William Randolph Hearst Foundations Provides Hefty Grant to SOPAC to Partner with School District
The South Orange Performing Arts Center received a $75,000 grant from the William Randolph Hearst Foundations to advance its arts education program. The funds will be used both at the center and in the South Orange and Maplewood communities.
The William Randolph Hearst Foundations are two nonprofits that work together to “ensure that people of all backgrounds in the United States have the opportunity to build healthy, productive and inspiring lives,” according to the foundations’ website, www.hearstfdn.org. The organizations focus on the culture, education, health and social services fields. With the grant, SOPAC will work with the South Orange-Maplewood School District to bring a dance program to South Orange and Maplewood middle schools in partnership with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
The program will begin during the 2018-2019 school year and will allow the district’s middle school students to participate in a 10- to 15-week dance program with two classes each week during the schools’ arts periods at school. They will be able to learn about dance and theater from the professionals at Alvin Ailey, and the courses will culminate in a performance at the end of the program....