Abundant Turnout for Future Stages Festival

The Kauffman Center’s inaugural Future Stages Festival showcased more than 500 youth artists performing in Muriel Kauffman Theatre, Helzberg Hall and an additional outdoor stage. A free event for the entire community, Future Stages Festival was created to thank Kansas City for the warm welcome the Kauffman Center has received since opening in 2011. Since that time, more than one million visitors have experienced an event at the Center and 6,000 people participated in Sunday’s Future Stages Festival.

Future Stages Festival is part of the Kauffman Center’s Open Doors Spotlight on Youth access program designed to share the Kauffman Center’s stages (and spotlight) with a wide range of local artists and performers, from young children to smaller arts groups, many of whom have not yet had the opportunity to perform at the Center.

“Future Stages Festival is an exciting display of the Kauffman Center’s commitment to providing excellence in programming to everyone in our community for generations to come,” stated President and CEO Paul J. Schofer. “The Kauffman Center will build upon the community support that made it possible in our first three years to provide diverse and outstanding programming, as well as arts access programs necessary to open our doors to more children and families.”

The Kauffman Center’s Open Doors access programs, which provide transportation subsidies for schools to attend matinee programs, free community tickets for non-profit agencies as well as opportunities for youth to perform on stage, are viewed by the Center as vital to the effort to promote and develop creativity for future generations. “Along with our renowned resident artistic organizations and community partners, Kauffman Center strives to create a supportive environment that will allow Kansas City to nurture and educate its own future artists. Our region has thousands of talented youth. Each has a dream to perform in a world-renowned venue and Future Stages Festival provides youth the opportunity to perform and be recognized. We’re placing our youth and the arts at the center of our vibrant community,” explained Schofer.

ABOUT THE OPEN DOORS PROGRAM
The Kauffman Center Open Doors program connects young people to the arts through three major components:

• The Open Doors Spotlight on Youth program inspires and nurtures the next generation of artists by giving young performers the opportunity to perform on the stages of the Kauffman Center.
• The Open Doors Community Ticket Fund offers access to programming at the Kauffman Center for youth and families through reduced price or free tickets.
• The Open Doors Transportation Fund offers funding to schools in the metropolitan area so that bringing students to the Kauffman Center for school matinee performances is more affordable.

ABOUT THE KAUFFMAN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, a major center for music, opera, theater, and dance designed by Moshe Safdie, opened in 2011. Serving as a cultural cornerstone for Kansas City and the region, the Kauffman Center delivers extraordinary and diverse performing arts experiences. Recently honored as one of the World’s 15 Most Beautiful Concert Halls, the Kauffman Center attracts some of the world’s most renowned performers and entertainers. Through educational outreach programs and community enrichment, the Kauffman Center supports Kansas City as a cultural destination.

More information on the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts is available at www.kauffmancenter.org.

The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts would like the thank our official building sponsors, Aristocrat Motors and Mercedes-Benz of Kansas City, and extend special thanks to Sprint for its generous support of Future Stages Festival.