The NEA Award, among 1,023 granted nationally, will support the Kauffman Center’s 2nd annual Future Stages Festival to be held on Sunday, June 28^th.

Through its grant-making to thousands of nonprofits each year, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) promotes opportunities for people in communities across America to experience the arts and exercise their creativity.

In the second major grant announcement of fiscal year 2015, the NEA will make a $10,000 award to Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts to support the second annual Future Stages Festival, a free event for the entire community that provides opportunities for future artists to take center stage at the Kauffman Center. The NEA will make 1,023 awards totaling $74.3 million nationwide in this funding round.

NEA Chairman Jane Chu said, “The NEA is committed to advancing learning, fueling creativity, and celebrating the arts in cities and towns across the United States. Funding these new projects like the one from Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts represents an investment in both local communities and our nation’s creative vitality.”  

“We are committed to shining a spotlight on the talented youth in our community and celebrating the diverse array of performing arts experiences available to both participants and audiences in Kansas City. Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts is deeply appreciative of the support of the National Endowment for the Arts, providing recognition of the value of nurturing and inspiring future artists and audiences,” stated Paul Schofer, President & CEO of Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.

As proud mother Lisa Lala stated after the inaugural Future Stages Festival in 2014, seeing her 14-year-old daughter perform a silk solo with the Quixotic School of the Performing Arts at the Kauffman Center was “nothing short of heart-stopping.” When daughter, Gigi, was asked what it was like being on the Muriel Kauffman Theatre stage, she answered “This was something I’ve dreamed of all my life. It was amazing.”

Future Stages Festival will be held at the Kauffman Center on Sunday, June 28, 2015 from 11 am – 4 pm. The free one-day festival invites youth and families to experience a diverse range of performances and interactive arts activities. Future Stages Festival, an extension of the Kauffman Center’s Open Doors Spotlight on Youth program, also provides opportunities for youth and community arts organizations to perform on stage at Kauffman Center.

Future Stages Festival is free and open to the public. Attendees are encouraged to register at kauffmancenter.org/futurestages to receive the latest event updates and schedule for performances and activities.

ABOUT THE OPEN DOORS PROGRAM

The Kauffman Center Open Doors program connects young people to the arts through three major components:

The Open Doors Spotlight on Youth program inspires and nurtures the next generation of artists by giving young performers the opportunity to perform on the stages of the Kauffman Center.

Kauffman Center is celebrating diversity in the arts with the second annual Future Stages Festival this June. Building on the success of the 2014 inaugural event during which Kauffman Center welcomed more than 6,000 guests and hosted 600 performers, the second annual Future Stages Festival is a free community event that showcases youth in the performing arts.

The Open Doors Community Ticket Fund offers access to programming at the Kauffman Center for youth and families through reduced price or free tickets.

The Open Doors Transportation Fund offers funding to schools in the metropolitan area so that bringing students to the Kauffman Center for school matinee performances is more affordable.

The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts would like to thank our official building sponsors, Aristocrat Motors and Mercedes-Benz of Kansas City.

To join the Twitter conversation about this announcement, please use#NEASpring2015. To find out more about how NEA grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov.

This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.