Ordway Center Receives Bush Fondation Grant

Ordway Center for the Performing Arts will receive a major grant of $670,000 from the Archibald Bush Foundation for The New World Initiative that is to increase the scope and audience for its World Music and World Dance Series.

Specifically, the grant is for broadened community engagement and participation in world music and world dance through a major program expansion as part of the Foundation's Large Cultural Organizations Development Fund.

The grant offers three-year support with a matching component, and will be used to develop an audience for the world music and world dance programs that reach an increasingly diverse community.

"This grant allows us to continue our growth as a performing arts center bringing the widest range of excellent performing arts to the Midwest as possible," says Ordway Center President and CEO Patricia Mitchell. "The World Music and World Dance programming is particularly exciting for us - and we look forward to intensifying its outreach."

Ordway Center's 2008-2009 World Dance Series continues with Ballet Hispanico in January and Lula Washington Dance Theatre in February. The World Music series continues with Vusi Mahlasela in February and Jake Shimabukuro in March.

The Ordway, recognized as one of the U.S.'s leading not-for-profit performing arts centers, is home to a wide variety of performances throughout the year that encompass the finest in American musical theatre, world music, dance, jazz, and vocal artists on its Main Hall and McKnight Theatre stages. In addition, each year the Ordway presents its Flint Hills International Children's Festival and serves over 50,000 children and adults through its Ordway Education programs. The Ordway opened its doors on January 1, 1985 and since then has become known as Saint Paul's most elegant and inviting performance space, attracting audiences from throughout the region to its diverse range of presentations. The Ordway joins the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, The Minnesota Opera, and the Schubert Club in a unique Arts Partnership and provides a home to its Arts Partners. Ordway Center is proud to sponsor the Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists, a professionally guided academic and artistic environment serving students in grades nine through twelve.

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