Foundation Announces More Than $400,000 in ArtsEverywhere Grants

The Community Foundation of St. Joseph County has announced more than $400,000 in ArtsEverywhere funding that will support the missions of local nonprofits:

South Bend Civic Theatre: $50,000
Funds will support South Bend Civic Theatre’s 2027 calendar year season of events and activities. In 2027, there will be a celebration of two anniversaries: 70 years as a theatre and 20 years in the historic Main Street home. The Civic plans to offer a “greatest hits” season that includes shows from their entire history. They have brought together a cohort of individuals from past eras to form a History Committee collecting memories and ideas to celebrate the Civic Theatre’s generational impact on the community. Simultaneous to the celebration will be expanded educational programming, deep neighborhood engagement, and bolstered equity efforts.

South Bend Museum of Art: $50,000
Funds will support South Bend Museum of Art’s 2026-2027 exhibition season. The 2026-27 Season features open-call, community, and curated exhibitions including Around the Bend 2026, the Scholastic Art Awards, and the biennial Conversation Series. SBMA will engage over 16,000 visitors and 2,700 students through artist talks, K-12 tours, First Friday receptions, and workshops.

South Bend Symphony Orchestra: $50,000
Funds will support South Bend Symphony Orchestra’s 2026-27 Season’s operational expenses for projects ranging from mainstage concerts series to robust education and community engagement programming. SBSO anticipates serving approximately 35,000 adults and children through its performances, education programs, and community engagement initiatives. This includes more than 20 mainstage concerts as well as over 70 free performances and events presented in schools, libraries, hospitals, museums, and community centers throughout the region.

Southold Dance Theater: $20,000
Funds will support Southold Dance Theater’s 2026-27 Season. Southold Dance Theater celebrated its 50th anniversary of incorporation in 2025 and is continuing the mission of enriching the lives of those who share in the dance experience by upgrading the largest studio for technical safety, replacing essential props to protect the dancers, guests, staff, and stage crew, enhancing the performances, sharing their story through a documentary (3 years of story-capturing), upgrading the living archive, and seeding a scholarship fund.

Fischoff National Chamber Music Association: $20,000
Funds will support The Fischoff National Chamber Music Association to offer free educational programs for students (elementary through 12th grade) onsite where they learn and play. Each fall, its award-winning alumni return to lead in-school workshops and performances across the tri-state region. Additionally, mid-career ensembles bring stories to life by transforming books into musical performances, fostering literacy, encouraging a love of reading, and inspiring young audiences. Competition ensembles serve as Peer Ambassadors introducing students to high-quality experiences.

South Bend Youth Symphony Orchestras, Inc.: $10,000
Funds will support South Bend Youth Symphony Orchestras 2026-28 Sectional Program. This program breaks students into orchestra groups, each of which goes to a separate classroom in the Education & Arts Building at IUSB. Flautists go into one classroom, cellists in another, etc. Each section works with a professional musician or music educator who plays their instrument, which allows coaches to get into greater detail with technical skills and artistry for the students’ particular orchestral part than the conductor can do in a full rehearsal.

The History Museum: $10,000
Funds will support 2026-27 Annual Exhibitions. In 2026, The History Museum is launching several changing exhibits that celebrate the 250th anniversary of America’s founding. Its main exhibit of the year, located in the Changing Gallery, is “First Peoples, First Settlers: Indiana’s Interwoven Roots” and explores life on the Indiana frontier during that time.

Downtown South Bend Foundation: $7,500
Funds will support Art Beat on August 15, 2026. Art Beat is a free event, which ensures strong artist participation, quality programming, and broad community access, and is the largest single-day festival in the South Bend-Elkhart region, drawing about 20,000 attendees annually. The event brings together hundreds of artists, performers, vendors, and nonprofit organizations in an accessible celebration. Art Beat is a critical income-generating opportunity for many artists, connecting them with thousands of attendees in a single day while driving foot traffic to nearby businesses.

Robinson Community Learning Center: $7,500
Funds will support Robinson Community Learning Center’s Robinson Shakespeare Company, to expand access to theater opportunities for underserved South Bend youth by adding additional genres of theater, bridging generations, expanding belonging, and growing collaboration with regional arts assets. This year’s theme will include a focus on the natural world and include visit to the Chicago Shakespeare Theater for a performance and backstage tour.

The Main Stage, Inc.: $7,500
Funds will support The Main Stage’s 2026-2027 Season. The Main Stage, Inc. places a direct focus on providing musical theater education to children over the age of five. Their current season includes Lion King Junior, and two additional student productions, Jungle Book Junior in July and A Christmas Story in December. To provide the seasoned young performers with new opportunities, bi-annually the show choir visits Disney World during fall break to participate in Disney’s Imagination Project performance workshops and perform on stage.

Musical Arts Indiana, Inc.: $3,500
Funds will support Musical Art’s Indiana’s 2026-27 Season. The 2026-27 Season will present individual and collaborative concerts using all four MAI ensembles as well as partnering with other community art organizations. MAI concerts feature traditional Western art masterpieces as well as contemporary music repertoire from underrepresented and historically marginalized groups, which helps to elevate narratives and traditions from outside Western art music. All concerts are open to the public and performed at accessible sites.

South Bend Chamber Singers: $3,500
Funds will support The South Bend Chamber Singers’ 2026-27 Season. The 2026-27 Season features four performances that highlight artistic excellence, collaboration, and community engagement. The season includes a newly commissioned choral work, a partnership with the South Bend Symphony Orchestra, and a chamber program. Through these offerings, the ensemble brings diverse choral repertoire to regional audiences while supporting contemporary composers. Together, these programs foster meaningful artistic experiences for both performers and the community.

Studebaker National Museum: $3,500
Funds will support the 2026 Concours d ‘Elegance at Copshaholm. The Concours d ‘Elegance at Copshaholm has become the premier celebration of automotive design and styling in Indiana. This event combines the robust exhibitions and displays of the Museum Campus with automobiles from across the country and educational programming such as the Driven by Design racetrack experience, historical walking tours, and lectures from automotive historians. The event will also incorporate new partnerships with the Motor Podcast Network and Society of Automotive Historians to host a two-day forum and the 24 Hours of Lemons to host their Concours d ’Lemons in South Bend.

The Acting Ensemble: $3,500
Funds will support The Acting Ensemble’s 2026-27 Season. Acting Ensemble fills gaps in the existing theater environment, offering plays that are unlikely to be produced locally, providing a place for individuals interested in production of live theater to develop professionally, providing an opportunity to get involved by soliciting and staging locally written plays. Acting Ensemble annually produces at least thirty-two productions: Main Stage, Stage Readings, Poets and Playwrights, Senior Stories, Drag Shows, Michiana Songs and Stories, and other productions and events.

South Bend Heritage Foundation: $3,000
Funds will support the 2026-27 Season of the Colfax Gallery. The Colfax Gallery is an integral part of South Bend Hertitage’s mission, advancing community building through arts and culture and supporting a holistic approach to development and revitalization efforts. Located within the Near Northwest neighborhood, the Gallery expands access to the arts, making it accessible for all. The Colfax Gallery hosts six annual exhibitions: three with three local artists each, a middle school student shows, a juried art and social justice exhibit, and a partner show with a community arts group.

Merrimans’ Playhouse: $6,700
Funds will be used for ongoing development of student-focused programming, including a dedicated Student Jazz Open Session to commence January 2027, to focus on building future audiences and artists at the local level.

Downtown South Bend, Inc.: $5,000
Funds will help support Mural Mania, July 29 – August 2, 2026. Mural Mania is South Bend’s annual mural festival, transforming underutilized downtown walls into large-scale art that enhances walkability, attracts visitors, and supports nearby businesses. Since 2022, Mural Mania has added twenty-four murals across downtown, and in 2026, six new installations will build on this momentum, with a focus on strategically selected, high-impact sites. This year’s work advances a broader vision to build a connected public art network as part of the emerging Downtown South Bend Art & Light Corridor.

South Bend Venues Parks & Arts Foundation: $5,000
Funds will support Fusion Fest on September 26 and 27, 2026. Fusion Festival is a transformative cultural event that aims to unite the diverse community through immersive experiences and artistic expression. This festival is a platform for social cohesion, celebrating the diverse cultures that make up the region.

Trustees of Indiana University: $2,550
Funds will support IU South Bend’s 2026 Civil Rights Heritage Center Exhibitions. The Civil Rights Heritage Center showcases regular exhibitions of art and history in the historic 1922 Engman Public Natatorium. Past Exhibitions include Teresa Greve Wolf: Art that Reflects the Times, featuring civil rights oriented works from the Chilean-born and Grander based painter; The 27 Club, from South Bend artist Morgan Fleming on the intersections of creativity and mental health; and History | Culture | Imagination, exploring Latinx immigrant identity from South Bend’s Federico Rodriguez.

The History Museum: $150,000
Funds will help The History Museum upgrade the HVAC system at the historic Oliver Mansion (Copshaholm). The 130-year-old system will be replaced with modern, discreetly installed equipment that preserves the home’s historic fabric, making environmental conditions for staff, visitors, and artifacts possible. The HVAC upgrade is essential to ensure the continued preservation of the mansion for more than 50,000 annual visitors.

The Fischoff Chamber Music Association: $50,000
Funds will support The Fischoff Chamber Music Summer Intensive, a week-long summer music program for young musicians focused on chamber music playing in small ensembles that helps young musicians, entering sixth grade and above, immerse themselves in the genre of chamber music. Participants collaborate in small ensembles and work with world-class artist faculty to develop performance abilities and essential life skills like teamwork, communication, leadership, respect, and creative problem-solving. Fischoff plans to serve 25-30 students in 2026 and 35 students in summer 2027, with community showcase concerts that will be free and open to the public.

South Bend Civic Theatre: $8,000
Funds will support the Civic Theatre’s comprehensive facility capacity assessment in collaboration with Alliance Architecture to evaluate its current infrastructure and plan for future improvements. The project aims to analyze facility strengths and limitations, create a strategic capital improvement roadmap, and support the theatre’s mission of enriching the community through live theatre. The assessment will help the theatre serve approximately 15,000 patrons and 4,500 students annually by identifying repair needs and establishing long-term planning strategies.