FORWARD ARTS

Forward Arts. We Are.

Many stories and updates to tell FA peoples! Too many for one post, but, we'll tell them all by the end of the year.

In 2010, after a year in development, we launched Forward Arts as a L3C. A few months ago, we were accepted into the Wayne State Law Clinic and have been hard at work making it happen. We are very happy to say we have now have transferred Forward Arts from a L3C into a Non-Profit Corporation and will be submitting our IRS papers soon! Many, many thanks to the Wayne State University Law Clinic for their services and advisement. Because of the change, we have been building our Board of Directors and Executive Committee as well. We'll be introducing you to them over the next few months.

A new project we have become part of is Sustain Arts, happening in Detroit right now. We are very happy to be apart of the leadership committee. Sustain Arts is a "community based effort to strengthen the nation's cultural infrastructure." The project is partially headed by Claire Rice, a former Michigander and UMS employee who we hope to have a posted interview with coming up over the next couple of months. The project is housed at the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University and will take place in 6 cities across the US. Learn more HERE

We're also very excited to hear what the final results for the Knight Arts Challenge will be. Forward Arts got to help promote the grant challenge back in April. The project wil be granting 9 million over the next three years to the arts here in Detroit, but Knight has also granted more for the arts here as well. For more information on all of it, check out their website HERE.

FA has also been adding program leadership, we call them SuperFriends, to committees like ArtRide, Young Lions Detroit, and Detroit Emerging Arts & Culture Leadership programs, with development in some other areas as well. Can't wait for it all to come together and tell you everything! Check out this STORY on Director of Detroit Spoke Erika Fulk, who also sits on our ArtRide committee.

Some really exciting things percolating at Forward Arts! Want to get involved? Send an email to info@ForwardArtsDetroit.org, and we'll contact you shortly.

The Doctor

Dr. Dre's Creative Process, from the film "Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap".

Ice-T: Everybody knows Dr Dre don't drop a record a week. It's a process. What's your process, before we get to hear a track?

Dre: You know, it's um....It's not the same thing every time, it really dpends on who I'm working with. I try to get inside the head of the artist I'm working with. And the record has to be them. I don't go approach the artist and say ok, this is the way I think the record should be. I just try to make what their bringing, better. Just add whatever their bringing, add my thing to whatever their bringing. I try to get in touch with the artist. Try to get in touch with their personality and what they're trying to do. And try to just take that to, you know, levels unheard of. That's just my thing. I just...it's no set foundation or it's no set way of doing it.

Also, check out this great story NPR Music did on Dre's classic album "The Chronic". Its been 20 years since it's been released. STORY

Hello FA Friends!

As we near the end of 2012, it's always a good time of the year to think about what we are thankful for. We wanted to say thanks to everybody who have helped Forward Arts along the way. Little or big, planned or random, every bit of help counts and is very appreciated.

Speaking of next year, we’ve been hard at work preparing for 2013 and getting ready to start rolling out some announcements. Over the next few months, here you will start to find more content and updates about what we’re up to. We hope you like the website improvements we have been making to the design, we will always be working towards a better experience for you across all our platforms.

What’s next then, right? Yes, we’re going to announce some news soon, but we can give a little teaser for 2013. We’ll be launching our new interview series, “Our Friends Are Electric”, that will focus on what FA focus’ on; artists, art administrators, and art organizations. We might actually begin the series before 2013, so head’s up on that.

We leave you with this Ultraísta “Gold Days” track we’ve been listening to quite a bit. Hasta luego. You’ll be hearing more from us shortly Detroit. We hope everybody has a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year.

Ultraísta “Gold Days”