IMPACT ON GRANTEES Artists and cultural producers feel that they are part of the Leeway community — Leeway has successfully built strong relationships with women and trans artists and cultural producers working on social change and local partner organizations in Philadelphia and the surrounding areas. These artists and cultural producers feel that they are part of a community that Leeway has supported, and that this community membership is not temporary and based on being a grantee, but long-term and based on a nourishing relationship with Leeway. “It was one of the first non-academic grants I got. It made me think, ‘Oh, I can be an artist. Oh, there’s money out there. There are people who can fund my ideas, and then I can make things happen.’ The stumbling block isn’t having the idea and creating; it’s getting the money. There was also the morale boost. There’s people who believe in me, and there’s this whole network of women and trans people in Philly who are working in community with each other, and that people have your back. I felt like it was a family that has my back.” (grantee) “They give funding, but they leverage so much more than an exchange of dollars. They are creating and growing community and appreciation, opportunities for new ideas, which they incorporate as they go along. I find it unique.” (grantee and panelist) Artists and cultural producers have built a clearer identity as an artist through Leeway’s invitation for self-exploration/reflection — Being a Leeway applicant and a grantee changes the way artists and cultural producers think about art and social change, and their own artistic and cultural practice. The artists and cultural producers we interviewed talked about how the questions in the application stayed with them, and they go on answering them long after the Leeway grant is finished. Grantees use the questions in the application process to mold their artistic identity and to understand their purpose as a social justice/change artist in a deeper way. Most of the artists and cultural producers we talked to describe the application process as intense and one that left them changed. A white artist noted how the application process encourages (almost forces) white people to think about their identity and privilege in a self-critical way, which is a good thing. For some artists and cultural producers we spoke to, Leeway feels like a home for them as artists when, because of their identity, they had previously felt like they would never find an artistic home. “The application processes every year literally shaped my path moving forward. I really credit Leeway. Going through the rigorous set of questions, evaluating myself and my communities, my impact — having them in my head from the very beginning really impacted me.” (grantee) “It goes right to the heart of what Leeway does and does so brilliantly, which is to shift the conversation about intersectional social identities away from the objectifying question ‘What are you?’ to the empowering question of asking people to tell their own stories in their own words.” (grantee)
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