Waterloo Receives Major Pilot Inititiative

Partners to Invest $500,000 in Cleveland’s Waterloo Neighborhood
CPAC and Northeast Shores Launch Artist Community Development Initiative

CLEVELAND – The Community Partnership for Arts and Culture (CPAC) and Northeast Shores Development Corporation have announced a partnership to launch Artists in Residence, a two-year initiative that will explore what artists can do for Cleveland neighborhoods, and what Cleveland neighborhoods can do for artists.

The two-year, $500,000 pilot program will focus its efforts on this relationship in Cleveland’s Waterloo Arts District. The initiative will include:

* A micro-loan program for artists buying or rehabbing dwellings within the neighborhood,
* A micro-grant program to support artists’ work in carrying out community-based arts projects within the neighborhood,
* The development of a number of artist homeownership services, and
* A coordinated local and national marketing campaign on behalf of the program.

Through these activities, Artists in Residence will increase artists’ access to homeownership within the city of Cleveland, while also addressing issues like reducing vacancy and abandonment rates and increasing opportunities for resident leadership development.

The neighborhood was selected by a panel of arts, community development and planning experts through a competitive proposal process. Thirteen Cleveland-based community development organizations submitted a letter of interest to host the pilot program. Five neighborhoods were asked to submit a full proposal before the panel selected Northeast Shores based on judging criteria.

Artists in Residence is made possible through a $250,000 Creative Communities Challenge Grant from Leveraging Investments in Creativity (LINC). The Creative Communities Challenge Grant program was a one-time competitive grant program open to 15 “Creative Communities” nationwide, made possible through support from the Kresge Foundation.

The Creative Communities program is a nationwide network of organizations working to make improvements in the well-being of American artists. LINC has invited local partners in 15 communities across the country to identify and address issues that affect artists of all disciplines. For more information, please visit www.lincnet.net.

CPAC is a nonprofit arts and culture service organization dedicated to strengthening and unifying greater Cleveland’s arts and culture sector. Since its founding in 1997, the organization has accomplished this through a range of programs and services within its core competencies of capacity building, public policy and research. For more information, please visit www.cpacbiz.org.

Northeast Shores Development Corporation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to create a better North Shores Collinwood to live, work, and visit. They serve the area by increasing homeownership in the neighborhood and helping entrepreneurs bring their business ideas to market. Over the last 10 years, their activities have resulted in over $42 million in neighborhood investment. For more information, please visit www.northeastshores.org.