This pilot program supports individuals and organizations in providing meaningful arts experiences for Minnesotans within their communities. Funds may be used for a variety of arts programming such as creating and/or presenting concerts, plays, tours, exhibitions, arts festivals, public art, or other kinds of activities that provide Minnesotans opportunities to engage in arts activities that are instilled into community or public life.
| Grantee, City |
Grant Amount |
210 Gallery and Art Center, Sandstone | $ 34,999 | | 210 Gallery and Art Center will continue its Arts aLive programming, engaging local and regional artists with the community by providing a space for performance and opportunity for instruction. |
2nd Chance Outreach, Minneapolis | $ 34,500 | | 2nd Chance Outreach will present the stage production, The Sound of Gospel Music, an anthology featuring fifteen local Twin Cities artists, musicians, and directors that celebrates gospel music's cultural legacy. |
825 Arts, Saint Paul | $ 35,000 | | 825 Arts will present the Frogtown Arts Festival, welcoming over 1,000 attendees to enjoy dozens of diverse local artists, vibrant performances, vendors, and family friendly activities that celebrate the neighborhood's culture. |
Advocating Change Together, Inc, Saint Paul | $ 35,000 | | Advocating Change Together's Side-By-Side People's Chorus, comprised of people with disabilities and allies without disabilities, will engage over 2,500 community participants in public concerts that will reshape perceptions of the abilities of people with disabilities. |
Alive & Kickin, Minneapolis | $ 35,000 | | Alive and Kickin will present fifteen public community concerts performed by its Senior Rock Ensemble, and ten SingOUT! community sing-alongs. Events will be held at locations where Minnesotans live and gather, including senior living communities. |
American Russian Center, Savage | $ 31,100 | | The American Russian Center will present Brushes and Bridges, a 10-week intergenerational arts program. The program offers hands-on visual, performance, and storytelling workshops for older adults and youth. |
The Anderson Center at Tower View, Red Wing | $ 35,000 | | The Anderson Center at Tower View will expand arts offerings for residents of the small towns and rural areas of Goodhue County in greater Minnesota, with live music events and a Children's Book Festival. |
April Sellers Dance Collective, Minneapolis | $ 35,000 | | April Sellers Dance Collective will present Perfume of the Pearl, a new performance exploring how an ecosystem responds to a disturbance, finding internal resilience. After its premier in Minneapolis, it will tour to New York Mills and Eagan. |
Art of the Rural, Winona | $ 30,600 | | Art of the Rural will present artists, art forms, and art experiences that express life along the Mississippi River in Minnesota. |
ArtMakers, Dundas | $ 35,000 | | ArtMakers will provide weekly immersive multidisciplinary arts programming for neurodivergent and developmentally disabled adults in rural communities, encouraging self-expression and developing skills for mainstream community interaction. |
ArtReach St. Croix, Stillwater | $ 25,320 | | ArtReach St. Croix's Visual Arts Program will engage thousands of Minnesotans through eight group shows at its Stillwater gallery and a seasonal Mobile Art Gallery that exhibits at gathering places throughout the St. Croix Valley |
Zachary Baltich, Duluth | $ 25,000 | | Baltich will present his collaborative musical work Estuary in evening-length concerts in Ely, Duluth, and Grand Marais. He will commission Maggie Fae to create set design and visual projection. |
Leslie Barlow, Minneapolis | $ 24,850 | | Barlow's Us, Becoming is a collaborative arts project exploring speculative identities, liminality, cosplay, and radical joy through painting and participatory storytelling. Audiences will have the opportunity to witness, and be a part of, the project. |
Be That Neighbor, Minneapolis | $ 32,620 | | Be That Neighbor will present arts performances and events by community singers, actors, dancers, drummers, and puppet theater in parks and venues in downtown Minneapolis in summer 2026. |
Bella Voce Young Women's Choir, Rochester | $ 30,000 | | Bella Voce Young Women's Choir will perform spring and Christmas concerts, focusing on the empowerment of women and girls and featuring Minnesota composers. |
Big Shiv, Aitkin | $ 24,500 | | Big Shiv will host Cacophony of Life: Slowing Down to Accelerate, a week-long music collaboration and mentorship for up to ten hip-hop artists. The project will foster cultural exchange, creative growth, and culminate in performances and a recorded album. |
Bluff Country Studio Art Tour, Lanesboro | $ 17,760 | | Bluff Country Studio Art Tour will plan, organize, and present a high quality studio tour experience benefitting residents and artists in greater Minnesota. |
Border CrosSing, Saint Paul | $ 35,000 | | Border CrosSing will present two choral concerts that celebrate Latinx music, artists, culture, and history. These programs will feature Latin American folk song settings and innovative twentieth-century Latin American works. |
Brownbody, Vadnais Heights | $ 35,000 | | Brownbody will present three evening-length performances of Infinite Slow Drive/Obsidians in the Wild for 400+ metro residents, with facilitated community conversations following each performance. |
Luke Cardona, Fridley | $ 24,550 | | Cardona will present public concerts and workshops featuring Minnesota Mexican conjunto musicians and guest historians in Saint James and Saint Paul. |
Cassia, Edina | $ 29,601 | | Cassia, serving a demographically and geographically diverse group of participants across Minnesota, will host clay, movement, and music artist residencies to inspire creativity, stimulate cognitive ability, enhance emotional well-being, and promote social interaction among its adult day care facility constituents. |
Center for Performing Arts Minneapolis, Minneapolis | $ 34,499 | | The Center for Performing Arts Minneapolis will host a weekend series of hands-on performance workshops culminating in a public performance. The show will feature a nationally recognized East African or Arab-American guest artist and include workshop participants. |
Central Lakes Community Performing Arts Center, Brainerd | $ 35,000 |
| Central Lakes College Performing Arts Center will present The Grapes of Wrath through a multidisciplinary community initiative and also expand its Spotlight Youth Theatre Camp to include new fully produced shows for students in grades 1-12. |
Central Square Cultural and Civic Center, Glenwood | $ 35,000 | | Central Square Cultural and Civic Center will engage literary, visual, and musical artists to lead a year of arts experiences in rural Minnesota that engage community members of all ages and skill levels as they explore their creativity and connect with one another. |
Chamber Music Live, Houston | $ 35,000 | | Chamber Music Live will present the 2026 Apollo Music Festival, featuring eight classical chamber concerts and related outreach, to engage communities in southeastern Minnesota. Programming will include preconcert talks, master classes, student recitals, and local artists. |
Children's Museum of Southern Minnesota, Mankato | $ 35,000 | | Children's Museum of Southern Minnesota will offer its weekly Art Explorers make-and-take program in various media including clay, mosaics, and fiber arts, and its Curiosity Camp, providing hands-on opportunities to explore sewing, needlework, and sculpting. |
CHOICE Unlimited, Duluth | $ 35,000 | | CHOICE Unlimited's ARTS Program will provide participatory platforms for self-expression in theater, dance, visual art, music, and creative writing for people with disabilities and also educate the public about the incredible possibilities inherent in all individuals. |
Choral Arts Ensemble of Rochester, Rochester | $ 35,000 | | Choral Arts Ensemble of Rochester will present four performances of Considering Matthew Shepard, a powerful modern oratorio by Craig Hella Johnson, including a matinee designed to engage young audiences with its themes of empathy, justice, and community. |
Clean River Partners, Northfield | $ 35,000 | | Clean River Partners will present the Downstream Environmental Film Festival in four greater Minnesota communities, showcasing short films that inspire environmental action and elevate underrepresented voices in conservation. |
James Curry, Fridley | $ 24,985 | | Curry will expand Soulforce: The Movements of Memory, a visual art and history exhibit, to engage 60,000 people through a virtual component, three new venues, and six engagement events that aim to deepen understanding of Black, Indigenous, and Chicano movements in Minnesota. |
Dark Muse Performing Arts, Minneapolis | $ 35,000 | | Dark Muse Performing Arts will present a pop-up exhibition exploring Black matrilineal culture, featuring immersive art installations, performances, artist talks, and community altar building. |
Aria Dominguez, Saint Paul | $ 24,900 | | Dominguez will present the Powderhorn Poetry Series at New City Center for Healing Justice. This will consist of eight public literary events, each featuring three local poets reading their work, followed by audience discussion. |
Drama Interaction, Chaska | $ 34,909 | | Drama Interaction will expand access to meaningful performing arts engagement for seniors who have historically been marginalized from creative expression opportunities due to physical or cognitive differences. |
DSAMN, Saint Paul | $ 30,815 | | DSAMN (Down Syndrome Association of Minnesota) will produce four performances of Sad Times by David Almquist in the Midway/Frogtown community of Saint Paul. The play is written, acted, conceived, codesigned, and directed by DSAMn's Advanced Acting Class, who are all artists with Down syndrome. |
Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra, Duluth | $ 35,000 | | Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra will present a screening of Raiders of the Lost Ark with live orchestral accompaniment to introduce orchestral music to new audiences. |
East Side Arts Council, Saint Paul | $ 25,000 | | East Side Arts Council will bring ten arts experiences in poetry, puppetry, dance, and music to six East Saint Paul schools. |
Eric Elefson, Two Harbors | $ 25,000 | | Elefson will produce and direct Shakespeare in the Park with local artists, presenting two performances in Two Harbors, Minnesota accompanied by artist talks. |
Emergent Seas, Cloquet | $ 28,000 | | Emergent Seas will produce a four-day multidisciplinary storytelling migration to connect people to the Great Lakes waters, celebrate original cultures and histories, and imagine livable futures of ecological reciprocity. |
Epic Enterprise, Inc, Dundas | $ 35,000 | | Epic Enterprise will provide accessible, in-depth arts learning experiences in a variety of mediums for adults living with disabilities. |
Episcopal Homes, Saint Paul | $ 32,650 | | Episcopal Homes will partner with SprayFinger Graffiti Education to explore graffiti as a powerful medium to foster artistic growth, combat isolation, and offer unique ways for older adults to be seen as both individuals and as an honored community. |
Exposed Brick Theatre, Saint Paul | $ 35,000 | | "Exposed Brick Theatre will partner with Mni Giizhik Theatre Ensemble to produce the world premiere of Marcie R. Rendon's Sweet Revenge.
" |
Fairmont Opera House, Fairmont | $ 34,700 | | Fairmont Opera House's Fairmont Area Community Theater will produce three youth theater educational camps for grades K-12, and one adult performance workshop. |
Franconia Sculpture Park, Shafer | $ 35,000 | | Franconia Sculpture Park will invite highly qualified regional artists to lead twenty art workshops for all ages throughout 2026, presenting a diverse range of artistic expression, mediums, and cultural representation. |
Full Circle Theater Company, Minneapolis | $ 35,000 | | Full Circle Theater Company will produce the award winning play Alma by Benjamin Benne at Park Square Theatre's Andy Boss Stage in October 2026, centering intersectional, Latina artists and engaging 1,000+ audience members. |
Aaron Gabriel, Minneapolis | $ 25,000 | | Gabriel will create a rock cabaret version of their original genderqueer musical to be performed in clubs, bars, and cabarets throughout the Twin Cities and in greater Minnesota. |
Ritika Ganguly, Saint Paul | $ 24,900 | | Ganguly will create participatory sound workshops with immigrant communities, integrating music and poetry from historically underrepresented groups with cymatics-the art of visualizing sound frequencies as patterns. |
Good Harbor Hill Players, Grand Marais | $ 21,250 | | Good Harbor Hill Players will hold public workshops to create a large-scale puppet pageant to celebrate the summer solstice and a shadow puppet show to celebrate the winter solstice encouraging community involvement of all ages and skill. |
Grand Marais Playhouse, Grand Marais | $ 35,000 | | Grand Marais Playhouse will provide high-quality theater and arts education for Cook County residents and visitors, engaging residents collaboratively through educational programs, production creation, and performances. |
Granite Area Arts Council, Granite Falls | $ 35,000 | | Granite Area Arts Council will continue its Community Artist in Residence program, which pairs visiting artists with local artists and the community. It will also expand offerings to provide new classes and events for both after-school students and adults. |
Davi Gray, Minneapolis | $ 35,000 | | Gray's ReEntry Lab project will present Better Things 5x5 Readings and Open Mics monthly in Minneapolis, featuring diverse poets and writers including formerly incarcerated writers. |
Great River Arts, Little Falls | $ 13,850 | | Great River Arts will provide free monthly art kits to 100 community members and engage artists to help assist with creation of the kits. |
Great River Shakespeare Festival, Winona | $ 35,000 |
| Great River Shakespeare Festival will present its 2026 season of two Shakespeare productions featuring a professional acting company and comprehensive design components-including costume, scenic, wig, prop, and lighting-to convey relatable stories to a diverse rural audience. |
Grove Area Percussion, Maple Grove | $ 35,000 | | Grove Area Percussion will feature over fifty youth performers in eight indoor drumline shows across the state. These performances will be presented at regional Minnesota Percussion Association events, engaging over 2,000 Minnesotans. |
David Hamlow, Good Thunder | $ 14,000 | | Hamlow will work with second and third graders at Northside, Saint James, and Hennepin Schools of Minneapolis on three unique recycled art projects promoting creative reuse, celebrating diverse viewpoints, and fostering school and community solidarity. |
Miranda Harincar, Minneapolis | $ 12,700 | | Harincar will present The Wildish Art, a gallery style event in November 2026 featuring ten emerging moving image artists from Minnesota. The event aims to both foster collaboration between the artists and provide an accessible experience for attendees. |
Heartland Symphony Orchestra, Little Falls | $ 34,978 | | Heartland Symphony Orchestra will celebrate its 50th anniversary of serving greater Minnesota by presenting the first two concert cycles of its season, which will showcase a mix of traditional and popular orchestral music. |
Frankie Hebres, Golden Valley | $ 25,000 | | Hebres will present The Homies Dance Showcase, a live, high-energy event that spotlights Minnesota dancers, fosters artistic growth, and strengthens community connections through a peer led mixer. |
A. Eric Heukeshoven, Winona | $ 12,000 | | Heukeshoven will create a series of sonifications from artwork with the Minnesota Marine Art Museum, allowing people who are blind/visually impaired, neurodivergent, and disabled to experience art in new ways. |
Historic Holmes Theater, Detroit Lakes | $ 35,000 | | Historic Holmes Theatre will continue to connect its region of greater Minnesota with unique art experiences and engage artists in community outreach activities. |
Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County, Moorhead | $ 11,750 | | Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County will offer a world-class art quilt exhibit, Bearing Witness, focused on the perils of antisemitism, racism, homophobia, sexism, and inequity. |
Indian Music Society of Minnesota, Minneapolis | $ 35,000 | | The Indian Music Society of Minnesota will produce a series of six in person classical (Asian) Indian music concerts and two lecture demonstrations that will share and showcase Indian music and cultural heritage with Minnesota audiences. |
Indigenous Roots Cultural Arts Center, Saint Paul | $ 35,000 | | Indigenous Roots Cultural Arts Center will host its sixth Traditional Connections event on the Seventh Street Cultural Corridor, featuring an array of cultural and arts experiences, including a graffiti jam, gallery exhibit, multicultural performances, and pop-up market. |
Inspire, Inc, Ada | $ 34,356 | | Inspire, Inc. will provide arts programming for persons with disabilities in rural northwest Minnesota featuring activities such as photography, sketching/portraits, sculpture, instrumental classes, and theater involvement (as both audience members and performers). |
Interact, Saint Paul | $ 35,000 | | Interact will present a season of high-quality, original, professional visual arts and theater created by artists with disabilities, presenting in galleries and performance venues throughout the Twin Cities metro area, and on its global, virtual gallery. |
Brook LaFloe, Saint Paul | $ 25,000 | | LaFloe (Turtle Mountain) will host a cultural sharing series of workshops, including beadwork, ribbon work, quillwork, and screen printing. These sessions, co-led with other Native artists and culture bearers, will pass on traditional and contemporary art skills. |
Lakes Bluegrass Festival, Pine River | $ 35,000 | | The Lakes Bluegrass Festival will host its 20th annual festival in 2026, celebrating and preserving American roots bluegrass music. The event will feature live main stage performances, interactive workshops, and impromptu jam sessions. |
Lanesboro Arts, Lanesboro | $ 35,000 | | Lanesboro Arts will offer an artist residency program targeted towards BIPOC artists and engaging community in share back events, workshops, and school visits, sustaining equity and inclusion programming that amplifies its vision for communities to embrace artists as culture bearers, community builders, and problem solvers. |
Anna Lassonde, Detroit Lakes | $ 24,960 | | Lassonde will engage the deaf and hard of hearing community in west central Minnesota through a year-long series of visual arts classes exploring various media, including watercolor, acrylic, drawing, and alcohol inks. |
The Legacy Chorale of Greater Minnesota, Brainerd | $ 35,000 | | The Legacy Chorale of Greater Minnesota will present a series of relevant and timely performances that engage new and recurring collaborative partners to maximize community engagement. |
Life-sized Meme Productions, Minnetonka | $ 25,000 | | Life-sized Meme Productions will present eight Twin Cities events, including the North Star Nerdlesque Festival, and incorporate related educational opportunities. |
LynLake Street Art Series, Minneapolis | $ 35,000 | | LynLake Street Art Series will present its 2026 event, celebrating the vibrant genre of street art while improving public safety, beautifying the public realm, and drawing patrons to the LynLake small business corridor. |
Lyric Opera of the North, Duluth | $ 30,000 | | Lyric Opera of the North will produce Sondheim's A Little Night Music, giving three performances at the St. Louis County Depot theater. |
Mahkato Revitalization Project, Mankato | $ 13,400 | | Mahkato Revitalization Project will lead and present arts programming at the annual Mahkato Spring Round Dance to celebrate American Indian arts, culture, and history. |
Mainspring, Caledonia | $ 27,300 | | Mainspring will offer the Houston County Arts Mentorship Program, providing quality arts experiences for residents and six emerging artist mentees in the form of art workshops, events, and exhibitions fostering a more vibrant arts community in the rural county. |
Mankato and North Mankato ACT on Alzheimer's, Mankato | $ 21,948 | | Mankato and North Mankato ACT on Alzheimer's will provide meaningful, community based arts engagement activities designed for people living with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, and their care partners. |
Mankato Ballet Company, Mankato | $ 15,950 | | The Mankato Ballet Company's 2026 Summer Dance Series will present new choreographic works in southern Minnesota. This series offers dancers a chance to collaborate with local choreographers and share diverse dance styles with rural communities. |
Mankato Symphony Orchestra, Mankato | $ 35,000 | | Mankato Symphony Orchestra will perform two diverse musical concerts, with the goal of attracting new audiences. |
Matinee Musicale, Inc, Duluth | $ 13,150 | | Matinee Musicale, Inc. will present Georgia Wolfe-Jacobson and Ryan Wolfe in a concert that will include the world premier of three Louis Jenkins poems set to music by Paul Kovacovic. Two, free community outreach concerts will reach underserved communities. |
Brighton McCormick, Minneapolis | $ 25,000 |
| McCormick will present twelve Fire Press Library workshops and events featuring artist made branding irons and printmaking plates through partnerships with community organizations to host hands-on, collaborative arts experiences. |
Simaek McDonald, Saint Paul | $ 25,000 | | McDonald will direct Firebomb Frequencies, a choral ensemble presenting original, ritual based works by QTBIPOC artists. The project includes participatory sound performances and workshops in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, culminating with a live recording and public album release. |
Meander Art Crawl, Appleton | $ 35,000 | | Meander Art Crawl will present the 2026 Meander Upper Minnesota River Art Crawl, a self-guided tour of over forty artist studios designed to engage new and repeat audiences in southwest Minnesota. |
Minhua Chorus, Lakeville | $ 16,200 | | Minhua Chorus will provide singing lessons in Chinese choral music for youth and adults, culminating in free, public concerts. |
Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, Minneapolis | $ 35,000 | | The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board will present the bilingual Minneapolis Monarch Festival (Festival de la Monarca), a free event celebrating the monarch's 2,300-mile migration to Mexico with music, dance, and art making. |
Minneapolis Public Housing Authority, Minneapolis | $ 20,900 | | Minneapolis Public Housing Authority's Cora McCorvey Health and Wellness Center will present two exhibitions in 2026 featuring Minnesota artists, aged fifty plus, including veterans, disabled artists, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and public housing residents, with free public receptions. |
Minnesota Ballet, Duluth | $ 35,000 | | Minnesota Ballet will stage a refreshed production of Sleeping Beauty, including a sensory friendly performance. This performance offers neurodiverse individuals and their families a supportive and meaningful opportunity to experience live ballet. |
Minnesota Independence College and Community, Richfield | $ 35,000 | | Minnesota Independence College and Community will offer inclusive, arts based classes, excursions, and community showcases for autistic and neurodivergent adults through its social engagement program, expanding access to creative self-expression and peer connection. |
Minnesota Orchestra, Minneapolis | $ 25,000 | | Minnesota Orchestra will collaborate with community partners to create a series of concerts that provide individuals with sensory sensitivities, and their families, with tailored and inclusive arts experiences. |
Minnesota Philharmonic Orchestra, Minneapolis | $ 35,000 | | The Minnesota Philharmonic Orchestra will showcase the talents of underrepresented artists, including those from the LGBTQIA+ community, women, and people of color, during three in person and two virtual concerts. |
Minnesota Salsa Fiesta, Minneapolis | $ 35,000 | | Minnesota Salsa Fiesta will engage over seventy-five performing artists and hundreds of attendees by presenting an outdoor showcase of salsa music, Latin dance, and Latino art in Minneapolis in July 2026. |
Mixed Precipitation, Minneapolis | $ 25,000 | | Mixed Precipitation will tour The Pickup Truck Opera, a lively outdoor performance, presenting a contemporary interpretation of Puccini's La fanciulla del West, touring southern Minnesota. |
Monkeybear's Harmolodic Workshop, Minneapolis | $ 35,000 | | Monkeybear's Harmolodic Workshop will provide an in-depth arts experience for participants to create and perform their first puppet theater pieces. |
More Than a Single Story, Saint Paul | $ 35,000 | | More Than a Single Story will present over ten readings, public conversations, and writing workshops. These events will engage BIPOC writers and inclusive communities in cross-cultural discourse that both builds writing skills and serves as a forum for empathy and understanding. |
Naadharasa, Minneapolis | $ 23,950 | | Naadharasa's Veena Thanam project is an immersion into the veena instrument, and musical form, thanam. Four introductory music sessions, a retreat, and a final concert featuring interested participants guided by master artists will be offered. |
Noatun Community Wooden Boat Works, Duluth | $ 35,000 | | Noatun Community Wooden Boat Works will provide programming in collaborative wooden boat building, metal work, and fiber arts for diverse community participants to develop new creative skills on Minnesota's North Shore. |
North Shore Music Association, Grand Marais | $ 35,000 | | North Shore Music Association will present concerts and educational programs in an array of musical genres from diverse cultural backgrounds. |
Northern Lakes Arts Association, Ely | $ 35,000 | | Northern Lakes Arts Association will present three theater productions, two youth camps, and nine free concerts as part of the 2026 Broadway in the Boundary Waters season, ensuring accessible arts experiences in rural northern Minnesota. |
Northfield Youth Choirs, Northfield | $ 35,000 | | Northfield Youth Choirs will provide extracurricular developmental choral music education for singers age five through adult, offering ensembles led by highly regarded conductors and programming enriched by guest artists, partnerships, tours, retreats, and camps. |
Northrop, Minneapolis | $ 35,000 | | Northrop will offer dance and music performance throughout its upcoming season, engaging in meaningful conversations with community and school partners, students, school faculty and staff, and artists, through student matinee programming. |
Off-Leash Area, Minneapolis | $ 35,000 | | Off-Leash Area will increase connection, participation, and visibility with the disability community, an important and growing constituency of the organization, through its 2026 core community programs: Off-Kilter and the Neighborhood Garage Tour. |
Open Arts Minnesota, Mankato | $ 25,000 | | Open Arts Minnesota will deliver in person and virtual theatrical and literary programming for people with disabilities in communities throughout southwest Minnesota. |
Open Eye Theatre, Minneapolis | $ 35,000 |
| Open Eye Theatre will invest in diverse artists, expand its geographic reach, and build new audiences through a series of innovative, all ages arts experiences: REFUGE—A Modern Fable, The Driveway Tour & Bridgefest, and the Puppet Lab Residency for Emerging Artists. |
An Opera Theatre, Minneapolis | $ 35,000 | | An Opera Theatre will produce the fifth annual Divas & Drag performances in Saint Paul. This program celebrates identity through the art of drag and spectacle of opera, uniting disparate audiences to cultivate empathy for LGBTQIA2S+ communities. |
Our Streets, Minneapolis | $ 34,848 | | Our Streets' Imagine Frogtown and Rondo will feature hyperlocal artists who take the stage for arts experiences and performances, giving a platform to creators from marginalized communities while celebrating the cultural vibrancy of a neighborhood affected by highway construction. |
Rosetta Peters, Marine on Saint Croix | $ 25,000 | | Peters will collaborate with composer JG Everest, through onsite residencies at Lower Sioux Community, to design and present a series of site specific poetry writing workshops and performance installations. |
Pillsbury House Theatre, Minneapolis | $ 35,000 | | Pillsbury House Theatre will engage five teaching artists to offer intergenerational, participatory arts experiences that support community members in its surrounding neighborhoods in exercising their creativity and connecting with each other. |
Mary Prescott, Minneapolis | $ 25,000 | | Prescott will develop and produce a new original interdisciplinary project involving food, text, film, and live performance. |
ProMusica Minnesota, North Mankato | $ 20,000 | | ProMusica Minnesota will present professional chamber music concerts in southern Minnesota featuring established and new repertoire, including works by women and BIPOC composers. It will also provide musical and visual exhibition opportunities to young artists. |
Public Functionary, Minneapolis | $ 35,000 | | Public Functionary will engage Minnesotans through receptions, artist talks, tours, and gallery hours to the PF Studios Annual Exhibition, featuring over twenty early career artists, and a solo show by a PF Studios resident artist. |
Queer Voices, West Saint Paul | $ 35,000 | | Queer Voices will bring writers together from across the state to build community, grow artistically, and perform Out Loud: A Queer Voices Pride Show. |
Ragamala Dance, Minneapolis | $ 35,000 | | Ragamala Dance will present a statewide tour of original South Indian Bharatanatyam performances created by the mother/daughters team of Aparna, Ranee, and Ashwini Ramaswamy, and accompanying public engagement activities. |
Rain Taxi Review of Books, Minneapolis | $ 35,000 | | Rain Taxi Review of Books will present its 26th annual Twin Cities Book Festival, a free celebration of Minnesota's rich literary arts culture, with over 125 bookfair exhibitors, dozens of presenting authors, interactive children's activities, and more. |
Rebound, Inc, Brooklyn Center | $ 31,800 | | Rebound, Inc. will provide arts based workshops and public showcases for Black youth impacted by systems involvement that build creative confidence and artistic skills while fostering identity, creativity, and cultural expression. |
Resounding Voices, Rochester | $ 33,537 | | Resounding Voices, a chorus for people with Alzheimer's disease or dementia and their care partners, will hold weekly rehearsals and seasonal public concerts, offering participants and caregivers comfort and a sense of joy through shared singing and performance. |
Jes Reyes, Saint Paul | $ 20,600 | | Reyes will lead Diary Weaving, a cohort style workshop series, encouraging well-being through intuitive weaving. |
Rachel Ries, Minneapolis | $ 24,680 | | Ries will direct the Kith + Kin Chorus, fostering community through song among over seventy singers of diverse backgrounds and abilities. The project includes three public performances and a collaborative spring season finale with a local musician or group. |
Rise, Inc, Fridley | $ 34,800 | | Rise, Inc. will expand art therapy programming for people with disabilities, serving 300 artists in person and remotely. |
Rochester Art Center, Rochester | $ 30,000 | | Rochester Art Center will present an exhibition blending portraiture, figurative art, and biomedical illustration, along with a series of in person and online engagement programs, that deepen public understanding of the human body and foster interdisciplinary dialogue. |
Rochester Chinese School, Rochester | $ 34,900 | | Rochester Chinese School will present a Chinese cultural festival in January 2027. The event will feature performing arts and visual exhibitions designed to preserve traditional arts and foster intercultural dialogue in Minnesota. |
Rochester Repertory Theatre, Rochester | $ 17,425 | | Rochester Repertory Theatre will produce the dramatic fantasia Passage in its 2026 season to explore identity, xenophobia, and power imbalances through ten performances, engaging more than 600 audience members. |
Roho Collective, Minneapolis | $ 35,000 | | Roho Collective's Arts Wellness Program will support healing and connection through art. It offers arts workshops, movement, and art activities that promote emotional and cultural wellness for BIPOC communities, blending creativity with holistic care. |
Peyton Scott Russell, Minneapolis | $ 35,000 | | Russell will work with members of the Minneapolis South High School community to cocreate a mural that tells a story representative of their community and shared experiences. |
The Saint John's Boys' Choir, Collegeville | $ 35,000 | | The Saint John's Boys' Choir will enrich central Minnesota residents' lives through its Sing in the Summer Camp, KidSing Festival, Collaborations concerts, and Ceremony of Carols concerts, which showcase over 60 young choristers and local guest musicians. |
Saint Paul Parks and Recreation, Saint Paul | $ 35,000 | | Saint Paul Parks and Recreation will offer ten songwriting and producing workshops for local youth musicians. Participants will perform their work at five concerts throughout the summer. |
Sandbox Theatre, Minneapolis | $ 22,495 | | Sandbox Theatre will present the fourth annual Trans Voices Cabaret, featuring an all trans and nonbinary cohort of theater artists presenting musical theater songs in a cabaret style format. |
Les Sanders, Bemidji | $ 19,500 | | Sanders will collaborate with other teaching artists to engage residents of Bemidji's Nymore neighborhood through a series of over forty family art enrichment classes. Offerings will include bark carving, rosemaling, beadwork, gourd art, mosaics, drawing, and painting. |
JC Sanford, Northfield | $ 25,000 | | Sanford will engage residents of Northfield and beyond by presenting the third annual Northfield Jazz Festival featuring local and national jazz artists through performances and educational workshops. |
Anne Sawyer, Minneapolis | $ 31,897 | | Sawyer will create a bilingual puppet show of her newest book, The Pollinator's Gift/El don de los polinizadores, to be performed in the late spring of 2026 at Open Eye Theater for dual language school groups and the general public. |
Kayla Schiltgen, Two Harbors | $ 25,000 | | Schiltgen will complete post-production on anemoia, an immersive dance film installation exploring memory. The final work will be presented in Duluth, accompanied by artist chats, a display about creating the work, and interactive activities. |
Ollie Schminkey, Saint Paul | $ 20,830 | | Schminkey will present the 2026 Midwest Poetry Mash-Up, bringing spoken word poets from around the country to Minneapolis to compete in a three-day poetry slam tournament. |
Patrick Scully, Minneapolis | $ 20,241 | | Scully will tour multidisciplinary work to fourteen venues across Minnesota with distinct outreach to LGBTQIA2+ communities and allies. |
Second Shift Studio Space of Saint Paul, Saint Paul | $ 15,000 | | Second Shift Studio Space of Saint Paul will host several community events including a group show of local art. |
Selby Avenue JazzFest, Saint Paul | $ 25,000 | | The Selby Ave JazzFest will present its 25th annual festival in 2026, featuring a day of live jazz, interactive kids' arts activities, and artist demonstrations. The event also includes food vendors and a small business market, all within a strong, inclusive community environment. |
The Semilla Center for Healing and the Arts, Minneapolis | $ 35,000 | | The Semilla Center for Healing and the Arts will host bilingual public art workshops including mosaic, murals, and lantern making to teach and empower south Minneapolis neighbors to create public art that reflects the hope and strength of their community. |
The Sheldon Theatre, Red Wing | $ 35,000 | | The Sheldon Theatre will present a matinee series to educate, entertain, and enlighten older adults in greater Minnesota. |
Sounds of Hope, Ltd., Saint Paul | $ 35,000 | | Sounds of Hope Ltd.'s company of youth and adult performers, Songs of Hope, will bring its global music performances to twelve diverse communities across Minnesota. |
Southwest Minnesota State University, Marshall | $ 35,000 | | Southwest Minnesota State University's Visiting Writers Series will welcome acclaimed writers to campus for craft talks and publicly available literary events. |
Springboard for the Arts, Saint Paul | $ 35,000 | | Springboard for the Arts, through its rural artist residency program, will host three visiting artists in Fergus Falls to partner with local organizations. These artist led projects will use creative people power to address rural challenges and opportunities. |
Cláudia Tatinge Nascimento, Minneapolis | $ 35,000 | | Tatinge Nascimento will present Symphony Dream, employing poetic imagery and language to tell a story that asks us to reflect on how school shootings affect children of all races, ethnicities, and class backgrounds, and invites conversation about gun violence prevention. |
Ten Thousand Things, Saint Paul | $ 35,000 | | Ten Thousand Things will present seven performances from its 2026 season, along with thematic workshops, at correctional facilities in greater Minnesota, including Moose Lake, Sandstone, Waseca, and Saint Peter. |
Textile Center, Minneapolis | $ 32,599 | | Textile Center will present Minnesota Handwork to honor the state's fiber art history and traditions. Throughout 2026, four exhibits will be featured, aiming to support Minnesota artists and increase audience engagement by leveraging program partner relationships. |
Theater Mu, Saint Paul | $ 35,000 | | Theater Mu will stage the rolling world premiere of Prince Gomolvilas's Paranormal Inside, the sequel to The Brothers Paranormal. The play engages Minnesota audiences by examining the effects of generational trauma and reconnecting to Black and Asian ancestors. |
Theatre 55, Saint Paul | $ 35,000 | | Theatre 55 will produce and present The Full Monty with actors, singers, and dancers aged fifty-five and older at the Frey Theater in Saint Paul. |
Theatre B, Moorhead | $ 20,430 | | Theatre B will tour Every Brilliant Thing across greater Minnesota, offering performances and community discussions that promote mental health awareness, resilience, and hope through the power of live theater. |
Theatre du Mississippi, Winona | $ 32,800 | | Theatre du Mississippi will support the creation of and present original works and performances by emerging artists, with a focus on uplifting regional and local talent and sharing bold, meaningful stories rooted in our community. |
Theatre Pro Rata, Bloomington | $ 25,000 | | Theatre Pro Rata will produce Fefu and Her Friends by María Irene Fornés, an immersive production set in a country home that invites audiences to move through multiple performance spaces while exploring themes of gender, identity, and community. |
Mary Therese, Bemidji | $ 14,080 | | Therese will engage members of the Bemidji Boys and Girls Club in the design and painting of the Pollinator Garden mural depicting local native plants and pollinators. |
Threads Dance Project, Minneapolis | $ 35,000 | | Threads Dance Project will present Love Evolving, a new collaborative dance work with Sweet Honey in the Rock, celebrating its fifteenth anniversary through performances and community engagement activities centered on love and justice. |
TruArtSpeaks, Saint Paul | $ 35,000 | | TruArtSpeaks will offer its annual Be Heard MN youth poetry slam series. Six teen poets participate in a writing mentorship cohort that culminates in public performances, commissioned works, and panel discussions. Mentors also provide school residencies and workshops statewide. |
Twin Cities Ballet of Minnesota, Lakeville | $ 35,000 | | Twin Cities Ballet of Minnesota will present sensory relaxed performances of A Minnesota Nutcracker and Narnia: The Ballet featuring its professional company dancers and local ballet students. |
Twin Cities Gay Men's Chorus, Minneapolis | $ 35,000 | | Twin Cities Gay Men's Chorus will present Wicked Wisdom at Orchestra Hall in April 2026, featuring music by Stephen Schwartz and Songs of Wisdom, celebrating LGBTQIA+ life through powerful, inclusive artistry. |
Twin Cities Jazz Festival, Saint Paul | $ 35,000 | | Twin Cities Jazz Festival will attract 35,000 festival goers from throughout the state of Minnesota to Lowertown and downtown Saint Paul, showcasing 200 Minnesota jazz artists from diverse communities and genres from June 19-20, 2026. |
Twin Cities Pride, Minneapolis | $ 35,000 | | Twin Cities Pride will present its 54th festival for the LGBTQ+ and allied community. Over 100 local artist exhibitors, sixty performers and groups, and ten artists in residence will showcase the talents of the greater queer community. |
Twin Cities Steppers Association, Saint Paul | $ 35,000 | | Twin Cities Steppers Association will engage Saint Paul artists and community by presenting the fourth annual Music and Movement Festival at Western Sculpture Park. |
The Urban Village, Saint Paul | $ 35,000 | | The Urban Village will present year-round arts programming in Saint Paul that supports Knyaw (Karen) and Karenni artists through workshops, exhibitions, pop-up markets, and cultural events that celebrate and preserve community heritage. |
Vail Communities, Hopkins | $ 30,367 | | Vail Communities will collaborate with the History Theatre to engage adults with serious mental illness in interactive theater programming that supports their wellness recovery goals while increasing self-worth and community connections. |
Velvet Tones, Apple Valley | $ 17,000 | | The Velvet Tones senior choir will share the joy of music with the community by performing fifteen concerts at churches, retirement homes, care facilities, and veteran centers reaching audiences with limited access to live performances. |
Vintage Band Festival, Northfield | $ 35,000 |
| Vintage Band Festival will present a lineup of concerts by historic bands that exemplify the evolution of U.S. military and ceremonial bands from the Civil War to present day. The three-day festival will also celebrate the country's 250th birthday. |
Voices for Racial Justice, Minneapolis | $ 35,000 | | Voices for Racial Justice will collaborate with five emerging artists to create a free public art exhibition. The project aims to engage BIPOC communities in considering how art and culture can build power and momentum for justice. |
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis | $ 35,000 | | Walker Art Center will present, in connection with A:gajë:gwah dësa'nigöëwë:nye:' (i hope it will stir your mind), the solo exhibition by Minneapolis artist and choreographer Rosy Simas (Seneca, Heron Clan). |
Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis | $ 35,000 | | Weisman Art Museum will present an outdoor arts festival, featuring Indigenous artists, performers, culture bearers, and intergenerational activities, to accompany the Merciless: Indigenous Lands Since 1776 exhibition. |
West Bank Business Association, Minneapolis | $ 35,000 | | West Bank Business Association will produce its fourth annual block party featuring diverse music acts, dance, and theatrical performances on four stages, and a hyperlocal artist market. |
Wonderlust Productions, Saint Paul | $ 35,000 | | Wonderlust Productions will engage Minnesotans in The Values Play Project. Participants will collaborate across value differences to build a community driven play loosely based on Euripides's The Bacchae that will examine our country's culture wars. |
Writing to Wholeness Collective, Saint Paul | $ 29,687 | | Writing to Wholeness will lead intensive creative writing workshops for Minnesotans who work with people in crisis, promoting arts experiences that enhance resilience through self-reflection and community building. |
Youth Chorale of Central Minnesota, Saint Cloud | $ 33,320 | | The Youth Chorale of Central Minnesota will increase access for young singers and audiences to high-quality arts programming through a choral festival and performances. |
Z Puppets Rosenschnoz, Minneapolis | $ 35,000 | | Z Puppets Rosenschnoz, led by Cherokee Nation citizen Chris Griffith, will bring free Cherokee futurism performances and puppetry workshops to youth in grades K-5 and their families through the American Indian Education Department of Minneapolis Schools. |
Zeitgeist, Red Wing | $ 25,150 | | Zeitgeist will present Blue in the Distance, a performance event featuring chamber music and video by Minnesota artists designed to be presented in planetariums. Five performances will reach communities in outstate Minnesota and the Twin Cities metro. |
