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About Us

Community Partners

College of Visual and Performing Arts Community Partners are essential to the development and growth of our programs. 
The College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) is deeply committed to collaborating with and supporting our regional arts organizations and being their partner of first choice.  Examples of this collaborative engagement include:

  • VPA faculty and staff are board members and patrons of a myriad of regional arts group and provide leadership, collaboration and other opportunities for community arts organizations.
  • IPFW conducts an annual Arts United fundraising campaign in the university workplace.
  • IPFW provides rehearsal and performance space for several regional arts groups who are “in residence” at IPFW, including the Greater Fort Wayne Area Community Band, the Fort Wayne Youth Orchestra and Unity Performing Arts Foundation (UPAF). 
  • Upon completion of the new IPFW music building, additional arts organizations will be housed in the structure to take advantage of space for office, storage, rehearsal and performance and to facilitate the sharing of their arts with the community.
  • VPA supports Fort Wayne downtown development through multiple presentations, including First Sunday Concerts at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, concerts at the Allen County Public Library (ACPL), and concerts in downtown churches, at the Embassy Theatre and Scottish Rite Auditorium; and student and faculty art exhibitions at Artlink, ACPL, Cinema Center and First Presbyterian Church.
  • VPA partners with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic (FWP) through joint educational programming and employment of FWP musicians as music faculty.
  • VPA initiated an arts consortium of northern Indiana college arts programs to expand our community of learners and provide more arts education opportunities for the students of all northern Indiana colleges.

VPA is also committed to engagement with a variety of non-arts organizations to provide educational opportunities for our students while enhancing economic development and providing artistic services through:

  • Internships of Visual Communication and Design students at the Allen County Economic Development Alliance, the History Center and numerous marketing and design firms.
  • Service to entrepreneurs through creative graphic design work by VPA students and faculty via the IPFW Center for Industrial Innovation and Design (CIID).
  • IPFW Community Arts Academy year-round programming for at-risk students of partner organizations, including United Hispanic Americans, Boys & Girls Clubs, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Child Protective Services, and the League for the Blind and Disabled.
  • Workshops and presentations for teachers and students of K-12 regional schools.

Our partners benefit from the expertise of VPA faculty and students, as well as through recognition in VPA Visions, and advertising in VPA program books. 
To find out more about how you can become a community partner of the College of Visual and Performing Arts please call the VPA dean’s office at 260-481-6977.