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Ethical Artist Contracts

We are so grateful that this summer and fall we have been able to return to many beloved venues, festivals and cultural experiences. It feels like a blessing to be able to return to the connection and meaning that these arts activities bring to our communities and lives. Even as we celebrate this return, we […]

Marking Our Pandemic Year

Today marks one year since we closed our offices, started working from home, and opened up our Personal Emergency Relief Fund for Coronavirus relief. The year that followed has been full of challenges, compounding crises, and heartache. 526,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 over the past year, and our community rituals of celebration and mourning […]

Pledge not to apply for MSAB Creative Support Program

As a recipient of a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant we are pledging not to apply to the Creative Support program. We believe that the taxpayer dollars that MSAB distributes should be equitably distributed to the full ecosystem of arts and culture in Minnesota. We are entering into this pledge with Mixed Blood […]

Three Minnesota Nonprofits Partner to Advance Pay Equity

Three Minnesota Nonprofits Advocate for Wage Transparency Job Postings on Minnesota Nonprofit Job Boards Must Now Include Compensation Information The Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, Pollen, and Springboard for the Arts are pleased to announce that as of July 21, all job postings across their job boards must include compensation information, with each organization reserving the […]

Emergency Relief Fund Update 05.27.2020

Since launching the Coronavirus Emergency Relief Fund (ERF) on March 12, we have, as of May 27, supported 1,474 artists, culture bearers, and creative workers in Minnesota with over $715,000 in direct relief. We are beyond grateful to the thousands of individual donors, artists, and organizations who have helped us get emergency funds to people […]

Emergency Relief Fund Update & Plan

Since we launched the Coronavirus Artists Emergency Relief Fund on March 12, we have received 1265 applications from creative workers in Minnesota, and already been able to support 743 artists in need with $356,000. Thank you for your support in making this happen. Hundreds of individual donors, artists, foundations, and funds have moved quickly to […]

Springboard for the Arts Coronavirus/COVID-19 Response

In response to the Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic, and specifically to an increased number of cases in the Twin Cities metro area, Springboard for the Arts is implementing the following changes. Beginning on Monday, March 16, we will be limiting public access to our offices and resource centers. We are encouraging all employees to work remotely, moving […]

Principles for Ethical Cancellation

Many businesses, organizations and people are finding themselves in the position of canceling public events and gatherings due to the Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic. This is disappointing and scary for a lot of organizations and businesses who rely on in-person events to fulfill their mission and to generate income. It also has the potential to be extremely […]

Guiding Principles for our University Avenue Move

Springboard for the Arts’ St. Paul location is moving at the end of February, leaving our longtime home at the Northern Warehouse Building in Lowertown for a newly renovated space on University Avenue. We are moving from what was once a warehouse to what was once a used car dealership. The Northern Warehouse has been […]

Springboard for the Arts begins renovations on University Avenue site with new funding

The Ecolab Foundation has committed $250,000 to Springboard for the Arts, enabling ground to be broken and renovations to begin at their new site at 262 University Avenue in Saint Paul. Nicknamed SpringBOX, the site will allow Springboard to strengthen and enrich its growing community by creating an innovative, arts-centered neighborhood hub. The site will […]

Creative People Power

Springboard for the Arts and Helicon Collaborative are excited to launch Creative People Power, a new report and framework for combining creativity-centered and people-centered development to build strong, healthy, and resilient communities. “Sometimes the most radical ideas are deceptively simple,” says Helicon Collaborative’s Alexis Frasz. “Springboard’s approach to investing in and nurturing “creative people power” […]

Statement from Springboard for the Arts – 6/26/2018

Last week the U.S. government separated children from their families at our border. On Saturday, Thurman Blevins was killed by police in North Minneapolis. Today the Supreme Court issued a ruling upholding a ban on Muslims entering the United States. These highly public events come on top of the daily personal ways that people in […]

Big Moves by Springboard for the Arts

Springboard for the Arts announces purchase of property at 262 University Avenue West in Saint Paul -Former Saxon Ford Showroom will act as flexible community, event, market and workshop space -Saint Paul, F.R. Bigelow, and Mardag Foundations together commit $500,000 to launch the capital campaign -Community open house on Saturday, June 23rd Springboard for the […]

Springboard For The Arts Launches 20/20 Artist Fellowship Pilot

Springboard for the Arts is now offering a new fellowship for artists of color and Indigenous (POCI) artists, small artist run businesses and small artist collectives who have shown innovation in their work, made significant contributions to their field, and are working to build tools and pathways that support other artists. “Springboard’s work is about supporting […]

A note from Executive Director Laura Zabel

2016-2017 was the year we celebrated our 25th anniversary as an organization, and 5 years of our work in Fergus Falls. June is the end of our fiscal year at Springboard for the Arts, and I couldn’t be more excited about the year we’ve just had. I’m returning from our biannual Rural Arts & Culture […]

A STATEMENT ON THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION BUDGET PROPOSAL

The recently proposed budget from the Trump Administration calls for the elimination of the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and severe cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. These are all programs that support America’s creativity and curiosity, and whose funding […]

Let’s Get To Work

Springboard for the Arts is an artist-led organization, and as artists, we know that we need to do the work in order to see the results we want. When things are tough we always go back to our guiding principles and our tools and try to see what we can build. More than ever we […]

Creating a Sharing Economy that Actually Shares

By Laura ZabelPublished on Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2/8/2016Springboard for the Arts, the nonprofit where I work, just gave away its oldest program and most reliable earned income stream. We took the curriculum from our artist-entrepreneur training course, packaged it into a free toolkit, and we’re giving it to anyone who wants to start and […]

WHAT ARTISTS ACTUALLY NEED IS AN ECONOMY THAT WORKS FOR EVERYONE

By Laura ZabelPublished on Creativz.us, 2/2/2016In the years since Investing in Creativity, the Urban Institute’s 2003 report on the support structure for U.S. artists, a lot of things of have changed, many of them for the better. More than ever before, through nonprofits (including the one where I work, Springboard for the Arts) and education […]

Place-Based Philanthropy Is People-Powered

By Laura Zabel Published on National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, 1/27/2016 Every city has just six artists. Or six community leaders. Or six innovators. I’m kidding … maybe your city has seven. I make this joke because in just about every community I visit, there are about six people that show up on everyone’s list […]