Something really special happens inside your brain—and, let’s be honest, probably your heart, too—during a performance of theatre, music or dance.
And all of us, at one point in our lives or another, had that moment of realization: that watching or being part of a performance was incredibly special, and that it changed something within us.
Wharton Center for Performing Arts is making sure that those moments are accessible to everyone through its educational programs.
“Education initiatives have been core to who we are at Wharton Center since the early years,” says Wharton Center director Eric Olmscheid. “We dedicate a significant amount of financial resources to these programs each year, most of which comes directly from donor support.”
Last year, 378 donors gave more than $135,400 to the Arts Within Reach program, which, in turn, provided ticket and tuition support for all of Wharton’s programmatic offerings, including Take It From The Top theatre camps, sensory-friendly events for families, and, of course, school field trip matinee performances.
“My favorite days at the theatre are seeing yellow school buses lined up in front of Wharton Center, and thousands of students coming in on a field trip to see a matinee performance,” Olmscheid says.
But admission fees and transportation costs make field trips expensive, and schools feel the strain.
So to be a better field trip partner for schools, and reduce the overall financial burden of a high-quality arts adventure outside of the classroom, Wharton Center subsidized the cost of the children’s tickets.
“Over 18,000 students came to Wharton for a field trip matinee this year,” Olmscheid says. “And all of their tickets were just one dollar each.”
Donor support made that happen. In fact, Arts Within Reach distributed more than $125,000 in ticket and tuition support for programming for visitors of all ages.
And those experiences—much like the philanthropic gifts that made them possible—had an incredible impact: giving thousands of burgeoning artists and arts patrons the opportunity to have that brain-and-heart-altering moment of connection with performance.