FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Theresa Madaus
[email protected]
612-331-4584
Upstream Arts Plans to Sunset Organization by June 30th, 2026
(Minneapolis, Minnesota – April 23rd, 2025)
The executive leadership for Upstream Arts, in consultation with the organization’s Board of Directors, has reached a difficult and milestone decision to sunset the organization by the end of its next fiscal year, which concludes on June 30th, 2026.
Upstream Arts was founded in 2006 by Julie and Matt Guidry, parents of a child with disabilities, who witnessed and continue to experience the positive impact of the arts on their son Caleb. The organization utilizes a multidisciplinary arts curriculum to support the social and emotional learning of people with disabilities, primarily within school and adult-day-program settings. As the founders, their personal experiences, vision, talent, and aptitude to attract the creative brilliance of dozens of arts practitioners is the foundation for the immense impact and respect that Upstream Arts continues to garner among the communities it serves.
As a nonprofit arts organization, Upstream Arts has proudly advanced its core missional aim to “Use the power of the creative arts to activate and amplify the voice and choice of individuals with disabilities” for nearly two decades. A chief consideration to sunset the organization in the coming fiscal year pertains to significant funding declines in recent years, which are projected to continue in an unprecedented and unpredictable manner. Upstream Arts exists at the intersection of arts, disability, and education, three sectors which have historically been under-resourced, and all of which have experienced additional disinvestment from the beginning of the pandemic through present times. With this current and future reality in mind, Upstream Arts’ leadership is collectively choosing to sunset at a time and in a manner that aligns with the organization’s values. “We have served into the right to end well, and in a way that gives the organization the best chance to care for our employees, partners, and the community that has allowed Upstream Arts to foster a sense of belonging among the estimated 25,000 folks we have served,” said Co-Founder and Executive Director, Julie Guidry.
The organization has curated a canon of curriculum over the years that has informed its diverse programs and services, which include hundreds of residencies from across its Art of Social Skills to the Art of Relationships to its first Self-Advocacy Class that launched in 2021. The basis for Upstream Arts’ creative arts curriculum allows participants to practice how to converse, exchange, express, connect and create. With a focus on connection and creativity, Upstream Arts’ work has continually challenged limited narratives around disability and championed a vision to change mindsets regarding ability and disability.
Upstream Arts is a dynamic arts organization that has created an indelible and undeniable impression on how to be wildly creative and unwaveringly inclusive beyond ability or disability. This has allowed the organization to engage with an estimated 25,000 folks for more than 195,000 hours through the multidisciplinary artistic gifts of more than 200 teaching artists.
In reflecting on the organization’s impact, Co-Founder and Artistic Director Matt Guidry commented “The beauty and power in the work that Upstream Arts has the privilege of activating continues to be rooted in the belief that every person is wonderfully complex, capable of a full range of emotional experiences and expressions, and deserving of access to every facet of life. We are driven by our mission to serve as a reminder that this truth should not exclude those with a disability as part of their identity.”
The organization’s upcoming and last fiscal year will run from July 1st, 2025, to June 30th, 2026, which will also mark Upstream Arts 20th Anniversary. It intends to complete its last season of programming by December 2025 and will spend the last six months of the organization’s life taking steps to determine ways its artistic assets can continue to serve the disability community while completing the necessary steps to sunset a nonprofit in Minnesota.
Admittedly, the decision to sunset the organization is bittersweet. The bitterness is shrouded in the knowledge that, while the curriculum, skilled Teaching Artists, and unique creative approach of Upstream Arts have proven to be incredibly powerful and effective, the current iteration of the organization is no longer sustainable. Yet, staff and board leadership believe Upstream Arts has successfully advanced its missional aim and recognizes the sweet affirmation of being known as a force for creative inclusion, for two decades, for those with disabilities.
The organization plans to celebrate the relationships and impact that Upstream Arts has fostered within the disability community in the fall of this year. Details are pending and will be shared broadly upon confirmation.
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