Dear Friends of Ars Nova Workshop,
Thank you so much for being a part of our events, now and over the past 20 years, and for loving and supporting great music in the ways that you do. We are so grateful for our Ars Nova community, and it’s been a little gut-wrenching to have to cancel so many events—not only because of the music we won’t hear, and the musicians we won’t be able to support as much as we intended, but also because we won’t get to see all of you anytime soon.
Of course these are uncertain times for everyone. For us, those cancelled shows also mean lost ticket revenues. And even though ticket sales account for only about 20% of our overall expenses—well, 20% is a significant chunk! We’ve also had to postpone our fundraising event, unfortunately. But we still intend to celebrate Marshall Allen, perhaps closer to his birthday (his 96th!) in May.
We’re doing our best to figure out how to keep everything on track in the face of these losses. We operate on a pretty tight budget as it is, and we’ve got a lot of projects in the works that we’re still plugging away at—longer-term projects that are going to bring you so much rich food for thought as well as transformative musical experiences! We’ve got a major exhibition on drummer Milford Graves in the works, at this point still scheduled to open in late September. We’re working with The Woodlands in West Philadelphia to find new and innovative ways to both bring musical events to their beautiful space and to create an inclusive space for the communities there. And we’re cooking up a new project that will take a look at the recent events (including the explosion) at the site of the refinery in SW Philadelphia. Plus the October Revolution, an amazing new podcast, and much more!
Your support during this period of uncertainty is so important to us! The best possible gift you could give us right now is a monthly donation, in any amount. That way, we have a little more information on what’s coming in from month to month, and we can plan a little bit better.
Making a monthly donation is easy! You just go to our donation page and click the “Donate Today” button. This will open up a PayPal window, where you can enter whatever amount you choose. Underneath the amount, there is a checkbox for “Make this a monthly donation.” You just check that off and complete the payment.
Thank you all for keeping us in your thoughts, and we hope to see you again soon.
Gratefully,
Mark & Celeste
