News and Events Press Room Press Releases Young Audiences Honors Arts Advocates in Community, School

September 23, 2005 (Atlanta) – Young Audiences, Woodruff Arts Center (YAWAC) announced today that it planned to hold its third annual Celebrating the Arts fundraising event on Wednesday, October 19 from 6-9 PM at The Westin Peachtree Plaza.

A keystone of the annual Celebrating the Arts event is the recognition of community leaders, educators and schools that have made great strides in advancing arts education.
This year’s honorees include Woodruff Arts Center president and CEO Shelton g. Stanfill, Young Audiences long-term executive director Ann Alperin, exemplary educator and Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Margaret Edson and Georgia School of Excellence, Montgomery Elementary. The event is chaired by YA board members Marie Howle and Anne Sheehan.

The annual Celebrating the Arts event offers arts and education supporters the opportunity to come together in order to enjoy performances by professional artists, recognize the contributions of outstanding arts advocates and raise money to support in-school and community arts education through Young Audiences.

The evening’s events will begin with a cocktail reception during which guests will enjoy the lively jazz renditions of Rialto Jazz for Kids featuring the Phoenix Jazztet. Guests will also have an opportunity during this time to participate in two special fundraising events: a raffle to win a fabulous getaway prize donated by supporting sponsor Delta Air Lines and Starwood Hotels & Resorts and a book signing by storyteller Carmen Deedy and illustrator Michael White.

After the cocktail reception, guests will enter the Plaza Ballroom where they will be served dinner while the program opens with a performance by Ms. Deedy. A nationally recognized author and storyteller, Deedy will engage both the ticketed guests and a special group of children from Atlanta Public Schools with one of her mesmerizing and awe-inspiring tales, reminding everyone of the event’s purpose: supporting arts education for Georgia’s children.

Single tickets to Celebrating the Arts are available for purchase for $150 each online at www.yawac.org $100 of the ticket price is tax deductible. If you are interested in purchasing a table or half-table, corporate sponsorship opportunities or ordering tickets by phone, please contact YAWAC Executive Director Tony Kimbrell at 404-733-5297 or tony.kimbrell@woodruffcenter.org.

From 1984 to 2001, former executive director Ann Alperin shaped and expanded the Young Audiences organization. During her tenure, Young Audiences quickly became one of the largest chapters in the national network, providing programming in all art forms throughout Georgia and reaching more than one million school children each year. Alperin has continued her work with the arts since she turned over the stewardship of Young Audiences to current executive director Tony Kimbrell. She currently serves on the board of the DeKalb Symphony Orchestra and in the past has chaired the board of the Georgia Coalition for Arts Education and served on the National Young Audiences Network Policy and Planning Committees, the Georgia Fine Arts Education Advisory Council and the Education Advisory Committee of the Atlanta History Center.

Margaret Edson is an elementary school teacher and Pulitzer Prize winning playwright. She taught first grade and English as a Second Language in Washington D.C. before moving to Atlanta, where she has taught kindergarten students in Atlanta Public Schools’ John Hope Elementary for seven years. Her critically acclaimed play, Wit, documents the life of an English professor struggling with ovarian cancer and has been performed both off Broadway and in an HBO movie starring Emma Thompson. She is the winner of the Southern Fellowship of Writers Drama Award; Berrilla Kerr Foundation Playwrights Award; Connecticut Drama Critics’ Circle Award for best production, performance, directing; Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for best production, performance, writing, directing, lighting and best world premier and Drama League of New York Playwright Award.

Montgomery Elementary School in DeKalb County has been recognized as a Georgia School of Excellence and has consistently met the No Child Left Behind Act’s rigorous standards for Adequate Yearly Progress as well as the Georgia Department of Education’s Pay for Performance criteria. In addition to maintaining high academic standards, Montgomery Elementary and Principal Lynne Owings put strong focus on the arts. Montgomery Elementary has been a long-time user of Young Audiences and Georgia Council for the Arts programs. During the 2004-2005 school year alone, Montgomery Elementary received a Georgia Council for the Arts grant for an Artist-In-Residency program with puppeteer Claire Ritzler and storyteller Sherry Norfolk and held a Fine Arts Night, which featured Young Audiences’ artists Matt and Emily Kent and offered an instrumental petting zoo, band and strings performances, art exhibits of student work and hands-on arts experiences for students and parents.

About Young Audiences, Woodruff Arts Center
Since its inception in 1983, Young Audiences, Woodruff Arts Center (YAWAC) has sought to improve the life and education of every child through the arts. As one of 32 local affiliates of the national Young Audiences organization and the newest division of the Woodruff Arts Center, YAWAC is Georgia’s leading provider of in-school educational arts programming, reaching approximately one million children during the 2004-2005 school year alone. YAWAC supports excellence in education by providing curriculum-based, in-school educational arts experiences presented by a roster of more than 75 professional teaching artists in the disciplines of music, dance, visual art and theatre. YAWAC programs, available as assembly performances, workshops and residencies, are developmentally appropriate for children in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade and provide authentic connections to the Georgia curriculum.

About Woodruff Arts Center
The Woodruff Arts Center opened its doors in 1968 and has grown into the largest performing and visual arts center in the nation. The Woodruff is unique in that it combines visual/performing arts along with an arts college on one campus. A not-for-profit organization, the Woodruff Arts Center is made up of the Alliance Theatre, the Atlanta College of Art, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the High Museum of Art, Young Audiences and the 14th Street Playhouse.

Contact: Amy Turner
Young Audiences
(404) 733-5308
amy.turner@woodruffcenter.org

Tickets: Tony Kimbrell
Young Audiences
404-733-5297
tony.kimbrell@woodruffcenter.org