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)

“Very emotional experience. I’ve seen people get really wrapped up in the application process and be totally devastated by their attempts and lack of success. … It’s a really intimate experience. They ask for a lot of depth. I had to learn to separate myself from the grant-writing experience.” (grantee)

Leeway gives feedback to all applicants, irrespective of whether they receive a grant. Leeway does this in order to make the application process more transparent so that applicants understand what the panel’s decision-making process was and why they did or didn’t receive the grant. Leeway also hopes that they will use the feedback to apply again to Leeway, and to improve their applications to other funders. Getting feedback on their applications was noted by most interviewees as very helpful for learning more about their artistic practice. It also helped them improve their applications, and they reported using the feedback and the whole application process with Leeway to improve their applications to other funders. A small number reported that the feedback was helpful but hard to hear. Grantees said that Leeway staff was kind and supportive when they gave the feedback.

The questions about identity and purpose in the application process, combined with the feedback process, make the Leeway process an intense one for applicants and grantees, and perhaps a risky one. It also appears that this risk can yield very helpful results, as their understanding of their artistic identity shifts.

“For me those questions were helpful not just in the application process, but it was helpful for me to have clarity on why I am doing what I am doing, and thinking about my own experiences and thinking about what is that common thread that pulls me to want to do this work. Sometimes artists are expected to be like: OK, this is the product. So, those questions for many artists are like: This is the first time I am being asked that, or I’ve always thought of this, but this is the first time where I’m actually putting this into words. This experience, and this experience, and all of those experiences are valued.” (grantee)

“After I won, I had one piece of negative feedback — that’s how I received it: They couldn’t see where it could go. ... I was like, What?! But it was a motivator. It made me ask: Well, where am I going with this?” (grantee)

“It’s also hard to get rejected. After maybe the third time I tried to keep my spirits up, but I said: I’m not doing it again. After the third time, I didn’t call for the feedback, and someone from Leeway called me and asked why I hadn’t called. They said, ‘No, you can’t give up. You have to try again.’ I did take it, did really receive it, but a few months later I got myself in a space to redo it. I think if I hadn’t gotten the phone call, I don’t know if I would have reapplied.” (grantee)

Artists and cultural producers feel validated and legitimized — The artists and cultural producers we spoke to said that getting the Leeway grant felt like a validation of their work and made them feel more legitimate as an artist or cultural producer. The Art and Change Grant often made newer artists feel like they really were artists, that it was legitimate for them to be practicing art and also applying for grants from Leeway and other places. This validation encouraged them to apply for more grants from Leeway and from other funders.

“But more so, what would I have to do to believe I am really a writer and artist? I still struggle to believe I am really part of it. So, the vote of confidence, of saying, ‘We see you as part of the artistic life of Philly, and an artist with a body of work and something to say and a skillset — the value we see in you as a cultural worker,’ the validation.” (grantee)

In an internal discussion about these findings on validation, someone pointed out that Leeway doesn’t offer approval or disapproval of the artist’s choices. It doesn’t aim to be an arbiter in that way. It intends to design a grantmaking process that respects how the artist or cultural producer chooses to define themselves. It hopes that this is a respectful process for the artists and cultural producers, but it doesn’t ask the artist to seek its approval. In the impact assessment, we did not ask grantees if they felt validated by having been chosen to receive a Leeway grant. Instead we asked them what the positive effects were of receiving a Leeway grant, and in response to this question many interviewees said that they felt validated. Though it may not be Leeway’s intention, often grantees do feel validated by what they see as the foundation’s approval.

Artists and cultural producers have built their confidence to avail themselves of other opportunities — Getting the grant from Leeway is a springboard to applying, and getting, other grants and fellowships, for almost everyone we talked to. Artists and cultural producers felt more confident about their grant applications and more able to describe their work and avoid bending it too much to fit funding guidelines because of their previous experience of applying to Leeway. Leeway Transformation Award grantees talked about how people know what the Leeway Transformation Award is, and they don’t doubt that having it on their resume makes a difference when applying for other grants and fellowships. Grantees also described how the Leeway grant (or award) had been a springboard to other successes not grantrelated — for example, setting them on an expanded career path where they could earn their living as a full-time artist or expand their expectations about how much of their artistic practice and product they can control.

“Being empowered to go through that process made me feel like I could do that going forward — and I did on a much bigger scale — made me an artist and a producer. And I understood for the first time that I could have more control than before, when I was produced by a larger body.” (grantee and panelist)

“Getting the grant meant that I felt able to apply to Pew, which I got, and I used that to produce my work on much larger scale.” (grantee)

“Leeway helped get funding for that work. I decided to apply for a Rauschenberg Foundation grant, which funds artists as activists. It’s a national competitive grant. I received it. ... But if it wasn’t for Leeway in helping the initial idea for X, I wouldn’t have been able to take the next step of the Rauschenberg grant. Leeway has always believed in me, and now others are starting to catch on!” (grantee)

“I was able to buy equipment to record my first professional record on vinyl for a label. I bought the equipment and recorded it. … An avant-garde magazine called The Wire in the UK, they named my record No. 3 of the year. … Pretty great for a kid from Phillywho

was community based. Basically, after that, I went on tour for two years, recorded almost seven or eight albums, and then performed all over the world. I don’t have to work now. I was a school coach at a private school. I didn’t have to do that. So that’s really cool.” (grantee)

Artists and cultural producers have experienced greater financial freedom — Leeway’s Art and Change Grant is a restricted grant, and the Transformation Award is unrestricted. Transformation awardees described how the grant gave them a degree of financial stability and freedom they hadn’t had before. All of the artists and cultural producers spent some of the grant funds on their artistic work, but they also used the money to do all sorts of other things: to travel, to learn, to pay rent, to move into an apartment with an art studio, to pay their mother’s rent or to buy equipment. The key element was a freedom to choose whatever they needed. To a funder, this may seem obvious that a grantee is able to spend an unrestricted grant as they please. But interviewees specifically mentioned that they appreciated how Leeway told them they could spend the money on non-artmaking things. They were explicitly told that they could get therapy, or dental work — i.e., life costs that working artists often have to neglect due to few resources. One artist got therapy dealing with childhood immigration experiences, something that they had never had the money to do before. From the artists and cultural producers’ point of view this was unusual. Art and Change grantees’ experience was that Leeway knew that plans can change, that the process could be unpredictable, and that it would adjust what it expected from the grantee if that was helpful.

“$15,000 in one fell swoop that you don’t have to put into a budget line item takes care of a lot of life issues — the ability to fix a broken tooth, like basic, basic stuff. You are not going to go out and buy a new car. I had three kids and I was working. The money helped. It helped those basic needs, just lifting that thing off our hair so you can actually think about your work for two seconds longer.” (grantee)

Artists and cultural producers connected new applicants to Leeway — Grantees, panelists and local partners do outreach for Leeway too. All of the artists, cultural producers and local partners we interviewed had encouraged other artists to apply for Leeway grants. They talked about sitting with fellow artists and helping them through their applications, encouraging them to go to information sessions and to reach out to Leeway staff. And all noted that they knew someone who had been successful in getting a Leeway grant.

“The questions are really difficult, and I have since supported other friends through the application process. And I will tell them the same thing, ‘Go back to when you were a child. What was your mother like? What was your father like? What were your siblings like?’ And I think that’s helped a lot of friends when they’ve submitted their applications as well.” (grantee)