The Eskenazi School’s Community Impact Fund supports professional development, creative activity, and research that aligns with the core goals of the school’s strategic plan. Proposals should demonstrate a clear link to one or more of the following criteria:
Nurturing cross-cultural understanding and perspectives within our community
Fostering connections between the Eskenazi school community and the city of Bloomington or, more broadly, the state of Indiana
Promoting marginalized voices in the fields of art, design, and merchandising
Creating a sense of belonging for all faculty, staff, or students
The impact of the funded project must be measurable in some way, and recipients are required to submit documentation—such as pictures, videos, written reports, or other forms of evidence—demonstrating the project’s outcome upon completion.
The Community Impact Fund selection committee will give priority to proposals that represent new directions in the applicant’s creative, professional, or academic trajectory.
Eligibility
This funding opportunity is available to all faculty and staff within the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture, and Design.
Project Summary: This proposal seeks support for integrating material research from an international residency program into a cross-disciplinary classroom workshop experience at the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design. I will attend the Shiroishi ZAO Residence in Miyagi, Japan, to conduct material and cultural research on Shiroishi washi—a traditional Japanese mulberry paper with deep historical significance. Invited following my participation in a 2022–23 traveling exhibition in Japan, I will work collaboratively in-residence with Japanese artist Eriko Fujita to explore the historical and contemporary relevance of this unique material, integrating it further into my hybrid painting and textile practice. The residency will serve as the foundation for a cross-disciplinary workshop at the Eskenazi School. In consultation with Senior Lecturer Lori Frye, I’ve devised a month-long unit bridging two courses in Painting and Fashion Design programs (S330/430 Abstract Strategies + F325 Experimental Studio). This workshop unit will engage students in material and cultural research, emphasizing collaborative learning, international exchange, and sustainable material practices rooted in historical tradition.
Submitted by: Angela Caldwell
Project Summary: Tools of the Trade will celebrate the act of making by hand, the tools that are used in making, and the hand-made object through the lens of needlework and textile production. Metals area students and invited artists will research and create original works in response to selected objects from the Diana Ballenger Nellans Collection. This extraordinary material culture collection of needlework tools and equipment, donated to the Sage Collection in 2019, consists of over 1000 examples spanning hundreds of years and includes both the extravagant and extraordinary, and the humble and everyday. Artists will focus on traditions of making, style and type of tools, differences and similarities across time and place, and address the historical significance of craft as is crosses cultures and methods of making. This project will culminate in an exhibition of the original works, the inspiring artifacts, and examples of textiles and clothing that were made with such tools. Working with students from Metals, Fibers, F402 Collections Management for Historic Costume and Textiles, and invited artists, entrants will design and mount the exhibition, to be held at a campus location (Grunwald Gallery, McCalla, or the Cook Center) Spring 2027. Potential additional involvement might involve Graphic Design and Merchandising/Marketing class developing exhibition imagery and promotional materials.
Submitted by: Hassnaa Mohammed
Project Summary: This study examines a growing phenomenon in U.S. Muslim placemaking: the rise of Muslim-owned coffee shops intentionally expressing religious, cultural, and hybrid identities through professionally designed interiors. Historically, coffee shops functioned as important third spaces that foster community connection (Waxman, 2006). However, these newly emerging Muslim-owned spaces demonstrate deeper intersections of design, entrepreneurship, cultural belonging, and religion that warrant scholarly attention. Focusing on ten locations across five coffee shop brands in Indiana, this study contributes to the underexamined area of U.S. Muslim interior environments.
Submitted by: Linda Tien
Project Summary: The Grunwald Gallery will host a nationally juried student exhibition organized through the Surface Design Association (SDA), a national arts organization whose primary mission is to promote awareness and appreciation of fiber art though publications, exhibitions, and events. For nearly 50 years, SDA has been a leader in the field of fiber arts, providing a platform for critical dialogue, innovation, learning and mentorship. The SDA community is expansive, from makers and artists to academics and enthusiasts. It is significant to note that the organization has made a commitment to Equity, Access and Integration. Part of SDA’s mission is to hold space for and amplify the voices of historically underrepresented communities in the fiber and textile art world. This exhibition is a direct demonstration of this value by giving the jurying opportunity to someone who come from communities that have been historically underrepresented in America and in the field of art. This year’s exhibition will be juried by Jose Santiago Perez, a first-generation queer Latine artist whose practice is a form of gathering across time, space and difference within a polarized contemporary context. He describes his artwork as queer containers that expand traditional forms through improvisational making. They extend beyond utility through the use of experimental materials like mylar emergency blankets and plastic lining.
Submitted by: Megan Young
Project Summary: Future Rhythm Machines: Synth, Rhythm, and Collective Making is a proposed public workshop and participatory event for Spring 2026 that supports the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design’s goals around interdisciplinary learning, experiential education, and public engagement. The project invites participants to explore how sound, rhythm, and simple electronic tools can foster collaboration, creativity, and shared cultural experience. This activity builds directly on research writing, discussions, and creative projects developed in the Digital Art Seminar, where students examine themes of networked resistance across contemporary digital art practice. Throughout the course, students study how artists use networks—technical, social, and cultural—to challenge dominant systems and create alternative modes of exchange. Future Rhythm Machines provides an ideal opportunity for DART students to deepen this work through embodied, collaborative making and to share it with the broader Eskenazi and Bloomington community. It is also intentionally joyful: a chance to learn together, experiment freely, and have fun through collective creativity.
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