Mint measures up: Success by the numbers in 2021

We measure success in many ways, from our youth workers growth to how many coloring pages we give away to the joy on children’s faces as they complete an art project with us. Some measures cannot truly be counted or considered by financial types; others are easily quantifiable.

“You can’t use up creativity. The more the you use, the more you have,” poet Maya Angelou once said. So it is with our accomplishments, whether measured by the joy or by the numbers.

2 Mint artists who were paid to create Detroit debit card designs for One Detroit Credit union. It was our first major commercial design project – but it won’t be our last.

Wolverine Pathways interns hired by Mint, including our first events intern, twice as many as in 2019.

5 Detroit parks where Mint offered free Art in the Parks, with support from the Detroit Pistons and People for Palmer Park. In previous years, we’ve shown up in one or two parks.

20   Detroit area youth hired for the Mint Creative Summer Jobs program, including our artists hired through GDYT, Detroits’ summer employment initiative. This represents twice as many as in 2019. We start recruiting again in March.

25  Limited edition prints of Detroit Dreams created by Mint Artists Jessica Fligger as her summer job final project last year. This amazing archival print is available for purchase online now.

Mint’s Heroes: Now & Then show at the Grand Rapids Art Museum. (Photo: Grand Rapids Art Museum)

55  paintings of heroes, Generosity ( Mint gifts to nonprofits) and our artists self-portraits on display at two major museums: Detroit Historical Museum and Grand Rapids Art Museum. We are grateful to our talented youth artists and to these two museums.

70 Volunteers who supported Mint in arts and crafts, events, fundraising, marketing, artist talks and more this year.

1,350 –  Estimated number of children and adults who created arts and crafts or coloring pages with Mint in 2021, at art fairs, parks, pop ups at Eastern Market and more.

$2,300 –  Dollars given to the poetry and art winners of the second Metro Detroit Youth Arts Competition, including this amazing “Just My imagination” piece by Meredith Woodman, 16, from Farmington Hills:

$18,300 – Dollars earned by our youth artists and interns this summer. That is enough to buy lots of art supplies for our youth artists – plus save some for college tuitions.

These numbers, of course, only tell one-tenth of our story – more or less. But for those who favor STEM and measurable results, they may be the brilliant neon purple markers they need to see us as a growing youth development and creative entrepreneurship and community arts nonprofit. If you are inspired by our numbers or our art, please become a donor now. Your tax-deductible gift will help these numbers to grow in 2022!

We are grateful to Blossoms Birmingham, the Buck Dinner , GDYT, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and many individual donors and businesses whose dollars and other support made our work possible year after year.

For more signs of growth, view our 2020 report, as a video below, and read our 2019 success by the numbers report and our 2017 report.