The days are officially getting warmer across the geographies our staff members call home. We’re excited to share more stories and gatherings with you as we kick off the summer!
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Through support for artists, culture bearers, artisans, and storytellers – alongside the local organizations that support them – Spillway works to create the conditions for engaged projects that honor diverse lived experience, deepen regional relationships, and build rural-urban networks of knowledge-sharing and exchange that will create opportunities for artists, culture bearers, and artisans to thrive, connect with new colleagues and audiences.
Thank you all for joining us earlier this month with Fire in the Village for a transformative evening of printmaking, music, and a fashion show at Winona County History Center with our shared community! We’re excited to “flock around” again soon to bravely make more art and share more stories.
We’re grateful to Johnny Barber for these spectacular photos from our time together. Additional support for this gathering was provided by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
Last week, we were honored to gather with Kachina Yeager at the Sheldon Theatre in Red Wing, MN, during “Mni Memory,” an event about remapping and remembering river relationships.
“We are blown away by the amount of participation that wanted learn from a Dakota perspective, the relationship between water and human being - Mni Wiconi/Water is life,” reflects the Honoring Dakota Project team, who cohosted the evening.
This gathering was presented in partnership by Red Wing Arts, Honoring Dakota Project, City of Red Wing Government, Art of the Rural, Minnesota Marine Art Museum, and Sheldon Theatre of Performing Arts.
A nationally-celebrated leadership network using place-based cultural exchange programming to develop the skills, networks, and capacity of rural and urban leaders to bridge divides and make change.
The Kentucky Intercultural Microgrant Program provides seed grants to support projects led by two or more RUX members, alumni, or partners collaborating across distance and difference.
Launched with support from DevouGood, Kentucky Civic Trust, Kentucky Foundation for Women, Kentucky Waterways Alliance, Snowy Owl Foundation, and additional donors, the Microgrant Program supports the statewide RUX network to lead projects that celebrate and connect Kentucky's people and places. Grants range from $250-$2000 for short-term projects that foster dialogue, connection, or collaboration among Kentuckians from disparate backgrounds, identities, or experiences.
This year’s themed funding pools include:
🎶 Josh May Memorial Fund Microgrant
🎨 Kentucky Foundation for Women Microgrants
🌱 Civic Health Microgrants
🚲 DevouGood Creative Transportation Microgrants
🛶 Kentucky Waterways Alliance Microgrants
This Saturday, May 30
7pm CT
Winona Arts Center, Winona, MN
Join our friends at The Cedar Tree Project for an evening of dance films, food, and conversation curated by Sharon Mansur. Admission $10, reservations requested
Wednesday, June 3, 12-1pm ET / 11am-12pm CT
Via Zoom
Join us for a virtual information session about RUX’s 2026 Intercultural Microgrant Program, including time to workshop your application with staff.
Friday, June 5 - Sunday, June 7
Whitesburg, KY
Join RUX at the 40th Seedtime on the Cumberland! We’re taking to the mainstage in conversation with The Local Honeys and Bonnie Prince Billy — plus, there will be hiking, camping, food, and lots of new memories to be made! Poster by John Haywood.
Saturday, June 13
5-7pm CT
Sioux City Art Center, Sioux City, IA
Pasture to Present offers a rare opportunity to see Grant Wood’s Corn Room mural not just as a celebrated piece of art but as a symbol of a rural ideal that continues to shape American identity. In pairing Wood’s original work with contemporary reflections on rural life, this exhibition honors the artist’s legacy while inviting a new generation to consider the ongoing importance of rural America in the nation’s cultural landscape. Through this exhibition, we aim to inspire visitors to appreciate the complexities, beauty, and resilience that define both the land and its people.
A Blade of Grass Field Funds offer $500 for practitioners’ emerging ideas and ongoing work. This round’s theme is Collective Work and seeks U.S.-based groups of 3 or more artists, creative practitioners, and/or culture bearers with a demonstrated history of collaboratively creating socially engaged art. Apply by May 31
Department of Public Transformation’s 2026-2027 Engage Rural Civic Arts Cohort is a year-long curated cohort experience 5 teams based in rural Minnesota. Teams should be based in communities with a population of under 20,000 in Minnesota and the Native Nations that share this geography. Teams should be interested in developing creative strategies for civic engagement, and they will receive $12,000 in funding, curated technical assistance, and peer learning. Apply by June 17
Springboard for the Arts’ 2026-2028 Rural Regenerator Fellowship is an 18-month fellowship that brings together regional rural artists, creatives, and culture bearers to deepen their relationships, grow their work, and support rural exchange and solidarity across the Upper Midwest. It includes a $15,000 award and $3,000 travel support. Apply by June 18
The Walker Youngbird Foundation’s Grant for Emerging Native Artists supports early-career Native and Indigenous artists in bringing a proposed project to completion—work that can be shared publicly through exhibition, installation, publication, or other visual presentation. Grants provide $15,000, guided mentorship, and exhibition opportunities. Apply by June 18
Art of the Rural is a collaborative nonprofit organization that resources artists and culture bearers to build the field, change narratives, and bridge divides. Our initiatives are long-term, trust-based efforts that co-create spaces for exchange and impact across the traditional dividing lines of place, practice, and lived experience.
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