Mid-America Arts Alliance (M-AAA) has received a $250,000 Capacity Building grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to expand and strengthen its Artist INC and Artist Leadership Fellows programs. This two-year investment aims to bolster artist-led entrepreneurship, innovation, and economic resilience across Kansas City and M-AAA’s six-state region, which includes Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas.
Artist INC has been serving thousands of artists for over a decade, providing coaching, skills, and community support to help creative entrepreneurs turn their artistic practices into sustainable careers. Under M-AAA’s management, the program has become a national model for artist-centric career development, emphasizing peer-to-peer learning where artists teach and learn from other artists. The initiative has also expanded access to rural communities and later-stage artists, helping them enhance professional growth and strengthen peer networks.
All Artist INC sessions are led by trained local artist-facilitators, who are graduates of the Artist Leadership Fellows program. These facilitators bring lived and local arts experience to their teaching, and M-AAA compensates them at competitive rates to reflect their value. This approach ensures that participating artists receive practical, relevant, and high-quality guidance for advancing their careers.
The Kauffman Foundation grant will fund two annual 20-person cohorts of Artist Leadership Fellows, who will participate in core leadership development, financial deep-dive sessions, and individualized financial mentoring. It will also support two annual 10-person cohorts of Lead Facilitator Training to sustain and expand the facilitator network, as well as expanded research into the economic and environmental status of Kansas City artists.
This funding will strengthen M-AAA’s internal infrastructure, leadership pipelines, and research capabilities, enabling the organization to empower artists, fortify the regional arts ecosystem, and enhance its role in workforce development, entrepreneurship, and community resilience. By recognizing artists as entrepreneurs, culture-bearers, and economic contributors, this investment positions M-AAA to amplify the impact of its programs and advocate for the essential role of artists in thriving communities.
