IBCF Receives Grant from Allen Whitehill Clowes Charitable Foundation in Support of No Limits Arts Series

By: Seth Johnson

The Indiana Blind Children’s Foundation (IBCF) is excited to share that we’ve received a $95,000 grant from the Allen Whitehill Clowes Charitable Foundation to help support our No Limits Arts Series.

In 2018, IBCF received a Strengthening Indianapolis Through Arts and Cultural Innovation grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to launch and build, No Limits: An Arts Series Focused on Access for All, programming. Because of this investment, IBCF has helped transform Indianapolis into a more culturally inclusive city.

In the last five years, IBCF renovated and transformed the 1930's historic auditorium at Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (ISBVI) into a model venue for fully inclusive performances, annually hosted world-class blind/low vision musicians like Matthew Whitaker, Michael Cleveland, and A.J. Croce, collectively entertaining nearly 1,000 audience members of all abilities through its No Limits Celebrations, and empowered 50 ISBVI high school youth through an after-school advocacy education program known as Leadership Club that has enabled students to voice and build access strategies at the Eiteljorg Museum, Heartland Film, Phoenix Theatre, and Conner Prairie, improving access for people with disabilities throughout Central Indiana.

ISBVI's move due to construction on a renovated campus has sparked new IBCF partnerships and inspired creative adaptability. Starting in 2025, IBCF will partner with Butler University Arts and Events Center to host annual No Limits Celebrations at the Schrott Center for the Arts. Support from Allen Whitehill Clowes Charitable Foundation will help IBCF transition and grow No Limits programming over this next year by helping IBCF create new No Limits marketing collateral, bring in singer-songwriter and disability advocate, Lachi, on March 1, 2025 for the first No Limits Celebration on Butler's campus, build Leadership Club partnership curriculum so future Club leaders may voice and increase accessibility services across all Butler Arts and Events Center venues, develop a disability sensitivity training for Butler Arts staff integrating former student leaders in the design and delivery of the training, and employ a one-year contract assistant to improve IBCF's staffing capacity so IBCF may continue successful No Limits programming.

The image shows a Black woman standing on a stage, holding a microphone and a white cane. She is wearing a sparkly, dark blue dress and has braided hair. The background is a colorful stage backdrop with abstract shapes in green and blue. The woman appears to be speaking or performing, and she is smiling. Named one of USA Today’s “Women of the Year,” 2025 No Limits Celebration headliner Lachi is a globally touring recording artist, award-winning social entrepreneur, GRAMMYs Chapter Board Governor, and host of PBS’ American Masters series Renegades. Born legally blind, Lachi uses her platform in music, storytelling, and fashion to amplify identity pride and Disability Culture. Her U.N.-recognized organization RAMPD (Recording Artists and Music Professionals with Disabilities) has collaborated on disability-inclusive solutions with the GRAMMYs, Netflix, Tidal, SONY Pictures Entertainment, and more.

Tickets to the 2025 No Limits Celebration at Schrott Center for the Arts will go on sale Monday, Dec. 2. Attendees of the Celebration can expect a keynote concert from Lachi full of narrative storytelling, high-energy piano performance, and insight on current diversity/disability culture and inclusion practices, taking the audience on a journey meant to educate, provoke, and entertain. For future updates on this year’s Celebration, make sure you stay tuned to our monthly email newsletter and social media pages.