•• Artists and cultural producers feel validated and legitimized by getting the Leeway grant — This validation encourages them to apply for more grants from Leeway and from other funders. •• Artists and cultural producers have built their confidence to avail themselves of other opportunities — Getting the grant from Leeway is a springboard to applying, and getting, other grants and fellowships. •• Artists and cultural producers experience greater financial freedom — Transformation awardees described how they spent some of the grant on their artistic work, but they also used the money to do all sorts of other things: to travel, to learn or to pay rent. The key element was a freedom to choose whatever they needed. •• Artists and cultural producers connect new applicants to Leeway — All of the artists, cultural producers and local partners we interviewed had encouraged other artists to apply for Leeway grants.
Impact on panelists “I loved it. It was a phenomenal experience. There was incredible intimacy in the cohort. It was delicious. It was emergent, collective practice, which I totally loved.” (grantee and panelist) •• Who sits on the panel — The grantmaking panels are made up of artists, cultural producers and activists who are invited because the foundation sees them as exemplars of the kinds of practices Leeway exists to support. Leeway aims to create panels that are intergenerational, cross-cultural, multidisciplinary and representative of varied identities. •• Rigorous, emergent practice — Panelists agreed that the “charge” to the panel, including the definition of a Leeway artist, the facilitation and the feedback that is given afterwards to all applicants, means that the process has rigor, and that the consensus-based deliberation does not get reduced to a subjective judgment of art or allow one voice to dominate. •• Shifting power through experiential learning — For some artists and cultural producers, being on a panel taught them how philanthropic decision-making works, and they used this new knowledge and the power it gave them to apply for and get other grants, and to influence grantmaking processes in other places.
Impact on the ecosystem of social change artists in the Philadelphia area “Can you imagine what it’s like if Leeway didn’t exist for 25 years?! ... The amount of resource that filtered into the lives of the artists, the people who are getting paid to work with the artists. It’s such a cultural economy that is filtered through 25 years of grants.” (grantee and panelist) •• Stronger ecosystem of social change artists — While interviewees acknowledged that there are many variables that influence this ecosystem, almost everyone said yes, it was stronger and more sustainable because of Leeway’s work. •• Ripple effects — What impact are Leeway grants having on the communities that the Amplifying a cultural community: Leeway’s impact | Executive summary
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