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2023–2025
The campaign: In October 2023 Arts United publicly launched A Soaring Vision, a capital campaign to expand and modernize the fifty-year-old Arts United Center, with a goal of $40 million. Private donors and public funding had covered most of it before the public phase opened; the community was asked for the last $2.5 million, with matching gifts from the AWS Foundation and the Do it Best Foundation. Board member Dave Haist, who joined the board in 2021 and became its chair, co-chaired the campaign. The Foellinger Foundation's account of his service records that the campaign raised $41.5 million "without incurring long-term debt for the organization."
The work: Ground was broken on August 7, 2024. The project added a 17,500-square-foot addition with an accessible Community Arts Center lobby, built a community scene shop and administrative space for the resident Fort Wayne Civic Theatre, and modernized the building's systems and theatre technology, with the preservation of Kahn's design as a stated aim. Resident companies worked through a season of temporary quarters. On May 21, 2025, Arts United announced the goal met and exceeded — $41.5 million — and the Arts United Center's grand reopening followed on October 25, 2025. The state of the campus since the reopening is carried in Fort Wayne Today.
Sources:
- Input Fort Wayne, "Arts United unveils plans for updates to the Arts United Center," October 2023 — $40 million campaign, $2.5 million community phase, matching grants, project scope.
- Arts United press release, May 21, 2025 (artsunited.org) — goal met, $41.5 million raised, grand reopening October 25, 2025; MKM architecture + design — groundbreaking August 7, 2024, 17,500-square-foot addition.
- Foellinger Foundation, 2026 Annual Meeting program — Dave Haist's campaign co-chairmanship and the $41.5 million raised without long-term debt.