Kathy and I gave because we want to offer opportunities for children to enjoy palying music.

I stand with writers and actors and support staff!!

Since 1968, providing quality fine arts experiences for students and our community through our summer camps and year round events.

Shell Lake Arts Center Inc

National human services organization. Our mission is to foster stability and resiliency, and provide a safety net for performing arts and entertainment professionals over their lifespan.

Founded in 1882, we serve all professionals—and not just actors—in film, theater, television, music, opera, radio and dance through programs that address our community's unique and essential needs.

Employment in any division of the performing arts and entertainment industry is unpredictable. Work is erratic, security is fleeting and health insurance is often just a dream. For all of these reasons and many more, The Actors Fund is an indispensable and deeply significant part of the entire entertainment community.

As a national organization with offices in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, we directly serve thousands of performing arts and entertainment professionals across the country every year, in person and via our online resources. Our programs are wide in scope, responsive in nature and produce significant results.

Entertainment Community Fund (formerly The Actors Fund)

An SF Queer Theater Company, fiscally sponsored project of Intersection for the Arts

Eye Zen Presents illuminates and preserves hidden LGBTQ+ histories through interdisciplinary performance, archival activation, and intergenerational exchange. We create immersive public art rooted in place, memory, and accessibility that connects queer elders, artists, and audiences. Our practice pairs hands-on archival preservation with new creative works so that endangered legacies are safeguarded and shared as living culture. 


Eye Zen Presents

A Historic Concert Hall in the centre of Amsterdam. Its superb acoustics place it among the finest concert halls in the world.

The Concertgebouw: A hall of and for music lovers

Back in 1881, leading members of the community took the initiative to build a concert hall, and it was thanks to members of the public that The Concertgebouw was inaugurated in 1888. To this very day, it is still the general public and private funds which keep the hall open. In fact, only five per cent of The Concertgebouw’s annual income is provided by the state. Indeed, The Concertgebouw intends to remain a private institution in the future. Obviously, support from the private sector is essential to ensuring that the hall can continue to welcome musicians and audience members alike, both today and in the future.

To safeguard The Concertgebouw’s existence, the Concertgebouw Fund Foundation was established in 2000. The fund contributes to the renovation and restoration of the hall and supports a variety of education projects which is one of its main goals. Perhaps you yourself have toyed with the idea of supporting the Concertgebouw and thus helping to secure its future. The Concertgebouw Fund offers a variety of options to help make that idea a reality. In exchange, you’ll be able to enjoy many special privileges as a patron of the Concertgebouw Fund.

History: The beginning of The Concertgebouw

The beginning
The date is 15 September 1881. Six illustrious Amsterdam citizens come together to breathe life into the ‘Provisional Committee to build a concert hall’. The Park Hall theatre in the Plantage area was about to be demolished, the Felix Meritis building was too small, and Amsterdam’s Crystal Palace was uncomfortable and notorious for its poor acoustics. A few months earlier, the weekly paper De Amsterdammer denounced the sad state of the capital city’s music scene. 'While the leaders of all self-respecting cities abroad have made sure their cities are graced with good concert halls, our government has declared that these ill-fated ‘arts’ are not its responsibility,’ the paper reported.

Construction commences
To determine a suitable location, the committee turns to Pierre Cuypers, the architect of the Rijksmuseum which was being built at that time. He helps negotiate the purchase of a plot of land near the new museum, just outside the city limits, in the middle of the Nieuwer-Amstel fields. On 7 March 1882, plans were completed for a public limited company with a capital sum of 400,000 guilders, for which shares could be purchased for 1000 guilders. On 8 July 1882, the company N.V. Het Concertgebouw was officially founded, even though only 250,000 guilders in shares had been sold.

Dolf van Gendt
There was no requirement for a particular building style, as long as the end result would fit on an area of 130 x 55 metres, be constructed for a budget of 300,000 guilders, and provide space for around 2000 concertgoers. After some bickering, a design was chosen – albeit a scaled-down version – from Amsterdam’s most frequently patronised architect, Adolf Leonard (Dolf) van Gendt, the creator of many famous buildings, including the Hollandsche Manege, Frascati, De IJsbreker and the Gallery of the Crystal Palace.

Grand opening
The Concertgebouw was completed in late 1886. However, due to a lack of confidence on the part of the funders as well as the necessary difficulties with the municipality of Nieuwer-Amstel (for example, with respect to filling in a small canal, paving the access roads and installing street lights), the grand opening of the long-awaited building was only celebrated on Wednesday 11 April 1888.

Famous acoustics: The secret of the Main Hall

Unparalleled acoustics
So what is the secret of the world-famous acoustics of the Main Hall of The Royal Concertgebouw? Is it just a coincidence that Dolf van Gendt, considered by his family to be completely devoid of musical talent, was able to create a perfectly resonant hall? In the time that The Concertgebouw was taking shape, the science of acoustics was still considered a mysterious combination of many different and undefinable factors. Professional recording equipment was only developed in the 20th century; at the time, architects only had successful examples to look to.

As a result, the Recital Hall is nearly identical to the renowned oval hall in the Felix Meritis building, while the Main Hall – in terms of design and materials used – was based on the large concert hall of the Neue Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Germany. In later restorations, the original design and finishing details of the halls were left intact as much as possible to preserve the sensitive acoustics. Because even the most advanced equipment is unable to unmask the secret of the Main Hall’s unparalleled acoustics.

Het Concertgebouw Fonds

SFNF is San Francisco's premiere performance art troupe and a fiscally sponsored project of Intersection for the Arts.

The San Francisco Neo-Futurists are a collective of wildly prolific artists dedicated to the perpetual creation of experimental theatre that is immediate, ephemeral, accessible, and cheap. We believe the stage is an extension of daily life: we perform as ourselves in a non-illusory, interactive style that challenges the audience to create alongside us as active participants with a voice of their own. We respect and uplift each other on and off stage through non-hierarchical accountability, collective decision-making, and anti-oppression practice of all kinds. We do over 100 shows a year and we will never stop. 

San Francisco Neo-Futurists

One of the most sought-after young artist programs in France 

This Paris-based opera company is dedicated to lyric repertoire from the mid-18th century to the present. Founded and directed by American conductor David Stern, it combines an ambitious young artists program and a versatile instrumental ensemble.  Opera Fuoco has been in existence since 2003 initially as a top-level period instrument ensemble and later as an internationally recognized young artist troupe.  David Stern, Katharina Wolff and the Fuoco team have developed a multi-faceted program to develop young vocal talent at a professional level.  Opera Fuoco offers a unique, custom-made experience to young singers transitioning from conservatory to professional life.  Singers are able to work with Maestro Stern, experienced vocal coaches and stage directors in various contexts ranging from masterclasses and recitals to large-scale performances with orchestra and fully staged opera productions. The repertoire spans not only several centuries but a variety of genres, from baroque to contemporary, including musical comedy and jazz.  Opera Fuoco has shaped its young artist program not as an academy but as a professional company for young singers engaged for a period of three to four years. In its 13 years of existence, Opera Fuoco's Young Artist Program has trained approximately 50 singers from 15 different countries. Our 15 current members come from 5 different countries, and candidates from the last round of auditions represented 34 nationalities. Opera Fuoco's activities are largely Paris-area based, with masterclasses held in prestigious spaces such as the Petit Palais and regular concerts at the Philharmonie de Paris and the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. The company has also enhanced its international reputation by developing regular performance partnerships with the Bachfest in Leipzig, the Beethovenfest in Bonn, the International Telemann Festival, the Swedish Chamber Orchestra as well as the Shanghai Baroque and Beijing Music Festivals in China. 

Opera Fuoco

We are the oldest educational institution for the performing arts in Greece, founded as a non-profit organization in 1871. 

The Athens Conservatoire (greek: Odeion Athinon) is the oldest educational institution for the performing arts in modern Greece, founded as a non-profit organization in 1871, by the "Music and Drama Association "Athens Conservatoire - 1871"
The institution played a significant role in the advancement of music studies in Greece since day one. Some of the most renowned international musical personalities have graduated from or taught at the Athens Conservatoire, including conductor Dimitiris Mitropoulos (NY Philharmonic music director from 1951 to 1958), composers Nikos Skalkottas and Mikis Theodorakis, opera diva Maria Callas, pianists Gina Bachauer and Dimitris Sgouros and many others. Today, apart from continuing to offer to its c.700 music students the full range of classical music studies from the earliest stages to the concert diploma, the Athens Conservatoire is constantly expanding into new areas: thus, the Jazz Music Department includes leading Greek jazz musicians among its teaching staff and has already gained significant momentum, the Centre of Early Music offers new insights into historically informed performance to a growing number of students in collaboration with international institutions such as the Leeds University (UK), while a new program of studies leading to a BMus (Hons) degree in classical music performance is being developed in collaboration with Goldsmiths College, University of London (UK). 

Meanwhile, the first Drama School in Greece, also founded in 1871, has had a pivotal role in the advancement of theatrical studies in the country. Today, the Drama School of the Athens Conservatoire, member of the World Theatre Education Alliance (WTEA) – Beijing, is included among the select few top professional drama schools in Greece, officially recognized by the Ministry of Culture. The school students and its staff regularly stage cutting edge performances and cooperate with leading drama institutions abroad.

The Athens Conservatoire School of Dance, although established in the ‘00s, has been constantly expanding ever since and today features one of the few state-accredited Higher Professional Dance Schools in the country, complementing perfectly the Athens Conservatoire's wide portfolio of performing arts disciplines.

The Athens Conservatoire Centre for Research and Documentation, initially founded in 2015 to rescue from oblivion and decay our institution's extensive historical archives, is currently developing a broad range of research and editorial initiatives such as the preparation and edition of the first ever extensive History of Music in Contemporary Greece. The AC Centre for Research and Documentation participates and regularly contributes to international fora like the IAML (International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres), publishes scientific papers and a magazine, and organizes various exhibitions, such as a major exhibition on the composer Iannis Xenakis in collaboration with the Greek National Museum of Contemporary Art.

Many other major Greek arts organizations such as the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre, the Greek National Opera, the Athens & Epidaurus International Festival, the Onassis Cultural Centre, the Athens Concert Hall (Megaron) and many others regularly invite us to participate in leading cultural events.

The Athens Conservatoire iconic building, located in the heart of Athens near the Presidential Palace and the Aristotle Lyceum, is designed by the famous Greek architect Ioannis Despotopoulos (1903-1992) who holds a prominent position within the modernist architectural movement of the 1930s and the Bauhaus School in which he actively participated. His work for the Athens Conservatoire is the only completed part of an ambitious large-scale cultural complex commissioned in 1959 by the then government for Athens. For these reasons, the building is officially designated as a "Modern Architectural Monument" by the Greek Ministry of Culture. Today, this recently renovated building is functioning as a unique and enviable cultural hub for various contemporary artistic and cultural high profile events.

WHY DONATE TO US:

Since our establishment more than 150 years ago, we offer top-class education in the fields of Music, Drama and -more recently- Dance.

However, our main goal is to create a level-playing field for all children and young artists, offering equal opportunities for all interested in performing arts to join our programs, irrespective of their background, financial situation, class, ethnicity, religion or sex. 
We strive to serve this goal via a series of endowments and donations which support many students for the realization of their musical and artistic dreams. 

Therefore, your contributions are valuable since they will greatly help to ensure the seamless continuation of our efforts and programs from one year to the next and will also enhance our capacity to offer unique life-changing opportunities to even more aspiring young artists.

The Athens Conservatoire 

Southeast Alabama Community Theatre (SEACT) has a mission to connect the Wiregrass through theatre education and performance.

Southeast Alabama Community Theatre (SEACT) has a mission to enrich the cultural lives of Wiregrass residents through the presentation of high quality theatre, to provide creative opportunities to talented individuals to perform on stage and behind the scenes, and to introduce the theatrical experience to school-aged children. SEACT is a 501(c) organization and depends on the support of its community to bring theatre to life in the Wiregrass.

Southeast Alabama Community Players

Helping artists actualize their vision since 1965!

Intersection for the Arts is a bedrock Bay Area arts nonprofit that’s dedicated to helping artists grow. Through vital resources, including fiscal sponsorship, low-cost coworking and event space, and professional development programs, we empower people to continue creating, thinking big, and taking weird and wonderful risks.

We believe art and culture are necessary elements of wellbeing. That’s why we serve people working in the arts—from artists to educators to administrators to funders.

We take the stance that artists should be at the top of the systems that were originally created to support their work. Art institutions would not exist but for artists’ creativity, sweat, blood, tears, and enormously generous hearts. We support those who take matters into their own capable hands and make their own opportunities. We stand by artists every day in their efforts to make our communities better, healthier, more exciting and dynamic places to live our lives.

Intersection for the Arts

Making Chipping Campden a global hub for music & literature with concerts, events, and programs supporting young talent & culture

**The History of Chipping Campden Music Festival**

**The Chipping Campden Music Festival** is an International classical music festival based in the ancient town of Chipping Campden, ‘the jewel of the Cotswolds'  nestled in the heart of rural England in an area of outstanding beauty.  The Music Festival was established in 2002 over a bottle of wine between friends in the kitchen of the Festival Founder, Charlie Bennett,  and since then has grown into one of the UK’s most prestigious Classical Music events.T he Music Festival runs for a fortnight annually in May, stages around 20 concerts, performed by some of the world's greatest musicians to an audience totalling over 5000 people. The majestic 800 year old St James' Church is our concert hall and it is the extraordinary acoustic in this historic building that attracts both musician and audience from around the world, an acoustic described by Sir Alfred Brendel as “*one of the finest acoustics I encountered in my 60 year career”.*  

The Music Festival firmly believes in supporting and inspiring the next generation of musicians and integrated into and around the Festival are several well established, long term schemes dedicated to this aim. 
We have built a highly acclaimed side by side teaching orchestra, **The Chipping Campden Festival Academy Orchestra or CCFAO** (est. 2008) for Conservatoire graduates on the cusp of their professional career who spend a week at the Festival working alongside seasoned pros hand-picked from Europe's best orchestras. This unique scheme (50% experienced professionals and 50% students) creates a bespoke orchestra each year, auditioning around 200 graduates for the 25 student chairs. During the Festival the CCFAO performs 3 concerts to sell out audiences, sharing the stage with world class soloists in concerto performances. Many of our alumni now work in orchestras around the world. The whole community supports this scheme offering accommodation, refreshments, transport, and a listening ear to the 50-member orchestra during their stay in the town. 

For younger musicians, we have developed a **vibrant, immersive year-round education programme** reaching around 700 children annually, offering local students free instrumental lessons from experienced musicians, a tiered youth orchestra scheme, free Festival concert tickets and inspirational workshops from Festival performers. 

For the wider community, we have established and support the **Campden Community Chorus** (est. 2013) with around 60 members ranging in age from 17 - 87, meeting weekly and performing regularly to local audiences.

In 2010, **The** **Chipping Campden Literature Festival** was founded as a complimentary Festival to the Music Festival, and takes place in the week prior to the Music Festival. It is renowned for presenting a series of thought provoking, original, and wide-ranging events featuring some of the world's greatest writers. Since 2010 the Literature Festival has grown in size, reputation and popularity, now attracting over 3000 audience members to over 50 events - a mix of intimate and large scale talks, lectures and discussions, held in venues around the town of Chipping Campden and reaching into the heart of the community.

The two Festivals are overseen by the same board of Trustees under the umbrella of The Chipping Campden Music Festival Charity.

**Our Charitable Objectives**
Promotion and arrangement of concert performances, literature events and music educational activities. 

**Governing committee**
The Chipping Campden Music Festival received Charitable status in 2005, and is governed by a board of Trustees who are: 
Ailsa Scott, David Roberts, Arthur Cunynghame and Suzanne Smith. 

Suzanne Smith was appointed in 2024 to replace Richard Stephens, one of the original trustees who stepped down in 2023, due to age and health. Founder Charlie Bennett was an original Trustee, but stood down when he became Festival Director in 2007. 

More information about us on The Charity Commission of England and Wales website can be found [here](https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/en/charity-search/-/charity-details/4000425/governance?_uk_gov_ccew_onereg_charitydetails_web_portlet_CharityDetailsPortlet_organisationNumber=4000425)

**Current Management**
Festival Founder, Charlie Bennett served as Artistic Director of the Music Festival until 2023 when he stepped back to focus on the Literature Festival. The Music Festival is now run by Charlie’s two colleagues, Jessica May (Co Director) and Thomas Hull (Artistic Director). Tom and Jessica have both been closely involved in the Festival from the early days and are supported by a seasonal team of 6 paid members of staff and a network of over 20 volunteers who offer their services as front of house, hosting and catering staff. Their first two Festivals (2024 and 2025) have been met with universal approval, growth in ticket sales and increased financial support from key donors. 

The Literature Festival is run by Charlie Bennett (Co-Artistic Director) and Vicky Bennett (Co-Artistic Director and Founder) supported by a seasonal team of 2 paid members of staff and a network of over 15 volunteers who help with the day to day operations of the Literature Festival. Since 2023, the ticket sales and audience size has doubled from c1600 - c3100 due to a more ambitious and wide-reaching programme of events as well as the opening of a new community theatre with a bigger auditorium and a perfect venue for the spoken word.   In 2025, the Literature Festival produced their first play – Samuel Becket’s Waiting for Godot – to great acclaim. The success of this production will pave the way to similar projects from the Literature Festival team. 

**Our Mission**
To build on our achievements and reputation to date and establish Chipping Campden as a world-renowned centre of music and literature excellence, providing world class concerts and events with the development of young talent at our heart. 

**Music Festival Core Value**s
- Excellence in all we do – not compromising on quality of performance and keeping music at the core of our output. 
- Artistic Integrity – working with world class artists and emerging artists on the cusp of major international careers. Curating thought provoking and beautiful programmes and bringing the best musicians in the world to this pocket of rural England. 
- Cultural Development – stimulating and developing the minds of our youth, our community, our audiences and our performers.
- Mutual Respect – treating all with respect and consideration.

**Music Festival Short/Medium term Goals** 
- To build on our reputation as an internationally recognised festival and continue to bring the very best musicians to the region.
- To continue to stage concert performances of the highest quality to our supporters in the Cotswolds.
- To develop a programme of practical and inspirational musical education for local students of every level.
- To inspire confidence in future donors, by demonstrating tangible and successful outcomes from these projects and securing funding for long term goals. 

**Education Ambitions** 
- To sustain a long-term programme of practical and inspirational musical education for local students through the support of benefactors aligned with this as a focus. 
- To inspire greater uptake in classical music instrumental lessons for next generation performers.
- To see young musicians in the region go through a 15 cycle:  learn an instrument through involvement in CCMF projects; study at Conservatoire/Tertiary Education; return as student of CCFAO or young artists scheme; become a music professional and ‘pass it on’ to the next generation.

**Literature Festival Goals**
To continue to bring a diverse range of literature events and people to engage with audiences in Chipping Campden.

**Past and Current Activities**
The programme for the [May 2026 Festivals can be found here](https://www.campdenmayfestivals.co.uk/). 

Student applications for the May Orchestra can be submitted between September and November 2025. We will audition all candidates in January and February 2026. 

Our past Festivals can be found via this link [https://www.campdenmayfestivals.co.uk/music/past-music-festivals ](https://www.campdenmayfestivals.co.uk/music/past-music-festivals )

Currently we have 7 schools involved in our education work, involving over 700 children. Our  education work can be found here: [https://www.campdenmayfestivals.co.uk/music/community](https://www.campdenmayfestivals.co.uk/music/community)

Future planned activities

In addition to the May Festival planning, we are exploring the possibility of a summer performance of West Side Story in St James Church, reconvening our May orchestra, building a youth/community chorus alongside world class soloists. 

This will provide more opportunities for our players, students and give our audiences a thoroughly exhilarating summer show. 

**Last word from a legend**
Sir Bernard Haitink, the late Maestro and long-time supporter of the Festival said the following, just a year before he left us.  *“The Chipping Campden Music Festival brings world class artists – and also young musicians starting their professional journeys – to a wonderful venue. After a long lifetime as a performer, having the chance to be part of the audience and to hear concerts of outstanding quality in such a setting is the purest joy”.* 

Chipping Campden Music Festival

We are a community based social enterprise on a journey to build the first sustainable rural city in Uganda. 

Invest in us as we build the sustainable rural city in Africa! 

Our work is premised on the belief that using a holistic and participatory development approach to design and implement community initiatives can empower local communities and create prosperity. Since 2019, our ecosystem of 20 social businesses and community projects serves 10,000 clients through the targeted provision of services/products across the education, health, agriculture, tourism, and finance sectors.  So far, 2,000 learners have benefited from our functional adult education, primary education, early childhood education, and vocational skilling activities. 8,000 patients have been treated at our health facility. 100 women who are members of our Shea butter Coop have seen their daily household incomes triple from under $1 to now $4, etc. Moreover, our interventions are successful because we actively involve the community in discussing their needs, views, and priorities while giving them the tools they need to solve their own challenges. Across and beyond Okere, the impact of our work shines bright and the international media have comprehensively covered our radical approach to rural transformation.  Okere City's initiatives are driven by actual community needs and the implementation of project activities is led by community members. Overall, Okere City strives to be a community organization and social enterprise that creates multiple opportunities for agrarian reforms and rural transformation in Okere Parish by encouraging open and forward-thinking, mobilizing, organizing, and training the rural population through a series of innovative projects, activities, and techniques so that they are able to develop practical solutions to the day to day challenges they face. Okere City seeks to be an enabler for the rural community in the parish to be more imaginative, cooperative, creative, innovative, and enterprising as prerequisites to make them more progressive, empowered, and successful. At the core of our work is ensuring that we strengthen the dignity of our rural community members by providing the support infrastructures that enable them to become responsible for shaping and designing their own futures and destinies.  Our current strategic direction is being guided by the Okere City 2030 Strategy which aims to build the first sustainable rural city in Africa.  
Okere City is certified by NGOsource as equivalent to a U.S. public charity under the International Revenue Service's Equivalency Determination standard. 

Okere Community Development Project

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Shell Lake Arts Center Inc

Het Concertgebouw Fonds

Entertainment Community Fund (formerly The Actors Fund)

Shell Lake Arts Center Inc

Eye Zen Presents

San Francisco Neo-Futurists

Theater