Donor Spotlight: Joe Malcoun

By UMS

Joe Malcoun is an early stage tech investor and co-founder of Cahoots, a coworking and event space in downtown Ann Arbor designed for connection and community. He’s also co-owner of The Blind Pig, a small but legendary Ann Arbor music venue that’s hosted a wide range of musicians over the years, from local up-and-coming acts to John Lennon to Nirvana.

Earlier this Fall, Joe and his wife, Caitlin Klein, sponsored UMS’s presentation of Nigamon/Tunai, an intimate, immersive theater work inviting audiences to listen and understand the knowledge and struggles of both the Anishinaabe people of the Great Lakes and the Inga peoples of the Colombian Amazon – a beautiful example of the power of the arts to transcend boundaries and connect people and ideas across cultures.

Joe joined the UMS Board of Directors in July 2025. We had the pleasure of chatting with Joe about the role the arts play in our community, what drew him to UMS, and what inspiration he offers to his peers.

What was your first experience with UMS?

You are really challenging my memory here, but I believe it was the Royal Shakespeare Theater performance in 2001. I was a grad student at U-M and a friend who was an English major was required to attend. He roped me in and I remember thinking, “This is a much more profound performance than I was expecting for a school assignment.”

What inspired you to begin to donate to UMS?

One night at dinner, Matthew VanBesien was sharing that he wanted to support some less conventional regional artists for a residency. One of the artists he mentioned was Tunde Olinarian, someone that my wife, Caitlin, and I have always been a fan of. We thought it was a great opportunity to make a more substantial contribution than we ever had previously. It was such an awesome project to be a part of. It pulled us into the UMS atmosphere and we saw how there are always performances that may be harder to sponsor, but programmatically significant and important. We just made that our thing.

We know you both are passionate about improving the quality of life in our community. How do you see your support of UMS aligning with this goal?

It’s so hard to articulate to people how incredibly impactful this very unique organization is on our community. Trying to describe the sophistication of performers and artists UMS is able to attract to our relatively small “market” is just so difficult to fully express. The access and exposure to events which otherwise would only be available to students and residents by traveling to larger markets is such an incredible gift.

Community members participating in Philharmonia Virtual Reality Experience at Cahoots, Joe’s event space.

What do you see as the role of the arts in community life?

[The arts] total enrichment of every other community activity and overall quality of life. Its impact ranges from advancing knowledge to pure recreation and is so important for us to build a thoughtful, supportive and productive community. Art is not a “nice to have.” History has fully proven it’s an absolute necessity and breeds innovation, creativity and community.

You’ve stated that you’re committed to engaging more younger professionals in the arts and in supporting local arts institutions. What message would you want to say to your peers?

We tend to obsess over the downside of getting older, [but] there happen to be some very awesome things about having more grey hairs in my beard. One of them is I actually have enough life experience—good and bad—to share with younger people, and it feels really good to do so. I’ve been so fortunate to have some spectacular mentors—in this community and elsewhere. Having the opportunity to be the mentor rather than the mentee has kept me excited about what’s next and hopeful that younger generations will right a lot of things we got wrong.