Release Date: 9/17/2024
City of Boise Announces Grant Recipients for Fiscal Year 2025
The City of Boise is thrilled to announce grant fund recipients for the Fiscal Year 2025 cycle. 41 recipients will receive funding to total $150,000 for cultural projects that occur between October 1, 2024, and September 30, 2025, and benefit Boise residents.
The City of Boise’s Department of Arts & History Grants program supports those in both established and emerging cultural fields with initiatives that nurture a strong and equitable cultural community in Boise. Grants are reviewed by a community panel and awarded based on quality, community benefit, alignment with City of Boise and Department of Arts & History’s mission, accessibility, and management. Together these funded projects and events contribute to creating a city for everyone.
The recipients are: (*indicates first-time recipients)
$5,000 Awards
African Community Development: African Community Development Through Art – Workshops engaging women who have arrived in Boise through the refugee resettlement process to learn new skills with economic growth potential, pass on traditions, and build community.
Ava Whitlock: Dare to Be Square – Workshops on learning to call square dances, being a musician in a square dance band, and family dances along with public concerts and dances.
Basque Museum & Cultural Center, Inc.: Support for the development of an exterior exhibit to be installed along the west wall of the Basque Center in downtown Boise and include photograph panels that tell the story and legacy of this area of Grove Street.
Boise Community Band: Support for three free summer concerts in Julia Davis Park, featuring family-oriented programming for audience members of all ages.
Boise Contemporary Theater: 5 x 5 & Summer Reading Series – Support for the 2024/25 5x5 Reading Series and the 2025 Summer Reading Series at various public outdoor venues in Boise.
Global Lounge, Inc.: World Village 2025 – Support for a two-day multi-national community cultural event that celebrates the art, music, dance, stories, fashions, food, and traditions of the local diaspora.
Idaho Concerts in Care: Support for free, professional, in-house concerts – a mix of trios and quartets – for residents of care homes in Boise.
*Idaho Humanities Council: Author Angeline Boulley: "Warrior Girl, Unearthed." – Support to bring acclaimed Indigenous author Angeline Boulley to Boise on February 27, 2025 to speak with area high school students at two separate one-hour assemblies coordinated in partnership with Boise School District.
Lauren Edson Dance, Inc. (LED): Support for LED’s arts education outreach program, benefiting students in Boise School District’s junior high and high schools.
MING Studios: Insight of Youth Annual Group Exhibition – Insight of Youth is a platform for Treasure Valley teen artists to present their work on a theme. Artists aged 13 to 19 submit artwork inspired by the chosen topic, reviewed by a panel of local professional and teen artists. Selected works are displayed at MING Studios.
Pendulum Early Music, Inc.: Pendulum Early Music, a new professional early-music ensemble based in Boise, will perform three concerts of baroque and early classical music for their 2024/25 concert season.
*Stephanie Bacon: Arrivals: What's Left Behind, What Lies Ahead – Support for the pilot book, Arrivals: What's Left Behind, What Lies Ahead, a collection of accounts by refugees, immigrants, and Native Americans residing in Boise and throughout Idaho.
Story Story Night: Support for Story Story Night’s six-part flagship season and three late-night events taking place between November 2024 and August 2025.
Teal Gardner: The Ecogeoglyphic Observatory Exhibition – Support for the Ecogeoglyphic's fourth exhibition, RIPARIA, at MING Studios in the spring of 2025.
The Boise Bard Players: Support for eight performances drawing on traditional theatre productions performed between November and December 2024 at various public venues in Boise.
The Boise Chordsmen: Idaho Youth Barbershop Festival – Support for annual youth festival that brings between 900-1,000 vocal students for choral education and free group performances at the Morrison Center.
*Treasure Valley String Quartet, LLC: State of the Art – In partnership with composer Eric Alexander and Boise State University’s Department of Composition, support to commission, workshop, and premiere a brand-new work for string quartet by a local student composer organized through competition.
TRICA: TRICA Summer Camp Scholarships – Support to offset summer camp enrollment costs for Summer Arts Camps for children from financially disadvantaged families.
$4,500 Awards
Idaho Japanese Association: Japan Day – Support for Japan Day on September 25, 2025, featuring cultural performances, exhibitions, anime, food, and more.
Starbelly School of Dance: Boise Raks – Support for the development of a dynamic, inclusive dance program merging historical and contemporary artistic expressions, with free public performances and interactive sessions.
$4,000 Awards
Backyard Artists Inc.: Paper Plane Press – Support for the creation of a new quarterly publication titled Paper Plane Press and featuring works of poetry, nonfiction, and fiction by emerging and established local writers.
Capital City Flute Club: Flute Fest 2025 – Support for 3rd annual Flute Fest event on March 8, 2025, at First Presbyterian Church in Boise. The festival will include a high school soloist competition, college soloist competition, workshop sessions by local flute instructors, a Master Class taught by a guest artist, and a concert featuring the guest artist.
The Luminary: Support for Boise-based, female founded theatre ensemble’s new devised piece presented in two parts: a staged reading in the spring and a fully produced production in the fall/winter.
Treasure Valley Children's Theater: A Place to Call Home – Support for the 2024/25 season named A Place to Call Home featuring stories investigating themes of home, belonging, and communities of all kinds.
$3,500 Awards
Indonesian Idaho, Inc.: Indonesian Cultural and Heritage Day – Support for the Indonesian Cultural and Heritage Day to be held in August 2025, introducing Indonesian cultures and heritage through cuisines, music, dances, and sport.
$3,000 Awards
Artisans4Hope, Inc.: Refugee Product Design Project – Support for the development of six new products designed for program participants to create and sell throughout the year.
Idaho Film Foundation: i48 2024 – Support for the annual forty-eight-hour film competition taking place in late spring 2025 open to Boise filmmakers.
*Idaho Film Society: Cultural Kaleidoscope: Embracing Diversity through Cinema – Support for program showcasing a variety of narrative perspectives from five distinct film curators addressing diverse communities in Boise and Idaho to facilitate dialogue, active listening, and a celebration of our commonalities and our differences through cinema.
$2,500 Awards
Boise Baroque Orchestra: Support for the expansion of Boise Baroque Orchestra’s Educational Outreach Program, a summer program consisting of two week-long educational workshops (one in June, the other in August) held at First Presbyterian Church in Boise and each concluding with a free community concert.
Boise Blues Society: Blues in the Schools – Program support provided at no cost to participating schools and tailored to the age of the students and the learning objectives.
Common Ground Community Chorus: Idaho Voices for Diversity 25th Anniversary – Support for two choral concerts in the 2024/25 season (February 2025 and June 2025), marking their 25th anniversary as a chorus dedicated to inclusivity and human rights.
Idaho Dance Theatre, Inc.: Legacy of IDT – Support for fall show with four performances held November 7-10, 2024, at Boise State University’s Special Event Center.
*Sun Valley Playwrights Residency Inc.: Horoscope – Support for a new play production titled Horoscope by two-time Obie winner & Pulitzer finalist Rajiv Joseph and directed by May Adrales, including a workshop, reading, and artist Q&A in partnership with Boise State University Theater students.
$2,000 Awards
*Friends of Minidoka: Minidoka Memories: Stories that Connect and Heal – Project support highlighting oral histories from the Boise community with ties to the Minidoka War Relocation Center and the unjust incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. Support will also go towards the launch of an oral history campaign with a public lecture in Boise featuring the Relocation Center Diary by Arthur Kleinkopf, the Superintendent of Education at Minidoka, which Friends of Minidoka will republish and distribute at Boise public and university libraries.
Tree City Chamber Players: Musical Tales at The Library – Support for a free program of storytelling and classical music featuring Boise’s Tree City Chamber Players at local libraries in Boise.
$1,000 Awards
Ballet Idaho, Inc.: Learning Through Dance – Support for a 10-week artist-in-residence program at Boise schools taught by professional dance educators.
Boise Philharmonic Association, Inc.: Support for a collaborative program between Boise Phil and Ballet Idaho featuring two concerts at JUMP, with free public access through a livestream on JUMP's plaza.
*Elana Salzman: The Story of Klezmer – Support for a public performance on Jewish music, history, and their place in Boise’s culture through live music, video clips, a presentation, and Q&A.
Idaho Shakespeare Festival: Access Program – Support to expand access to Idaho Shakespeare programming, including through American Sign Language interpretation, closed captioning, and free/discounted tickets.
Opera Idaho: Support for Opera Idaho’s Children’s Choruses providing learning and performing experiences in classic repertoire and encouraging healthy vocal technique for children through membership in a vocal ensemble.
Winter Wildlands Alliance: 20th Annual Backcountry Film Festival Premiere – Support for screenings of cinematic stories of outdoor stewardship, grassroots policy and advocacy work, backcountry adventure, and snow cinema.
For more information: boiseartsandhistory.org/Grants
About the Boise City Department of Arts & History
The Department of Arts & History is Boise’s local cultural agency dedicated to fostering a sense of belonging through accessible and place-based arts and history. Our mission is to cultivate a distinct sense of place which reflects Boise’s rich past, diverse communities, and unique natural setting. Our operations empower and serve Boise residents as we create opportunities that nurture and sustain Boise’s past and its creative economy. More information: boiseartsandhistory.org
