For immediate release:
Tory Parker
Director of Marketing and Communications | Fund for the Arts
Tparker@fundforthearts.org
Fund for the Arts Announces Recipients of the Community Event Mini-Grant for Spring 2025
Louisville, KY (February 20, 2025) – Fund for the Arts is proud to announce the latest recipients of the Community Event Mini-Grant as part of the Fund’s Arts in Neighborhoods initiative.
The Community Event Mini-Grants support arts organizations, businesses, neighborhood associations, individual artists, groups of artists, non-arts nonprofits, and community-based organizations with project expenses associated with presenting multigenerational, free community gatherings incorporating arts components. A community can be tied to a specific geographic location in Louisville and/or can be linked by a common interest or identity.
“We know that neighbors go beyond people who live on your block,” said Sarah Lindgren, VP, Community Investment & Support at Fund for the Arts. “The Community Event Mini-Grant program is ever-evolving based on the feedback we receive from our grantees, review panelists, stakeholders, and more. Based on that feedback, we are excited to continue expanding the meaning of ‘community’ to be more inclusive of the many ways people come together.”
A grant review panel of nine external community members provided written qualitative and quantitative feedback on each application and made recommendations on funding. Eight events in four Louisville Metro Council districts (4, 5, 6, 8) have been awarded support for a total investment of $32,500.
Interested in participating in a Grant Review Panel with Fund for the Arts? Click here to learn more.
“The T’D UP Showcase is a celebration of Louisville’s young artists who write, produce, and perform their own music, using the art of hip hop as a dynamic form of self-expression,” said NyRee Clayton-Taylor, Executive Director of Hip Hop Into Learning. “Students in grades elementary to high school, showcase their talent in front of their peers, building confidence and community through their artistry. They go head-to-head in rap battles with community leaders, hear powerful testimonies from families impacted by gun violence, and turn up in a space where music, storytelling, and real-life experiences collide.”
This round of the Mini-Grant application closed January 17, 2025. The Community Event Mini-Grant application is available on a rolling basis, with funds awarded 4 times throughout a calendar year.
“We are so excited to receive the Fund for the Arts Event Mini-Grant! We will use the funds to support our End of the year Showcase and Fashion Show,” said Rachel Mauser, co-founder and Program Director at Steam Exchange. “This youth-organized event is the culmination of our classes, where youth will share the artwork they created throughout the year including their custom screen-printed shirts and a dance performance they choreographed with costumes they designed and sewed. Steam Exchange students’ families, friends, and the greater Louisville community are invited to come celebrate our students’ accomplishments and build community. Our students look forward to this annual celebration, and the funding will help us make this event even more special for them!”
Details on the grant recipients and their events:
- Saw Peep presents “Hanuman, The Monkey King” A Shadow Puppet Opera in partnership with the former Chapel of St. Philip Neri on April 12, 2025, 7:30 – 10 pm.
- HHN2L, Hip Hop into Learning presents the T’D Up Showcase, a platform where raw youth talent meets meaningful social change. Hosted at the Bomhard Theatre at the Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts on April 30, 2025, 10 am – 12:30 pm.
- Kentucky Shakespeare presents Shakespeare in the Parks at Shawnee Park and Wilkinson Park in Sellersburg, Indiana. Macbeth is by William Shakespeare, adapted and directed by Crystian Wiltshire. Dates and times TBA.
- Steam Exchange presents their 6th annual Feminist Fashion Show with music from Rhythm Science Sound at ACME Artworks on May 8, 2025, 6 – 7:30 pm.
- Hui Kalulehua presents Aloha Lou, a Polynesian Cultural Festival dedicated to celebrating and showcasing Polynesian culture through dance, music, crafts, education, and food. Hosted at Central Park in Old Louisville, May 31, 2025, 12 – 5 pm.
- Drag Daddy Productions and Andrew Newton (aka May O’Nays) present DRAG REVIVAL, a family-friendly celebration of Drag, building bridges between varied communities of our city with a message of love and acceptance. Hosted at Highlands Community Ministries on June 5, 2025, 7 – 9 pm.
- Kentucky Refugee Ministries and the Speed Art Museum present World Refugee Day Celebration, highlighting the lives, traditions and artistry of global cultures in an event that brings together refugees, immigrants, and the Louisville community.
- Katheryn D Higgins and Dean Otto (Curator of Film, Speed Art Museum) present Juneteenth: Celebrated in Film via The CineBus Mobile movie screen, showing films with an emphasis on Juneteenth and Black American history. Hosted at 2613 W Chestnut Street in the Historic Russell Neighborhood, June 21, 2025, 3 – 5 pm.
For further information on each upcoming event, please visit the websites and/or social media channels for the organizers. For further information about grants and funding opportunities or partnerships with Fund for the Arts, visit fundforthearts.org/funding/ or sign up for Arts Scoop email newsletter at fundforthearts.org/arts-scoop/.
The Community Event Mini-Grant is powered by the support of LG&E and KU Company.
IN THE NEWS: “Applications are open for a new ‘mini grant’ program for cultural events in Greater Louisville neighborhoods” | Stephanie Wolfe for Louisville Public Media; January 5, 2023
“11 neighborhood events in Louisville get cash through mini-grants” | Breya Jones for Louisville Public Media; May 2, 2023
“Free arts events in Louisville get a budget boost from mini-grant program” | Breya Jones for Louisville Public Media; April 5, 2024
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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