Arts Incarnate is a Harrisonburg based non-profit dedicated to supporting artists and building community. We need your help.

In 2020, Church of The Incarnation launched Arts Incarnate with a bold mission: bear witness to Christ by building community in Harrisonburg, for the good of the community, through the arts. Over the years we have built two art galleries and a concert series.

In 2024 the Arts Incarnate program will be converting to an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit. We will be expanding programming and hosting more free concerts, launching a new series of free educational events, and working to develop new spaces for art and artists in Harrisonburg. This expansion is to meet the rapidly growing interest in our program - shown by the exponential increase in attendance over the course of 2023. In December of 2023 we had over 350 people of varied backgrounds in attendance for our First Friday art opening and concert event. This was up from the average of about 40 attendees per event earlier in the year.

We decided to work with artists for a very simple and particular reason: art is an expression of the artist, and artists are the witnesses of their communities. Artists represent the community around them, regardless of whether or not they want to, because they are a product of the local community around them. The local community has tremendous influence on their local artists. By helping artists create and by giving them an open platform, we are able to bring attention to the communities these artists are immersed in.

Arts Incarnate seeks to bring communities together through intentional community engagement with art. We want artists to be heard, seen, and paid fairly so that they can create. We want our communities to see and understand the work of the artists around them, so that the smaller communities within Harrisonburg can better understand, help, and care for their neighbors.

Harrisonburg is a culturally diverse place. US Census data shows that nearly 16% of Harrisonburg is foreign born - notably higher than the national average of 13%. Nearly 10% of the city doesn't have citizenship. There are around 36,000 college students studying at several local universities. Harrisonburg has a stunning number of artists and community members from many nationalities and backgrounds. It is vital that we serve them and connect them.

US Census data also shows that nearly 26% of the Harrisonburg population lives under the poverty line - making it even more important to find funding so that we may provide services for no cost. Art, art education, and the freedom to create should be freely accessible and open to all, for the good of all.

Historically much of our funding has come from The Church of The Incarnation. With our transition to being an independent organization we now need donors to help us continue to help artists and our community. We need your help to continue.

Any amount helps - but please consider a monthly donation. These types of donations help us plan out our future programming, and it's hard to stress how much they help our work in the community.

Thank you for your support,

Forrest Matter

Executive Director

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Arts Incarnate

75 N Mason St

Harrisonburg, VA 22801