March 17, 2025 – The City of Minneapolis’ Arts & Cultural Affairs Department is excited to announce applications are now open for the Arts & Culture Vibrant Storefronts initiative. This year, Vibrant Storefronts is expanding its reach by opening new opportunities with participating properties now along 1st Ave, Loring Park and Uptown in addition to Harmon Place. Vibrant Storefronts is a city-led funding opportunity to support and grow creative opportunities within the ecosystem of downtown and other parts of the city with the goal of increasing vibrancy, innovation, and sustainability.

January 30, 2025 | The City of Minneapolis Arts & Cultural Affairs Department and The Loft Literary Center are proud to announce the appointment of Junauda Petrus as the city’s next Poet Laureate. Petrus succeeds Heid E. Erdrich in this prominent literary role.  

December 05, 2024 | The City of Minneapolis celebrated its inaugural Poet Laureate, Heid E. Erdrich, as she prepares to conclude her two-year term on December 31st. In one of her last acts as the City’s first Poet Laureate, Erdrich led a reading of the City’s first official poem at the Minneapolis American Indian Center.

November 22, 2024 | The City of Minneapolis’ Department of Arts & Cultural Affairs (ACA) is excited to announce the inaugural awardees of the Arts & Culture Vibrant Storefronts initiative. This new pilot initiative provides funding to support five local arts organizations—Blackbird Revolt, Black Business Enterprises, Flavor World, Twin Cities Pride, and Skntones ™ — by subsidizing rent in vacant storefronts. In its first year, the Arts & Culture Vibrant Storefronts fund will distribute awards totaling $224,202 to foster creativity, enhance vibrancy, and promote sustainability in Minneapolis. 

October 1, 2024 | The City of Minneapolis Department of Arts & Cultural Affairs is thrilled to announce the inaugural recipients of the 2024 Cultural Districts Arts Fund. In its first year, the fund will grant 64 awards totaling $690,000 across the city’s seven cultural districts. This initiative is designed to empower local artists, creative entrepreneurs, community place makers, and cultural organizations by providing critical financial support.

July 24, 2024 | The City of Minneapolis Department of Arts & Cultural Affairs (ACA) is thrilled to announce the launch of Arts & Culture Vibrant Storefronts. This pilot initiative will provide City funding to subsidize rent for artists and arts organizations in vacant storefronts in the Harmon Place Historic District with the goal to support creative opportunities and increase vibrancy, innovation, and sustainability.  

June 21, 2024 | The City of Minneapolis Arts & Cultural Affairs Department announces a new funding initiative this week to boost the cultural identity and creative capacity of the city’s diverse arts communities.

The Cultural Districts Arts Fund will support arts advocacy and community-building opportunities for local artists, creative entrepreneurs and arts organizations through a series of financial awards.

April 10 2024 | The Minneapolis Music Census launches on Friday, April 12 as a community-led initiative to learn more about the needs of the music ecosystem in Minneapolis. It aims to gather important information about the music industry in Minneapolis to help the city and the community make more informed, data-driven decisions.
Anyone working in the music industry in any capacity, whether professional, semi-professional, student, or contributing in any way to music-related activities – paid or unpaid, part-time, volunteer, or more administrative than creative – are encouraged to participate.

January 10 2024 | Call for Submissions: Co-Applicants for Hennepin County Youth Activities Grants - Arts and Music

The City of Minneapolis seeks Submissions from experienced artists and artist groups interested in partnering with the City of Minneapolis on a joint application to the 2024 Hennepin County Youth Activities Grants Program for Arts and Music Programming.

December 19 2023 | Heid E. Erdrich Selected as First-Ever Poet Laureate for the City of Minneapolis

The City of Minneapolis’ Arts & Cultural Affairs Department and The Loft Literary Center are proud to announce the appointment of Heid E. Erdrich as the first-ever city Poet Laureate, marking a significant milestone in the city’s cultural and literary landscape.

September 20 2023 | City of Minneapolis announces search for first-ever Poet Laureate.

The City of Minneapolis’ Arts & Cultural Affairs Department and The Loft Literary Center are partnering on the first-ever City of Minneapolis Poet Laureate Program.

The inaugural City of Minneapolis Poet Laureate will be an official ambassador of the city’s literary culture, connecting our community through the art of poetry.

August 16 2023 | Arts & Cultural Affairs, Creative Response Fund recipients Sophia Abrams and Anna du Saire’s Kismet Malaise introduces screenwriting via workshops and hands-on location film production experience for future Black women/femme screenwriters and filmmakers. Inspiring participants to craft screenplays from their own personal lived experiences will be the first step in presenting original voices and important stories to the film community in Minneapolis.

Sophia and Anna talk about their goals to create an ecosystem of community and collaboration.

August 2 2023 | The City of Minneapolis’ Arts & Cultural Affairs has awarded 12 Creative Response Fund grants for artist-led projects. This year’s projects center their work in cultural practices, marginalized voices, and local Indigenous knowledge and healing practices. Each project will embed creative healing into arts activities in safe spaces.

May 10 2023 | Arts & Cultural Affairs, Capacity Building for Creative Spaces grantee SPRAYFiNGER® was one of ten creative enterprises selected in 2022 to participate in the Artspace Immersion program – a 12-month cohort learning model program that builds organizational knowledge and capacity to plan for workspace needs. 

Peyton Scott Russell, founder of SPRAYFiNGER talks about his vision for a creative space in North Minneapolis; what spatial equity means to him; and his goals for amplifying graffiti as an art form.

April 19 2023 | Applications are now open for the 2023 round of Creative Response Fund-Community Well Being grants. Community based, Minnesota resident, artists are invited to gather a team and apply for Creative Response Fund grants of $15,000 per project, up to 12 projects will be awarded in 2023.

April 6 2023 | Arts & Cultural Affairs, Business Support for Creatives grantee Z Puppets Rosenschnoz was one of six creative enterprises selected to plan and build job creation and employment opportunities for creative workers.

Z Puppets hired Oogie Push, Bear Clan of the Meskwaki Nation as their new Video Production Assistant. Oogie is looking forward to taking a deep dive into the art and science of storytelling and puppetry.

March 21 2023 | Arts & Cultural Affairs will again be offering project funding to artist teams in a new round of funding through the Creative Response Fund-Community Well-Being grants. Applications open Wednesday April 19th. Application deadline is Monday, May 15, 2023. Mark your calendars, and save the dates.

March 6 2023 | Creative Response Fund (CRF) recipients Gustavo Boada and Aaron Johnson-Ortiz’s Metamorfosis art project channels the Mexican tradition of Alebrije art-making into a process of community-engaged cultural reawakening for the Latino/a/x/e communities in Minneapolis, with a strong focus on East Lake Street.

February 16 2023 | By the time Teddy Grimes and Kimani Beard, Creative Response Fund (CRF) recipients co-founded Summer Cypher, there was little they couldn’t take on by way of music, video, photography, dance, hip-hop pop-up events, promotions, entertainment, and community building.

November 8 2022 | The City of Minneapolis’ Arts & Cultural Affairs is pleased to announce Business Support awards for twenty-six creative enterprises.