Betting that partnerships between arts organizations and other nonprofits will lead to greater innovation, the Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan (CFSM) has announced almost $2 million in grants to fund proposals that link the community and the arts, the Detroit Free Press reports.

Building on its program of bringing arts and community leaders together in cultural forums, the foundation aims to fund projects that will increase and diversify audiences, boost education and outreach programs and build stronger groups in the southeastern part of the state, the Free Press reports.

In one partnership -- funded by a $50,000 grant -- On My Own of Michigan, an organization for people with developmental disabilities, will team with Meadow Brook Theatre and the International Academy, a high school known for its drama program, to produce a play about people with cerebral palsy, mental retardation, epilepsy and autism.

In another -- funded through a $250,000 grant -- the Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village will partner with the Arts League of Michigan, an African-American organization, to develop a living history exhibit. The exhibit will feature the Harlem Renaissance's debt to Idlewild, a Michigan resort that brought together black intellectuals during that time, the Free Press reports.

CFSM's initiative, expected to last five years and grant a total of $4.5 million, is made possible through a grant by the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, which gave 10 community foundations $1 million each to start programs supporting the arts, the Free Press reports. Organizations such as the David M. Whitney Fund, the Hudson-Webber Foundation, the McGregor Fund and the Kresge Foundation are also supporting CFSM's efforts, according to the organization.

A description of the CFSM program is available at http://comnet.org/comfound/execsum/summary.html.

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