Recent Arts Everywhere Grants

South Bend Civic Theatre: $50,000
Funds will support South Bend Civic Theatre’s 2025 calendar year season of events and activities. In 2025 the Civic will produce ten productions, including five musicals and five plays, with two shows presented off-site and five integrating field trip opportunities for student audiences.

WVPE: $150,000
Funds are intended for WVPE’s equipment upgrades as they move to a new, larger space within Elkhart Community Schools. WVPE intends to set up new equipment in 4 studios, transitioning from their existing 6,000 square feet into the new 8,000 square foot space, which will have a separate entrance. This move converts the station to the current generation of audio processing equipment, digital audio over IP, which is the standard of today, and reduces wiring requirements by more than half, while increasing audio fidelity. This is an equivalent jump from album to CD audio playback, and all processing will occur inside a computer rather than several different processors. It will give WVPE’s online streaming service an even crisper sound.

WNIT Channel 34: $15,000
Funds are intended for 2025 annual sponsorship funding in support of multiple programs WNIT airs supporting the arts in St. Joseph County. As a PBS station, they bring the highest-quality national arts performances to local audiences to inspire and entertain as well as featuring local arts through weekly episodes of Experience Michiana and a strong line-up of local performances like Live from ND, Arts at IU South Bend series, holiday shows from local groups, the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and more.

WVPE: $10,000
WVPE is receiving support for 2025 productions of “The Sauce” hosted by Dawn Burns (12), ‘The Sauce: Live From…’ (24), which are live concerts recorded in WVPE’s listening area, and expansion into weekly podcasts of interviews and performances (52) all in 2025. The program celebrates the vibrant cultural variety of talent reaching from local to global spaces. The program is produced locally by Karl Smith and designed to support diverse artistic expressions of local talent, inspiring efforts, and placing their work in context with nationally recognized creators.

The Music Village: $7,500
The organization is receiving funds for 2025 annual support for The Music Village (TMV). Funds will support opportunities to learn about, experience, and participate in music and dance programming. TMV’s offerings include music lessons, dance classes, group programs, jams, concerts, camps, after school programs, and more. The Music Village continues to expand programming. TMV currently has about 225 students enrolled in private lessons and music classes and serves over 300 individuals through approximately 450 sessions per month. TMV also has 40 community partnership programs.

United Youth Theatre: $7,500
United Youth Theatre (UYT) is receiving funds to support its 2025 season. The new season will engage K-12 students in four productions (Charlotte’s Web, Footloose, Clue, and Wizard of Oz). UYT’s 2025 season will offer a variety of on and off-stage opportunities for youth in our community, with a goal of reaching 1,000 youth in St. Joseph County, expanding arts access, and providing vital life skills through theater.

Vibes Music Festival: $6,850
Funds will help support local performances at the 2025 Vibes Music Festival, taking place July 12, 2025. Funds are intended to support local artistic performances. As they enhance the festival experience, VMF anticipates increased attendance and revenue—all of which directly support events, programs, and creative funds they provide year-round to benefit the arts community.

South Bend Lyric Opera: $5,000
South Bend Lyric Opera (SBLO) is receiving funds for their 2025 season. SBLO’s ninth season program includes three operatic performances including: two short operas, The Scarf and Bon Appetit by Lee Hoiby, with Ensemble CONCEPT 21, Puccini Around the World, covering some of the composer’s best known works in partnership with Merriman’s Playhouse, and the stunning Tosca, in partnership with the South Bend Symphony Orchestra. SBLO will also be launching the Emerging Artist Program, a key component of their strategic educational goals, in partnership with IU South Bend.

Patchwork Dance Company: $3,500
Funds will support Patchwork Dance Company’s (PDC) 2025 season which includes two major concerts. PDC will produce a spring concert March 2025 and their holiday concert, “Christopher’s Christmas” December 2025, which typically has a cast of over 80 dancers. Every elementary school in St. Joseph County is invited to the holiday performance.

Indiana University South Bend: $2,100
The IU South Bend Civil Rights Heritage Center, located in the historic 1922 Engman Public Natatorium, regularly hosts exhibitions of art and local history. Past shows include “Teresa Greve Wolf: Art that Reflects the Times,” featuring civil rights-themed works by the Chilean-born, Granger-based painter; “Ability 4,” showcasing works by community and IU South Bend student artists with disabilities; and “bi-Racial,” exploring multiple racial identities by local artist Arianna Peak. Funds will help support the Center’s three local artist exhibitions.

WNIT Channel 34: $150,000 (Payable over three years)
Funds will support technology upgrades needed to produce local television programs that inspire, inform, educate, entertain, and bring together the communities they serve. Seventy percent of St. Joseph County residents (191,000 people) watch WNIT every month. Technology upgrades to modern equipment with 4K capacity will provide critical support for all of PBS Michiana – WNIT’s current local programs and make it possible to launch new programs aimed at increasing impact on the region. WNIT’s current local programs include 6 weekly programs, 4 annual documentaries and 2 new digital series. Further, launching new programs is a cornerstone of PBS Michiana’s strategic plan which sets a goal to increase local programming to 25 percent over the next five years to meet an emerging need for local information. This project will also help enhance training for students and interns.

South Bend Civic Theatre: $35,000
Funds will support South Bend Civic Theatre’s 2024 calendar year season of events and activities. As of May 1, 2024, the Civic has produced five productions and the remainder of 2024 includes 2 youth productions, 2 musicals, 3 plays, 3 readings, 2 art exhibitions, 4-character breakfasts and an expansion of summer camp programming and fall 2024 in-school theatre training.

South Bend Museum of Art (SBMA): $35,000
Funds will support SBMA’s exhibition season, July 1, 2024 – June 30, 2025. In five galleries, SBMA presents traveling and juried exhibitions; offers historical and contemporary perspectives; and introduces emerging and challenging art forms. SBMA is underway with exciting new “curated from scratch” exhibitions, both large and small in size and scope, that include regional artists directly. The Museum’s Education and Curatorial staff are working closely together on extension programming that explores contemporary art themes, ideas, techniques, and media in a hands-on way for visitors to connect with these exhibitions.

South Bend Symphony Orchestra: $35,000
Funds will be used for South Bend Symphony Orchestra’s 2024-2025 season. The Season will include four concert series (Masterworks, Pops, Mosaic, and Community), education and community engagement programs, and numerous collaborations. A few highlights include the third annual Dia de los Muertos Community Festival, another collaboration with the renowned Silk Road Project, and the beloved Family concerts.

Southold Dance Theater: $10,000
Funds will support Southold Dance Theater’s (SDT) 2024-2025 season. SDT has a continued vision and goal to reach more people within the community than ever before by meeting them where they are; 50 acts for 50 years. SDT’s two largest performances, holiday tradition, The Nutcracker and Spring Ballet, Giselle, paired with a plethora of community outreach interactive events, a documentary with community premiere, and innovative collaborations provide opportunities to accomplish this meaningful goal.

Fischoff National Chamber Music Association: $10,000
Funds will support The Fischoff National Chamber Music Association’s free community outreach programs in 2024-2025 for children, youth, and mixed audiences, which are presented by Fischoff Competition alumni and local professional musicians. Each spring, competition ensembles serve as Peer Ambassadors for Chamber Music giving elementary students first-rate music experiences. Each fall, mid-career ensembles transform books into musical performances, encouraging literacy to our community’s most impressionable young audiences, promoting reading, and inspiring lives.

South Bend Youth Symphony Orchestras, Inc.: $7,500
Funds will be used for South Bend Youth Symphony Orchestras 2024-2025 sectional program. Sectionals take place during the first hour of weekly Concert and Symphony Orchestra rehearsals; instrument sections separate into different classrooms for targeted guidance and practice on their orchestral parts. This helps them to be better prepared for the subsequent orchestra rehearsal. Each sectional is led by a professional musician who plays that instrument. In addition to providing essential musical training and helping students to gain confidence, sectional coaches also serve as mentors who answer important questions about playing or practice technique.

Robinson Community Learning Center – University of Notre Dame: $5,000
Funds will be used for Robinson Shakespeare Company, 2024-2025. The Robinson Shakespeare Company offers year-long programs that reach 450 youth annually. Activities include drama integration instruction in schools, afterschool drama clubs, and a summer program, all of which engage a wide range of diverse participants, grades 3-12. Goals include increased educational outcomes for youth, increased capacity of teachers to integrate drama into academic curricula, and increased youth participation in theatre.

Downtown South Bend Foundation: $5,000
Funds will support Art Beat 2024. Art Beat is a free visual, performing, and culinary arts festival, taking place along the streets and sidewalks of downtown South Bend. It is the largest, single-day festival in the region and serves a broad, cross-section of the population. Art Beat encourages long-term growth of arts in the community by supporting the local art scene and lowering the barrier to exposure of the arts. Over 750 artists participate, and there were over 20,000 attendees in 2023.

The Main Stage, Inc.: $5,000
The Main Stage, Inc. is requesting funding to help support the 2024-2025 season of musical performances, which includes two student musicals, a summer camp, and a community theater opportunity highlighting the talents of community performers of all ages. While performing in musicals, students will be instructed in drama, music, dance, theatrical terminology, reading a musical score, and using these as a form of expression. To provide seasoned young performers with new opportunities, The Main Stage will take a show choir to perform in Disney World on fall break. Students will also participate in Disney’s Imagination Project performance workshops.

Musical Arts Indiana, Inc. (MAI): $3,500
Funds will help support Musical Arts Indiana’s 2024-2025 season, which includes performances of Vesper Chorale, small ensembles from the Vesper Chorale Chamber Orchestra, and the Children’s Choir of Michiana. Target population includes the public in St. Joseph and surrounding counties. In the new season, MAI will present five concerts, continue work on inclusion, diversity, and equity with its Board of Directors, choral members, and audience, and increase social media presence for community engagement.

South Bend Chamber Singers – Saint Mary’s College: $3,500
Funds will help support South Bend Chamber Singer’s (SBCS) 36th Concert Season which will consist of three distinct performances: the “Christmas at Loretto” concert, with a world premiere of a commissioned piece from Argentinian composer, Santiago Veros; a joint performance of Puccini’s “Tosca” with the South Bend Symphony and South Bend Lyric Opera; and “To Have and To Hold: Marriage Music,” a collection of choral music either composed for wedding ceremonies or celebrating the institution of matrimony.

The Acting Ensemble: $3,500
Funds will help support The Acting Ensemble (AE)’s 2024-2025 programs, which include monthly Stage Readings, six Main Stage productions, bimonthly Poets and Playwrights, Late Night theater and special productions. This includes, (in collaboration with the History Museum), a locally written play about the South Bend Blue Sox, a 1940s professional women’s baseball team and the impact of misogyny on women and Senior Stories, a series of instructional sessions to help seniors develop their own stories and move them into production at the facility itself and at the AE to a broader audience.

Studebaker National Museum: $3,500
Funds will help support the 2024 Concours d’Elegance at Copshaholm event, which has become the premier celebration of automotive design and styling in Indiana. This unique event combines the robust exhibitions and displays of the Museum Campus with a wide array of educational programming for one of the fastest growing family friendly events in the region. Guests enjoy automobiles from across the country, along with educational programming such as the Styling Studio, Driven to Design racetrack experience, a special film screening with the Women in Motorsports Foundation, and historical walking tours.

South Bend Heritage Foundation: $3,000
Funding will support South Bend Heritage Foundation’s 2024-2025 Exhibition Season at the Colfax Campus Gallery. As a key aspect in the community building and engagement, the Gallery helps to provide a holistic approach to the neighborhood stabilization and revitalization work. The Colfax Gallery is positioned to enhance the cultural and artistic education of those that may not have access to the arts, with 6 exhibitions hosted in the unique gallery spaces: 3 shows for local artists; the Middle School Exhibition for students; a juried exhibition on art and social justice; and a community arts organization exhibition.

South Bend Venues Parks & Arts Foundation: $10,000
Funds will help support a 90-minute documentary film about Rosemary Sanders, the first African American performer in the South Bend Symphony Orchestra (SBSO) in 1940. Rosemary performed with the SBSO for 15 years, but her name was never listed in the program, nor was she invited to formally sit with the orchestra for photographs. The next African American player in the SBSO was not hired until 1995. The film explores Rosemary’s history in South Bend and
how the lack of access and opportunity has resulted in African American making of 2.4% of participants in American orchestras.

Wild Rose Moon: $10,000
Funds will help support Wild Rose Moon’s new high-quality television series broadcast on WNIT PBS Michiana public television. This series, which will total 12 one-hour episodes, will feature St. Joseph County performing artists alongside national talent. The new television shows will be able to highlight the visual charms already familiar to listeners of “The Wild Rose Moon Radio Hour” broadcasting its shows on WVPE Public Radio since 2017. By showcasing excellent Michiana artists to the PBS audience, this television series will give South Bend area performers access to another venue to build their careers.

Merrimans’ Playhouse Inc.: $5,000
Merrimans’ Playhouse is receiving funding in support of its endeavors to foster and expand the area’s jazz talent, both professional artists and jazz students. Funds will be used from July 2024 to June 2025 in support of the Home Grown Jazz Series, The Student Jazz Performance Series, and The Chamber Arts Series, to pay for musician fees, marketing and promotion, and operating costs.

Downtown South Bend Foundation: $5,000
Funds will help support Mural Mania, an annual mural festival that helps add lasting beauty and vibrancy to Downtown South Bend. Mural Mania increases vibrancy by creating unique arts-infused programming that attracts visitors downtown and brings customers to neighboring locally owned businesses. Funds will help support necessary equipment and supplies for muralists to create larger works of art.

Saint Mary’s College: $3,200
Funds will support Saint Mary’s College Department of Education and the Michiana Writers’ Center’s annual teen writing conference, known as “Get Inked” for students in grades 7-12. This conference provides an opportunity for teens to learn writing techniques from published and professional authors, improve their academic and personal writing, learn about the editing and publishing process, and spend time with other teens who like to write. The 2025 conference will take place both online and in-person at the college and provide space for up to 140 attendees both locally and from across the nation. SMC works with all of the local school corporations and Boys and Girls Clubs to ensure local participation.

Fall 2023

Spring 2023

South Bend Youth Symphony Orchestras, Inc.: $7,500
Funds will support South Bend Youth Symphony Orchestras 2023-2024 sectional program. The sectional program is a core component of both Symphony Orchestra and Concert Orchestra ensembles. Sectionals break an ensemble into instrument groups; each instrument group works with a professional musician who plays their instrument. This is a crucial opportunity for students to gain confidence as musicians, both as orchestral players (learning their orchestra part) and individuals (strengthening their own technique as musicians).

Robinson Community Learning Center – University of Notre Dame: $5,000
Funds will be used for Robinson Shakespeare Company, 2023-2024. The Robinson Shakespeare Company offers year-long programs that reach 450 youth annually. Activities include drama integration instruction in schools, afterschool drama clubs, and a summer program, all of which engage a wide range of diverse participants, grades 3-12. Goals include: increased educational outcomes for youth, increased capacity of teachers to integrate drama into academic curricula, and increased youth participation in theatre.

Downtown South Bend Foundation: $5,000
Funds will support Art Beat on August 19, 2023. This event is a free visual, performing, and culinary arts festival, taking place along the streets and sidewalks of downtown South Bend. It is the largest, single-day festival in the region and serves a broad, cross-section of the population. Art Beat encourages long-term growth of arts in the community by supporting the local art scene and lowering the barrier to exposure of the arts. Over 750 artists participated and over 20,000 attended in 2022. This year is Art Beat’s 20th Anniversary, and they expect over 25,000 in attendance with increased marketing and event upgrades.

Merrimans’ Playhouse Inc.: $5,000
Merrimans’ Playhouse is receiving funding in support of its endeavors to foster and expand the area’s jazz talent, both professional artists and jazz students. Funds will be used from July 2023 to June 2024 in support of the Home Grown Jazz Series, The Student Jazz Performance Series, and The Chamber Arts Series, to pay for musician fees, marketing and promotion, and operating costs.

Art 4: $5,000
Art 4 is receiving capacity-building funding to purchase additional sound and microphone equipment. Funding will allow Art 4 to expand their repertoire to larger shows, better serve the community through a more technologically advanced live auditory experience during productions, and allow the organization to work with more artists per show.

Musical Arts Indiana, Inc.: $3,500
Funds will help support Musical Arts Indiana’s 2023-2024 season which includes performances of Vesper Chorale, small ensembles from the Vesper Chamber Orchestra, and the Children’s Choir of Michiana. In the new season, MAI will present five concerts, continued work on their Board of Directors, audience, and choral members with inclusion, diversity, equity, and access, initiatives and increased social media strategies for community engagement.

The Main Stage, Inc.: $3,500
The Main Stage, Inc. is requesting funding to help support the 2023-2024 season of musical performances, which includes three children’s musicals, a summer camp, and two community theater opportunities highlighting the talents of community performers of all ages. While performing in musicals, students will be instructed in drama, music, dance, theatrical terminology, reading a musical score, and using these as a form of expression.

Studebaker National Museum: $3,500
Funds will help support Studebaker’s fifth Concours d’Elegance at Copshaholm, a premier celebration of automotive design and styling in Indiana. This unique event combines the robust exhibitions and displays of the Studebaker National Museum and The History Museum with a wide array of educational programming for one of the fastest growing family friendly events in the region. Visitors enjoy more than 80 automobiles from across the country, along with educational programming such as the Styling Studio, the new Driven to Design racetrack experience, and lectures on historical topics.

South Bend Heritage Foundation: $3,000
Funding will support South Bend Heritage Foundation’s 2023-2024 Exhibition Season at the Colfax Campus Gallery. The Colfax Gallery has become an essential component of South Bend Heritage’s mission and commitment to provide a holistic approach to enhancing and stabilizing neighborhoods. The Colfax Gallery is positioned to enhance the cultural and artistic education of those that may not have access to the arts, with 6 exhibitions hosted in the unique gallery spaces: three shows for local artists; the Middle School Exhibition for students; a juried exhibition on art and social justice; and a community arts organization exhibition.

South Bend Chamber Singers – Saint Mary’s College: $2,500
Funds will help support South Bend Chamber Singer’s (SBCS) 35th concert season, presenting a diverse selection of choral music to the local community. This season will include the premiere of an SBCS-commissioned work in December, and a concert dedicated to exploring immigration, through the new works of living artists. SBCS will also partner with the South Bend Symphony Orchestra on a beautiful classic work. “Christmas at Loretto” (Dec. 17, 2023) “Mozart, Requiem” (Mar. 10, 2024) with the SBSO “Crossing Borders: Songs of the Immigrant” (May 19, 2024).

The Acting Ensemble: $2,500
Funds will help support The Acting Ensemble’s (The AE) 2023-2024 season. The AE will produce at least twelve Stage Readings, five to six Main Stage productions, bi-monthly Poets and Playwrights, and Late Night Theater. Other projects include production and provision of storytelling, development of basic theater skills for older adults living in an assisted living facility, and a locally written play about the South Bend Blue Sox and the impact of misogyny on women and girls’ sports (in collaboration with the History Museum).

Fall 2022