The Performing Arts and Concert Series has received a $1 million donation, but it’s not for a spring show in The Convo. It’s all about educational programming for OU students and local schoolchildren.
In the fall, the Golden Dragon Acrobats dazzled audience members with their complex and dangerous moves in the Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium. The next morning, they did it all again for 1,400 local schoolchildren who were bused in for free.
It’s all a part of the Ohio University Performing Arts and Concert Series’ mission for education and outreach to the Athens area. Andrew Holzaepfel, senior associate director of the Campus Involvement Center, said since he began working with the series more than a decade ago, smaller budgets and more expensive costs lead to a decrease in the amount of similar educational programs.
After all that time, the trend is about to change.
An anonymous alumus donated $1 million to the Performing Arts and Concert Series, a unit of the Division of Student Affairs, to create the Performing Arts and Education Fund. The fund will sponsor programming that brings in visiting performing artists who will have an educational impact on OU students and faculty as well as Athens-based schoolchildren.
The Performing Arts and Concert Series already reaches out to the College of Fine Arts for artist residencies and master classes, but Holzaepfel said this gift will allow them to do more. Additionally, he said this fund will allow for more programming for local K-12 students by either taking the visiting performers to them or bringing them to the performers.
“Part of our mission is to serve the region, and this donation really helps facilitate (that),” said Ryan Lombardi, vice president for Student Affairs. “As an institution, we’ve always felt that obligation and embraced the obligation.”
Similar to a savings account, the donation will gain interest after “sitting in the bank” for a period of time. Only interest accumulated from the initial donation will be spent.
Ellen Fultz, executive director of development for the Division of University Advancement, said some spendable income will be available after one full year for use during the 2016-17 academic year.
OU will have access to the interest accumulated per year, which is 4 percent of the endowment. Therefore, $40,000 will be available to use after the first full year. The donation will continue in perpetuity.
Fultz said she worked with the anonymous retired alumus for about a year on his donation. She said he was very interested in the arts and the ability to impact so many groups of people.
“(The far-reaching impact) is really what excited him,” Fultz said. “That’s the pleasure of what we do. We talk with people, get a sense of their interests, and in particular, someone can fund an endowment that continues as long as Ohio University is in existence, which is a wonderful legacy for someone to have.”
Fultz said there wasn’t a particular reason why the donor remained anonymous. She said some are just philanthropic while others might not want to deter future donors by having his or her name attached to a fund.
The endowment must be used for educational programming, Holzaepfel emphasized, so don’t expect concert at The Convo to be funded by this endowment.
“Yeah, this won’t be a Wiz Khalifa show,” Holzaepfel said with a laugh.
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