Giving Day is so important to the arts
Being a huge Beatles fan, the first thing that came to mind as the midnight hour struck Thursday night was Number 9, Number 9, Number 9.
For the ninth year, Curtain Call has been blessed to be at the top of the leaderboard for Fairfield County Giving Day. This 24-hour period of giving sponsored by Fairfield County’s Community Foundation provided 400-plus charitable organizations across all sectors the opportunity to raise awareness for the many needs within the nonprofit community.
All of us, especially here at Curtain Call, are most grateful to Juanita James and her staff at Fairfield County’s Community Foundation, and to the lead sponsor of the event, Bill Tommins, Bank of America’s Southern Connecticut market president. They and so many other sponsors made the thousands of dollars in bonus prizes available ... the competition for the prizes makes the day very exciting and fun.
This being my 21st season at Curtain Call, I can no longer imagine what my life was like not being here. (Nor can my wife, Jan, but that’s another story.) Our lives have been so enriched by the hundreds of amazing artists we’ve worked with and the tens of thousands of loyal patrons and friends we’ve come to know, chatting with them before and after performances. We owe so much to all of these incredible friends of the arts. In the nine years since Giving Day started, nearly 10,000 online contributions have helped support and maintain Curtain Call, Stamford’s only year-round, nonprofit producing theater company.
The entire world has suffered from the effects of our current pandemic, yet certain industries have been hit harder than others. We knew from the outset that the live entertainment world was likely to be the last to reopen and that it would be a long time before audience numbers were back to normal. That has held true. Thankfully, we’re back to creating programming by and for our community, but audience numbers are not back to prepandemic levels. That’s why support on Giving Day is so important to Curtain Call and every organization that participated.
Last year in my letter here I wrote, “In the early months of the pandemic, it would have been easy to look at our cultural landscape as being as bleak as a Dickensian workhouse. But the support we had received from Giving Day 2020 — mere days before the lockdown — assured me that we would survive.” Likewise, funds received in February 2021 helped keep us afloat while our theaters were mostly empty. (the Dressing Room Theatre went dark on March 13, 2020 and didn’t have a show until Oct. 1, 2021!)
Having raised significantly more money on last year’s Giving Day than any other organization I was astounded. To be in that position again truly shows how much the arts mean to our community. I am additionally heartened to see so many other arts organizations having been generously supported, too. More than $2 million was raised Thursday from nearly 13,000 contributors. That is incredible. Since the first year, Giving Day has raised nearly $15,000,000 for nonprofits across Fairfield County. How could I not publicly say THANK YOU?
Many years ago, the great entertainer George M. Cohan famously said, “My mother thanks you. My father thanks you. My sister thanks you. And, I assure you, I thank you.” I can’t say it any better than that ... except to add that my brothers thank you, my wife thanks you, and on behalf of the hundreds of artists who work on presenting our shows each year, and our amazingly dedicated board of directors and staff, too! (For those who have seen my 100-year old mother’s social media video asking for support, you know how much she thanks you.)
While we’re so thankful to be open again, the arts and culture sector is still not at 100 percent. Come see a show. Go to the symphony — Stamford’s Symphony is awesome. Go to a museum, a ballet, an art exhibit. Please continue to support the arts!