Arts & Culture News from Your Community Foundation

Collage of Anisfield-Wolf Book Award winning books and authors

Announcing the 2021 Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards winners

The Cleveland Foundation today unveiled the winners of its 86th Annual Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards. The 2021 recipients of the only national juried prize for literature that confronts racism and explores diversity are:

Vincent Brown, “Tacky’s Revolt: The Story of An Atlantic Slave War,” co-winner, Nonfiction
Victoria Chang, “Obit,” Poetry
Samuel R. Delany, Lifetime Achievement
James McBride, “Deacon King Kong,” Fiction
Natasha Trethewey, “Memorial Drive,” co-winner, Nonfiction

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The Gund Foundation honors retired trustee, Ann Gund, with a $1 million grant to arts education for Cleveland students

The trustees of The George Gund Foundation have awarded $1 million to the Cleveland Metropolitan School District Arts Education Fund in honor of Ann Gund. This grant is the inaugural gift to this new donor advised fund at the Cleveland Foundation and will support musical, performing and visual arts.

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Introducing The Asterisk*, a new podcast from the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards!

The Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards (AWBA) has launched its new podcast, The Asterisk*, hosted by Karen R. Long, the manager of the awards. Each episode features an in-depth conversation with an esteemed AWBA winner. Check out the first four episodes here:

Learn more here and subscribe to The Asterisk* on your platform of choice:

An update about arts grantmaking

In light of the pandemic, the Cleveland Foundation is focusing on assisting organizations that preserve core functions of our vital arts and culture sector. Understanding that we do not have the resources to fill the revenue gaps created by the last year, we will pay particular attention to innovative steps that meet the crises and use the disruption to further racial equity. We will re-evaluate this strategy in June 2021.

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Join us May 26 for Women Who Roar: A Panel on Roaring Women Writers

The Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage presents Women Who Roar: A Panel on Roaring Women Writers at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, May 26. The virtual program features some of Northeast Ohio’s most exciting literary academics for a discussion of how women have used words to record their stories, subvert conventions and create worlds. Karen R. Long, manager of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, will moderate the panel, which includes Dr. Gabrielle Bychowski of Case Western Reserve University, Denise Harrison of Kent State University, and Dr. Lisa Nielson of Case Western Reserve University.

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Cleveland’s University Circle named among nation’s best arts districts

Cleveland’s University Circle has been named one of the nation’s best arts districts in USA Today Readers Choice 2021 “10 Best.” Votes are currently being cast for the No. 1 spot! Votes can be cast once a day through April 26, and the winner will be announced in May.

Vote now

Recent Arts & Culture grants

East Cleveland Public Library ($33,100) – For community virtual concerts to be presented by the Greg L. Reese Performing Arts Center
Literary Cleveland ($10,000) – To pair essential workers (delivery people, cashiers, janitors, nursing home attendants, etc.) with two writers to capture their stories from the pandemic in order to create an online anthology and podcast
Writers in Residence ($47,930) – To expand the creative writing program to additional incarcerated youth in order to increase literacy rates, build self-esteem, provide peer mentorship and decrease recidivism

More recent grants