Community Foundation Awards $210,000 in Recent Grants

South Bend Museum of Art: $103,400 (over three years)
Funding will support the creation of a new interactive space—”The Family Gallery”—and a new position called the Visitor Experience Coordinator (VEC). The VEC will be the primary point of contact for the new space, facilitating access to educational elements and assuring the area is inviting to visitors of all ages. Funds will cover the salary and benefits of the VEC for three years, with additional funding to cover a portion of the program costs.

WNIT Channel 34: $15,000
This 2022 annual sponsorship funding will support multiple programs that WNIT airs about the arts in St. Joseph County. A PBS affiliate station, WNIT-TV brings high-quality national arts performances to local audiences and features local arts through weekly episodes of Experience Michiana. WNIT also broadcasts local performances such as Live from Notre Dame, Arts at IUSB, the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, local holiday shows, and more.

The Music Village: $7,500
This 2022 annual sponsorship funding will support opportunities for local residents to experience and participate in The Music Village’s programming. TMV offers music lessons, dance classes, group programs, jams, concerts, camps, and after-school programs, in both virtual and in-person formats.

Patchwork Dance Company: $3,500
This 2022 annual sponsorship will support Patchwork Dance Company’s season, which includes three concerts. Patchwork will produce “Coalescence in Dance” in March 2022; “Artistic Fusion,” a fall concert and visual arts event, in October 2022; and “Greta’s Gift,” a holiday concert, in December 2022.

Studebaker National Museum: $5,000
Funds will support Concours d’Elegance at Copshaholm, one of the fastest growing Concours in the country. This event places rare automobiles from across the country in the gardens of the historic Oliver Mansion. The Concours creates an immersive cultural experience the enriches the lives of community residents and draws visitors from across the country by blending educational programming, the arts, and rich historical resources on the Museum campus.

South Bend Youth Symphony Orchestras: $2,500
This grant will support free music lessons to students whose families cannot afford to hire a private instructor. Qualifying students will have already received need-based tuition scholarships to cover their SBYSO participation. For these students, the SBYSO finds private instructors willing to provide lessons, and then pays the instructors directly on a monthly basis.

The Acting Ensemble: $2,225
The Acting Ensemble has received a grant from the Indiana Historical Society to research, write, and stage a limited production of a play about Boyd Gurley, editor of the Indianapolis Times in the 1920s, under whose leadership the Times won a Pulitzer Prize for exposing the corruption of the KKK. The IHS grant allows the play to be presented six times at the Acting Ensemble and at the History Museum. This additional ArtsEverywhere grant funding will expand the production of the play to additional locations, emphasizing minority communities and and historical societies, in June through September of 2022.

Art 4: $10,000
This grant will support Phase I of Art 4’s “Go Wireless” capital campaign. The funds will be used to purchase state-of-the-art audio and sound equipment to support Art 4’s theatrical performances.