A Year in Review: Van Wezel Foundation

September 15, 2021 – Sarasota

With the 2021 fiscal year over, the Van Wezel Foundation (Foundation) today highlighted the momentous progress it, in partnership with the Van Wezel’s Education and Community Engagement Department, has achieved because of and despite of the pandemic, by successfully expanding arts integration and fostering important partnerships within the Sarasota community.

“Part of our mission is to advance arts education and enrich communities by inspiring minds through the power of the arts, and our efforts over the past year have been in pursuit of this,” said Cheryl Mendelson, CEO of the Foundation.

Together, the Foundation and the Van Wezel’s Education and Community Engagement Department has diligently listened to the community and continually assessed its needs, in order to keep arts education alive and thriving over the past year. The new partnerships include Newtown Farmers Market & Newtown Alive; Resilient Retreat; UnidosNow; the Boys & Girls Club; the Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe; Girls, Inc.; the United Way; the Robert L. Taylor Community Complex; and the Sarasota Housing Authority.

The Van Wezel Education and Community Engagement Department, and its ability to thrive and create new partnerships, programs, and avenues of arts exploration, was made possible through a grant from Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation and other generous donors to the Van Wezel Foundation.

“Despite the pandemic, the Van Wezel Foundation and the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall have been a leading force in making the arts more accessible and inclusive for students of all backgrounds,” says Teri A Hansen, President and CEO of Barancik Foundation. “We applaud how they successfully expanded arts integration and increased their partnerships in a significant way over the past year.”

“Looking back over the past year, we can be proud of this momentous progress that we achieved because of and despite of the pandemic.” said Mendelson. “Because of expanding arts integration and increasing our community partnerships, we’ve been able to serve more students, families and educators than ever before.”

Reflecting on 2021, the Foundation, through its philanthropic giving and in partnership with Van Wezel Hall, realized the following for the Sarasota community:

• 58,081 students, families and teachers had access to arts experiences
• 219 children in the kindergarten readiness program
• 38,220 students enjoyed schooltime performances
• 1,696 families participated in Bi-lingual Family Arts Nights
• 15,137 Artworks Anywhere views
• 2,400 virtual teaching artist visits to classrooms 
• 209 educators received professional development in arts integration
• 200 attendees at first-of-its-kind IDEA Artist-in-residence Community Performance 

“During this time, we strived to maintain our open lines of communication with our area school districts and social service organizations so that we could effectively identify and collaborate on needed programming,” said Kelli Maldonado, director of education & community engagement at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall. “Even when facing difficult hurdles that we’ve never faced before, like the reliance on remote learning and teaching, we focused on the need to expand arts integration and increase these important partnerships within our community.”

ABOUT THE VAN WEZEL FOUNDATION

The Van Wezel Foundation’s mission is to create and sustain a vibrant performing arts center, advance education, and enrich communities by inspiring minds through the power of the arts. The Foundation has partnered with the City of Sarasota since 1987 to support arts education throughout our region, serving more than 50,000 students with enriching arts-based education opportunities and professional development for more than 400 teachers across five counties. To foster a connection between the people, the bay and the spirit of human creativity, the Foundation is leading The Future is Now Campaign, a master plan for Bayfront development that includes a new performing arts center. To learn more about the new Sarasota Performing Arts Center and get involved, visit vwfoundation.org/SPAC. For more information on the Foundation and its mission, visit vwfoundation.org, or join us on Facebook and Instagram.