Sample Excerpt: Annual Report for The Woodruff Arts Center (Atlanta)

Introduction

Opening Ourselves…

An arts center is a living, breathing, organic entity – constantly growing, blooming, evolving, and yes, impacting and altering the environment in which it lives. And as it does all that, it creates countless openings of every description. 

 

The Woodruff Arts Center is all that and more. Five vital components – each with its own distinct mission, yet still part of a one singularly dynamic whole. Year after year, with each passing performance, exhibition, event, class, or screening, this Atlanta treasure chest keeps on opening – performances, possibilities, eyes, ears, minds, horizons, you name it. And in the process, it moves beyond just being part of the fabric of our city; it becomes a place where any of us can come for our own personal opening. Yes, yes, it all sounds a bit mysterious, but soon, you’ll see.

 

We’ve been busy this year. Magic and miracles aplenty in our wake. Come inside. We’re open…

 

 

A Grand Opening Year

 

“Opening” is one of those great words – a noun, adjective, and a gerund. Of course, there are all the wonderful openings – as in performances, exhibitions, classes, and more – that took place this past year on all the stages and spaces of the Symphony, the High, the Alliance, and the 14^th Street Playhouse. Not to mention Young Audiences, whose roster of artists thrilled and entertained students in literally thousands of openings in classrooms and auditoriums across Georgia.

 

Then there’s another kind of opening not nearly so obvious, accompanied by far less fanfare, and no press releases at all. But these openings are where perspectives got shifted, fires got sparked, lives got changed. Maybe it’s the opening of a young person’s appreciation for music. A small-town resident’s cultural horizons. A budding artist’s life possibilities. A community’s generous, compassionate heart.

 

The arts naturally promote greater understanding, awareness, appreciation, and tolerance in the world around us. Multiply these more modest openings by thousands upon thousands, and suddenly, a place like the Woodruff becomes so much more than just a place to catch a concert, show, or flick. It becomes a force for change.    

 

Opening Possibilities 
Sometimes all it takes is a seed planted, an idea suggested, a synapse leaped. Realization dawns. And suddenly there’s an opening that didn’t exist before. It could be the possibility of becoming a lifelong music lover, or finally understanding fractions, or launching a fulfilling artistic hobby (or career!). Anything’s possible, and in the past year, the Woodruff made sure that those possibilities were endless and exciting… 

 

Opening Futures

It’s pretty simple. Build the artistic foundation today, enjoy the cultural bounty tomorrow. That can mean nurturing young African-American and Latino musical talent through the ASO’s Talent Development Program. Or the Woodruff’s Mini Grants supporting artistic achievement outside the Woodruff village. Or perhaps the more tangible expansion of the Woodruff campus to better deliver cultural excellence to our children and children’s children. In many ways, the Woodruff is always looking ahead. After all, how do you think we got to be a world-class arts center in the first place?  

 

Opening Hearts…
Touch my heart. That’s what we all want. And need. In the preceding 12 months, the Woodruff served up plenty of heart-opening opportunities. From the simple heartwarming pleasures of an ASO Family Concert or Alliance Children’s Theatre production, to the heart-stirring remembrance of a cultural icon, to a more heartfelt “reaching out” to those in need, we had plenty of opportunities to feel good and do good.  

 

Opening Horizons

Big world out there. Locally and globally. The more colors we see, flavors we taste, perspectives we brush up against, the more open we become. It’s inevitable. And with openness comes understanding comes tolerance. Keep that up, and before you know it, world peace doesn’t look so quixotic after all. Building on its standing commitment to opening minds and horizons through the arts, the Woodruff celebrated diversity this past year – passionately, joyfully, colorfully…

 

Like a cultural fisherman on the trail of exotic catch, the Woodruff cast their lines across town and across the globe to reel in a magnificent mélange of artistic outpouring: music, dance, film, theatre, and more…

 

END   

 

The Woodruff Arts Center (Atlanta)
Annual Report