Written by Tanya Terry
Featured photo: “The Greatest Love of All: A Tribute to Whitney Houston starring Belinda Davids” will take place at the FIM Whiting Auditorium later this year. Photo courtesy of FIM
FIM (formerly known as the Flint Institute of Music) recently revealed its 2025-2026 season during a sneak preview at the Whiting Auditorium. Before a delightful brunch, served outdoors, about 500 invitees enjoyed seeing how talented performers, music of every genre, brilliant stage productions and more family and community focus at the FIM Whiting Auditorium, FIM Capitol Theatre, MacArthur Hall and FIM Flint Repertory Theatre are also being used to uplift the Flint community.
Rodney Lontine, president and CEO of the FIM, said: “We have a lot of Broadway; we’ll have some dance; obviously this is the home of the Flint Symphony Orchestra at the Whiting Auditorium; we’ll have the six classical concert series; we’ll have the Nutcracker; we’ll have Holiday Pops; we’ll have a new pops concert-it’s going to be Halloween Pops, that’s added. We have the Addams Family, and much more.”
Lontine added the shows FIM offers are not only family friendly, but they are designed for a diverse audience.
“We have everything from African dance, to comedy, to Broadway, Postmodern Jukebox, jazz, funk, rock ‘n’ roll…a little bit of everything for everybody,” he said.
Lontine also pointed out the Flint Repertory Theatre is one of the most awarded theatres in the state, although it’s only been in existence for about six seasons now.
“They’ve won just about every theatre award you can get in Michigan – and some national awards.”
As part of the FIM’s strategic framework, FIM worked to ensure all of its offering have some sort of family component to them.
“We’re inching more towards family friendly, families with children, but also some sort of health education benefit. What I mean by health is we do a lot of music therapy programs. Music therapy is using music to help with all kinds of things, from autism, to learning disabilities, to trauma and stress. We’ve opened up facilities in the Genesee County jails. They’re offering music therapy. We want to reach all of our community, but there are so many pockets. We have our veterans we want to cater to. We have seniors we want to cater to. We want to have a little bit for everyone.”
Lontine thanked the citizens of Genesee County for approving the Genesee County Arts & Education Enrichment Millage.
“It helps with anybody in the arts. It helps with the Sloan Museum. It helps with the arts museum. It helps with GFAC. It helps with all the programs downtown. You have Berston Fieldhouse and McCree Theatre. You get 30% off our facilities. Free admission at FIA. Free admission over to the Sloan as well, and discounts at all the places I mentioned. They are all part of the Arts & Education Enrichment Millage.”
Lontine pointed out that area residents can learn more about the discounts and free admissions at the individual websites and said smaller arts organizations are able to apply for grants from GFAC because of the millage.
Lontine said FIM has a strong sense of commitment to pouring into the Flint community and uplifting it.
“Part of our mission is to help enliven and enrich all of Genesee County and Flint. It’s our home. Every time we have a play at the Whiting, or there is a show at the Capitol Theatre, all the restaurants are buzzing, people are happy, and there’s a lot of activity. Anything we can do to help Flint, we absolutely do it.”
Sherida Turner attended the reveal for the first time after being invited when she bought FIM show tickets last season. Turner told the Courier she spends a lot of time in the cultural center, especially when taking her granddaughter to the Gloria Coles Flint Public Library and to theatre lessons at Flint School of Performing Arts.
After seeing the season reveal, Turner is most excited to see “Abducted by the 80s,” and “Curious George,” as well as more live plays.
Turner told the Courier why she is such a big supporter of the cultural center.
“I lived in San Diego, and what I paid for my tickets for a whole season last year is how much just two tickets cost in San Diego,” she said. “So, I can afford to do this kind of stuff now. I think people should really take advantage of the arts available in Flint. I lived in a place where I couldn’t afford to go to a whole bunch of things. So, I would urged them to take advantage of this.”
Visit thefim.org to check out the entire 2025-2026 season lineup.
