Indian Hills Receives Arts Equipment Grant

Indian Hills

OTTUMWA — The Indian Hills Community College Development Corporation recently received an Arts Equipment Grant from the Iowa Arts Council, a division of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs. The $4,200 grant will support the purchase of new lighting fixtures for St. John Auditorium on the IHCC Ottumwa campus, part of an ongoing lighting upgrade project in the venue.

Grant funds will be used to purchase 20 new energy-efficient LED light fixtures for the auditorium. The LED fixtures will replace ones that are rundown and aged, some of them nearly 60 years old. These upgrades will improve stage presentation for IHCC’s vocal, instrumental and theatre ensembles, as well as the Southeast Iowa Symphony Orchestra and other groups that use the auditorium. Theatre students will also have enhanced learning experiences by using stage lighting that is standard at most four-year colleges and professional venues.

“It will be exciting for our students to learn the latest in lighting technology,” said Jennifer Boyenga, IHCC’s Fine Arts Program Director. “We are very grateful to receive this grant.”
Approximately 90 students will benefit from the project as well as hundreds of community members that attend or take part in free arts performances in St. John Auditorium. The college plans to install the new lighting fixtures as well as other related equipment this summer.

IHCC has a long history of providing arts education dating back to the days of Ottumwa Heights College and Sister St. John Ven Horst, for whom the auditorium is named.