Donations to VCM help grow virtual garden
The Mother’s Day Musical Garden Tour has been a spring ritual in Victoria since 1982, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Victoria Conservatory of Music has cancelled its annual fundraiser for the first time in 38 years.
Tickets are usually sold for $35 and organizers hope supporters will donate the money instead.
Each donation of $35 or more made in the name of a mother or favourite person will be posted on the VCM website. For every $140 (four tickets), the conservatory will “grow” a virtual garden.
“We have a garden picture on our website and as we sell tickets, we will bring in more and more pictures, like pieces of a puzzle,” said conservatory CEO Jane Butler McGregor, adding the event raises crucial funds that support exceptional teaching, innovative programming, music therapy, children’s outreach programs and performances.
Butler noted the conservatory is now offering almost 90 per cent of its private lessons online, “with an enormous thank you and appreciation to our faculty and artistic leadership.
Like many other groups, however, it is struggling. “We’ve lost about 35 per cent of our revenue in the last month and are looking for ways to adapt and keep music going.”
She believes the pandemic will change the teaching format forever. “When this is over, we will go back to teaching in our own facility, yes, but this is a marvellous opportunity for us to spread our wings, to teach online and explore the whole realm of distance learning.”