welcome to the united performing arts fund 2012 education & community outreach presentation!
TRANSCRIPT
What is UPAF?
• United Performing Arts Fund (UPAF) is a nonprofit, umbrella organization that supports 36 performing arts groups in Southeastern Wisconsin through its annual fundraising and awareness campaign.
• UPAF raises funds through a community-wide based approach, receiving contributions from over 20,000 donors and over 350 corporations in 2011.
• UPAF has provided $334 million in unrestricted operating support to the performing arts over its 45 year history.
UPAF’s Mission & Vision
United Performing Arts Fund’s mission is to secure community resources, promote the performing arts as a regional asset
and improve the quality of life through responsible investment in and financial support of the performing arts in southeastern
Wisconsin.
Our vision is to shape a diverse, vibrant and sustainable cultural life for all.
Your Support of UPAF allows our Member Groups to help create community and foster educational impact throughout Milwaukee.
UPAF Affiliate GroupsBoulevard Ensemble Studio Theatre
DanceCircusEnsemble Musical Offering
Festival City SymphonyFrankly Music
In Tandem TheatreKenosha Symphony Association
Ko-Thi Dance CompanyLatino Arts
Milwaukee Chamber OrchestraMilwaukee Choral ArtistsMilwaukee Opera Theatre
North Shore Academy of the ArtsPianoArts of Wisconsin
Racine Symphony OrchestraString Academy of Wisconsin
Sunset PlayhouseTheatre Gigante
Wild Space Dance CompanyWindfall Theatre
Wisconsin Philharmonic
The Bel Canto Boy Choirs emphasize
the development and understanding
of singing skills. They perform several
times throughout the year, and have
worked with the Vienna Boy Choir,
Midwest Vocal Express, Vocal Arts
Academy, and Bel Canto Chorus.
Mad Hot Ballroom and Tap (MHBT) is
Danceworks’ signature youth arts education
program, serving nearly 2,000 students. MHBT
teaches life skills and impacts school
attendance and academic performance by
integrating tap and ballroom dance classes
into the regular school curriculum. The
majority of the schools participating in the
program are central city schools in low-
income neighborhoods.
The First Stage Community Partnership
Program “opens new doors for City of
Milwaukee youth,” by providing
thousands of traditionally underserved
children the opportunity to experience the
profound benefits of innovative theater
education programs. This year alone the
program had a positive and lasting impact
on 4,794 children and their families.
Opera Inside Out is an interactive,
customizable program that gives middle and
high school students a behind the scene look
at the many facets of opera production and
opera-related careers. This modular program
introduces students to stage direction,
costumes, stage make-up, lighting, design,
props, vocal performance and arts
administration.
Young Playwrights Festival (YPF)
provides free playwriting workshops
for 200+ high school students in the
metro-Milwaukee area and gives a
diverse group of individuals a hands-
on opportunity to contribute to the
collaborative process of creating
theatre.
The Harmony Program brings free music
instruction and performance experiences to
roughly 250 children who live in the City of
Milwaukee and attend Milwaukee schools. The
children receive weekly music classes for several
months each year, and join MCC and other
choirs at a spring Roots & Wings Choir Festival
where children are able to celebrate in song and
dance.
Tap the Potential celebrates the talent and
vision of individuals with special needs by
providing the local community with art shows
and performances by poets, musicians,
storytellers and theatre artists. All the
performances are intended to challenge
preconceptions of people with disabilities and
advocate for full inclusion in the life of the
community.
Teen Council is an organization that promotes
a love and appreciation of theater for a
younger generation. Bringing together teens
from all over Southeastern Wisconsin,
students fully plan their own events, including
marketing, fundraising strategies and
budgeting. They are learning the
administrative side to creating fun things to
do as well as celebrating their love for
theater!
The Arts in Community Education (ACE) program
integrates the arts into daily subjects through an
innovative curriculum which serves as the basis
for other components of the program. Nationally
recognized as one of the largest and most
comprehensive education programs among
American orchestras, ACE challenges students to
connect subjects using the arts and music as a
common thread.
The Progressions program identifies the issue of access
as a key aspect necessary for changing the image of the
arts from elitist and irrelevant to empowering and
constructive. Because of this, young students in
underserved communities are able to experience the
power and influence of the performing arts first-hand by
participating in high impact and high intensity individual
and small group lessons, master classes, and a string
orchestra.
Summer Theatre for Teens is a six week
theatre program that offers 20 Milwaukee
area teens a free opportunity to work with
professional artists to create an original hour-
long musical theatre piece. Along with arts
education, this unique program emphasizes
creativity, collaboration, and mutual respect.
The Creation Project, a new program called Music
of Nature allowed young students, whose schools
lack formal music programs, to team up with
Present Music musicians to explore Washington
Park’s wild sounds and translate them into their
own original piece of music. On Earth Day, students
were given the opportunity to perform their
composition at the Washington Park as an Earth
Day celebration.
Diversity Series presented their new production,
Crumbs from the Table of Joy, which showed the “face”
of our community by reflecting Milwaukee’s cultural
diversity through a theatrical experience.
The production collaborated with UPROOTED, a new theater program that explores and expresses
African American voices and cultural experiences with
the performing arts, and PEARLS for Teen Girls, a local
mentoring program for at-risk girls.
The Enlighten program instills an appreciation of the
arts, encourages and guides aspiring young artists,
and establishes arts education as a vital component
of a well-rounded curriculum. Programming
promotes skills essential to success in school and
life, such as collaboration, creativity and critical
thinking. This program is also unique in its focus on
creative writing and literacy. Enlighten served
10,019 students last school year.