Generating Connections and Community Prosperity across the Upper Peninsula through Arts & Culture
The purpose of the Upper Peninsula Arts and Culture Alliance is to foster and promote creativity through building connections among artists, performers, audiences, arts and culture organizations as well as the economic development, recreation and tourism industries with which we must closely align to create a thriving future for our region. The Alliance encompasses all fifteen counties of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Our success is defined by an arts and culture sector that is more visible, more connected, more celebrated, and more sustainable as a part of the broader fabric of regional Upper Peninsula Development.
The Alliance emerged from a series of conversations in 2017 resulting from an ArtPlace America grant awarded to the Central Upper Peninsula Planning & Development Regional Commission. With assistance from Arts Midwest, stakeholders and constituents across creative sectors in the U.P. met and discussed the vision for a prosperous Upper Peninsula. In 2018, the group formally incorporated as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with the goal of connecting and supporting arts and culture through economic development, networking, and research.
Today the Alliance serves as the regional re-granting entity working on behalf of Michigan Arts & Culture Council to grant state funding directly to arts and culture organizations, projects, and individuals in regions 1a and 1b of the Upper Peninsula. The Alliance conducts research in economic impact, maintains a robust directory of artists and arts organizations across the region, and hosts regular workshops, meetings, outreach programs, and an annual conference.
CONNECT.
As a connector to a larger whole, an effective bridge between sectors and ideas.
CREATE.
As an integral part of creating healthy communities, contributing to mental health, physical health, and spiritual health.
CELEBRATE.
As a vehicle to celebrate, find optimism and hope for a common future.