Kansas City, MO, August 14, 2026: ArtsKC, Charlotte Street, and the Hall Family Foundation are transforming arts investment to honor and amplify the creative power alive in Kansas City, announcing the launch of the Creative Confluence Fund, a two-year, $1.4 million pilot grant program supporting artists and arts-engaged organizations in three key geographic areas.
Creative Confluence Fund features two streams of support and prioritizes the historically divested neighborhoods of Northeast Kansas City, East Side Kansas City, and Northeastern Wyandotte County, Kansas.
Ten individual artists living and working in these neighborhoods will receive $50,000 over two years to lead community-informed projects. The second stream of support will grant $50,000 to 15 small arts organizations over two years for capacity-building, bolstering their programming accessibility and impact in the priority neighborhoods. These funding opportunities are open to all artistic disciplines.
“Artists are community leaders,“ said Charlotte Street Co-Executive Directors Amanda Middaugh and Elizabeth Spavento. “They serve as culture bearers and create a sense of wonder in our daily lives, but they also function as agents of change: embedded in social initiatives, giving voice to diverse groups, and organizing community action. We’re eager to see how this funding initiative propels positive change in Kansas City.”
Just as the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas Rivers have shaped the geography of Kansas City, the arts have shaped Kansas City as a place of cultural distinction.
Kansas City’s unique cultural history has been largely influenced by communities in the Northeast and East Side, MO neighborhoods, and Northeastern Wyandotte County in KS. However, Kansas City’s history is also one of division, from redlining to border wars to many other divisive policies and practices.
As communities in Kansas City continue to wrestle with dividing lines both literal and figurative, art and artists are a uniting force, bringing people and innovative ideas together to manifest change, preserve cultural traditions, and enrich the lives of families throughout the region. By channeling its support to specific geographic focus areas, the Creative Confluence Fund recognizes the creative power that exists in these neighborhoods and seeks to amplify community-driven art and artists in Kansas City’s cultural landscape.
The president of the Hall Family Foundation, Mayra Aguirre, is excited for the opportunity this provides Kansas City. “Creativity exists in every neighborhood across Kansas City. Artists, cultural organizations, and community members help shape how people experience belonging, tell stories, and connect to place. This opportunity builds on those strengths by expanding participation in the arts and supporting and amplifying the cultural life that already exists within communities.”
KEY GEOGRAPHIC AREAS
The Creative Confluence Fund serves artists and arts-engaged organizations across the greater Kansas City area, building connections across state line and county lines.
Northeast Wyandotte, Kansas includes the area defined by the Missouri River to the north, 69 Highway to the east, I-70 to the south, and College Parkway/North 67th to the west.
Northeast Kansas City, Missouri includes the area defined by the Missouri River to the north, I-435 to the east, I-70/Truman Road to the south, and E 5th Street to the west.
East Side Kansas City, Missouri includes the area defined by I-70/Truman Road to the north, I-435 to the east, East 63rd Street to the south, and Troost Avenue to the west.
“Community-focused, arts-engaged organizations are pivotal to ensuring the vibrancy and humanity of our neighborhoods,” said Dana Knapp, ArtsKC President & CEO. “We look forward to learning from and engaging with the organizations and artists participating in this initiative as they continue to inspire the growth and change occurring across our region,” said Rashida Phillips, ArtsKC VP of Community Impact.
ARTIST GRANTS
This grant supports the development of public art projects by individual artists that strengthen the cultural fabric of one of the three focus neighborhoods, both during the project time period and long-term. Projects must be relevant to the given community, ambitiously creative, facilitate collaboration with residents, and foster social dialogue around local issues.
Applicants must be located or working within one of the geographic focus areas and must develop outreach strategies for the project in collaboration with Charlotte Street and ArtsKC staff members.
ARTS-ENGAGED ORGANIZATION GRANTS
This funding supports not-for-profit arts organizations with an annual budget under $500,000. Organizations must be principally located in or predominantly serving one of the three focus neighborhoods and have at least one year of financial records and an established history of programming. Grant support seeks to build organizations’ long-term viability, including growing accessible community engagement, stabilizing finances and personnel, identifying and resolving organizational needs, strategic planning, and developing evaluation metrics and competencies.
The collective grantees will participate in a cohort model that prioritizes peer-to-peer learning, access to specialized resources, and camaraderie.
APPLICATIONS AND INFO SESSIONS
Applications for both competitive funding opportunities open on August 14.
Artists are asked to submit a short Letter of Interest by September 30. Select artists will receive an invitation to submit a full application. Both artist and arts-engaged organization grants have a full application deadline of November 24, 2026.
Submissions will be reviewed by a jury panel of independent artists and arts professionals – including residents of the three geographic focus areas.
Grant announcements will be made in late January 2027.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
ArtsKC and Charlotte Street will host multiple in-person and virtual information sessions for both grant opportunities in the coming weeks. Dates and neighborhood locations will be announced soon.
Additional details and links to the applications can be found at www.creativeconfluencefund.org.
For interview requests, contact Karla Deel, Sr. Marketing & Communications Manager, ArtsKC at kdeel@artskc.org or 816-994-9231 or Amanda Middaugh, Co-Executive Director, Charlotte Street at amanda@charlottestreet.org or 816-994-7734.
ARTSKC
ArtsKC envisions a vibrant and just world where everyone participates in and benefits from the transformative power of the arts. As the Metropolitan Arts Council of Greater Kansas City, we are singularly focused on the advancement and engagement of the region’s arts and culture ecosystem. We ensure access, build capacity, activate advocacy, and drive investment — connecting 500,000 individuals to the arts annually through promotion and access programs, investing $8.5 million since 2007 in artists and arts organizations through grants and stipends, and building strong public and private partnerships to secure policy and funding that advance the arts as integral to the quality of life for all. Please connect with arts and culture in our region at www.artskcgo.com and reach out to our team at www.artskc.org to learn more.
CHARLOTTE STREET
Charlotte Street centers Kansas City’s most forward-thinking visual artists, writers, and performers—acting as the primary incubator, provocateur, and connector for the region’s contemporary arts community, and its leading advocate on the national stage. Since 1997, Charlotte Street has distributed over $3 million in awards and grants to artists and their innovative projects and connected individual artists to each other and to the greater Kansas City community. For more information about Charlotte Street, its awards, programs, and initiatives, visit www.charlottestreet.org.
THE HALL FAMILY FOUNDATION
The Hall Family Foundation is a private philanthropic organization dedicated to enhancing the quality of human life in the Greater Kansas City area. The Foundation supports initiatives that enrich the entire community, expand opportunity for all, and promote excellence. As a catalyst and collaborative partner, the Foundation invests in programs that help ensure all families in Kansas City thrive. To learn more about our work, visit www.hallfamilyfoundation.org.