ARTS LEAGUE OF MICHIGAN INC (dba The Carr Center)
Inspire! Entertain! Challenge! Educate!
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Our strategic focus, as defined in our current strategic plan is that " The Carr Center will reflect the excitement of Detroit and become a leader in providing community focused arts and education programming. The Center will create a consistent series of focused, high profile artistic and educational projects that appeal to a wide variety of age groups and address the diverse communities it serves.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Carr Center Arts Academy
The Carr Center Arts Academy offers intensive arts eduction and training in the visual arts, jazz music, dance and musical theater. In addition to our intensive Summer Academy, we are expanding into year-round offerings.
Carr Center Artist Hub
Through the Carr Center Artists Hub, we provide complementary use of studios, gallery, performance and meeting spaces to community-based artists to do/make their work. Musical ensembles, theater, opera and dance companies have used the Hub for rehearsal and performance space.
Carr Center Presents
Carr Center Presents brings both performing and visual arts to the metropolitan Detroit Community. During the past two years, we have produced 30 gallery exhibitions and more than 165 performances. Performances include our “Jazz at the Center” and “Classic Carr” series. Additional performances include opera, dance, poetry readings, chamber music, and storytelling. We have also hosted film screenings, a multi-day film festival, and a full schedule of summer outdoor concerts and events.
Where we work
External reviews
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Percentage increase in student matriculation in educational programs
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adolescents
Related Program
Carr Center Arts Academy
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Increase pool of individual donors
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Input - describing resources we use
Direction of Success
Increasing
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
The Carr Center aims to become a national model in bringing the African and African American cultural arts to a diverse and multicultural audience. This is the focus of our institutional mission - the preservation, presentation, promotion and development of the African American cultural arts traditions within our multicultural community. We want to pursue our mission in a sustainable way; providing
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Our strategic plan incorporates programming, marketing and fundraising strategies, together with ongoing efforts to strengthen governance.
1. Programming strategies focus on maintaining and expanding our core programs; creating new high-profile initiatives and new high visibility programs
2. Marketing strategies focus on enhancing both institutional and programmatic marketing toward increasing the organization's profile and attracting a larger "family" (i.e., audience, students, and donors)
3. Fundraising strategies focus on creating a fundraising culture - engaging the full staff and board ; creating a fundraising system; increasing the pool of individual donors and expanding the corpus of institutional and corporate donors.
4. Strategies also focus on increasing the size of the board of trustees, with a targeted giving level for each trustee.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
The organization has engaged a world renowned artistic team to enhance its programmatic offerings. In addition, both the marketing and development staff has been upgraded, with a full-time marketing director and the addition of a development associate to the development office.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
There has been substantial progress in each of the measures being monitored. We are currently undergoing a formal evaluation with consulting support from Yancey Consulting to look at progress over the past 2 years in order to make any required adjustments in the current strategic plan.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We act on the feedback we receive
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
We don’t have the right technology to collect and aggregate feedback efficiently, It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
ARTS LEAGUE OF MICHIGAN INC (dba The Carr Center)
Board of directorsas of 02/14/2023
Mrs. Shirley Stancato
Mygene Carr
Civic Volunteer
Sonya Pouncy
Engineer
Gloria Butler-Miller
Shirley Stancato
Non-profit Exec (retired)
John Bolden
Higher Education Administrator (retired)
Reed Kroloff
Dean, College of Architecture, Illinois Institute of Technology
Oliver Ragsdale, Jr
The Carr Center
Terri Lyne Carrington
The Carr Center
John Bolden
EVP/COO (retired) Wayne County Community College District
Mygene Carr
Civic Volunteer
Caroline Chambers
Senior Director, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Graham Media Group
Sanford H. Koltonow
Physician and Psychologist, Michigan School of Psychology
Aubrey Lee, Jr.
First Vice President, Wealth Management, Merrill
Sean McElrath
Michigan Multicultural Representative, Tito's Handmade Vodka
Scott Reilly
President, Peopla Powered Democracy, LLC
Frank Taylor
President and Chief Executive, New Area Select Properties
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? No -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? No -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Not applicable -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
We do not display disability information for organizations with fewer than 15 staff.
Equity strategies
Last updated: 01/05/2023GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.