Levitt Expansion Celebrates Music

It’s difficult to imagine a summer night in downtown Sioux Falls without a stop at the Levitt.

For more than seven years, the free outdoor venue has hosted 50 shows a year and quickly become a staple of many families’ summer plans. A stop at the Levitt brings culture, community and connection.

Now, that feeling can continue, even when South Dakota’s weather turns.

This fall, the Levitt will open the Sweetman Atrium, a 7,000-square-foot addition that will allow for off-season performances and events and expand the organization’s programming, to further the mission of making arts accessible to more people. It also offers more space for visiting artists and storage.

The venue will seat about 350 people, said Nancy Halverson, executive director of the Levitt. Dick and Kathy Sweetman provided the lead gift for the space, through the Community Foundation.

“When you take on a project like this, you know it’s going to be a lot of hard work,” Halverson said. “To have this kind of gift help us start this project, it was just a huge blessing.”

Some festivals at the Levitt bring more than 100 performers, so the additional space for artists, audio and video equipment is an improvement. Beyond that, though, the space will allow for expanded programming.

“The new Sweetman Atrium allows us to really grow the partnerships we’ve created but keep it very mission-aligned,” Halverson said, noting they’ll work with groups from the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra to the National Music Museum and the Fellowship Jazz Center. “They will have the opportunity to use the facility for free, as long as what they’re offering to the community is free. This space allows us to make the Levitt a year-round place for people to enjoy music.”

A mural from Sioux Falls artist Les Cotton brightens the green room for artists inside, with nods to the local art scene. Rough Edge Collective, a husband-and-wife team from the San Francisco Bay area, painted the outside of the atrium with Sioux Falls scenes, including the falls of the Big Sioux River.

The Community Foundation first served as a fiscal sponsor for the Levitt, helping the organization get established and operational in Sioux Falls. As it grew and transformed, the Levitt opened an endowment at the Foundation, ensuring future sustainability.

“Working alongside the Community Foundation as we’ve grown has provided so much knowledge, so many relationships and so much support,” Halverson said. “They helped manage the funds supporting our work from the very beginning. And now, with our endowment, we know we will continue to be successful.”

Mary Kolsrud, chief philanthropy officer for the Foundation, said it’s gratifying to watch an organization grow like the Levitt has. “They’ve just become part of the fabric of downtown Sioux Falls. I love seeing the crowd on a summer night. Now, the Sweetman Atrium will extend their season all year,” Kolsrud said. “But more than that, building their endowment with the Community Foundation means many more generations will be able to enjoy live music in Sioux Falls.”