PlayhouseSquare Changes 'Arts Education Dept' To Community Engagement & Ed. Dept

PlayhouseSquare announced today that the name of its Arts Education Department has changed to "Community Engagement & Education Department." The department uses philanthropic dollars to offer hundreds of enriching arts experiences for people of all ages, reaching more than 200,000 people each year.

PlayhouseSquare, a performing arts presenter, has become synonymous with Broadway in Northeast Ohio. What many people do not realize is that PlayhouseSquare is a not-for-profit organization with a mission that includes area development and education initiatives. Revenues from theater ticket sales do not suffice to fund the educational component of PlayhouseSquare's mission. Those funds come from the generous contributions of individuals, businesses and foundations.

"PlayhouseSquare understands its vital role as an educator in our community," explained David Goodman, PlayhouseSquare Trustee and Vice-Chair of the Community Engagement & Education Committee. "We need to raise $1 million annually to support this work, and, thanks to the generosity of our donors, we have been able to do so. Our investment in community engagement and education enables us not only to build future audiences, but also to help create a more enriched and diverse community."

"PlayhouseSquare is committed to providing arts learning opportunities of the highest quality to enrich the lives of students, families, teachers and members of the community," stated Art J. Falco, PlayhouseSquare President and CEO. "The department's name change signifies the renewal and affirmation of that commitment."

PlayhouseSquare's Community Engagement & Education Department is unique in the performing arts industry for the variety of programs it offers, The Audiences it serves, the partnerships it initiates and the access it provides students, educators and aspiring artists to performing arts professionals.

"Other performing arts centers look to us as an example of ways to enhance the theater-going experience," continued Falco. "For example, many people do not realize that you will not find the comprehensive enrichment activities that surround our KeyBank Broadway Series in any other city."

The Community Engagement & Education Department supports Broadway Series programming with the Buzz Extra online newsletter, pre-show talks that take place before most performances, post-show chats with members of the cast on select nights, master classes, distance learning and volunteer opportunities for high school and college students and a Broadway summer camp.

PlayhouseSquare's innovative partnership with ideastream to create the Idea Center® at PlayhouseSquare gave the Community Engagement & Education Department access to the technology necessary for offering distance learning programs and more space to expand its own programs and collaborations with others.

"The Idea Center is the prime example of how seriously we take our commitment to arts education," said Thomas W. Adler, Chairman of the Board of PlayhouseSquare. "PlayhouseSquare was the first arts organization in Cleveland to be involved in a partnership of this magnitude to support education initiatives, and to the best of our knowledge, this is the first partnership of this type between a performing arts center and public broadcasting in the country."

Since the opening of the Idea Center in 2005, the Community Engagement & Education Department has doubled the number of people it serves and now reaches students across the state of Ohio and beyond.

The department is led by Colleen T. Porter, who is recognized as a leader in arts education in Cleveland and in the performing arts industry. She has served as president of the Cleveland Arts Education Consortium and currently serves as the vice president of programming for International Performing Arts for Youth. She also sits on the boards of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, the National Education Directors of Performing Arts Centers, The Lit and the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities at Case Western Reserve University Advisory Board.

Under Porter's leadership, the Community Engagement & Education Department has strengthened its offerings for schools and educators, initiated a number of community partnerships and eliminated programs that were duplicating the efforts of other Cleveland arts organizations.

"We focus on providing access to the arts in ways that no else does," said Porter. Examples of that commitment include the department's Slam U spoken word poetry program, Broadway Summer Camp for teens, and Partners in Performance program for school districts.

Partners in Performance (PIP) is one example of how the Community Engagement & Education Department offers arts learning opportunities beyond PlayhouseSquare's KeyBank Broadway Series. PIP is designed to help school districts introduce their students to the performing arts, helping compensate for the decrease of arts education in schools due to budget cuts. PIP is about more than just making field trips possible, though. PIP district educators receive representation on PlayhouseSquare's Community Engagement & Education Committee and professional development that aligns with Ohio Department of Education standards.

Since its inception in 1998, PlayhouseSquare's Community Engagement & Education Department has offered thousands of events, workshops, classes and more, most with minimal or no fees, to people of all ages from all areas of Northeast Ohio.

A complete listing of PlayhouseSquare's community engagement and education programs is available online at playhousesquare.org/community or by calling 216-348-7909.

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