Enriching the Arts through International Cultural Exchange

Since 2008, the International Connections Fund has made ninety-five grants, totaling $3,077,000, to support 118 exchanges with fifty-three countries and Puerto Rico, allowing hundreds of Chicago artists to travel abroad and hundreds more international artists to travel to Chicago. The fund strengthens Chicago’s artistic community by raising the international profile of its arts organizations, providing the opportunity to create new works, and contributing to Chicago’s reputation as an [...] The MacArthur Foundation’s International Connections Fund supports international exchanges that strengthen the arts community in Chicago and bolster its profile worldwide. The fund makes grants ranging from $5,000 to $50,000, which support current MacArthur arts and culture grantees seeking to collaborate with peer organizations abroad. These grants are not intended to support Chicago organizations solely to tour internationally or to present work from other countries in Chicago. Instead, the [...] Given the importance of exchange in our ever-growing and increasingly complex global community, we want to highlight two impressive initiatives, facilitated by our philanthropy colleagues, who are investing in this important work. Creative Fusion, created by the Cleveland Foundation, is a residency program for international artists. Each year organizations in Cleveland’s professional arts sector receive grants from the foundation to host up to six artists. The second initiative is the