WSU Art Collection and Galleries awarded 2025 Creative Impact Award

The Wayne State University Art Collection (UAC) and Galleries were recently among those earning the Joyce Foundation's 2025 Creative Impact Award.

For the second time the UAC has received the foundation's award - a one-time funding opportunity honoring artists and organizations that have enriched the Great Lakes region through creativity and culture. The unrestricted award celebrates their contributions and commitment to ongoing creative practice and programs.

Administered by United States Artists, in partnership with the Joyce Foundation, the program awards $10,000 to individual artists and $5,000 to organizations, totaling nearly $900,000 in funding. The Joyce Foundation is a private, nonpartisan philanthropy that invests in public policies and strategies to advance racial equity and economic mobility for the next generation in the Great Lakes region.

This is the second time the UAC has received the Creative Impact Award. The first came in 2007, which enabled WSU to launch a visual arts program celebrating Tyree Guyton's contributions to Detroit. Highlights included the "Street Sense" exhibition, sculpture commission, associated public programming, and interactive arts workshops for Detroit Public Schools students.

"Our award in 2007 marked a groundbreaking moment for the university, allowing it to host its first solo exhibition, and public art commission of a major work, by an important Detroit artist of color," said Grace Serra, curator of the University Art Collection and Galleries. "The enduring public work stands as a powerful symbol of creativity and growth for both the city and university.

"This commission and exhibition, coupled with its thoughtfully curated programming, has established a compelling model for future collaborations between the University's Art Collection and Galleries," Serra continued, "where grant funding provided the resources to mount significant exhibitions, with public programming, and commissions to expand the collection to be more representative of more diverse living artists."