The Birdsell Project (TBP) seeks to revitalize underutilized spaces by opening them to artists and the community. It creates community space that reflects upon South Bend’s history, celebrates current artistic endeavors, and experiments with methods of merging art and community.
Since it's conception in Aug. 2014, we've put together a number of different projects:

Our first project, a large-scale installation in The Birdsell Mansion, featured 21 artists. The show saw over 3,000 visitors.

We hosted 11 local, national, and international artists for a 2 month residency. TBP provided housing, a stipend, and installation space. Artists created new work in SB's former power plant, provided artistic services to community organizations and met with a diverse group of local leaders. The show was open to the public for 2 months, exposing the community to installations created specifically for this space, and bringing people into spaces that have been unused for decades.

We collaborated with ND on a number of class projects. In the last year, over 100 students have created installations with TBP for their final projects.

We also collaborated with a local artist to create a mobile art installation that traveled to Grand Rapids to participate in Artprize 7 where we were voted one of the top 25 installations.

TBP has seen over 30,000 people attend our art and music shows, classes, and projects. We’ve engaged local artists and attracted new artists to the area, gotten local and national media coverage, and brought new artwork to underutilized spaces; spurring important conversations regarding how space is used.

Please follow the links below to view 2 videos documenting some of our work.
https://vimeo.com/122979095
https://vimeo.com/160683753

We think we're bringing something awesome to SB and we want to continue bringing the cool to the community we call home. Our budget is small, our ambition large. $1000 would be transformative for The Birdsell Project.