Producer Hub Receives One Million Dollars in Funding from the Mellon Foundation

The Mellon Foundation has awarded Producer Hub funding of one million dollars over the next two and a half years to support the expansion of organizational capacity and programming, including fiscal sponsorship, education, professional development, and information and resource sharing platforms.
 
“We are deeply grateful to the Mellon Foundation for this unbelievable support as we move into this next phase of growth. Producer Hub was built out of passion, a desire to create change and to amplify and aid the work of our peers. This grant will allow us to continue to do just that, while also allowing us the room to grow to better serve our artists,” said Michael Francis, Producing Director. “Our work is rooted in the value of partnership, human to human connection, and leveraging our community in service of our community. This investment in Producer Hub is an investment in a values-centered future.”
 
Producer Hub has also announced staff updates. The company will be led fulltime by Producing Director Michael Francis, working alongside Operations & Fiscal Sponsorship Manager Katie Dragone, Communications & Engagement Manager Cindy Tsai, and Operations Coordinator Kate Mantyh. The Producer Hub Board of Directors currently includes Mara Isaacs (Co-Founder & Board Treasurer), Ronee Penoi (Co-Founder & Board Member), Adam Hyndman (Board President), and Liz Engelman (Board Secretary). Sarah McLellan and Kayte Zhang at A. D. Hamingson & Associates serve as development consultant.
 
Producer Hub is also in the active planning stages of launching two new fellowship programs:

The Bridges Fellowship Program, led by Kenyan producer Karishma Bhagani, in collaboration with Georgetown University, Laboratory for Global Performance & Politics, is centered around training African producers, using a uniquely crafted African and Afro-diasporic pedagogy. The focus of the program is to engage in meaningful cross-cultural exchange, humanizing the role of producers in cultural infrastructure building. The goals of the program include supporting their pursuit of African-producing practices in the global artistic Playing Field, promoting dialogue and cross-cultural exchange between African cultural practitioners and producers and cultural institutions and stakeholders around the world, and fostering a sustainable, intergenerational pipeline of creative entrepreneurs on the African continent.
 
The Producer Hub Fellowship Program at Tofte Lake Center (TLC) will offer 10 members of the Producer Hub community a week-long residency at TLC, a non-profit artists’ retreat center in Ely, MN, adjacent to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Details on applications for both fellowship programs will be announced at a later date.