We're a no-audition, adult community chorus, created for those who love to sing in Upper Manhattan. 

ABOUT THE CHOIR
WHCC is a no-audition community choir, one of a handful in NYC and the only one serving Upper Manhattan. We're a lively, diverse, and welcoming group that loves to sing and believes in the power of music to spread joy and build community!

BUILDING A LASTING FOUNDATION
Founded by a local church in 2016, we disbanded in May 2022 due to budget cuts but quickly regrouped and reestablished the choir as an independent nonprofit. Now two years strong, we aim to become a lasting part of our community.

HELP KEEP THE MUSIC ALIVE
Choir membership dues cover about 70% of our expenses. Your donation helps bridge the gap, supporting our Choir Director, accompanist, music licensing, marketing, space rental, insurance, and other administrative needs. 

With your help, we can keep singing and grow our presence in Upper Manhattan!

Washington Heights Community Choir is a project of Players Philanthropy Fund, Inc. a Texas nonprofit corporation recognized by IRS as a tax-exempt public charity under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (Federal Tax ID: 27-6601178, [ppf.org/pp](https://ppf.org/pp)). Contributions to Washington Heights Community Choir qualify as tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law.

Washington Heights Community Choir

Henderson County Performing Arts Center has entertained and educated east Texas since 1964. 

**We Entertain. We Educate. We Change Lives.**

Since 1964, HCPAC (formerly Athens Little Theatre) has been dedicated to bringing quality entertainment and education to East Texas. Led by a volunteer Board of Directors and powered by countless volunteers of all ages—onstage, backstage, and everywhere in between—we create the magic of live community theater. 

Through our youth education and production programs, we introduce young people to the thrill of the stage, sparking creative growth and launching future careers in theater and theater education. 

In every performance, class, and collaboration, we remain committed to our core mission: to entertain, to educate, and to change lives.

Henderson County Performing Arts Center

Global Peace Media, a 1993 nonprofit with Humanitarian and Media projects that encourage action to create a better world for all.

**Global Peace Media** creates **Media projects** to inspire communities to work towards peace, social justice, environmental preservation, and respecting all people and lifeforms on Earth. 

Global Peace Media also has **Humanitarian projects** in many different countries around the world including India, Africa, Latin America and in the USA.

Global Peace Media

Kids’ Club supports underserved youth in our community by awarding grants for programs for kids from birth to age 18 and beyond. 

Kids’ Club of Tarrytown & Sleepy Hollow provides support for underserved youth.  As a community organization, we marshal resources, increase local awareness, advocate for programming, and strengthen services to improve the lives of children and families. We collaborate with a variety of community organizations to identify needs, close gaps in services and provide opportunities for children.

*Through our close ties to the community, we are able to find, fund, and facilitate programs we believe will have the greatest impact on the lives of those we serve.* 

At Kids’ Club, we are all volunteers; we have no paid staff.  We all live or work in the community or surrounding areas. **Administrative costs are covered through the generosity of our Board members, enabling 100% of every dollar you donate to Kids’ Club to help the children and families we serve.** 

Kids' Club of Tarrytown & Sleepy Hollow, Inc.

Since 1968, providing quality fine arts experiences for students and our community through our summer camps and year round events.

Shell Lake Arts Center Inc

Ashes to Films supports wildfire-affected filmmakers, helping them tell stories of resilience through grants and a film festival.

***“I started Ashes to Films because I’ve lived it.”***

Sixteen years ago, while attending school in Santa Barbara, I lost my home to a wildfire. The experience was devastating—not just the physical loss but the overwhelming task of rebuilding. When the immediate crisis passed and the world moved on, I was still navigating the emotional and financial fallout, trying to find stability while everything around me kept moving forward.

I was lucky. I had the support of my friends and family to help me through that time. And when I finally picked up my camera again, I realized that storytelling wasn’t just my career—it was my way of making sense of everything. Creating films became a healing process, a way to take control of a narrative that had felt completely out of my hands. That experience shaped me, and it’s why I started **Ashes to Films**—because I know what it feels like to lose everything, and I know how powerful it is to rebuild through creativity.

I don’t want filmmakers who’ve lost everything to feel like their artistic dreams have been destroyed along with their belongings. **Ashes to Films** is here to make sure that doesn’t happen. Through direct funding, mentorship, and an annual festival, we give filmmakers the opportunity to reclaim their voice, tell their stories, and prove that creativity doesn’t have to die in disaster—it can thrive.

- Shiloh Strong (Founder of Ashes To Films)

Ashes to Films

Supporting sustainable innovation in opera and dance.

Do you believe that artistic innovation and creativity have the power to change the world?

Opera and dance are an important part of our cultural heritage that have stood the test of time. These interdisciplinary art forms play a unique role in making our world a better place, because they engage our hearts and inspire our minds.

Our philanthropic community supports and encourages  the next generation of emerging talent, artistic experimentation and international collaboration.  We help make innovative artistic work accessible to all while fostering intercultural dialogue and social integration through the arts.

The FEDORA network federates 105 opera houses, festivals, dance companies  and friends associations in 28 countries, as well as individual, corporate donors and foundations to create a sustainable ecosystem between the cultural and economic sectors guaranteeing the future of opera and dance. This European platform supports innovation on, but also behind and beyond the stage through its two funding programmes, the FEDORA Prizes Biennale and the Next Stage initiative.

Together, we can reimagine opera and dance for the 21st century.
Join us and let's shape the future now!

The non-profit organization FEDORA is based at the Palais Garnier in Paris and is organizing the largest opera and dance competition in the world. It is co-financed by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Commission and by an international community of private philanthropists.

With a donation to FEDORA US Fund you will contribute to:

1. The FEDORA Prizes Biennale: support innovation on stage   

"The largest competition for ballet and opera in the world." Das Erste - Europamagazin, 2019

The FEDORA Prizes Biennale match cutting-edge innovative projects with international funding opportunities enabling the unexpected to reach the stage. Every year, FEDORA awards privately-funding prizes to new operas, dance as well as to education and digital artistic projects.

FEDORA has a decade of impact in the sector with:

4 prizes categories  (FEDORA Opera Prize, FEDORA - VAN CLEEF & ARPELS Prize for Dance, FEDORA Education Prize,  FEDORA Digital Prize)
€ 6.5 million public and private funds raised for new creations
75 new co-productions financially supported
+2,000 artists & creatives involved in the FEDORA Prizes winning projects
+500,000  spectators of performances of winning projects in 25 countries including more than 200,000 young people
+50%  of users of our platform are between 18 and 44 years old
+95,000  public votes on our Platform since 2018

Click here to discover the trailer of the FEDORA Prizes Biennale 2022-2023: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMgupsoMwac

2. The Next Stage Initiative: innovation behind and beyond the stage 

In 2021, FEDORA and Opera Europa launched  the Next Stage Initiative  to trigger change and recovery in the opera and dance field as a response to the shock of the pandemic on the sector. This initiative provides financial support and skills development to boost innovation through sustainability, inclusivity, and digital transformation.

The Next Stage Grants financially support projects that help create new industry standards and opportunities. Moreover, through the Next Stage Forums, professional development and trainings will be provided to management and artistic teams to boost knowledge sharing and peer-learning.  The first five recipients of the first edition of the Next Stage Grants were awarded this year. These transformative projects in the fields of opera and dance will drive innovation through sustainability, inclusivity and digital transformation. They involve 13 cultural organisations in 9 countries in Europe and were awarded €250,000, thanks to the support of a private foundation.

Click on this link to listen to opera professionals around Europe describing the Next Stage manifesto : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4YEf_aa6_4

Contact us for more information and to discuss Major Gifts

Justine Touchon
Members & Development Manager
justine.touchon@fedora-circle.com

Tel. +33 6 50 74 77 62

FEDORA
Palais Garnier
8, rue Scribe
75009 Paris
France

FEDORA - The European Circle of Philanthropists of Opera and Ballet

We cultivate students' creativity and grow mutual empathy as building blocks for a peaceful, prosperous, and sustainable future.

We focus on what matters most to children: How they view themselves. We employ the arts as a dynamic activity for holistic identity development. For personal betterment, we inspire students to reframe their identity as “artist athletes;” for social betterment, we motivate them to become “creative empaths.” 

**1. Arts Olympiad**
Our free-of-charge school art program transforms self-identity for higher-order thinking and enhanced self-worth through fostering creativity and promoting physical activity to counter the epidemic of declining creativity and rising obesity.

The Arts Olympiad introduces students to the "Artist-Athlete Ideal" of the creative mind and a healthy body (*mente sana in corpo sano*). The coalescing of artistic and athletic mindsets sprouts outside-the-box thinking and instills healthy lifestyles.

Because of the program's national significance, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee has granted ICAF an exclusive license to use the "Arts Olympiad" mark.

**2. World Children's Festival**
The Arts Olympiad school art contest winners from the participating U.S. school districts and countries convene at their World Children's Festival (WCF) to celebrate the American values of Creativity, Diversity, and Unity.

The WCF workshops, training, and activities are designed to provide a transformative experience that infuses children's creativity with empathy, inspiring them to become "creative empaths" who can work together to make the world a better place.

**3.ChildArt Magazine**
Objective: Creative and empathic development of young readers. Published ad-free since 1998, ChildArt is a unique magazine focusing on a single theme for each issue. Recent themes include Creativity, Human Security, Young Leaders, The Power of Words, Mindfulness, Metaverse, Animal Art, and Dance.

**4. Special Programs**
ICAF conducts Healing Art Programs to restore faith in nature of child victims of natural disasters and Peace through Art Programs to revive trust in humanity of children in conflict zones.  

**Impact**
Over the past twenty-five years, ICAF has changed the world for children. More than five million schoolchildren have benefited from ICAF's free-of-charge programs. An estimated two million students, parents, and teachers have attended ICAF festivals, exhibitions, and conferences in over twenty major cities worldwide. ChildArt Quarterly’s readership has grown to about 220,000.

**Funding**
Recent supporters include the National Endowment of the Art, D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, Robert J. Bauer Family Foundation, Cretors Family Foundation, Skillman Foundation, Singing Field Foundation, and Ward & MM Family Fund.

Individual donors fund about one-half of ICAF program expenses. ICAF is independently ranked among the 25 Top Children's Charities in the United States.

ICAF is currently raising funds to organize the 7th World Children's Festival at the National Mall across the U.S. Capitol. We appreciate your support.

International Child Art Foundation

Atlantic Symphony Orchestra is a professional regional orchestra on Boston’s South Shore, under the baton of Maestro Jin Kim, 

Atlantic Symphony Orchestra

Friends of the Somerset County Library is a New Jersey nonprofit organization.

The **Friends of the Somerset County Library**, also known as **the Friends of the Bridgewater Library**, is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping the library make information and knowledge accessible to the communities it serves. The organization purchases special materials, enhances the library environment, and sponsors numerous programs throughout the year. Our funds are generated by book sales and donations.

Friends of the Somerset County Library

We work to advance a new generation of Earth-centered laws for the planet, including through the Rights of Nature.

Earth Law Center works to advance Earth-centered ("ecocentric") laws and movements that respect and protect all life on the planet. "Earth law" movements we engage in include the Rights of Nature, rights of future generations, human environmental rights, legal guardianships of Nature, animal rights, and others. 

We work in 40+ countries, spanning national governments to sovereign Indigenous Peoples to local communities. Our team of experts reimagines the law so it represents all life, not only humans.

**Learn more at www.earthlawcenter.org** 

Earth Law Center

At LPTM, Black and Brown boys express themselves; navigate life challenges; mentor their peers; and transform their communities.

Life Pieces To Masterpieces (LPTM) provides opportunities for Black and Brown boys and young men ages 3-25 to express themselves; navigate the challenges in their lives; teach and uplift others as mentors; and contribute positively to their communities. 

Boys enter the program as early as age three, with programming including a daily afterschool arts and education mentoring program from 3:00-7:00, which involves transportation and a meal, a college- and career-prep Saturday Academy for high school young men who also serve as mentors, a full-day six-week summer program, and family and community engagement. All programs are free for all youth and families. 

In all programs, LPTM provides an environment of love, security, and expression. Black boys and young men, from pre-school to grad-school and beyond, discover their authentic selves; awaken to a sense of purpose; have their brilliance and humanity valued and nurtured – and see themselves as the beautiful Masterpieces they are. In their artwork, advocacy, and model of mentorship, our Black boys and young men are protagonists of positive change.

Life Pieces To Masterpieces

Inspiring emerging opera singers to achieve their full artistic potential through world class training programs and performances. 

Classic Lyric Arts Inc

Mystic Arts Foundation's mission is to support artists across different disciplines who exhibit exceptional talent and creativity.

Mystic Arts Foundation is growing its base of artists and artist groups who are doing exceptional work that creates the opportunity for transformation. Any medium can be utilized to achieve an immersive, interactive, large-scale work of art and technology whether that be physical, aural, or visualization, and, of course, combinations of all 3 and beyond.

By meeting these artists and deciding to gift them some funding, you are participating in the Radical Collaboration of creating art together because your funding pays for supplies, transport, life support, and other things we still use money to pay for.  Someday we will evolve into the de-commodified Gift Economy, however, until then we greatly appreciate your consideration, generosity, and willingness to amplify this message for all in the Grand Playa.

ARTology ALL-STARS

We are driven by a single goal to do our part to make the world better. Community Resource Hub for the Community  and Nonprofits 

Provide Community Resources & Awareness for Seniors, Children, Veterans, Homeless Outreach, Disaster Relief, Donation Hub. Help Victims and Survivors of Domestic Violence and Human Trafficking Families and juveniles with support services for Restoring their lives. International partnerships in sports and schools and supplies

Currently rehabbing shopping center into Resilience hub of nonprofits and need sponsors and donors of 100000 sq ft building

Collaborating Voices Foundation

A grassroots Cambodian theatre group, dedicated to the inclusion of marginalised people and unheard voices.

**Our vision:**
An unheard voice at the centre of every theatre performance in Cambodia.

**Our mission:**
To expand opportunities to create, perform, witness and participate in theatre that explores personal stories and experiences from Cambodian society.

**About LKO:**
Lakhon Komnit Organization (LKO) is a grassroots Cambodian theatre group, dedicated to the inclusion of marginalised people and unheard voices. *Lakhon Komnit* means “Thinking Theatre” in Khmer language: our work encourages people to reflect on reality, to think deeply, and to practice making positive change. We have seen how this equips people with the knowledge and skills that enable them to improve their own lives.

Founded as an informal theatre group in 2017, LKO became a registered NGO in 2019 (Registration Number: 9605 ប្រក).

**Our approach:**
From our base in Battambang, we run workshops, projects and performances which engage marginalised people as participants, creators, performers and audience members:

- **THEATRE FOR EMPOWERMENT: tackling violence against women and girls**
Our Women's Group are survivors of domestic violence who trained with us and now engage communities through performances and participatory workshops. They empower women and girls who are vulnerable to Gender-Based Violence with knowledge about their Rights and opportunities to connect with fellow victims and survivors. Simultaneously, they offer non-judgemental spaces for men to gain critical awareness of the role gender norms play in perpetuating abuse, and offer a safe space to reflect on their own behaviour and future ambitions.

- **THEATRE FOR PEACEBUILDING AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION: training programs** 
After a successful pilot program in 2024, we are now ready to roll out a training series targeting Cambodian youth (19-30) in using theatre to explore conflict and resolution. By offering space for the participants to identify their own issues of concern and supporting them to represent their experiences through theatre, we aim to engage and up-skill the next generation of practitioners of theatre for change.

- **THEATRE FOR PROBLEM SOLVING: bespoke performance creation and touring**
Working as an implementing partner to international NGOs, we create compelling theatre to engage at-risk communities on a variety of development themes. We have partnered, to name a few, with Mines Advisory Group to tackle the dangers of landmines and other unexploded remnants of war, with Samaritan's Purse to address human trafficking, and with Oxfam in Cambodia on a variety of gender disparity and social exclusion issues. Our team of experienced performers are all from disadvantaged backgrounds themselves, making them well-placed to engage marginalised audiences in reflection and discussion about what they are facing and how they would like it to change. We perform in non-conventional theatre spaces: on the roadside in remote villages, in school playgrounds, addiction rehabilitation centres and pagodas.

- **TRAINING OF TRAINERS**
We offer bespoke training packages for those in or recently moving into community-facing roles, such as: de-miners, teachers, social workers, and various NGO front-line staff. Through 1-3 day courses, we support them to reflect on, adapt and refresh established training curriculum material, to acquire skills for designing and facilitating participatory learning, and to gain the confidence required to apply these dynamic approaches in the course of their work.

*Your support enables LKO to continue our work to build a more inclusive social and artistic future for everyone, ensuring that the development of Cambodian theatre leaves no one behind.*

Lakhon Komnit Organization

Boston Landmarks Orchestra builds community through great music.

Boston Landmarks Orchestra

Know Theatre is Cincinnati's Theatrical Playground. Let's Play.

Know Theatre is Cincinnati’s Theatrical Playground. The Know showcases unexpected voices, new works, and plays that embrace the inherent theatricality of the live experience. Know Theatre seeks to be a place where artists and audiences feel welcome to take artistic risks, creating work that is cutting edge and accessible.

We envision a theatre that elevates underserved voices; has a commitment to gender parity, diversity and inclusion in the playwrights it produces and artists it employs; that creates a welcoming space in which to wrestle with challenging ideas; that is accessible for everyone regardless of economic circumstances; and that pays artists a living wage for the work that they create.

We envision a theatre that can change the world.



Know Theatre of Cincinnati

We are a company of immigrants that are dedicated to passionate, imaginative storytelling and new forms of theater.

ABOUT ARLEKIN

Arlekin Players Theatre, founded by Artistic Director Igor Golyak in 2009, is an artist­-driven company created with and for immigrant actors from the former Soviet Union. For over a decade, we have told powerful stories and invented new forms of theater in both Russian and English, working to build vital connections and create shared human experience. We take special pride in exploring questions of self-identity and working on productions that play on the ideas of culture, identity, home, tradition, the idea of nationality, finding common themes that unite us all.

During our first ten years, Arlekin was invited numerous times to perform on the world-famous stage of the Moscow Art Theatre and at international festivals including the prestigious Mondial du Théâtre in Monaco. During our 10th Anniversary Season, we received a sweep of Boston’s Elliot Norton Awards, including Best Production, Best Designer, Best Actress and Best Director, with a ceremony watched on Zoom due to the sudden closures of COVID. During the pandemic, while mosts theaters worldwide were shuttered, we wasted no time in transforming our small theater into the Zero Gravity (zero-G) Virtual Theater Lab, developing a new genre and producing two international virtual theater productions, State vs Natasha Banina and chekhovOS /an experimental game/, which featured Obie winner Jessica Hecht as Ranevskaya and Mikhail Baryshnikov as Anton Chekhov. These productions went viral, catapulting Arlekin onto the international stage, receiving international attention (with audiences in over 40 countries) and receiving rave press, including two New York Times Critic's Picks. This work has positioned Arlekin and our founder, Igor Golyak, as innovators and international leaders in the virtual theater movement. 

We remain committed to connecting in new ways, creating meaningful, groundbreaking artistic productions, and continually reinventing what theater is for our community in Boston and for an increasing audience across the globe.  

Arlekin Players Theatre

We are the only continuously active professional opera company on the African continent. 

Celebrating 25 years in 2024, Cape Town Opera's vision is to sustainably produce opera of the highest artistic standard, thereby safeguarding opera as part of South Africa’s cultural heritage and providing an aspirational internationally recognized and enduring platform for Africa’s world-class singing and creative talent.

The organization's schedule features a diverse and thrilling repertoire, encompassing opera, operetta, and musicals. It is dedicated to providing unparalleled skills development and hands-on training to aspiring young artists from various regions in the country. Cape Town Opera’s 2024 programming will be balanced and strategic, with a stellar line-up of singers for onstage operas in theatre and unconventional stages.

Equally important are our Youth Development and Education program. We continue to invest in our youth and ensure that they have the opportunity to pursue professional careers in the performing arts.

Cape Town Opera 

The Brooklyn Orchestra is a symphonic ensemble dedicated to expanding the orchestral music repertoire and audience.

The Brooklyn Orchestra is a symphonic ensemble dedicated to new music, striving to focus on contemporary composers. Founded by composer/conductor Olivier Glissant, the group was conceived to fuse genres of music that rarely meet on the classical stage and to bring music from multiple cultures to the orchestral repertoire, in an effort to make symphonic music accessible to a wider and more diverse audience.

Since our creation in 2015 we have fought to achieve our mission of diversifying the orchestral and operatic stage and bringing modern works from different cultures to the classical mainstream, and have presented several new creations including multiple premieres, as we focus mainly on active composers.

Our 2023 Fall season included the World Premiere of artistic director Olivier Glissant's ballet LADJA featuring Yannick Lebrun, lead dancer for the Alvin Ailey Dance Company, as well as a World Premiere and New York Premiere of Philip Glass's SYMPHONY No. 14 (in the presence of the composer) and Aguas da Amazonia, arranged by Olivier Glissant.

We are also developing educational programming and creating performing arts workshops for children that will provide exposure to opera, orchestral music and ballet in order to encourage creativity, experimentation and a collaborative spirit.

We believe in education above all and in the importance of the Arts. Children are welcome to all our events for free, and will always have some time reserved for direct interaction with the musicians of the orchestra (and their instruments!). Our first regular series, SYMPHONIC SUNDAYS, takes place at the Old Stone House in Brooklyn on the first Sunday of every month.

Finally, part of the orchestra's mission is to create a community and make culture available to all. We are dedicated to increasing the artistic offerings of Brooklyn. To that effect we are creating outdoor summer concerts that will include film and live music, opera performances and more.

Brooklyn Orchestra Society Inc

Transforms lives by restoring, expanding, and innovating music education in our schools.

Music education changes lives, but only those of the students it reaches.

Sometimes it doesn’t reach students because their school has no teacher or instruments. Sometimes it doesn’t reach them because they can’t see a connection between their music program and music they know and love. Music Will removes these barriers.

We help schools build music programs that are as diverse as the students they serve. Programs that are innovative, inclusive, and culturally meaningful to students . We’ve served over 1,200,000 K-12 students across the country. We know the lifelong benefits that music can bring to students. Our work is to make sure that music will.

Music Will

São Paulo-based Ilumina is writing a new narrative for 21st-century music-making and artist development.

**ILUMINA**
**From farm to stage and to the world, Ilumina creates bridges that change the flow of talent around the globe.** 

A diverse community of artists and thinkers with a transformative social mission, Ilumina is writing a new narrative for 21st-century music-making, where worthy talent gets an equal chance to shine, no matter where they come from.

Violist and director **Jennifer Stumm** founded Ilumina on a coffee farm in Brazil in 2015. Its creator-led model unites young artists from diverse origins with global leaders in the field, develops new leaders by opening doors to top quality education, and builds lasting community, all while bringing joy to the world stage. Already, nearly 150 young artists from Ilumina projects have embarked upon performing careers, having attended world-leading conservatories at a 96% acceptance rate. Thousands more benefit from Ilumina’s digital education projects. Artists in the Ilumina community include **Christian Poltera**, **Paul Lewis**, **Liza Ferschtman**, **Tai Murray**, **Anthony Marwood**, **Julian Steckel**, **Boris Brovtsyn**, the **Danish Quartet** and many more, who commit their time to amplify opportunity for young people from very different backgrounds.

Ilumina performances immerse listeners in diverse musical worlds, radically fueled by the freshness of cultural exchange and the power of community, whether in a warehouse, on a farm, or in one of the legendary concert halls of the world. Internationally, Ilumina made a highly lauded **Lucerne Festival debut in 2022**, followed by invitations around the world. In 2024, it became the first Brazilian ensemble to have a **full residency at the Edinburgh International Festival**, made its large hall debut in the **Concertgebouw Amsterdam**, toured in Germany, Austria and Italy and will release its debut album, “Transfigurada,” recorded at the Grafenegg Festival. On September 26, 2024, the prestigious **Kronberg Academy** (Germany) awarded Jennifer Stumm the **Pablo Casals Award - For a Better World** in recognition for her visionary work in cultivating worthy talent from Latin America through Ilumina.

The annual Ilumina Festival every January in São Paulo is firmly established as one of the most significant and innovative music festivals in Latin America, with a majority of its large audience coming from urban and agricultural peripheries and hearing classical music for the first time. Ilumina is a sought-after creator of new festivals, having replicated its innovative model in Austria, Bolivia and Bahia, and, in 2024 it will build its newest musical immersion in the mountains above Bogotá, Colombia.

Since 2019 Jennifer Stumm has regularly spoken at NASA about how thinking like an artist inspires solutions for the world’s grand challenges. Moreover, there has been much interest in Ilumina’s model of efficient musical and social development. During the global pandemic, Ilumina’s digital project, “Equal Music,” united 1,000 musicians around the world to offer private lessons for those who lack access to arts education, leading to multiple full scholarships to universities for its young participants. In 2022 it launched “ECO,” in partnership with the pioneering sustainable coffee farm Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza, connecting music and sustainability and democratizing access in agricultural communities to quality of life in all forms.


**The Philosophy of Ilumina**
by Jennifer Stumm, Founder and CEO of Ilumina

The source of Ilumina’s creative energy, where it all began, is a sustainable coffee farm in Brazil’s Atlantic Rainforest. Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza is a magical place teeming with life, where every organism resonates, from giant trees to tiny hummingbirds. You change one tiny detail, and the entire system evolves, for better or for worse. Just like the farm, Ilumina is an ecosystem. When I founded the project in 2015, first as a grassroots festival project, the dream was to build a new kind of global community of artists and thinkers, driven by social ideals, where people from very different backgrounds inspire and help each other, leaving traditional hierarchies behind and building powerful new creative paths. From the very start, when we were playing a few concerts in a sawmill for farm workers, we could feel something transformative happening between us.

My grandmother, a self-taught pianist with an ear far better than mine, had no chance to study music as a Cherokee person in depression-era Appalachia. The only difference between her story and mine is that I had the chance to be heard. The reality of global inequity is that everywhere in the world there are talented and brilliant people with ideas, creative solutions and unique voices but the vast majority of them are not heard in the halls of power. We at Ilumina believe that talent does not choose where it is born. If we want greater equity and diversity in the world, and the world of music, there must be equity and diversity in the process of creation. That means looking honestly at the intrinsic barriers that keep diverse voices from the mainstream, how systems and traditions can be full of inequities, even with the best of intentions. For example, in classical music it is assumed that a violinist must start playing as a small child to be successful. But a large number of Ilumina musicians start playing in their teens and within a few years are accepted to study at top conservatoires.

Education, sustainability, community, equity, world-class performance and boundary-shifting creativity —these elements of our universe enrich and depend on each other. We don’t prioritize one over the other but view interdependence as proof of a healthy cultural ecosystem. We don’t see concerts on big stages as more important than education and community. A young artist might come to the Ilumina Festival for a couple of years or participate in digital lessons, receive support and a scholarship to study at a great conservatoire, and years later perform on tour as part of our artist collective. Further down the line, they might build their own collective or social project and invest onwards in new communities. Or an established artist might come to our festival or perform on tour with us and make friends with people they never would have otherwise, gaining new perspectives on social and educational inequality, and perhaps ultimately changing the way they view and value audiences. They might start to make different creative decisions, pick up the phone for people who might not have equal access, or notice who is sitting at the tables of power.

On stage, we think diversity is something you should hear. An Ilumina rehearsal might begin with freestyle Brazilian funk dance while improvising on a Baroque bass line but could equally dive so deep into a Ludwig van Beethoven score that we spend an hour working our way into the rhythmic identity of a few bars of music. We use movement and rhythm as connectors, a way to read each other on stage, to stretch our emotional vulnerability and flexibility. Our collective is a rich mix of humans with strong points of view and individual talents, and we lean into the inspiration and friction born from that. We try not to fear looking deeply at hard things. And while for sure there is joy in performing on the world’s big stages, the heart of Ilumina will always be our community. Artists, thinkers, agricultural workers, the amazing people who work on the farm and know every musician by name. Our large urban audience, who fill every seat in the biggest hall in São Paulo no matter how wild and adventurous the program. It’s human connection that powers our creativity.

Ilumina derives from the Portuguese verb ‘iluminar’, meaning ‘to enlighten’. We believe the future is multi-disciplinary and that music is a great illuminator for every other part of life. Music is language, science, emotion, history, and all the complexities of being human. It’s one of the most powerful connectors of both hemispheres of the brain, allowing us to link what we think with how we feel at the same time, to see the world and each other with deeper compassion and clarity. Just like the ecosystem of the forest, music helps us understand why the inclusion of diverse voices is not just a nice ideal but an imperative for the health of the global community. If we believe inclusion is right and true, we should expect better, more challenging and life-changing impact, on stages, in boardrooms and governments, and in ourselves.

Ilumina

The Alliance for Middle East Peace is a network of over 170 NGOs conducting peacebuilding between Israelis and Palestinians.

Alliance For Middle East Peace Inc

The Fondation des États-Unis is an American cultural center & student residence located in Paris.

The United States Foundation (Fondation des Etats-Unis or FEU) is a student residence and multicultural center located in Paris. Founded in 1930 by American philanthropists Homer and Mable Gage with a donation to the University of Paris, its primary purpose is to provide a lively home with affordable rent to young Americans studying in Paris.

Located in Paris's 14th arrondissement across from the Parc Montsouris on the eco-campus of the Cite internationale universitaire de Paris (CiuP), the Foundation is housed in an 8000 square-meter art deco building designed by Pierre Leprince-Ringuet. The frescoes on the walls of its Grand Salon, by painter Robert La Montagne Saint-Hubert, are listed as a historic monument and can be visited by the public during European Heritage Days in September.

To fulfill its public-interest mission, the Foundation presents projects throughout the year that are led by its residents, alumni, its own Harriet Hale Woolley Fellowship artists, and other companies in artistic residence. As a non-profit organization, its concerts, exhibits, workshops, conferences, and performances are open to the general public free of charge. Each year, thanks to the center's grants and its partnership with the Fulbright Program, a new generation can learn and grow at the United States Foundation.

The Foundation's mission is to strengthen the exchange and cooperation between France and the United States through education and culture. It provides an intercultural environment ideal for shaping global citizens with the humanist values needed to build a better world.

[Learn More](https://www.fondationdesetatsunis.org)

Fondation des Etats-Unis

Bringing music across the planet to those who need it most. Can music change the world? We believe it can.

Keys of Change is a charity formed by individuals who deeply believe that playing music can make this world a better place. Keys of Change aims to advance the lives of children and young people around the world through musical education and access to live classical music performances. The charity was set up in early 2011 by the international concert pianist Panos Karan, who works with three other trustees, all involved in music and/or education, and a growing number of committed volunteers in many countries.  ​ Over the past years, Keys of Change has brought classical music, often for the first time, to deprived or suffering audiences, in remote areas of the Amazon basin, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Kolkata and the tsunami-ravaged Fukushima area in Japan, as well as in Greece, Russia and London. Our music has brought alive emotions - fascination, happiness, tears of sadness – and generated hope and encouragement.  Wherever we go to perform, we also set up and fund musical education projects, working in conjunction with local music teachers. In Ecuador, we organise weekly guitar lessons for young people from deprived backgrounds. In Uganda and Sierra Leone, we have provided instruments and music lessons. In Fukushima and India, we have made regular visits to work with young musicians to improve their playing, and give them the opportunity to perform in joint concerts with Keys of Change musicians. In the case of Fukushima this culminated in the founding of the Fukushima Youth Sinfonietta, and organising for up to 50 young Japanese musicians to travel to London, to give a concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in April 2014, to Tokyo, performing at Tokyo Opera City in August 2015, and Symphony Hall, Boston, in April 2016.

Keys of Change

The largest cultural institution in Switzerland, enjoying a high reputation far beyond the country’s borders. 

With over 300 events annually – opera, ballet, classical concerts, recitals – the Zurich Opera House is one of the most productive and renowned cultural venues in Europe. Each season the Zurich Opera House features numerous opera and ballet (world) premieres such as classical concerts and attractive revivals presenting casts with the best singers from all over the world.

The Zurich Opera House is home of the Ballet Zurich and the Orchestra of the Zurich Opera.

Donations are critical to the AFZOH’s success in achieving its ambitious goals on behalf of the Zurich Opera House. This includes among others tours and guest performances in the US, young artist exchanges between Switzerland and the US and the support of young American artists in Switzerland (education program).

The AFZOH is a not-for-profit organization that raises visibility, expands appreciation and provides support for the Zurich Opera House.

American Friends of the Zurich Opera House (AFZOH)

Revolutionizing classical music education by bringing world-class piano lessons to new urban environments

Keys 2 Success was founded by Jee-Hoon Krska, a Juilliard-trained classical musician with a doctorate in Electrical Engineering from MIT.  Launched in 2016 with 12 students at a single Newark public school, Keys 2 Success now teach over 150 student in public housing, gardens, parks, and churches all around Newark. 

Keys 2 Success

A unique, cutting-edge, and ecologically sensitive multi-media art space and cultural ecosystem in Uganda.

Since its inception in 2006, Bayimba has been working towards the sustainability of its programming that has shaped Uganda’s cultural landscape and influenced a vibrant creative industry within the East African region. Championing platforms like the Bayimba International Festival, the Kampala International Theatre Festival, Amakula International Film Festival and DOADOA: a regional network of professional stakeholders. Over the years, more than 5,000 artists have shared stage at the Bayimba events, and more than 15,000 industry professionals have been skilled for the market through the Bayimba Academy.

Through its hard work, careful saving and individual givers – the organisation managed to acquire Lunkulu Island - a leafy 92-acre semi-attached island in the midst of a lush environment at the shores of Lake Victoria in Mukono and Buikwe districts, with an idea of developing it to become a cutting-edge multi-media arts centre that uniquely serves the creative community from across the globe. 

From 2018, Lunkulu Island purposely accommodates Bayimba’s growing annual festivals and events, contributing to the long-term sustainability of Uganda’s creative arts. The development of physical structures is deemed necessary to further provide artists with a holistic safe-space that will enhance innovation, collaboration and creative development in East Africa. With a combined community of all mediums of art, professionally presented in one space where visitors can get a comprehensive artistic experience, creating jobs for the youth, preserving the local culture to a year-round tourism eco-system – the Bayimba Centre will be a hotspot for entrepreneurs where art, culture, and sustainability intersect—a place where creativity knows no bounds. 

But we can't do it alone. We need your support to make this vision a reality. Join us with a donation in building a brighter future for Uganda—where creativity, sustainability, and community thrive – so that together, we can create something truly extraordinary.

Bayimba Cultural Foundation Limited

Inspiring children of all ages to reach their full potential.

We help children build confidence, character, and creativity through our unique music and theater productions while instilling the value of community outreach and philanthropy.

The heart of the PPF is about giving back to those in need, our community, and the world while also enriching the lives of our participants through music and theater.

Participants in our various productions learn confidence, creativity, empathy, and how to help others. All the while, becoming part of a loving and supportive environment; one that helps foster positive self-image and lifelong friendships.

Peter Pan Foundation

Tuition-free music lessons and mentorship by paid professional artists for youth in under-resourced communities across the USA. 

ArtSmart transforms the lives of youth in under-resourced communities across the U.S. through tuition-free music lessons and mentorship by paid, professional artists. Its music mentorship framework is designed to provide youth a pathway to academic, economic, and emotional stability by harnessing the proven cognitive and social-emotional benefits of these opportunities. ArtSmart empowers its students to succeed in all facets of life by equipping them with the tools and meaningful relationships critical to their creative, personal, and educational growth.

Through weekly one-to-one and small group sessions over a school year, ArtSmart students receive instruction and mentorship from professional musicians. Using an evidence-based curriculum, ArtSmart teaching artists, titled the Maria Manetti Shrem Mentors, work with their students to set goals, learn music, develop a healthy self-esteem and ultimately, chart a course for the rest of their lives.

Committed to measuring its impact, in 2023 ArtSmart concluded a two-year longitudinal study in partnership with the WCG Institutional Review Board. The study showed a causal link between ArtSmart participation and increased plans to attend college, having a meaningful connection with an adult, and having an adult to talk to when stressed or having problems.

Key findings showed the ArtSmart programs achieved their intended impact and had a transformative effect on student outcomes beyond learning music. One of the most positive correlations from the study is around interest to attend school: ArtSmart students are 3.6 times more excited to go to school on their lesson days than on an average school day. When students are excited to come to class, they are more likely to be engaged in their learning. Not only does this encourage participation and critical thinking, it also creates a more positive learning environment.

Learn more at [www.artsmart.org](http://www.artsmart.org/). 

ArtSmart

VOENA is a nonprofit organization based in Benicia, CA since 1994, with a world renowned children's choir. 

**VOENA Children’s Choir** is a professional program, unique because of its no-audition policy. VOENA teaches children ages 5-18 ethnically diverse music, instilling in them an appreciation and enthusiasm for different languages and cultures while cultivating, what director Annabelle Marie calls, the VOENA BIG 3: 1) accept the challenge, 2) be self-motivated, and 3) embrace an ethic for hard work. VOENA participants learn to think beyond borders while singing music from many countries, all in the native language, promoting peace through the exchange of culture. Through international tours, our child ambassadors celebrate diversity abroad, performing cultural songs specific to each country visited, giving value to our differences.

VOENA

Founder & Artistic Director, Anthony M. Laura, is a filmmaker & published playwright known for writing, producing, and directing.

Duality tells the story of Camilla Knightley who, while throwing a 75th birthday party for her grandmother, is forced to come to terms with a decade old trauma in the midst of a family gathering.

​Duality is the final part in Anthony M. Laura's memory trilogy.

The previous two installments, The Girl with the Red Hair and Shadows, premiered in 2022 and 2023, respectively.​​

​Your support for this project is vital to producing strong, important, independent theater.  Ticket sales alone are not enough to meet the real costs involved with writing, casting, rehearsal, theater rental, stagecraft, and performance.  Donors are so important to the growth of the immersive and transformational art form of live theater.  Your gift consideration is greatly appreciated.

By giving to this project you participate in empowering the direct emotional impact and personal entertainment value only possible through live stage dramatic performance in a theater and know that it matters.

Give today.

Duality: The Play

Our programs help young performing artists bridge the gap from university training to careers in opera and musical theatre.

Music Theater Bavaria (DBA Musiktheater Bavaria) is a Florida-based nonprofit devoted to performing arts education for emerging professional opera and musical theatre performers between the ages of 19 and 30. Students from throughout the United States (singers, dancers, and pianists) are competitively selected for our summer study-abroad program in Germany, where they train intensively for one month with world-class international faculty and perform in public concerts in either our Opera Studio or our Musical Theater Studio.

Our programs offer our students practical career training beyond what is provided in even very fine university and conservatory music and theater degree programs, giving them an extra edge that can make a difference in successfully launching their professional careers, introducing them to international opportunities they may have never dreamed exist, and providing the maturing effect of studying side by side with other highly talented colleagues from throughout the U.S. who are serious about learning how to compete in a tough business where their talent alone does not guarantee a career.

Need-based scholarship funding is a very important part of our mission, as the per-student cost of our month-long program in Germany (including room and board) is about $6,000. Our ability to offer scholarships is wholly dependent on donations to our scholarship fund. Donations to Musiktheater Bavaria through every.org will directly and personally benefit young performing artists, helping us to ensure that top applicants from all economic backgrounds can access these transformative opportunities for career-building and personal growth. Each summer our scholarship fund starts anew from zero, as each year we have awarded all the funds we have raised. Your gift is a gift of access to a highly talented student who could not otherwise dream of enrolling in our program.

Music Theater Bavaria Inc

The Dream Day Foundation is dedicated to funding and supporting music and arts programs in refugee camps around the world. 

Of the 108.4 million forcibly displaced people, an estimated 43.3 million are children below 18 years of age.

**YOUNG REFUGEES FACE CHALLENGES, INCLUDING HOMESICKNESS, CULTURE SHOCK, UNEMPLOYMENT, RACISM AND DISCRIMINATION.**

These can lead them become disengaged and socially isolated, with long-term consequences for their success and wellbeing. For these young people, the Arts can provide a means to express repressed emotions, confront painful memories and transcend daily hardship.

Dream Day Foundation (Jordan)

Coeurage Ensemble is LA's only Pay What You Want Theatre Company.  It received its nonprofit status in 2012.

Coeurage was founded in the fall of 2009, when 12 graduates from California State University, Fullerton met in the back of a pie shop to form a theatre company. **Our philosophy was simple: the cost of a ticket should never prevent anyone from seeing high quality theatre in Los Angeles.** With our Pay What You Want ticketing model in place, we produced our first piece in early 2010, an original series of monologues written for an all female cast titled “Head Over Heels.” The late Steve Julian attended and wrote a widely shared article with the headline, **"Six people see Head over Heels, millions show no Coeurage."** The writeup, which lauded our work while lamenting small LA theatre houses, helped put us on the map, and our attendance rose to a rare level of consistency amongst LA's intimate theatre scene.


We would have never conceived that the work we originally produced out of garages and now- condemned buildings could ultimately lead us to acclaim in **American Theatre Magazine** and a slot in the mainstage season at **Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre, where Coeurage was awarded the inaugural production of their Block Party program.** 

During the pandemic we were forced to pivot and create art in a different way. ***The Nomad Project*** was launched!  **The ongoing project currently has ten different stories based at specific coordinates around Los Angeles**, using existing locations as inspiration for fully produced aural journeys. Audiences can experience them in-person, on-the-go, or from the comfort of home. You can listen here: [https://www.coeurage.org/nomad-project](https://www.coeurage.org/nomad-project)

Our 2022 productions of RENT by Jonathan Larson, had a cast consciously composed largely with queer and Latinx representation, and a predominantly female-identifying production team. We brought on an EDI consultant for the casting process as well as throughout the entire process. Having her at casting was game-changing and we will continue this practice. And we consciously hired a woman of color to direct a play by a white man. Their contributions to the depth and richness of storytelling were invaluable to both Coeurage Ensemble as an organization and to our audiences. We were sold out by the end of opening night, and were running a waitlist throughout. 


Our 2023 production of FROZEN FLUID by Fly Jamerson was cast entirely with actors who identify as trans or nonbinary. Our partnership with The Los Angeles LGBT Center for this production allowed us to engage directly with the Center's extensive queer and trans community, expanding our Coeurage community and offering greater access to live theater with our Pay What You Want ticket model. We were able to tell a story that had not yet been told in Los Angeles, where stories of the trans, nonbinary experience tend to be grounded in Realism. By presenting Fly’s poetry-driven script, we reached folks in a heartspace. We are incredibly proud of the impact the piece had on our audiences. One (cis-gender male) reviewer wrote, “I’m grateful to Coeurage Ensemble and the Los Angeles LGBT Center for putting this play on. What’s the point of going to the theater if all it does is affirm our values rather than challenge them? To its profound credit, there’s nothing pedantic about this play, and even less so about this playful production. The production is an earnest attempt to figure something out, a noble impulse, and, for this audience member, it offered an invite to do the same.”

Coeurage Theatre Company

Hollywood Vocal Foundation is dedicated to the expansion and enrichment of vocal music education. 

Our mission is to develop and unite the next generation of vocal powerhouses to succeed through stellar education and unwavering mentorship.

**Once an artist has been accepted to the Conservatory, we work with them to identify needs and give support.** Our goal is to make financial aid available to every artist in need and strive to make their educational dreams a reality.

Only 8% of families in the US can afford to send their children to college. So where does that leave the rest? 92% of families rely on loans, credit card debt, financial aid in subpar programs or a lack of education altogether.

HVS Conservatory is bridging that gap in the music world by working with artists and their families to find affordable solutions to getting the education they need to kick start their careers in this competitive industry.

It costs $33,200 a year to put an artist through our Full Time program, and only $16,600 Part Time. By making an annual or monthly tax deductible contribution, you are helping discover the next generation of vocalists who wouldn’t have the opportunity to be seen by LA’s most acclaimed professionals. And the city’s cultural landscape will continue to thrive and be admired by everyone around the world.

Every scholarship recipient has the opportunity to take classes in vocal technique, songwriting, performance, style, ear training, production, engineering, piano, guitar, branding, marketing, and basic music business. Our curriculum has been written and developed by our elite faculty with years of education and professional experience making it the most modern curriculum you will find in the marketplace.

90% of your donation money goes directly to our scholarship program, which supports the financially underserved demographic in the country. And our free community events are centered around fostering a strong culture for vocalists to be mentored, learn industry standards, get professional experience, and grow to their full potential.

By going through our program, every artist gains a music community for life.

Our renowned mentors and faculty go above and beyond to support our students on their journey. And we have access to all the major and indie record labels, major and indie producers, managers, songwriters, and recording studios LA has to offer.

By becoming a donor for this phenomenal program, you have the opportunity to volunteer, attend our events, and mentor scholarship recipients.

Transform a mega talented singer's life today and make a donation for our cause!

Hollywood Vocal Foundation

BlackStar, home of the BlackStar Film Festival, celebrates the work of Black, Brown, and Indigenous artists.

BlackStar produces year-round programs including film screenings, exhibitions, our annual film festival, a filmmaker seminar, a film production lab, and a journal of visual culture. These programs provide artists opportunities for viable strategies for collaborations with other artists, audiences, funders, and distributors.

BlackStar Projects

The International Beethoven Project, est. 2008 as a NFP, is on a mission to revolutionize the world of classical music.

​​**The International Beethoven Project (IBP) is on a mission to revolutionize the world of classical music.**

We're passionate about:

- **Celebrating Beethoven's extraordinary music and humanist legacy.**
- **Exploring new ways to present and perform classical music, inspired by Beethoven's revolutionary approach to the music world in his own time.**
- **Showcasing the most creative musical geniuses of past and present.**

**Our Vision:** By highlighting Beethoven's innovative spirit, we aim to inspire a new generation of music lovers, performers, and arts leaders. We're exploring cutting-edge approaches—from cool live events and educational programs to productions of films, recordings, digital media and even artificial intelligence—to bring classical music to life.

**Our Impact:**

- **Launched "International Beethoven Day" in 2021** to create a global movement celebrating Beethoven's enduring impact and classical music in general
- **Produced critically acclaimed recordings,** including a groundbreaking album featuring the first-ever recording of Beethoven's Trio Hess 47.
- **Created captivating music films and documentaries** that offer fresh perspectives on the classics and inspire contemporary artists.
- **Organized annual Beethoven birthday celebrations and multi-disciplinary festivals** that unite diverse art forms and musical genres since 2010
- **Pioneering explorations in web3/blockchain/metaverse/NFT and artificial intelligence** dedicated to classical music.

**Upcoming Projects:**

- **An immersive multimedia journey through Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas.** This ambitious project will feature recordings, films, contemporary interpretations and reinterpretations, readings of Beethoven's letters, and visual art. We'll share this experience globally and bring it directly to schools worldwide during the upcoming celebrations of the bicentennial of Beethoven's death in 2027.
- **Preparing an international conference** on the role and future of classical music.
- **Collaborations with other organizations** to cross-pollinate ideas.

**Join the Movement:**

Stay connected with IBP through our website and social media channels. Together, we're shaping the future of classical music for the next generations. If you're interested in joining the team in any capacity, please let us know!

And don't forget that **your support is the key to our success!**

**Visit[ www.internationalbeethovenproject.com](https://www.internationalbeethovenproject.com) to learn more.**

International Beethoven Project

AAP will put the African-American spiritual in the hearts & minds of the public as a national treasure to be enjoyed by all.

Arch Angel Productions A Nj Nonprofit Corporation

HERE builds a community that nurtures career artists as they create innovative hybrid live performance in theatre, dance, music, puppetry, media, and visual art.

HERE Arts Center

Harmony Theater is an organization focused on performing arts for people with disabilities based in southeastern PA. 

Harmony Theater

We're an arts org welcoming audiences into moments of joy, healing, and subversion. Founded in 2010; Became 501c3 in 2022. 

**The Bearded Ladies Cabaret is a queer arts organization that sits on your lap and sings you a story.** Whether it’s an opera, a home-made cabaret, a musical walking tour, or a show on a truck, we employ song, spectacle, storytelling, and heart to welcome audiences into moments of joy, healing, and subversion. Through sharing our original pieces and creating bespoke platforms for performance at home in Philadelphia, nationally, and abroad, we nurture artistic connection for a community of misfits, rabble-rousers, chanteuses and the people who love and need them. Your donation will go to support our thriving community of artists and change-makers! 

Bearded Ladies Cabaret

Celebrate and share Estonian culture in an architectural jewel in the heart of Toronto, North America's 4th largest city.

Estonian Arts Centre (EAC) is the charity associated with KESKUS International Estonian Centre being built in the heart of Toronto, North America's 4th largest city.  EAC promotes development of KESKUS in Toronto in which to further its charitable objects, and these include promotion and support of the arts, multiculturalism, preservation of literary, musical and visual arts and the welfare and education of artists. 

KESKUS will be a dynamic hub showcasing Estonian heritage and promoting Estonian innovation. It will be a vibrant gathering place for Estonians of all generations and backgrounds to connect, celebrate, and share Estonian culture and achievements with each other and the world. It is scheduled to open in the spring of 2025.

Please sign up for the monthly newsletter at our website and donate today, to help EAC achieve its mission in KESKUS.

KESKUS International Estonian Centre

The Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation carries Rachmaninoff's music, legacy and artistry out into the world from his house, Villa Senar

History: Thanks to the commitment of the Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation, discussions among the artist's heirs were successfully concluded in 2021. The Canton of Lucerne purchased the listed property and is responsible for the maintenance and renovation of the house and the surrounding park. The Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation is responsible for the programs and cultural events at Rachmaninoff's Villa Senar, wit-hout any financial support from the Canton of Lucerne. 

VILLA SENAR is the name of the artist house of the composer, conductor, pianist, Hollywood star and family man Sergei Rachmaninoff (SE=Sergei, NA=Natalia, R=Rachmaninoff). Expelled from his native Russia, the artist lived in exile in various countries from 1917 onwards. On the Hertenstein peninsula near Weggis in the canton of Lucerne, he found a new home and renewed creative energy.  



Our mission as a foundation is to create international awareness for Rachmaninoff's Villa Senar and to develop and establish its artistic program over the coming years and make an artistic contribution to the region and beyond. We want to communicate Rachmaninoff's Villa Senar as a cultural and educational center with a broad partici-pation with the highest quality standards from home. 

Rachmaninoff's Villa Senar locally and regionally and, together with partners, posi-tion the Hertenstein peninsula as a special and sustainable place of art and culture. Attention will also be paid to international activities, as the name Rachmaninoff is a global trademark. 

The magic of the place, its uniqueness and class should continue to shape the fu-ture; we always want to treat the soul of Senar and the Hertenstein peninsula near Weggis with respect. 

Performing and communicating Sergei Rachmaninoff's work at his former place of residence. His personality, his interests, his musical depth, his role models, visions, zeitgeist, curiosity for new and unusual things, enthusiasm for technology, architec-ture, literature, poetry and art form the foundation of the cultural program. 

Rachmaninoff's Villa Senar is a place of inspiration and home. The aura of this cen-ter (family home/meeting place/garden and nature) and the creative power can be experienced and experienced on site during a visit. The real presence, the quality and authenticity of the location and content, and the intensive time spent at Villa Senar make every visit unique and, in this sense, special for every visitor. 

The cultural program is designed for broad cultural participation, seeks the inter-faces to the present and enables suitable, fine, subtle, high-quality approaches for every target group. 

As an artists' residence, Villa Senar offers a home for all generations and different disciplines. Sergei Rachmaninoff was a family man and patron of all the arts, uniting art and people in his home through his charisma, his values and his interests. 



PROMOTION: Website, program sheet, word of mouth, channels of our partners, allies and sponsors, regionally via associations and public institutions, volunteers, friends and Rachmaninoff fans.

NEED: In the oversupply of leisure activities, the oversaturation of a variety of offers, a discomfort with high culture, perceived barriers and associated fears of not under-standing something in the music and culture sector, couch coziness created by Co-vid, we need new formats that convey closeness to people in a relaxed, fresh and un-conventionally conventional way. We offer a feeling of home, a sense of arrival, a kind of cultural exile within your "own four walls". 

TARGET GROUPS: The projects are tailored to specific target groups and/or are aimed at cross-generational, broad and public participation: 

Children Educational and participative projects with the Weggis music school and the music schools of the canton of Lucerne. Interdisciplinary theater, music, dance, light and sound: Gänsebliemli im Rosengarten, SENAR ARTS ACADEMY, SENARADEN im Park & Boot, Carte Jaune for the talent promotion of the Lucerne music schools

Senior citizens Cooperation with the senior citizens' universities of Lucerne, Weg-gis, Zurich, Basel, cultural associations and service clubs. 

Youth premieres and co-development of new music. Inclusion of virtual reality, augmented reality and new media. Up-to-date, close and at eye level. Sustainabi-lity programs, new regional policies for the promotion of the community. We deal with questions about the future and are committed to values and meaningfulness. 

Young adults and families SENARaden in the park or on the boat, exhibitions, sound walk, art exhibitions in the park with an out-door stage created by spatial designers for Rachmaninoff's Villa Senar. Picnic openair, barrier-free and relaxed, Celebrating Rachmaninoff Podcast in collaboration with Decca Classic and WFMT Radio Chicago, RACHMANINOFF ECHOES - The staging of Rachmanin-off's artifacts in his villa using virtual reality and augmented reality.

Afficionados and Afficionadas-To-Be concerts, residencies, master classes, workshops, public expert tours - thematically coordinated, film: The Alchemy of Piano Playing, jazz evenings, literature & music, competitions and commissioned works on Rachmaninoff.



CHANCE: Potential, unique location, curious people, Rachmaninoff's Villa Senar has not been open to the public until now, the house belongs to the Canton of Lucerne, this partnership needs to be well positioned in the long term, we start "from scratch" and can react optimally to current events, small team, manageable size of the venue, small, fine, barrier-free, approachable, potential outdoors, involvement of the region, already established partnerships and strong allies, agility through rapid decision-making and a doer mentality of the people involved, network. Rachmaninoff as a mil-lennium pianist, Hollywood star, family man, composer, conductor, promoter of the arts and mobility, speed freak, entrepreneur, architect is attractive, his music appeal-ing and is the perfect music to introduce an audience to "classical music" and open up new audiences. 



RISK: A good financial basis must be established, project-based financing, provisions should be made to enable long-term planning, partnership with the canton without a performance mandate and financial support, demands from the canton of Lucerne, few personnel resources, reliance on voluntary commitment which can also slow down processes, recruitment of voluntary work, establishment in uncertain times, consumer behavior of the public has changed, planning uncertainty.

INDICATORS regular evaluation, experts on the voluntary Board of Trustees with regular exchanges, partnerships with know-how, demanding and quality-conscious advisors/friends/network. 



NETWORKING: Rachmaninoff's Villa Senar sees itself as a networker and meeting place, with freedom for the special, the new and the tried and tested. Projects with our partners: Lucerne Festival, Lucerne Theater, Lucerne University of Applied Sci-ences and Arts - Music, Tourism, Engineering, Business, Architecture, Design & Art, Lucerne Museum of Transport, Hans Erni Museum, Weggis Music School, Lucerne Cantonal Music Schools, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, schools, Stella Matutina House of Education - House of the Future, Baldegg Monastery, Senior:inside univer-sities, IG Kultur (Freie Szene), Richard Wagner Museum, Saint Charles Hall, Künst-lerhäuser global, Library of Congress Washington, Philadelphia Orchestra, Van Pelt University Philadelphia, National Symphony Orchestra, Swiss Embassy in Washing-ton, Interessengemeinschaft Musikstadt Luzern, Zurich Opera, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Lucerne Tourism, Switzerland Tourism, artists, associations and allies, sponsors and patrons. 



The nucleus and center of the events are Rachmaninoff's Villa Senar and the park. Due to the limited space available, we also use the venues of our partners as satelli-tes. We strive for broad participation, want to connect cultural institutions via Lake Lucerne, create national attention and deepen international relationships. 



MANAGING DIRECTOR: The Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation has employed the Managing & Artistic Director, Andrea Loetscher, since June 1, 2022. As a musician with a teaching diploma and soloist diploma, a master's degree in mar-keting and management from the University of Basel, as an entrepreneur and music school director, she has local roots and a national and international network. In 2024, she will also complete an MBA in Business Development & Marketing at the Univer-sity of Basel. The Managing Director is supported in financial matters by Ludwig von Mutius, economist, financial consultant and former CFO of major international com-panies. Ludwig von Mutius makes his expertise fully available to the Serge Rachma-ninoff Foundation on a voluntary basis. In addition, the Serge Rachmaninoff Founda-tion has employed the Managing Assistant, Salome Rüttimann, on a 40% basis since 1.1.24. Volunteers for concert support, guided tours and other work. 

 Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation

MY Arts Association for Cultural Support is an interdisciplinary non-profit organization founded in 2015 by Yury Revich. The project aims to develop a new format that unites a formal classical music concert with a multidisciplinary concert incorporating other art forms, known as the "Concert of Arts."

One of the main focuses of the organization is humanitarian work through the cultural tools.

In partnership with UNICEF, the organization is raising funds for projects like building schools and water systems. The project of MY Arts “Dreamland” successfully raised funds for providing 10 schools in Alepo with hygiene and water systems, campaign «COMIFAR & Friends per gli OSPEDALI» for 3 hospitals in Italy in cooperation with Comifar, UNICEF Emegerncy Funds, and most recently the Water Project in Malawi.

Supporting the young artists through the concept of “Concert of Arts” which is based on a synergistic and dialogical collaboration between music, visual arts, applied arts, theater, dance, and fashion, with the goal of opening new perspectives to hear art and see music.


We aim to connect young creatives with established artists, respecting tradition while also working on the concept of the multidisciplinary artist of the future. 

Our mission is to set new goals and remove limits on creativity and freedom of expression.

We view culture as a powerful tool for promoting sustainability values. We have successfully organized several projects featuring classical music, theater, dance, and film screenings.

MY Arts is also dedicated to fostering and connecting young creative talent on a national and international level.



Our cooperation partners in past and present include renowned foundations and organizations such as the United Nations Environment Programme, UNICEF, the Princess Kira of Prussia Foundation, Art Basel Paris +, and many others.

You can find some of our live projects and screenings on the website [www.fnights.com](http://www.fnights.com/).

www.dreamland-charity.com

MY Arts 

Culture Scholar Corporation enhances the lives of older adults through the therapeutic power of music, the arts and performances.


**About Culture Scholar Corporation's Music for Mental Health Initiative**

The "**Music for Mental Health**" initiative is designed to bring the profound benefits of music to seniors in retirement and assisted living communities. Music is a powerful tool for enhancing mental health, cognitive function, and overall well-being. 
Our program offers a variety of musical experiences tailored to the needs and interests of elderly residents, aiming to create a vibrant and supportive environment where music can flourish.

Since 2001 **Culture Scholar** has been the brainchild of Benjamin Barnes. 
In addition to being the Director and CEO of Culture Scholar Corporation 501(c)(3), 
Ben is an instructor and performer who creates and teaches the *Culture Scholar Music for Mental Health* classes and concerts. 

[Culture Scholar Corporation](https://www.culturescholar.org/) i**s a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization**. **** 

**Thank You for Your Support**!

Culture Scholar Corporation 501(c)(3)

Providing sustainable and self-reliant rural development solutions since 1972

The Barefoot College, also known as the Social Work and Research Centre is a community-based grassroots organisation working since 1972 based on the Gandhian concept of reaching the last person. It was founded by Sanjit ‘Bunker’ Roy, to harness the skills and intelligence of rural people and ‘specialists’ people with degrees and formal professional competence, to work together to empower local communities. The SWRC/Barefoot aimed at addressing specifically the issues concerning the marginalised, the exploited and the impoverished rural poor living on less than minimum wages; in practical domains like water, education, solar, health, advocacy and rural livelihoods including handicrafts.

Barefoot has sought to provide the opportunity and the right support for communities to participate in planning, executing, and maintaining their own frameworks for development. These processes have provided the opportunity to the rural poor to lift themselves out of relative poverty with dignity and self- respect. The Barefoot College discussed, defined and consolidated the non-negotiables within its body politic (equality, collective decision-making, decentralisation, self reliance, austerity and openness to learning skills).

Barefoot College has been a place where sustainable ideas and the practical knowledge of the poor have been put into practice through work in education and skill development. This work has, in turn, resulted in large-scale impact in rainwater harvesting, solar electrification, non- formal education, health, conservation, women’s empowerment and culture. Barefoot has shown the potential of giving the rural poor an opportunity and support to develop self-sufficiency. What Barefoot has effectively demonstrated is the sustainability of the combination of traditional knowledge (symbolised by “barefoot”) and demystified modern skills.

Barefoot College

We are a world-class space where culture, education, and the arts are the driving force behind social transformation

We are a space where culture, education, and the arts are the main driving force behind social transformation, in support of our communities. 
**Our Mission**
To create meaningful artistic experiences and enable children and young people to embrace the spirit of excellence that the arts and their foundational values make possible.
When individuals and communities gain access to the arts, cultural diversity is enriched, and mutual understanding is promoted. This access not only reduces cultural gaps but also fosters critical thinking, empathy, and imagination, strengthening creativity as an essential skill for human and collective development.

Ensuring that the arts are accessible requires eliminating physical and economic barriers, encouraging comprehensive artistic education, and promoting diversity in the creation and dissemination of the arts. By doing so, we not only enrich people's lives but also build a more just, resilient, healthy, and prosperous society.

Fundacion Teatro del Lago

Teaching teens to relentlessly fight for positive social change through practical application of the performing arts since 1999.

A BRIEF HISTORY & MISSION
Developing Artists (DA) teaches undervalued teens to relentlessly fight for positive social change through practical application of the performing arts.  We help diverse students to proclaim themselves as artists and activists, to find their place and their connection in their community, and to bring about positive social change through participation in the arts. 

DA offers rigorous theater education to underserved high school students (aged 13-19) in the New York City metropolitan area and produces REBEL VERSES Youth Arts Festival. Our goal is to provide young people with professional performing arts training that will equip them with valuable artistic and life skills, and the confidence to take action in their lives. 
DA was founded in 1999 with a simple act of protest against youth discrimination. Following Artistic Director Jill DeArmon's experiences teaching performing arts in NYC public schools and established studios, she was astonished by the lack of freedom students were given to create and empower and felt they were censored rather than amplified and trusted. While teaching at one of these institutions, she was threatened to either stay and stick to the status quo or be fired. Jill told her class that she was leaving, because she could not accept ageism towards her students. Every student decided to follow her out and the first DA Ensemble was born. In collaboration with the ensemble, Jill offered classes where teens could be heard, with support to create original work that tackles important social issues. She committed to empowering students through art by giving them practical tools to express themselves and learn to collaborate.

THE NEED OR PROBLEM WE WORK TO ADDRESS 
We impact students by creating a forum to navigate life's increasing challenges (e.g. age discrimination, social injustices, gender inequality, institutional racism, economic disparity, sexism); to use their voice in dealing with these issues; and channel that energy into self-expression and self-confidence. DA has a track record of engaging positively with those who face significant barriers in their daily lives. 

Developing Artists serves students aged 13 to 19 from all five boroughs of New York. 35% of our students identify as Latinx, 40% as African American, 20% as Caucasian, and 5% as Asian/other. Most of our students face socio-economic challenges; many experience physical, sexual or emotional abuse. We are committed to invite and include all of these young artists so their voices can be heard, their lives healed and their lifetime trajectory changed. 

We can confidently say that participation in our programs has a life-changing long-term impact on the young people we serve – 95% of whom go onto college. We know that our students subsequently utilize their arts training in their careers in a variety of different ways – as professional artists, writers, producers, drama therapists, etc. In our recent past, we helped DA students get into notable high school and college performing arts programs, and some have gone on to study at prestigious institutions such as The Juilliard School, University of North Carolina School of the Arts, New School, Royal Conservatory of Scotland, Liverpool Institute of the Performing Arts, Fordham University, Rutgers University, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, AMDA, Elon College and Yale Drama.

In the past, we charged for classes while providing full or partial scholarships for students in need (about 85% of students received a full or partial scholarship). In 2018, Developing Artists began making all classes 100% FREE so that we could abolish this financial barrier once and for all, and serve those students who were overlooked by so many other programs.

As emphasized in our mission, equity, access and inclusion are some of our primary objectives.  The last three years also helped solidify the identity of DA: Our ensemble engages with individuals on the frontline of important social issues then utilizing various performing arts, we bring to light these issues to a broader audience as we seek allies along the way to impact positive social change. Developing Artists was tapped to perform in numerous events including: We Rise: A Celebration of Resistance at the Delacorte Theatre (Public Forum in Collaboration with Resistance Revival Chorus), New York Women’s Foundations Celebrating Women Breakfast 2019, City Hall rally hosted by New York 4 Culture and Art to protest the proposed 6 millions dollar cut in cultural and arts funding. Developing Artists’ trajectory is leading us to connect and work with many social justice organizations for our future projects. 

Through the years, DA has directly served over 3,000 students and thousands of audience members. DA fostered a community of diverse artist citizens and maintains ongoing connections with our alumni network, some of which return as Teaching Artists. One alumnus, Julian Elijah Martinez, recently made his Broadway debut in NETWORK starring Bryan Cranston and was one of the stars of WU-TANG: AN AMERICAN SAGA on Hulu. Another alumna, Jessica Asch, Program Creator and Lead Clinician at Shine MSD, Inc, became a licensed arts and drama therapist whose work with at-risk youth has included developing and implementing a creative arts therapy program around collective healing in Parkland, Florida.

REBEL VERSES Youth Arts Festival
Founded in 2001, REBEL VERSES is a 2-week festival of performances by some of the best youth companies in NYC & beyond. This festival was born out of the dire need here in New York City for new voices in theater.  It is a journey into the unapologetic, unrelenting creativity of the next generation. Since the festival’s inception, REBEL VERSES has provided youth companies with the opportunity to collaborate and network with their peers and prominent artists, encouraging the development of new works in theater through this two-week event.  In 2017, Developing Artists began a partnership with the notable Vineyard Theatre to co-produce REBEL VERSES. The Vineyard Theatre (108 East 15th) hosts RV at its 132-seat off-Broadway venue and provides technical, management, audience development and promotional support, resulting in increased visibility, participation and audiences for REBEL VERSES.

TESTIMONIAL
"I’ve been continually impressed with these students’ critical engagement with the most pressing issues of our day: social responsibility, economic access, representational inequity, voting rights, and much more. On top of their mastery of civic literacy, they are astonishingly talented artists, both as writers and performers.

These teens’ capacity for this level of discourse and creativity is clearly traceable to their training and experience through Developing Artists. Jill and Jinn’s personal and professional dedication to the holistic development and success of each student is total. Their high expectations elicit excellence, dedication, maturity, and long-lasting relationships across a wide diversity of backgrounds. They’ve formed a family commitment to one another that far exceeds any after-school arts program I know."

Kenneth J. Cerniglia, PhD
Former Literary Manager and Dramaturg, Disney Theatrical Productions Past President, Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA) 

Developing Artists Theater Company

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We are a nonprofit, so instead of charging fees we rely on the generosity of donors like you.