This past winter and spring, Experience Grand Rapids had the privilege of sitting in on conversations between local artists who came together to discuss what they need to feel a real sense of belonging in Grand Rapids. Funded in part by an EXGR Discover Tourism Grant, this initiative was designed as a vital step in making our city and region more hospitable to the artists and creators whose work helps shape community identity, foster social engagement, and boost civic and economic value.
Belonging Circles Reveal Truths
Belonging Circles is the structured community listening initiative that brought artists together in facilitated sessions to identify what belonging truly requires in Grand Rapids. Each session provided a safe, structured space for artists to speak their truth and share what belonging would actually feel like in this city.
What came back was not a list of complaints. Rather, participants sketched a clear and honest picture of a city blessed with extraordinary creative energy and infrastructure that has not yet caught up with the people powering it.
Dr. Kimberly Slaikeu of Grand Rapids-based KS Consulting facilitated two artist circles and conducted a cross-group analysis, finding the same truths surfacing across all three:
Artists told us that local events and venues such as Bloom Artist Market, Muse GR, Freestyle Fridays and Artmosa are not just informal gathering spaces. They are cultural infrastructure, built by artists because they needed somewhere to be fully themselves, and sustained largely without institutional investment or shared responsibility.
Artists agreed that being welcomed is not the same as belonging. A space can celebrate various cultures while still requiring artists to soften who they are, filter what they say and monitor how they show up. Full belonging means none of that.
Economics is a belonging condition, not a side issue, for artists. Unpaid proposal labor, uncompensated consultation, idea extraction and years of community-building without proportional financial return have cost artists more than money. As one participant put it, creatives have been baking the loaf while being kept at crumb levels.
Finally, artists told us that visibility without narrative authority is not enough. Being featured in a campaign while someone else controls the story is not recognition. It is a different kind of erasure.
What This Asks of Grand Rapids?
The cross-group analysis names Experience Grand Rapids as an organization with the capacity to play a real role in what comes next. The cultural vibrancy that makes this city worth visiting and promoting is produced by the same artists whose belonging we set out to understand. Those are not separate conversations. The data already tells us where to start:
• Compensate. Artist knowledge, lived experience, and time are labor. They should be paid accordingly.
• Invest in what already exists. The spaces artists built deserve sustained support, not just occasional recognition.
• Follow through visibly. Artists named the fear that honest sharing leads nowhere. The most important thing we can do is prove that wrong.
• Create with, not about. Storytelling and programming should be co-developed with artists, with credit and compensation attached.
• Build year-round. One spotlight, one season is not infrastructure. Belonging requires something that does not disappear when the attention moves on.
We are committed to incorporating these belonging principles into future strategies.
We thank all the artists who participated in Belonging Circles and look forward to Dr. Slaikeu’s full report, due by the end of October 2026.
