This year the Abbett Family Foundation is excited to announce its partnership with ASU Gammage in an initiative to connect Arizona communities and expand their reach to even more students, teachers and communities in the Greater Tucson area and throughout the state. This partnership enables funding specifically for schools outside the Greater Phoenix area to experience ASU Gammage’s unique and unparalleled Cultural Participation programs. Thousands and more children from Tucson and beyond, with little or no access to programs like ASU Gammage’s, will now get to experience the performing arts!
In December 2015 we met with Michael Reed and Julianne Mate to discuss details and donated $100,000 to ASU Gammage for youth education and outreach programs. We are very excited to have the capacity to reach more Arizona youth and share the joys of live performances and educational opportunities. The funding will provide bus scholarships, which cover the full costs of transportation to and from the Southern Arizona schools and registration fees for the ASU Gammage programs. The will enable a new group of students to participate in Performances for Students, a series that brings high-level world music and dance artists to a K-12 audience. This initiative began on May 7, 2016 with “Project Tomorrow,” which expected to bring 200 Southern Arizona children and their chaperones to see the Broadway touring production of ANNIE.
Our partnership will continue with ASU Gammage through the 2017-2018 season as we extend the reach and correspondence with schools in the southern part of the state. The goal is not to be a “one-and-done”program, but to build relationships and programs that will have a wide-ranging impact. Because the ASU Gammage programs are quite unique and do not exist in other areas of the state.
