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Moving Onward and Upward
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Writer // Janelle Morrison • Photography // Courtesy of The Center for the Performing Arts
The Center for the Performing Arts has announced its 2021–22 season lineup, and in typical fashion, the Center continues to raise the bar, showcasing a rather diverse season with acts and performances representing an array of genres and phenomenal artists from all over the globe.
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spoke with the Center’s CEO/ President Jeff McDermott about the Center’s ability to “pivot” its services throughout the pandemic and the excitement building up for this coming season.
SUCCESS AMID THE PANDEMIC The Center never completely halted its engines—it merely dropped into a lower gear. While standing on the stage for the Michael Feinstein and Melissa Manchester live-audience concert last month, McDermott shared his emotions as he looked out onto the socially distanced audience that was peppered throughout the Palladium’s magnificent hall.
“To have people back in the hall and to have applause back in the hall was an incredible feeling,” McDermott shared. “You didn’t really realize how much you missed it until it came back. There is no question
that everybody in the world was impacted in all sorts of ways by this pandemic. But the arts were impacted in ways that were indescribable. The business model of the arts organizations is to take large groups of people and put them in spaces to enjoy an artist, and we [the Center] simply couldn’t do that.” The Center did not furlough any of its full-time employees last year and weathered the storm with the unwavering support and generosity of its donors and corporate partners. McDermott also credits his team for creating innovative ways to meet their patrons where they were and for finding ways to maintain their mission throughout a global pandemic.
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2021-06-18 1:12 PM
