About

With a history of supporting the cultural life of communities across the region, Mid-America Arts Alliance’s (M-AAA) Interchange program recognizes the role of individual artists as change agents and connectors in the cities and towns where they reside.

With an innate understanding of process and experience as problem-solvers, artists possess the skills, training, and vision to collaborate across sectors, stimulate dialogue, activate neighborhoods, and creatively respond to civic challenges.

The Interchange program is designed to strengthen individual artists in the M-AAA region (Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas) who have a history of impactful work with a socially-engaged creative practice by providing practice-based grant funding, professional development experiences, peer network access, and one-on-one mentoring. A program of M-AAA, the Interchange program is made possible through the support of the Mellon Foundation.

Interchange Artist Grant

Interchange fellowships of $25,000 will be awarded to 16 regional artists in support of themselves and their socially-engaged creative practices. Fellows will participate in two professional development retreat weekends over the 18-month program. Working in small peer groups with the support of artist peer facilitators, fellows will explore their practices, goals, legal and financial strategies, and emotional-support structures. On-going support is provided throughout the program through quarterly 90-minute workshops and one-on-one mentoring sessions. The program culminates with the fellows sharing their practices and ideas with the field through a Social Practice in Conversation open to the public.

Recognizing that there are a broad array of definitions and distinctions in the field commonly referred to as social and civic practice, Interchange uses the following broad definitions:

  • a current and ongoing artistic practice that includes working with communities (defined by geography or characteristics) to make change;
  • a creative practice that responds to social issues, challenges, and opportunities; and/or
  • a creative practice characterized by processes and products directly linked to their intended social impact.

The M-AAA Interchange Application period opens on Tuesday, February 20, 2024 at 9:00 am CST and closes Monday, April 15, 2024 at 5:00 pm CST. We encourage artists to prepare their narrative answers on a separate document and paste their answers into the online application form. In addition, we ask artists to submit an artist’s bio, artist’s statement, resume/CV (3 pages maximum in a pdf format); up to five work samples (literary, audio, video and/or images); and a work sample summary (1000 word maximum).