ST. LOUIS, May 10, 2016 – An interactive mapping experience, an innovative St. Louis neighborhood project and a new app featuring musical instruments are among the plans for nine arts organizations receiving a total of $250,000 in grants from the PNC Foundation through PNC Arts Alive.
For a sixth straight year, PNC will contribute $250,000 to large and small arts groups in its Greater St. Louis region. The grants cover a wide range of disciplines, audiences and participatory experiences. [See below for the complete list of grant recipients.]
Since its introduction, PNC Arts Alive has provided a total of $2 million to support 74 programs to increase access to the arts and culture in the St. Louis region. Two local arts organizations, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis and Union Avenue Opera, received funding for the first time.
“The thriving arts and cultural scene in St. Louis brings significant value to our economy and to all of us who live, work and play here,” said Michael Scully, PNC regional president for St. Louis. “Over the past five years, Arts Alive-funded programs have extended the ability of our arts community to create innovative exhibits and experiences that have reached hundreds of thousands of people. We are excited about the new opportunities that will be created by this year’s grant recipients.”
Family Fun, Free Events
Programs supported through PNC Arts Alive include a collaborative, community-driven project conceptualized by the Center of Creative Arts’ data artist in-residence. COCA’s St. Louis Map Room and Website will allow residents to explore their world using their own sets of data.
Shakespeare Festival St. Louis will introduce a bold new step for its Shakespeare in the Streets program, moving to a new citywide conversation and performance in 2017. Hundreds of performers and residents from across St. Louis will transform a landmark site with live, outdoor performances.
The St. Louis Symphony’s popular Instrument Playground will debut a cutting edge app that capitalizes on smartphones and tablets, enabling children of all ages and backgrounds to learn about the orchestra and its instruments.
PNC Arts Alive is a multi-year grant initiative of the PNC Foundation that challenges visual and performing arts organizations to put forth their best, most original thinking in expanding audience participation and engagement. To date, this award-winning program has provided approximately $13 million in grants to enterprising cultural organizations in three regions served by PNC. For more information, visit www.pncartsalive.com.
The PNC Foundation, which receives its principal funding from The PNC Financial Services Group (NYSE: PNC), actively supports organizations that provide services for the benefit of communities in which it has a significant presence. The foundation focuses its philanthropic mission on early childhood education and community and economic development, which includes the arts and culture. Through Grow Up Great, its signature cause that began in 2004, PNC has created a $350 million, multi-year initiative to help prepare children from birth to age 5 for success in school and life.
PNC ARTS ALIVE – 2016 GRANT RECIPIENTS
Center of Creative Arts – COCA
Designed by COCA’s data artist-in-residence, Jer Thorp, The St. Louis Map Room and Website will invite members of the community to blend personal illustrations using drawings, photographs or collages with elements of existing contemporary and historical maps to create highly original maps that reflect their own experiences of the city. A series of public conversations and workshops for students and teachers will use the Map Room to explore the intersections between art, technology, geography, history and cultural division.
Dance St. Louis
“PNC Arts Alive New Dance Horizons” represents Dance St. Louis’ commitment to creating and producing original and innovative works of dance. “Celebrating Women Who Inspire” -- the fifth installment of New Dance Horizons -- explores iconic women throughout history and their influences on today’s artistic landscape. Three nationally-renowned and critically acclaimed female choreographers, Amy Seiwert and Wendy Rein from San Francisco, and Stephanie Martinez from Chicago, will work with local dance companies on three original dance pieces that will experience their world-class debut in St. Louis.
Metro Theater Company
“The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane,” generously supported by PNC Arts Alive, is adapted for the stage by Dwayne Hartford from the book by Newbery-award winner Kate DiCamillo. The performance is a story about the transformative power of love, with the hero being a three-foot-tall china rabbit, named Edward. He discovers that even a heart of the most breakable kind can learn to love, to lose and to love again. The play runs through December 2016 at the Missouri History Museum.
The Muny
The PNC Arts Alive Pre-Show Festival welcomes and engages The Muny’s diverse audience with 53 nights of free interactive entertainment. Situated in four strategic, high-traffic locations, the festival features community-based organizations, arts non-profits, The Muny Kids and Teens, alongside professional artists to offer high-quality, accessible arts experiences for children and adults.
Opera Theatre of St. Louis
In an effort to build audiences that reflect the diversity of our community, Opera Theatre will host “Opera Tastings,” presented by PNC Arts Alive, and offer $25 PNC Seats for the 2017 production of “Madame Butterfly.” Opera Tastings, held at locations across St. Louis, pairs “bite-sized” opera performances with food and drinks chosen to complement the flavors of the music.
The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis
With the support of PNC Arts Alive, The Repertory Theatre will provide children and families with the option to experience the Imaginary Theatre Company’s holiday production, “A Gnome for Christmas,” as a touring group in schools, in a public performance or as a live streamed performance in their own homes. “A Gnome for Christmas,” written specifically for ITC, is adapted from a Scandinavian folk tale and is intended for all ages. It will reach diverse audiences in schools throughout the St. Louis region and beyond.
St. Louis Symphony
Instrument Playground is the St. Louis Symphony’s popular mobile orchestra, enabling children to see, hear, touch and play touch instruments from each instrument family. With the support of PNC, the popular IP will grow exponentially by capturing the essence of the IP experience in a cutting-edge, standards-based app that enables children of all ages and backgrounds to learn about the orchestra and its instruments – anywhere, on demand.
Shakespeare Festival St. Louis
In 2017, Shakespeare Festival St. Louis will introduce a bold new step for its “Shakespeare in the Streets” program, rescaling the project from a neighborhood to a citywide initiative. These conversations will be the inspiration for a new play that is based on the work of Shakespeare and explores the character and history of St. Louis. The project will culminate in September 2017 with hundreds of performers and residents from all parts of the city transforming a landmark St. Louis site with three live, outdoor performances celebrating the message of inclusion through the arts.
Union Avenue Opera
“PNC Arts Alive presents Hansel and Gretel” is the second phase of UAO’s Crescendo program. Phase Two will allow participants to work together to present an opera in a professional setting. Crescendo artists will work alongside professionals to learn and study the roles, acting as covers for the main stage production, and perform the lead roles themselves in the truncated fall school production, an opportunity that would otherwise not be available to them at this early stage of their careers. Hansel and Gretel will be presented for free in the fall and open to all schools in the greater St. Louis region.
CONTACT:
Craig Friedman
(614) 463-6647
craig.friedman@pnc.com
@Craig_PNC
