Lotus Education & Arts Foundation

Lotus Education and Arts Foundation's mission is to create opportunities to experience, celebrate, and explore the diversity of the world's cultures through music and the arts.

Lotus brings performers from around the globe to the Bloomington community to share their music, art, and culture with audiences and participants of all ages. We are a volunteer-driven organization, meaning that all activities are enabled by volunteers who share a passion for our mission.

The Lotus flagship program is the Lotus World Music & Arts Festival. Established in 1994, the Festival is one of the oldest world music festivals in the U.S. and the only festival of its kind in the state of Indiana. The festival attracts thousands of people to downtown Bloomington each fall, for 4-5 days of music and arts from around the globe. Through the Festival, Lotus creates – on a grand scale – the rare opportunity for audiences to experience places far removed from their everyday routines and to broaden their worldview through the arts.

Lotus Blossoms is the premier youth-focused arts education outreach program of the Lotus Education & Arts Foundation. Lotus Blossoms opens the wider world to young people, connecting K-12 students directly with performing artists from all over the globe. Serving children, teachers, and families since its inception in 1996, Blossoms creates up-close cultural encounters through music and dance performances in schools, workshops, classroom visits, the “World Bazaar” multicultural fair, and more. Over the last 20+ years, the Lotus Blossoms program has reached more than 126,000 students and counting.

Lotus Visual Arts initiatives create connections to the artistic expression of local and global cultures while empowering participants of all abilities, backgrounds, and learning styles to express themselves creatively.  Lotus focuses on bringing these projects directly to social-service agencies, at-risk and LGBTQ youth, seniors, and participants with special needs.