Lotus secures IHCDA’s Matching Grant …THANK YOU!

We did it! 

The Lotus Education & Arts Foundation successfully completed a major hurdle in securing funds to support the Global Arts Center capital campaign. By raising $50,000 via crowdfunding, Lotus will receive a matching $50,000 grant sponsored by the Indiana Housing & Community Development Authority’s CreatINg Places program.

The crowdfunding match campaign began September 12 and continued through midnight on Halloween, engaging about 130 donors whose gifts were specifically targeted at renovating a portion of the building’s interior. With the addition of some earlier grants and gifts, this $100,000 campaign puts us at the halfway point to raising the $220,000 budget to create a new venue.  Pending fundraising outcomes, we hope to open the doors of the new facility in time for the 25th anniversary Lotus World Music & Arts Festival in fall 2018.

Located in a retired firehouse at 105 S. Rogers, the new venue would transform the historic building into a Global Arts Center that engages the Bloomington community with multicultural arts workshops, after-school programs, small concerts, exhibitions, and other programming that furthers our organization’s mission: to create opportunities to explore, experience, and celebrate cultures from around the globe through music and the arts.

“We are so grateful to Lotus donors and the IHCDA for propelling this initiative past the halfway mark,” says Sunni Fass, Executive Director of the Lotus Education & Arts Foundation. “It’s been really powerful to see how inspired people are by this vision of a new multicultural creative space, and also to see a state agency amplifying those voices and investing in what communities value. We’re excited to keep the momentum going!”

Learn more about our renovation plans or make a donation to transform the firehouse today!