Fund for the Arts
Tory Parker | Director of Marketing and Communications
tparker@fundforthearts.org
Fund for the Arts Announces 27 Local Arts Nonprofits as 2026/2027 Sustaining Impact Grant Recipients
Louisville, KY (September 16, 2026) —
Fund for the Arts is excited to announce the recipients of the 2026/2027 Sustaining Impact Grants (SIG) and the Arts Leadership Grant. A total direct investment of $1.75 million has been committed to 27 local nonprofit arts institutions.
The Sustaining Impact Grant is the cornerstone of Fund for the Arts’ work, investing unrestricted operating dollars in local arts nonprofits, offering support needed to fulfill their missions and bring art to our community. This general operating support is granted to arts organizations whose programming advances the Fund for the Arts’ Vision, Mission, and Values.
The pool of funding is made up of donations from grants, foundations, corporations, and individual donors, where the majority of the funds come from employees spanning every industry, from across the region, giving small gifts via payroll deduction on a monthly or bi-weekly basis.
From Brett Shepherd, President and CEO:
“We are so honored to invest these dollars, raised from within our own community, back into our local arts ecosystem,” said Brett Shepherd. Fund for the Arts’ Board of Directors appointed Shepherd President and CEO in August of 2026. He had served as the Chief Development officer since 2022 before being appointed interim in January 2026.
“The volunteers that serve on the Sustaining Impact Grant review panel do incredible work to ensure Fund for the Arts investments are stewarded equitably and with care,” said Shepherd. “From the individual meetings with each applicant, it is clear that there is no shortage of vision, passion, and creativity from our arts leaders. What they need, more than anything, is money to make those dreams a reality. At Fund for the Arts, our end goal is always to help support them.”
Grant funding is determined by the organization’s operations budget and the SIG review panel, who evaluate and score the organizations’ applications and conduct interviews with their leadership and governance representatives. This funding recommendation is then presented by the Fund for the Arts leadership team to the Board of Directors for review and approval.
From Scott Schaftlein, Chair of the Board of Directors:
“All twenty-seven of these institutions are making meaningful impacts on our community,” said Scott Schaftlein. “This kind of operational funding often goes to support those non-negotiables such as payroll and facilities, which then opens up other resources for the mission-based outreach and artmaking that enrich our city and our lives.”
“The current funding landscape for the arts is challenging, and operational funding grants such as the Sustaining Impact Grant are getting harder and harder to come by,” said Schaftlein. “We on the Board of Directors and everyone at the Fund for the Arts are proud to be a part of uplifting these organizations. Our focus remains on raising funds that keep our nonprofit arts sector at its very best.”
The review panel for the Sustaining Impact Grant included representatives from the Fund for the Arts Community Investment Committee and other board members, as well as representatives from United Arts Funds and Local Arts Agencies outside of the region. The panel is facilitated by the Fund for the Arts Community Investment & Support staff.
This year’s SIG grantee organizations represent a wide variety of arts disciplines, including Art Museums, Dance, Folk & Traditional Arts, Literary Arts, Media Arts, Music, Opera, Presenting & Multidisciplinary Works, Theater, and Visual Arts.
“The Sustaining Impact Grant is at the core of what we have always done, and we are grateful for how the program has evolved alongside the city and our arts community,” said Brett Shepherd. “It is and always has been an investment in the entire arts ecosystem, from the full spectrum of Fund for the Arts donors.”
2026/2027 Sustaining Impact Grant Recipients:
| Grantee Organization | Grant Amount |
| Actors Theatre of Louisville | $177,668 |
| Amped | $62,074 |
| Arts Alliance of Southern Indiana | $16,551 |
| IDEAS xLab | $45,718 |
| Kentucky Opera | $150,692 |
| Kentucky Shakespeare | $95,421 |
| KMAC Contemporary Art Museum | $96,824 |
| Little Loomhouse | $13,579 |
| Looking for Lilith Theatre Company | $17,825 |
| The Louisville Academy of Music | $63,255 |
| Louisville Ballet | $193,956 |
| Louisville Chorus | $3,953 |
| Louisville Folk School | $25,711 |
| The Louisville Leopard Percussionists | $29,110 |
| Louisville Orchestra | $205,448 |
| Louisville Story Program | $37,984 |
| Louisville Visual Art | $75,785 |
| Louisville Youth Choir | $8,035 |
| Louisville Youth Orchestra | $35,295 |
| Pandora Productions | $19,891 |
| Portland Museum | $29,614 |
| Prominent Youth of America | $6,521 |
| Queer Kentucky | $38,648 |
| Speed Art Museum | $189,490 |
| StageOne Family Theatre | $69,573 |
| Steam Exchange | $20,376 |
| Young Authors Greenhouse | $21,615 |
| Total | $1,750,615 |
Click here for a selection of Sustaining Impact Grant recipient images.
2026/2027 Arts Leadership Grant Recipient Announced:
The panel also determined the recipients of the FY27 Arts Leadership Grant, supported by the Allan Cowen Innovation Fund for the Advancement of the Arts at the Community Foundation of Louisville, administered by the Fund for the Arts.
This year’s co-recipients were Rachel Mauser and Caitlin Kannapell, Co-Directors of Steam Exchange, a Smoketown nonprofit using the arts as a platform to facilitate passion-driven learning experiences where individuals explore the arts, the world, and themselves through creative play and production.
The Arts Leadership Grant fosters creative intellectual exploration in the pursuit of arts leadership and organizational evolution. Recipients are determined by the application scoring and input from the SIG review panel.
From Rachel Mauser and Caitlin Kannapell: “Funding from the Sustaining Impact Grant has really helped us grow and connect with other arts organizations. SIG supported our free afterschool programs for Smoketown youth as well as our Community Screen Printing Studio and Mending Workshops open to the greater Louisville community. With funding from this grant, we were able to offer more programs, serve more youth, and have a more impactful year! Steam Exchange inspires us because we are always growing and changing as an organization alongside our youth. As they develop new interests, we develop new capacity as an organization to help them explore those interests. We love the long-term relationships we have with Steam Exchange youth and being a part of their transition from childhood to adolescence and then adulthood. We hope to use our Leadership Grant to support professional and artistic development that will allow us to develop new projects for the students as well as devote time to our personal artmaking.”
ABOUT FUND FOR THE ARTS
Fund for the Arts is a regional nonprofit with the mission to contribute to the overall health and well-being of our community by generating resources for, investing in, and supporting our local arts, artists, and arts organizations. The Fund envisions a healthy and vibrant community where everyone embraces the art that exists in our lives every day, everyone contributes to the well-being of our arts community, and it is understood that everyone belongs to the arts community. The organization facilitates the largest arts grant program in Greater Louisville and it conducts one of the two oldest united arts campaigns in the country. For more information, visit www.fundforthearts.org
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