Overture Gala

ArtsBridge Foundation’s Overture Gala to feature big names and big prizes to support arts education

STORY BY

Jennifer D. Dobbs

ARTSBRIDGE OVERTURE GALA

August 5

Tickets are $350 each. In addition, sponsorships range from $1,000 to $25,000.

To purchase tickets, visit ArtsBridgeGA.org/special-events or call the Foundation at 770.916.2817.

It’s been a long time since Jennifer Dobbs has been able to welcome students to a performance in the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre’s John A. Williams Theatre.

“I really missed seeing my ‘sweet babies,’ as I call them, getting off their buses and excitedly entering the building, looking around the building with a sense of awe and wonder,” she says.

The COVID-19 pandemic halted in-person ArtsBridge programs and events for nearly two years, but ArtsBridge staff worked to find innovative ways of serving Georgia’s K-12 students throughout it. “While the pandemic served up a plethora of challenges, it also provided opportunity for creative programming and outreach,” Dobbs says.

ArtsBridge has a Financial Aid Subsidy program that assists families and schools to attend programming. However, due to the devastating financial impact of the pandemic, it has become even more difficult for them to access auxiliary arts education programs. That’s why increasing financial aid funding has become even more important.

“The barriers are greater, so the need is greater,” explains Jennifer, “and that is why we are working extra hard to raise funds that will increase our

Kristen Chenoweth makes a surprise appearance at the 2019 Overture Gala. financial aid program. One major source of revenue for the Foundation is the Overture Gala, a fundraiser typically held every year.

This year’s event is August 5. For the price of a $350 ticket, gala attendees can attend a cocktail reception, enjoy a gourmet dinner, and compete for a long list of big-ticket prizes in a live auction before heading out to premier seats for ABBA The Concert: A Tribute to ABBA.

But the ABBA tribute band won’t be the only awesome talent witnessed that evening. Georgia student musicians will perform during the reception and dinner, including budding elementary school performers and students from Ringgold High School in Ringgold who received a Shuler Hensley Award® for Overall Production at last year’s Georgia High School Musical Theatre Awards. “I promise -

you will be astounded by the talent of all the student performers,” Dobbs enthuses.

There are also new twists in the evening’s pre-ABBA entertainment. Monica Pearson, the Emmy® Awardwinning broadcast journalist and TV anchor, will step into the spotlight once again to serve as Mistress of Ceremonies, and Auction Horizon, the husband-and-wife team of Jason and Tarryn Troutman, will oversee a live auction to raise support for ArtsBridge Foundation’s Adopt-A-School program.

Among the prizes scheduled for the evening: • A luxurious Waldorf Astoria resort vacation package • Two first-class round-trip tickets to anywhere in the 50 states • A luxury box for an Atlanta Braves game at Truist Park

This year’s honorary chair is Atlanta’s former First Lady, Valerie Jackson, Chairman of the Board and Principal, Jackmont Hospitality. For the first time ever, the gala chair position is a family affair as Samit Roy, CEO of Scicom Infrastructure Services, Inc. and an ArtsBridge Foundation board member, is joined by his wife, Mita, their son Sid, Scicom’s executive vice president of operations and client support, and his wife, Elisa.

The Overture Gala is one of the highlights of Atlanta’s charitable events calendar, but all the fun and games have a serious purpose: to support the Foundation’s arts education and outreach programs.

“Our mission is to expand arts education for all Georgia students and our vision is that everyone, especially underserved and Title I schools and students, has access to arts experiences,” Dobbs

says. “We work hard to remove financial and transportation barriers that limit access to our programming, so these students can receive the supplemental arts education that other schools can access more easily.” The arts play a vital role in a student’s education, Dobbs says.

“The arts provide the “A” in a holistic STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) educational approach. We know through research conducted by the National Endowment for the Arts, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, the National Centre for Education Statistics, and other authorities that exposure to the arts improves critical thinking, civic engagement, problem solving, academic scores, and much more.”

Putting a child in an auditorium seat for an interactive performance, like Bill Blagg’s The Science of Magic, which teaches students how magicians use science to create illusions, is more than just a day away from school, though.

“You don’t have to go into the theater or music profession to benefit from the arts,” Dobbs says. “In the workforce, we can see how impactful the arts are to creativity, ingenuity, and leadership. An NEA study shows that, as of 2019, arts and culture contribute nearly $920 billion to the U.S. economy, or over 4% of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product, surpassing the construction and transportation/ warehousing sectors combined.

“We are improving their vision and knowledge of the world and helping to mold them as human beings, all of which has a positive impact on the U.S. workforce.”

The arts are big business in Georgia. A recent report from the Georgia Council for the Arts estimated that creative industries – film and TV production, music,

theatre, dance, digital entertainment, and cultural institutions – have a combined economic impact of $62.5 billion.

But the most important thing the Foundation can do is to help students understand that the arts are for them, whether as creators and performers or as people who appreciate them, Dobbs says. “We’re trying to create arts supporters, but we’re also trying to help create well-rounded people and give them tools to be leaders, innovators, and creative people who use their gifts, whatever they may be, to positively impact the community and world around them,” she says.

What the gala will provide, in turn, is awareness among attendees that their money will be well spent.

“We love having students perform at our galas because we want to show our attendees that no matter what background you come from, the talent and capability exists. We have highly talented Students arriving for a field trip to Cobb Energy Centre.

Lambert High School, 2019 Overall Production Shuler Award winner. students, whether they attend Title I schools, home schools, public schools, or private schools. Everyone has something to give!”

EVENT INFORMATION What:

Overture Gala to benefit the ArtsBridge Foundation

When:

Friday, August 5

Where:

Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre. Events begin at 5 p.m. with a cocktail reception in the ballroom prefunction, followed by dinner at 5:45 p.m., a live auction, and student performances, all in the Kessel D. Stelling Ballroom, and attendance at “ABBA The Concert: A Tribute to ABBA” in the John A. Williams Theatre.

Purchase tickets:

ArtsBridgeGA.org/special-events