Nebraska · Nonprofit
BEMIS CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS INC
BEMIS CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS INC (Nebraska) receives grants from 40 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,356,349 to it, the largest being THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION ($1,000,000). 26 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.5M
- Funders on record
- 40
- Grants received
- $5.4M
- Net assets
- $4.7M
What Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts Inc does
Mission
Bemis center facilitates the creation, presentation, and understanding of contemporary art through an international residency program, exhibitions, and educational programs.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Residency:since 1981, bemis has provided more than 1,000 artists dedicated time, space, and resources to conduct research and create new work. Bemis offers artists private live/work studios, financial support, technical/administrative assistance, and opportunities for intellectual discourse about contemporary art. The sound art + experimental music program is a special track for artists working in sound, composition, voice, and music of all genres. Participating artists receive financial, technical, and administrative support, along with dedicated facilities for rehearsing, recording, and performing. The curator-in-residence program provides national curators the opportunity to participate in the bemis residency program and organize exhibitions and public programs at bemis center.
$1,068,202 spentof which $268,344 as grants58% of program spendingExhibitions:bemis center's exhibition program features solo and group exhibitions of artwork in all media by local, national, and international artists. Exhibitions are always free, open to the public, and frequently introduce the community of omaha to the most experimental and provocative art forms today. Artist-driven, community-responsive programs provide opportunities for the public to learn about and be inspired by the visual arts. Through artist-led workshops, artalks, open studios, panel discussions, film screenings, and performances, the community has direct access to artists and to their diverse approaches to art-making and interpreting the world around us.
$789,188 spentof which $35,919 as grants$5,000 earned by the program42% of program spendingOther miscellaneous program services
$8,764 earned by the program
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,857,390.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2024 to 2025, from $4.0M to $4.9M (+23%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2017 3% · 2018 4% · 2019 7% · 2020 36% · 2021 8% · 2022 14% · 2023 18% · 2024 11% · 2025 8%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
94% of BEMIS CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Chris Cook
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 9 funders to 16 funders, grant income rose $165k → $492k.
7 of 40 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 11% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of BEMIS CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 40 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
BEMIS CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 19% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
26% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund BEMIS CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 30% · 2018 77% · 2019 26% · 2020 20% · 2021 15% · 2022 46% · 2023 25% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
48% of BEMIS CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 65% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
66% of BEMIS CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS INC's grant income comes from Nebraska funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $564k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
BEMIS CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS INC runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding BEMIS CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $325k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$325k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like BEMIS CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS INC
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Nebraska
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
73% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
67%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for BEMIS CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS INC: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds BEMIS CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS INC?
- BEMIS CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS INC (Nebraska) receives grants from 40 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,356,349 to it, the largest being THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION ($1,000,000). 26 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does BEMIS CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS INC have?
- IRS filings report 40 organizations giving $5,356,349 in grants to BEMIS CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS INC, 26 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BEMIS CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS INC?
- THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,000,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BEMIS CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Nebraska. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 40 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing