RedLine is a proud partner and administrator of the Arts in Society grant. Funded through a cohort of Colorado foundations and government agencies, this collaborative program provides grants to both individuals and organizations that use art as a vehicle to promote social justice and community welfare.
We love highlighting our Arts in Society (AiS) grant recipients and all the unique and impactful projects made possible by their grant.
We’re excited continue this series by highlighting 2025 Arts in Society project “Reframing Justice Narratives” with Colorado arts non-profit, Brink Literacy Project.
Learn more about Brink and how Reframing Justice Narratives empowers justice-impacted students across Colorado to find their power, passion and purpose through comic book memoirs.
Tell us about your organization
Brink Literacy Project is devoted to changing the lives of people living on the brink through storytelling. Our programming includes intensive writing and behavioral health courses for justice-impacted youth and adults in Colorado.
Through our Frames Comics Program, students explore, embrace, and share their life experiences, while gaining tools and skills to mediate negative self-talk, learn mindfulness and coping toolkits, and embrace their potential for growth and change.
Our students also gain valuable literacy, communication, and critical thinking skills that prime them future individual success, as well as community leadership.
Writing Instructors and students from Women’s Bean Project - Frames summer 2025 cohort
Through our Community division, Brink forges partnerships with universities and other humanitarian and literary organizations. As a global community of readers, writers, artists, students, and supporters, Brink brings people from diverse backgrounds together to celebrate the beauty and power of storytelling.
Our Publishing division, headlined by our print journal, F(r)iction, is the culmination of our efforts to #PublishWeird, which pushes the boundaries of which stories and writers are accepted in the literary world, providing a platform for underrepresented and trailblazing voices alike.
All the work we do at Brink supports our core belief in a world in which every person has the passion, purpose, and power to write a bright future for themselves and their communities.
“All the work we do at Brink supports our core belief in a world in which every person has the passion, purpose, and power to write a bright future for themselves and their communities.”
Tell us about your first project that will utilize your Arts in Society Colorado Arts Grant
A core component of our Frames Comic Program is mentoring students to sculpt their stories into professionally-illustrated, widely proliferated art.
The Reframing Justice Narratives expands our partnerships to include working with justice-impacted youth. Alongside existing collaborators like the Colorado Department of Corrections, Women’s Bean Project, and The Other Side Academy, we have been forging new alliances with non-profits, halfway houses, and CSU Pueblo’s Extended Studies program to teach directly in juvenile detention facilities.
If interested, some students advance into the Frames Masters Class, where they receive ongoing editorial mentorship to develop their stories into comic memoirs, fully-illustrated by professional comic book artists. Once complete, these works are published in F(r)iction, reaching thousands of readers in print, and tens of thousands online.
Comic by former student and current Writing Instructor, Eric Boylan
These student-created comics are then incorporated into our Frames curriculum, where they serve as teaching materials for new cohorts and as advocacy tools for local leaders, legislators, and philanthropic partners. As core teaching texts for future Frames courses, new students can see characters with relatable lived experiences reflected in powerful, culturally relevant stories.
What’s next in the pipeline for your organization? What other projects are you dreaming up for next year, and how will your Arts in Society grant help to support these efforts?
Women’s Bean Project student - Frames summer 2025 cohort
As we hope to expand and add more students and classes within our community programming, the Arts in Society Colorado arts grant has been powerful in fueling this growth so we can work with more Masters Class students on developing their comic memoirs—which in turn help us advocate for justice-impacted individuals across the state and beyond.
We’re actively working to bring more student work into the pages of F(r)iction and to our website, going beyond the comic page to include poetry, short fiction, creative nonfiction, and other genres to offer a platform for diverse student stories, and expand the understanding of our vast and far-reaching global readership.
We’re also planning a spring event to showcase our students and their work, highlighting their experiences, growth, and power to community leaders, nonprofits, advocates, and corporate and government leaders, further increasing the elevation and advocacy needed to build lasting social change.
Former Frames student and current Writing Instructor Jaron Cook and his daughter Lily at a live storytelling event in Colorado Springs. 2025.
What was your experience like when applying for an Arts in Society grant? What tips would you share with artists looking to apply?
We had a wonderful experience applying for the Arts in Society Colorado arts grant. RedLine provided so much detail, clarity and support throughout the process that it was truly delightful—and a wonderfully rare thing when it comes to grant applications.
The best advice we can offer is to conceive of whatever your project is as something that’s both immediate and tangible, but also living and long-lasting.
For art to really impact society, it needs vision and an audience. We want our students’ work to resonate with them and their communities, and also with folks who might not think about their lived experiences on a daily or even annual basis.
Students from a Frames youth pilot cohort - summer 2024
If the project can reach further—beyond aesthetics and artistic excellence to really challenge the people who experience it to introspect—then there’s something really special.
Something we often overlook is a call-to-action. The art need not be the endpoint. If the project results in other people understanding the need for change, for support, and for kindness, then it can be incredibly successful.
After all, the best art is the kind that changes you!
Arts in Society Grantee Project Highlight: “The Knock” Opera
Learn more about The Opera 2030 Project and how their 2025 Arts in Society Project The Knock highlights the sacrifices that military spouses make at home while their partners are away.
Administered by RedLine and funded through a cohort of Colorado foundations and government agencies, Arts in Society is a grant program supporting cross-sector work through the arts across Colorado.
