Held together by the strings

"Songs in the Key of Free" is a program in a Pennsylvania prison brings together inmates to play music and write songs that they perform inside, while professional musicians also play the songs in venues outside prison. The program is just a year old and is based on a successful theater program in California that cut recidivism rates and helped decrease prison infractions. The founders of "Songs in the Key of Free" are creating an album of the work, but after that, future funding is unclear.

The Kenan Trust is philanthropic foundation that supports “social practice art,” in which the arts facilitate change like restoring homes in urban areas and revitalizing immigration services. Their funds have reached the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum of Art, and the Laundromat Project. A recent $6million program supports 21 New York City-based arts organizations that engage with hard to reach communities. Kenan argues that its approach is not “charity” but “justice.”

An initiative in House schools that gives students access to the arts in the classroom has positively affected students' ability to concentrate, write, and even show compassion to one another. The initiative, known as the Houston Arts Access Initiative, encourages schools to provide exposure to dance, music, and visual arts to encourage creative and kind interaction.

Layette is replatforming itself to embrace local culture over a dangerous oil dependency. CREATE, a voter-approved initiative in the city, funds cultural events and festivals to create new economic drivers and to promote the cultural legacy of the region. The fund draws upon money designated from a larger pool of surplus property tax revenue, as well as from philanthropic donations.

Building community around storytelling preserves cultural heritage. Across Lebanon, individuals and institutions like the Lebanese Ministry of Culture and the Theatre Monnot in Beirut are working to preserve oral culture as a medium for storytelling. Initiatives, including the long-running International Storytelling Festival and Beirut’s Hakaya, bring together storytellers, known as hakawati and hakawatiye.

Public art adds value to communities that have experienced decline in recent decades. In towns like Mansfield and Marietta, Ohio, public art plays a positive role. Murals created by groups like Mansfield Murals Inc., or by other local artists, enhance public buildings and offer a way for residents to connect and express their history. In Marietta, the Marietta Community Foundation funds the city’s Public Arts Committee.

A more diverse theater scene requires arts and culture organizations that embrace and reflect communities of color. In Detroit, Michigan, the nonprofit Black and Brown Theatre works to eliminate barriers for actors of color. The organization fosters a supportive network, casting actors, directors, and staff from communities of color in the Detroit area. Still, disparities in access to funding for arts organizations focused on racial minorities remain a challenge.

The Prison Arts Initiative program, jointly run by the Colorado prison system and University of Denver, puts personal expression through visual and performing arts at the heart of the prisons' mission to become less punitive and more rehabilitative. With exhibits like "Chained Voices," featuring paintings by incarcerated people, the program aims to give hope to people by making them feel seen and valued as fully human. Formerly incarcerated artists say they valued not only the personal growth they experienced, but also the knowledge that their art could change public perceptions of the people in prison.

Dalit hip-hop musicians are using their art and social media to propel the Dalit rights and anti-caste movements to the forefront of mainstream conversation.

The Spanish-Language Community Advisory Network works with a performing arts center in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, to bring in Latino audiences by showing culturally-relevant films, reducing language barriers, and even inviting the films’ cast and crew to the screenings.