New Hope Arts Center Raises HALF-MILLION in Four Months
-FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE-
NEW HOPE ARTS CENTER RAISES HALF-MILLION DOLLARS
IN 4-MONTHS
Community and Donors Satisfy
Matching Gift Challenge in Four Months,
Achieving Major Milestone in Elevate the Arts Campaign
“Community Gathers at New Hope Arts for another successful & well attended Opening Night this past summer” - contributed photo
NEW HOPE, PA (8/29/22) – The New Hope Arts Center: The New Hope Arts Center is delighted and proud to announce the meeting of Stephen and Pamela Can’s private $250,000 matching gift challenge. This most generous gift was announced in May 2022, making for the Arts Center’s largest private monetary donation since its opening in 2002.
“The now satisfied Can match has genuinely ‘elevated’ our “Elevate the Arts” campaign in astonishing record time and beautifully demonstrates how the community values what New Hope Arts has accomplished over the past twenty years and truly wants to see it built upon this successful foundation. We are also happy to share that this overwhelming support and enthusiasm has inspired a new anonymous donor to step forward to create their own matching gift for our campaign in the amount of $50,000. This additional, generous gift is perfectly timed for our hopeful groundbreaking in January 2023 with a matching deadline of December 31st, 2022,” said Larry Keller, Chairman of the New Hope Arts Board.
Mayor Keller and $250K Matching Grant Donor Stephen Can for New Hope Arts. Credit: Nick Raimondi
The Elevate the Arts Capital Campaign was first announced in May with the fundraising goal of $750,000.00 by the close of 2023. Funds raised will also be allocated to expand other programming that will include media, performance, and literary art forms, plus a multi-phase renovation plan presented by Ralph C. Fey Architects, with construction slated to begin in January 2023. The construction plan features an American Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant elevator, an ADA compliant restroom, a dramatic front entrance, an enhanced lobby, enlarged staircase, and entrance ramps for the rear, canal side entrance.
Additionally, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development provided a generous grant for the installation of an elevator, and private donors and Board members have also contributed in support to date.
“New Hope Arts is grateful to all our generous patrons and hopes that the confidence this reflects in our mission will inspire others to contribute to the campaign’s newest anonymous match challenge of $50,000 and will continue through the remainder of the campaign.” states Janina Akins, Board Member and Director of the Capital Campaign.
The Future of New Hope Arts with a groundbreaking set for 2023. Credit: Ralph C. Fey Architects
To learn more about New Hope Arts Center’s Capital Campaign or to donate, contact Development Manager Treacy Broadhead at 267-740-2653 or email Development@NewHopeArts.org. In addition, donations of any size may be made through the New Hope Arts Elevate the Arts campaign page on their website at NewHopeArts.org.
About New Hope Arts Center: New Hope Arts (NHA) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to furthering New Hope’s heritage as a thriving nucleus for various mediums of art and artists. NHA serves an integral role in showcasing contemporary artists’ work within New Hope and Lambertville and throughout the Delaware Valley. New Hope Arts supports artists by fostering opportunities to exhibit, providing space to create, collaborate, and present while offering residents and visitors access to a vibrant array of visual, performing, and literary arts. NHA further provides a welcoming forum to emerging artists who would otherwise not have access to a professional exhibition setting while introducing new audiences to their work. Annually, NHA organizes up to eight significant exhibitions, including sculpture, works in wood, painting, photography, fine artisan crafts, and new media installations. Its individual donors, Board Members and foundations, and community members provide the support necessary to offer such programs and events. Recognition of NHA’s service to the arts includes funding from The PNC Foundation Arts Alive program, the Community and Economic Development Grant from the State of PA, and The Bucks County Visitors Bureau. Executive Director Carol Cruickshanks keeps founder Robin Larsen’s vision alive, ever-evolving, and ever-elevating since New Hope Arts conception in 2002. Learn more at newhopearts.org today.
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*GalleryOpeningNight_Summer2022.Jpeg – Contributed: “Community Gathers at New Hope Arts for an Opening Night
*FutureNewHopeArtsBuilding_CreditToRalphCFeyArchitects.Jpeg – The Future of New Hope Arts with a groundbreaking set for 2023. Credit: Ralph C. Fey Architects
*MayorKeller_StephenCan_CreditNickRaimondi.Jpeg – Mayor Keller and $250K Matching Grant Donor Stephen Can for New Hope Arts. Credit: Nick Raimondi
*Additional high-resolution images and interviews are available upon request
Vertical Dancing, Michael Feinstein, The Amazing Max & More at Zoellner Arts Center!
Vertical Dancing, Michael Feinstein, The Amazing Max, The New York Philharmonic and silk weaving, kids outreach, and more! Get to know Zoellner Arts Center and learn what this dynamic cultural institution based at Lehigh University has planned for a vibrant, engaging season ahead! Executive Director Mark Wilson was recently featured on Creative Conversations with Mandee K. Hammerstein on WDVR, where Wilson talked about Zoellner’s passions, programming, the upcoming 25th Anniversary and even his own professional Opera background!
See below for Zoellner’s Fall Programming, Winter Programming to Follows:
Lehigh Music Department
NEW YORK JAZZ REPERTORY
HELL’S KITCHEN FUNK ORCHESTRA
SAT SEP 10 | 8pm
The NYC-based orchestra returns to perform selections from their new recording, Chain Reaction. The group’s music is a mixture of adventurous, modernistic pieces, Jazz-tinged Salsa and Post-Bop hipness. Jazz Times refers to Bill Warfield as a “top-rate craftsmen, perhaps one of the best on the scene.”
Lehigh Music Department
LUVME: THE LIFE AND LOVE OF JOE COOGAN & THE OVERLOOK QUARTET
SAT SEP 24 | 7:30pm
A concert performance of a one-act opera based on a Dick Van Dyke TV show episode by Carl Reiner, libretto by Kate Light, music by Paul Salerni. Special guest ensemble The Overlook Quartet performs music by Shelley Washington and Trevor Weston. Guest singers include Disella Larusdottir, Keith Phares, Branch Fields, Tyrone Chambers, Helen Huang, Sarah Ann Duffy and even Zoellner’s Executive Director, Mark Fitzgerald Wilson.
Lehigh Department of Theatre
THE SALONNIÉRES
WED SEP 28* – SAT OCT 1 | 7:30pm
In pre-Revolutionary Paris, a young girl fresh from the convent is promised in marriage to an older nobleman to pay off her father’s debts. She flees to the literary salon of her late mother’s friends, aristocratic women who conceal radical politics within reinvented folk tales. But which of them is her fairy godmother, and which is the cruel stepmother? Is the duke a Prince Charming or a Beast? And is the maid the humble nobody they treat her as, or the hero of a story none of them knows they are in? Augustine Ripa, director.
Presenting Series
NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC
SAT OCT 1 | 7:30pm
The New York Philharmonic, which helped inaugurate Zoellner Arts Center in 1997, and marked its 10th anniversary, returns for a third performance in Baker Hall to commemorate our 25th anniversary. Music Director Jaap van Zweden conducts the orchestra in a concert that blends the impressionistic delicacy of Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun with the Romantic virtuosity of Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1, with Bomsori Kim as soloist. The rediscovered Symphony No. 4 by Florence Price completes the program. Price was a pioneering composer in the 1930s. She was the first woman of African American descent to receive national recognition as a symphonic composer and have her music performed by a major American orchestra during that period.
Zoellner’s Executive Director, Mark Wilson was recently featured on WDVR’s Creative Conversations with Mandee K. Hammerstein
Lehigh Valley Reilly Children’s Hospital Family Series
THE AMAZING MAX
SAT OCT 8 | 1:00pm
Professional magician Max Darwin is an actor, designer and visual artist with over 35 years of experience working with young people as a performer and artist-in-residence. He has been featured on National Geographic’s hit TV series, Brain Games, and has worked as a magic consultant for Gotham, Blindspot and America’s Got Talent. His solo show, The Amazing Max, has received rave reviews from The New York Times, Huffington Post and PBS Kids for “an awesome and hilarious live magic show.”
Presenting Series
THE WEEKLINGS
BEATLESBASH with The Horns & Strings Orchestra
SAT OCT 15 | 7:30pm
We asked The Weeklings to ‘get back’ to Baker Hall after their amazing performance last year. You don’t want to miss this chance to see America’s most unique celebration of THE BEATLES! Experience a note-for-note celebration of timeless music—Eleanor Rigby, Something, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Here Comes the Sun and more—featuring a 10-piece horns and strings orchestra. There is something in the way they play!
Lehigh Music Department
LEHIGH UNIVERSITY CHORAL ARTS
BRAHMS AND POULENC
SAT October 22 | 8pm & SUN 23 | 4pm
The 200 plus singers of Choral Arts perform Nänie by Johannes Brahms and Francis Poulenc’s Gloria. Steven Sametz and Sun Min Lee, directors.
Presenting Series
HOME FREE
SUN OCT 29 | 7:30pm
Following their victory on NBC’s The Sing-Off, a cappella group Home Free have made their mark on the music scene: racking up nearly 600,000 album equivalents globally; embarking on major international tours; amassing OVER 1 MILLION YouTube subscribers, and garnering praise from Country Living, The Rolling Stones and others. These extraordinary showmen have continued to build a loyal fanbase with their harmony-laden versions of hits by John Mayer, Blake Shelton, Keith Urban, Maren Morris, The Oak Ridge Boys and more.
Lehigh Music Department
LEHIGH UNIVERSITY JAZZ REPERTORY ORCHESTRA
SUN OCT 30 | 3pm
Bill Warfield directs the Jazz orchestra performing classic repertoire from all the greats.
Department of Theatre
GALATEA
NOV 4, 5 NOV 9*-12 | 7:30pm, NOV 6 | 2pm
Galatea is a queer fantasia about love at the end of the world. Loosely based on John Lyly’s 1585 play, Galatea is a trans love story set in a forest featuring Greek gods, poetry, and lesbian separatist nymphs. Two young people disguise themselves to escape virgin sacrifice and hide in the woods where they meet and fall in love. Lyam B. Gabel, director.
Presenting Series
MICHAEL FEINSTEIN
GET HAPPY! MICHAEL FEINSTEIN CELEBRATES THE JUDY GARLAND CENTENNIAL
SAT NOV 5 | 7:30pm
Legendary performer Michael Feinstein salutes and celebrates the great Judy Garland in the year that honors her 100th Birthday! Executive produced by Liza Minelli, audiences are invited to join a nostalgic and spectacular musical journey of Garland’s illustrious career. Filled with special surprise moments, Feinstein and audiences will come together in celebrating Garland’s unparalleled talent and charisma. No one could break or lift your heart like Judy Garland! Feinstein will lead you on a historical journey through Garland’s amazing life, telling stories that he has learned from Liza Minnelli and other close friends. Audiences will be treated to recently discovered, previously unheard musical arrangements, as well as gain rare insight into the enduring Garland mystique.
Lehigh Music Department
FACULTY STRING QUARTET
STRINGS AND THREADS
SUN NOV 6 | 3pm
Lehigh string faculty members Michael Jorgensen, Erica Dicker, Sharon Fischer and Chris Gross perform chamber music written in and about the United States featuring the iconic Dvořák American String Quartet, Op. 96. Other repertoire: Jessie Montgomery, Strum; Philip Glass, String Quartet No. 5.
Lehigh Music Department
STUDENT JAZZ ENSEMBLES
SAT NOV 12 | 8pm
Lehigh University’s student Jazz musicians present classics, performed by combos and Big Bands. Bill Warfield, director.
Presenting Series
ACADEMY OF VOCAL ARTS
SUN NOV 13 | 5:00pm
Great voices accompanied by live orchestra share the drama and the passion of classic opera in a celebration of various major opera ensembles. The Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia trains young artists with tremendous potential as international opera soloists. These singers share their talent, training and unique gifts on our concert stage.
Lehigh Music Department
LEHIGH UNIVERSITY WIND ENSEMBLE
A NEW BEGINNING
SUN NOV 20 | 3pm
During this Sunday afternoon filled with musical notes, you’ll enjoy classic repertoire for concert band.
GET TICKETS AT: https://zoellner.cas.lehigh.edu
OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN MUSEUM BROADWAY GALA RAISES $165,000 TO SUPPORT THE PURCHASE OF HIGHLAND FARM
Pictured from L-R: Justin Guarini, Christy Altomare, Derek Klena. All three Broadway stars performed in Oscar Hammerstein’s honor in support of the Oscar Hammerstein Museum. Over 200 guests filled the room with delight at Barley Sheaf. Photo Credit, Brooke Straiton.
OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN MUSEUM BROADWAY GALA
RAISES $165,000 TO SUPPORT
THE PURCHASE OF HIGHLAND FARM
Broadway Stars Christy Altomare, Derek Klena and Justin Guarini
Featured in Intimate Evening of Hammerstein FavoritesIt was a celebratory summer evening as theatre-lovers from far and wide gathered in Buckingham, Pennsylvania to support the nonprofit Oscar Hammerstein Museum and Theatre Education Center (OHMTEC) in its quest to raise funds to purchase Oscar Hammerstein II’s historic Pennsylvania home, Highland Farm. Nearly $165,000 was netted from “Broadway Sings The Sound of Hammerstein,” an exclusive gala held on July 11, 2022 at The Inn at Barley Sheaf Farm, the former estate of George S. Kaufman, a contemporary of Hammerstein’s.
The glamorous evening included cocktails and a three-course dinner and featured entertainment by Broadway stars Christy Altomare (Anastasia, Mama Mia, Carrie), Derek Klena (Jagged Little Pill, Wicked, Anastasia) and Justin Guarini (In Transit, Wicked, American Idol, American Idiot). The talented and dynamic Ted Chapin (former President and Chief Creative Officer of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization) hosted the event. David Manning (Silence: The Musical, Reefer Madness) provided accompaniment on a Steinway Spirio grand piano donated by Jacob’s Music for the evening.
Over two hundred supporters attended the gala, heralding from Vermont to Florida and west to California. Luminaries in attendance included Will Hammerstein, grandson of Oscar, and Melinda Mathias Walsh, Oscar’s granddaughter and member of OHMTEC’s Honorary Advisory Board. Also in attendance was Sam von Trapp, the grandson of Baroness Maria von Trapp, from whom Rodgers and Hammerstein derived the inspiration for their blockbuster musical, The Sound of Music. Von Trapp is also a member of OHMTEC’s Honorary Advisory Board and provided the beer for the event from the family’s brewery, von Trapp Brewing in Stowe, Vermont.
Other members of OHMTEC’s advisory board who supported the event included actress and author Mariel Hemingway, who was scheduled to attend, but had to cancel due to her filming schedule. She instead provided a welcome video for attendees. Teen actress Kassie Mundhenk, whose home is in Bucks County, PA, spoke in support of OHMTEC via recorded video. National Medal of the Arts winning choral composer Morten Lauridsen provided a private consultation as an offering for the silent auction.
Over seventy businesses and individuals from the community came together in support of OHMTEC’s mission through sponsorships and by providing in-kind donations of goods and services for the event and auction. Premiere sponsors included Visit Bucks County through a generous grant from the Bucks County Tourism Grant Program, Café with Soul, Capital Health, Class-Harlan Real Estate and Gemmi Construction, Inc. Event sponsors included Byers’ Choice Ltd., Concord Theatricals, Doylestown Health, Eastburn and Gray PC, Golden Blossom Honey, Judith Abrams Productions, Parx Casino, Snap Divorce, The Doylestown Inn and Van Cleef Engineering Associates, LLC.
A very special part of the evening was performances by winners of OHMTEC’s International Youth Solo Contest. Winners who attended and sang during the cocktail hour hailed from Plymouth, Massachusetts; Davis, California; and Naperville, Illinois; as well as towns in Pennsylvania. Listeners’ attention was help rapt by these talented young performers, who rose to the top of 151 entrants in the contest from five continents.
The capstone of the memorable evening was an audience sing-along of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “It’s a Grand Night for Singing,” led by Altomare, Guarini and Klena – and indeed it was a grand night!
