This week, "Art and Soul" is about the visual arts in our community. WEMU's Lisa Barry is joined by state and local arts leader Omari Rush and Amina Iqbal of the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation to talk about the art opportunities provided by the foundation and what new opportunities lie ahead as we emerge from the past year in a pandemic.
Amina Iqbal is a senior community investment officer with the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation, who started in that position just a few weeks before the pandemic was officially recognized and everything changed.
She talks about that experience and how the foundation recognized how the arts and culture sector play a huge role in moving us forward and bringing us together.
She shares how the foundation provided hundreds of thousands of dollars to support community organizations during the pandemic, including creating multiple grants programs for local arts organizations.
Moving forward, the foundation plans to launch an arts and culture COVID relief and recovery program in the spring. They also will focus on providing more arts grants, because they want to continue to invest in the arts and culture of Washtenaw County.
**Special thanks to Paul Keller for providing the Art & Soul theme music.**
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— Lisa Barry is the host of All Things Considered on WEMU. You can contact Lisa at 734.487.3363, on Twitter @LisaWEMU, or email her at lbarryma@emich.edu
