Celebration of the “Capacity Building: Michigan Lakeshore” program on July 11, 2024 in Holland.
HOLLAND, Mich. (WOOD) — Arts and culture leaders gathered in Holland Thursday to celebrate the end of a two-year initiative.
Capacity Building: Michigan Lakeshore is a program implemented by the DeVos Arts Management Institute in collaboration with Betsy and Dick DeVos. The program helped 15 lakeshore arts and culture businesses develop long-term plans and strategies and improve various aspects of their business. The 15 business owners met once a month to learn from industry leaders.
Some companies say they have already seen organizational growth as a result of the program.
“Being in the same room as other arts and cultural organizations helped us all understand what a unique asset we have together,” said Jill Bar Steg, president and CEO of Evergreen Commons.
“It's often hard for arts and cultural organizations to carve out a niche for themselves in smaller communities where they don't have the same size donor or supporter base, so we thought this would be a really good and helpful way to elevate what they do,” said business leader and former U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.
The program was free to businesses, and the DeVoses said they'd like to create a similar program in Grand Rapids.
