McMicken Gears Up for Fine Arts Fund Campaign

UC’s Fine Arts Fund campaign kicks off this week with an announcement of support from President Nancy Zimpher. The success of the campaign will depend to a large extent on McMicken because, as the largest college on campus, its contributions will be crucial to reaching the university’s 2006 goal of $52,000.

Employee donation campaigns account for the greatest portion (51%) of arts funding. Contributions are easy to make, and payroll deduction will cover the costs of your pledge. Just use the

link

on the UC website. Paper pledge cards are also available in department offices.

Your gift will support educational outreach programs for more than 500,000 school children and make the arts available to a wide variety of community arts groups and general audiences. Without the help of organizations like ours, much of the entertainment we enjoy would not be possible. The Fine Arts Fund provides major resources for its 18 member organizations: the Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati Ballet, Cincinnati Opera, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Contemporary Arts Center, May Festival, Playhouse in the Park, Taft Museum of Art, Arts Consortium of Cincinnati, Art Works, Carnegie Visual + Performing Arts Center, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival, Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, Fitton Center for Creative Arts, Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, Madcap Productions Puppet Theatre, and The Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati.

In addition, it offers monetary support to over 70 local groups that include UC/Clermont College’s Calico Players, the regional Alzheimer’s Association, the Cincinnati Horticultural Society, Over-the-Rhine’s iRhine, the Urban Appalachian Council, MUSE, Creative Aging Cincinnati, the Center for Independent Living Options, and the Cincinnati Children’s Choir.

Whether you contribute $10 or $1,000, your name will be included in the raffle of more than 30 prizes to be awarded on Feb. 24, the mid-point of the campaign. If free parking for a quarter at your current location doesn’t sound tempting, a $100 gift card from Jeff Ruby’s Tropicana might. Or maybe free tickets for two to the opera, ballet, symphony, May Festival, or Contemporary Arts Center will encourage you to give. You could also win one of the two prizes McMicken donated to the drawing-- a choice of a family membership to either the Cincinnati Museum Center or the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and a choice of a family membership to either the Cincinnati Zoo or the Cincinnati Nature Center.

Along with the prizes that will be awarded at the raffle, every contributor of $75 or more will receive the Fine Arts Fun Card, which works like the popular "Entertainment" books. It provides discounted offers from all the member organizations, a year-round e-mail newsletter update on arts events, and access to the Fun Card Calendar of events on the Fine Arts Fund Web site.

The region’s Fine Arts Fund drive will officially begin with the Fine Arts Fund Sampler Weekend this Saturday and Sunday, Feb.11-12. Everyone in the family can enjoy one or more of the day-long free events taking place throughout Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky.

Take the kids to see a puppet or marionette show, have their faces painted by Playhouse in the Park make-up artists, let them learn to make balloon animals or spin wool. See how a dancer prepares for a performance with the Cincinnati Ballet, rediscover the Taft Museum, take one of the family tours at the Cincinnati Art Museum, or hear a performance by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. You can stay in your own neighborhood or travel as far as Lawrenceburg, Indiana and see the best art and entertainment the region has to offer. And it’s all free.

If you think about it, the campaign slogan is true: “Support the Fine Arts Fund because the power of the arts touches everyone.” Most of us are observers or participate in at least one of the activities dependent on the Fine Arts Fund for resources. And all of us benefit from the $170,000+ annual economic impact that the arts have on our community.

Visit www.fineartsfund.org for details about Fine Arts Sampler Weekend.