The City of Bloomington Announces 2025 Recipients of Arts Project Grants

The City of Bloomington has announced the recipients for its 2025 Arts Project Grants. The recipients of the Arts Project Grants will use their funding to produce public arts programming that enriches Bloomington’s vibrant cultural scene. Award amounts range up to $4,000, with most recipients receiving partial funding.

Projects awarded as part of the 2025 Arts Project grant cycle embody the dynamic, artistic spirit of Bloomington, celebrate and support its local artists, and provide accessible opportunities for Bloomington residents and visitors to experience the arts.

Awarded projects include:

• Cicada Cinema’s screening of the  1980 Slovakian animated film “The Bloody Lady,” with live musical accompaniment by visiting artist Claire Rousay
• The production of the play “Rabbit Hole” by Eclipse Productions Company;
• “The Invisible: Art in All Forms,” an exhibition featuring work by Indiana University Bloomington students and curated by students and alumni from IUB’s Arts Management and Art History programs, to be hosted at the John Waldron Art Center;
• Preschool music classes facilitated by Kevin MacDowell (aka Kiz Kazooey);
• The production of “Ordinary Pilgrimage, When We remember,” an interactive performance featuring local spaces and musicians, dancers and a poet, produced by utam moses;
• The completion of a mural on the exterior wall of Bloomington Fine Art Supply by local Artist Emily Wilson Gillespie; 
• WFHB Past and Present: 50 Years of the Bloomington Community Radio Project to take place at the Bluebird Nightclub with live music, archival materials, and a glimpse of the future. 

The Bloomington Arts Commission (BAC) awarded more than $60,000 for the Arts Project Grant. Of the total amount awarded, $27,983 was provided by the Bloomington Urban Enterprise Association. The remaining funds come from the City’s 2025 General Fund. All proposed projects were evaluated based on their level of artistic quality, community impact, and organizational capacity. 

“This grant cycle continues to highlight the many ways in which the arts can benefit the City and enrich our community,” said BAC Chair Gerard Pannekoek. “The BAC is excited to support new and continuing projects alike and believes that support for the arts, now more than ever, is critical to maintaining Bloomington’s vitality.”

2025 BAC Arts Project Grant Recipients:

• Annalise Cain
• Bloomington Bach Cantata Project
• Bloomington Stitchery
  
• Brett Volpp
• Buffy Prom Bloomington
• Buskirk-Chumley Theater Management, Inc.
• Cancer Support Community Indiana
• Cicada Cinema
• Early Music Associates, Inc.
• Eclipse Productions Company
• Emily Wilson Gillespie
• Friendly Beasts Cider LLC
• Hoosier Original Music Association
• Janan Alexandra
• Jessica MacLean
• Kevin MacDowell (Kid Kazooey)
• Matthew Rice
• Nick Romy
• Off Night Productions
• Paint Bloomington LLC 
• Park Ridge East Neighborhood Association 
• Peilin (Judy) Qiao
• Redbud Books
  
• Ron Kadish
• Shannon Moses
• Urban Deer Record Co.
• WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
• WonderLab Museum of Science, Health & Technology
• Writers Guild at Bloomington, Inc.

The BAC will host two more grant cycles in 2025. The Artistic Advancement Cycle, which provides funds to support the professional career advancement of artists living and working in Bloomington, is open through June 27. The Operations Cycle, which provides funds to support operational costs for 501(c)3 organizations with arts-centered missions and Bloomington-based impact, will be open from Aug.  11 to  Sept. 19. More information about both grant cycles is available at bloomington.in.gov/arts/grants.