Join us in celebrating the 2024-2025 grant recipients!

Lane Arts Council has awarded $35,378 in grants to 13 arts organizations for the grant cycle running July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2025. in the Eugene area for the 2024-2025 grant period. Community Arts Program Grants support Eugene-based small to mid-sized nonprofit arts organizations in their strategic development and organizational goal fulfillment. The Community Arts Program Grant program is funded by the City of Eugene Cultural Services Division and administered by Lane Arts Council.

Community Arts Program Grant Recipients

#instaballet

$1,500 award

Since 2013, #instaballet has connected audiences with artists, creating pathways to access dance by bringing ballet out of the theatre and into the community. Our mission? We teach the use of creativity to empower the self and build community through the art of dance. How do we do it? We include the audience in the creation of a dance by translating audience ideas into movement that is learned and performed by professional dancers. Our programs include free community workshops, on-site, accessible education programs, and other collaborative projects. Come create with us!

DisOrient Asian American Film Festival of Oregon

$4,378 award

DisOrient is the premiere Asian American independent film festival of Oregon, celebrating films with authentic Asian Pacific American voices, histories and stories. We highlight social justice themes that translate to universal human experiences. We promote representation, diversity and inclusion to broaden the narrative of who is American, and to strengthen and build community.

Eugene Gay Men’s Chorus

$1,000 award

The Eugene Gay Men’s Chorus (EGMC) is an inclusive community of gay men and friends who seek to uplift and create LGBTQ+ visibility, community, and celebration through choral singing and the musical arts. Grant funds will support the organization’s goals, which include increasing chorus membership, expanding performances into additional communities, increasing our impact by expanding our audience size and diversity, and commissioning new choral works for the tenor/bass voice by young composers (preferably from Oregon).

Eugene-Springfield Youth Orchestras

$4,000 award

Eugene Springfield Youth Orchestra’s mission is to provide opportunities for youth to experience, appreciate, and perform orchestral music. We do this by offering the highest-quality instruction progressing from beginning classes to advanced orchestras, offering need-based program and private lesson scholarships, and collaborating with area schools and arts organizations. Our sequential program includes five levels of orchestral training and ensembles designed for students from grades four through the age of twenty-one.

Maude Kerns Art Center

$4,000 award

Maude Kerns Art Center (MKAC) is excited to utilize the support from the Program Grant to help expand its programs to support community artists. This includes the acquisition of Whiteaker Printmakers, a printmaking studio in Eugene that provides artists access to workspace and equipment as well as educational and exhibition opportunities, and the return of its annual community arts festival, Art and the Vineyard, in Eugene’s Alton Baker Park, introducing thousands of visitors to over 100 artists exhibiting and selling their artwork.

Oregon Contemporary Theatre

$4,000 award

Oregon Contemporary Theatre is a professional theatre located in the Southern Willamette Valley. Now in our 32nd year, Oregon Contemporary Theatre has earned a reputation for high artistic quality and commitment to presenting challenging and diverse scripts. We perform exciting contemporary plays and musicals in a six-show season in our intimate theatre in downtown Eugene from September through June.

Oregon Mozart Players

$4,000 award

Oregon Mozart Players was founded in 1982 by a group of local professional musicians with two purposes: to perform the large repertoire of music for chamber orchestra and to share this music with the Eugene-Springfield community. As a result, the orchestra continues to present works written for small orchestras and intimate venues, allowing each instrument to be clearly heard. The mission of the Oregon Mozart Players is to enrich the lives of the audience, the players, and the community alike through the excellent performance and vigorous advocacy of chamber orchestra music.

Pacific International Choral Festivals

$1,500 award

After 26 years of presenting summer festivals, which started with a 1997 grant from Lane Arts Council, Pacific International Choral Festivals (picfest) will redirect our accrued creative and administrative capacity into picfest 2.0. We continue to focus on youth choral music with the Serving Our Schools initiative through projects like Musical Detective Academy and the picfest Commission Project.

Soromundi Lesbian Chorus of Eugene

$1,000 award

Soromundi Lesbian Chorus of Eugene has been a vibrant community arts organization since 1989. The chorus comes together in song to create a visible expression of lesbian pride. Through the power of music and inclusion they effect positive change in the community. Soromundi will be celebrating their 35th anniversary during the 2024-2025 season and will use grant funds to engage past members in a reunion chorus to honor the many people whose creative energy has allowed the chorus to live its mission.

The Eugene Gleemen

$1,000 award

The Eugene Gleemen are dedicated to excellence in the performance of men’s choral music, education, and outreach that serves the breadth and diversity of our community. In pursuit of that mission, the grant funds will be used to subsidize the creation of a new gala logo for The Eugene Gleemen’s 100th Anniversary, and to help offset ticket prices to seniors. This will enable listeners to enjoy the unique men’s vocal performances into the next 100 years.

Willamette Jazz Society (The Jazz Station)

$4,000 award

The Jazz Station (TJS) will use the grant money to support its community outreach programming. We share a longstanding relationship with the educational community: University of Oregon, Community College Schools of Music, and regional high schools and middle schools. The Jazz Station is a fantastic community resource and occupies a unique niche in our local arts scene where students of all ages, community members, and professionals meet on stage to perform. Here, musicians get the chance to make musical connections and hone their talents in a real life jazz performance setting.

Women’s Choral Society

$1,000 award

Women’s Choral Society (WCS) is a non-auditioned, all-ages community choir made up of treble voices (soprano and alto ranges) from the central Lane County area. We perform twice annually, showcasing a range of vocal styles including classical, traditional folk, show tunes, popular music from the 1930s through the 2020s, world music, and contemporary compositions. Our mission includes support for vocal students in the UO’s School of Music and Dance—we award two scholarships per year to two students who perform as soloists and with the choir in our Winter concert.

Wordcrafters in Eugene

$4,000 award

Wordcrafters is literary arts organization that believes in the power of story. Stories tell us who we are, and who we can be. Wordcrafters empowers writers and readers by increasing access to community, craft, and inspiration. Wordcrafters offers a variety of classes, workshops, and community gatherings for adults and youth–including story weekend writing retreats, creative writing summer camps, a story contest, write-ins, spoken word events, open mics, and more. Grant funds will be used to increase awareness and grow Wordcrafters’ audience to significantly increase participation, programming, and support of writing and storytelling in our community.

Resources for 2024-2025 Awardees: