists of African descent working in all artistic disciplines, while exposing and educating local, national, and international audiences to their work.

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The Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC) in Los Angeles, CA, is an arts center that produces, preserves, and conducts educational programs about community-based public art works. SPARC promotes public art as an organizing tool for addressing contemporary issues, fostering cross-cultural understanding, and promoting civic dialogue. Working within this philosophical framework, over the last 28 years SPARC has created murals and other forms of public art in communities throughout Los Angeles and increasingly in national and international venues.

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Sojourn Theatre of Portland, OR, is a multiethnic, multilingual, ensemble-based theater company that develops original work and bold adaptations of classic scripts and stories with an aesthetic that is history-conscious, politically inquisitive, and strikingly physical. Committed to practices of partnership and community engagement, Sojourn Theatre creates work that locates artfully on stage local and national conversations on critical issues of our times. In doing so, Sojourn aims to bridge urban, suburban, and rural communities, and make theater that is accessible and meaningful to all.

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Urban Bush Women (UBW), based in Brooklyn, NY, is an internationally recognized performance ensemble that creates and performs dance-theater works inspired by women’s experiences, African-American history, and the cultural influences of the African diaspora. UBW’s educational and community programs address social issues and difficult historical truths while seeking to build community and leadership in communities through art.

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Wing Luke Asian Museum, Seattle, WA, is a multidisciplinary institution that engages the Asian Pacific American communities and the public in exploring issues related to the culture, art, and history of Asian Pacific Americans. The museum has pioneered the use of artwork and artmaking as a component of community-based exhibitions and consciously integrates and empowers its target audiences into the development of exhibitions and programs.

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