1. Welcome to the United Performing Arts Fund 2012 Education & Community Outreach Presentation!

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. Your Support of UPAF allows our Member Groups to help create community and foster educational impact throughout Milwaukee.

5. UPAF Affiliate Groups Boulevard Ensemble Studio Theatre DanceCircus Ensemble Musical Offering Festival City Symphony Frankly Music In Tandem Theatre Kenosha Symphony Association Ko-Thi Dance Company Latino Arts Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra Milwaukee Choral Artists Milwaukee Opera Theatre North Shore Academy of the Arts PianoArts of Wisconsin Racine Symphony Orchestra String Academy of Wisconsin Sunset Playhouse Theatre Gigante Wild Space Dance Company Windfall Theatre Wisconsin Philharmonic

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. 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!

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. 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.

19. 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.