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The Art of Community: How arts and culture help southeast Michigan thrive

July 3rd, 2025 Back to Browse Stories

How do you measure the value of arts and culture in a community?  

One way could be to count the number of children who can imagine a brighter future for themselves after exposure to creative experiences. Another way could be to consider the increased enjoyment of life that arts and culture provide — a ray of light captured just so on canvas, an aria that leaves you breathless, a historical artifact that reconnects you with your ancestors, or laughter shared with a neighbor during a community celebration. 

These are largely measures of the soul, but the value of arts and culture also can be quantified in economic terms. For example, arts and cultural production accounted for $18.4 billion and nearly 3% of the Michigan economy, contributing 120,714 jobs during 2022, the most recent year for which the data is available, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.  

For these reasons and more, the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan remains deeply committed to supporting arts and culture nonprofits throughout our region, even as the sector struggles with uncertainty around federal funding cuts and executive orders. The Community Foundation is proud to partner with large, regional favorites and to fill a niche by supporting medium- and small-size nonprofits, too. 

“Arts organizations meet a critical need for self-expression, skills attainment and enrichment,” says Leah Counts, a senior program officer at the Community Foundation. “Funding for communities to have these experiences is critical to a flourishing and inclusive region.”  

Thanks to our generous donors and funders, the Community Foundation made more than $1.4 million in competitive grants during 2024 through our community grantmaking program and Inclusive Arts Fund.  

Here, we spotlight a few of these grantee partners and how they help to achieve our shared vision of southeast Michigan as a place where everyone thrives. 

The Henry Ford 

The Henry Ford is Michigan’s most-visited cultural tourism attraction, with over 1.7 million annual visitors to its Dearborn campus in 2024. 

People enjoy visiting The Henry Ford’s distinct venues — including the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation, Greenfield Village and the Ford Rouge Factory Tour — where they can learn from unparalleled collections, programs and experiences and get inspired to help create a brighter future. Additionally, The Henry Ford presents many signature events that visitors treat as annual family traditions, says President and CEO Patricia E. Mooradian. 

“The Henry Ford is one institution in a network of world-class arts and culture destinations that make southeast Michigan a great place to live, work and raise a family,” Mooradian says. “Museums have long been among the most trusted institutions in America and, at The Henry Ford, we take that trust very seriously.” 

The Henry Ford is one of 11 large arts and culture organizations that receive operating support through permanent endowments established in 2021 by the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation and managed by the Community Foundation. The nearly $100 million investment also created the Inclusive Arts Fund at the Community Foundation, which grants $500,000 annually to support medium- and small-size local arts and culture organizations.   

Another example of how the Community Foundation has partnered with The Henry Ford is a gift to the Farm to School Lunch program that serves Henry Ford Academy students. This support helped The Henry Ford grow an endowment that provides every student at the HFA with a scratch-cooked, locally sourced, healthy, in-season lunch for free forever.  

Community Foundation support also enabled The Henry Ford to provide sensory-friendly programming for individuals with autism spectrum disorder and their families at no cost.  

“At The Henry Ford, we believe arts and culture of all types are integral to fostering community and shared identity,” Mooradian says.  

Detroit Public Theatre 

The Detroit Public Theatre produces nationally recognized plays and programs that attract audiences from throughout southeast Michigan to the heart of Midtown’s thriving cultural district. The theater creates bold, relevant work that illuminates the thrills, joys and challenges of our shared human experience. 

The Community Foundation has supported the Detroit Public Theatre since its early days, lending credibility that helped the theater attract additional funding. Previous Community Foundation investments were made in the theater’s Shakespeare in Prison and artist residency programs. The Detroit Public Theatre also was one of 10 members in the innovative Staging Change program, a $1.2 million partnership between the Community Foundation and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. As a midsize nonprofit, the Detroit Public Theatre has the capacity to use modest grants to try new things and, if successful, to build on them by tapping into larger grants. 

A current Community Foundation grant of $62,500 is helping the theater grow its community programs, which are designed to expand arts access and connect people throughout our region. For example, the Detroit Public Theatre recently hosted audience dialogs after productions of its play “Confederates.” 

“We have people who don’t even find themselves in the same grocery stores because they are stratified by economics, by race and by politics,” says Sarah Winkler, who is a co-founder and producing artistic director of the Detroit Public Theatre. “It’s such a polarized time, and yet we’re all sitting in this theater together watching this play that is about both the present and the history of our country. The conversations were stunning. 

“One of the things that was astonishing to me was how thirsty people were for this conversation in this time — how thirsty people were to see each other, to be seen, to care for each other,” Winkler says. “It was beautiful.” 

Choral Artists of Michigan

“Both the students and the adults, their faces light up and they really don’t want to stop that interaction, but we have to get a concert going,” chuckles Jim Watson, who serves as artistic director of the Choral Artists of Michigan. 

“It honestly was kind of a highlight, and I’m not even talking about the music,” Watson says of the preshow conversations. “The Choral Artists of Michigan singers are basically asking the students, ‘OK, what’s your favorite subject?’ and ‘What’s your favorite piece of music that you’re gonna sing?’”  

The Choral Artists of Michigan was established to engage audiences through outstanding experiences in vocal music, provide educational outreach and produce recordings of choral masterworks. But Watson says there’s a deeper purpose at play: Singing combats isolation among seniors, builds community, enriches lives and fosters teamwork. 

In fact, research conducted for the most recent Americans for the Arts report reveals that access to arts and culture opportunities like those the Community Foundation supports have a “positive effect on social cohesion by bringing generations together, encouraging partnerships and intercultural understanding, reducing fear of crime, and fostering organizational skills. People report feeling more in control of their lives and more activated as citizens.” 

VIDEO: Al Shlosha D’varim as performed by The Collaboration Choir made up of the Choral Artists of Michigan and the Greater Oakland Singers, a community chorus of elementary students. Video courtesy of Choral Artists of Michigan

To support arts and culture in our region, visit cfsem.org/field-of-interest and select Arts & Culture when you complete the form.

This story was first published in the Summer 2025 REPORT.