The South Dakota Symphony Orchestra has received a $443,682 Prize for Community Innovation from the Minnesota-based Bush Foundation. Each year, the foundation awards flexible grants to organizations from Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota for 25 percent of the organization’s most recent fiscal-year budget, up to $500,000. The SDSO’s grant will fund new community engagement programs. The SDSO’s signature community engagement initiatives are the Lakota Music Project and Music as Medicine, which will serve as the model for creating new programs. A newly appointed committee of SDSO board members, musicians, and staff, as well as community thought leaders, will make recommendations to the board on how to invest the Bush Prize to conceive and sustain efforts that will advance the SDSO’s culture of service, innovation, and relevance. The Foundation was established in 1953 by 3M executive Archibald Bush and his wife, Edyth, who wanted to encourage innovation in communities across Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and the 23 Native nations that share the same geographic area.
Posted November 18, 2016
