Nearly $1.1 million in grants could help fund Naperville art programs and community events in 2025.
Under the direction of Naperville’s Special Events and Community Arts Commission, organizations and institutions across the city next year are on track to benefit from annually-allocated funding earmarked to encourage the arts, culture and new events around town.
At their Dec. 12 meeting, SECA commissioners approved a unified recommendation for 2025 grant allocations, according to Miranda Barfuss, Naperville’s community grants coordinator and deputy city clerk. A total of $1,097,762 in grant money is available for allocation next year.
Funding is made possible through dollars the city collects from its 1% tax on food and beverages.
Allocations are decided through a months-long application process. Applications this year were opened in early fall and closed in October.
This year, organizations requested $3,331,774 in funding, including $1,315,062 for special events, $1,306,181 for new initiatives, $573,132 for community arts nonprofits and $137,400 for capital projects. Ultimately, though, SECA commissioners had just under $1.1 million to dole out.
Recommended awards range from $350 in city services for the DuPage Hispanic Alliance’s Latin (SUB)Urban Art Walk to more than $100,000 for the Naperville Jaycees’ annual Last Fling.
Other organizations recommended for funding include the DuPage Children’s Museum for sustainable outdoor classrooms, Illinois Conservatory for the Arts for music chairs and stands, and Naperville Preservation Inc. to help with the historic restoration of Beidelman Furniture.
The city’s new public-private partnership for the arts also submitted several funding requests, Barfuss noted. The partnership sought funding for three different projects, including one that would bring creative light displays to downtown Naperville and another that would keep a revolving mural at 222 S. Main St.
Though recommended awards were approved, commissioners will likely have to meet one more time in January to work through a few last-minute tweaks before their recommendations go to the Naperville City Council for final approval, possibly in February, Barfuss said.
More future funding?
While commissioners settle 2025 grant funding, big picture questions about the program’s long-term outlook have started to crop up.
Also at their Dec. 12 meeting, commissioners discussed the possibility of increasing available SECA funding in 2026. The conversation was spurred by 2025 applicants expressing significant funding concerns, caused by increasing city service costs, venue rental fees and overall project expenses, Barfuss said.
The city also is seeing a rise in applicants, she said. For 2025 awards, for instance, SECA received 84 applications. Last year, the number was 63.
With these qualms in mind, commissioners considered increasing funding. While receptive to the idea, their conversation earlier this month was just an initial pass at the possibility, Barfuss said. Commissioners decided to continue their discussion into next year and hold a workshop on the matter at a future meeting, likely in March.
Asked how commissioners would go about upping the pool of available funding, Barfuss said additional dollars would have to come through food and beverage tax revenue. There’s an ordinance that defines how SECA grants are determined each year so that would have to be revised by the council, she said.
“It’s the only grant fund that we have that’s like that,” she said. “That has this municipal-coded cap based on an ordinance.”