Thank You for Making This Year a Success!

June 30^th brought the end of our 2013-14 fiscal year, and although it will take a few months to issue our formal report on the season, we wanted to say thank you now to everyone for helping make this one of the most successful years in our 33-year history!

The season began with the $3.3 million renovation of the Ruth Finley Person Theater—which involved the most extensive changes and upgrades made since the Center opened in 1981.  On August 16, the theater reopened to great community response, and that momentum continued to grow:

• Tickets sold increased 43% over the previous year.
• Performance-related income increased 38%.
• Nearly 1/3 of all shows completely sold out, including memorable performances with John Legend, Willie Nelson, So You Think You Can Dance, Dave Chappelle, Jerry Seinfeld, Ron White, Emmylou Harris, the Posada Navideña, the Holiday Pops with Santa Rosa Symphony and more.
• We reached a new record for contributed income, with more than $2.5 million raised for annual support—making all of our programs possible, especially our Education Through the Arts and outreach activities.
• More than 30,000 children and teachers from five counties (Sonoma, Mendocino, Lake, Napa, and Marin) were served by our Education Through the Arts programs, with 28 daytime performances for students, over 300 instruments loaned out to underserved students, more than 400 contact-hours of teacher training, and nearly 500 students experiencing artist residencies in their classrooms.
• We announced that North Bay Stage Company would be joining the Center as our newest Resident Company, and Sonoma Latin Arts and 2up Yoga joined the Center as our newest Resident Partners, further expanding the offerings available to our community.

From everyone here at the Luther Burbank Memorial Foundation (the non-profit owner and operator of Luther Burbank Center for the Arts), thank you for making this a momentous year.

In the next 12 months, we will have many more memorable performances; many more life-changing experiences for our students and teachers; and we’ll be announcing exciting news about the second phase of our Bridge to the Future project, which will continue to upgrade our facilities, helping provide access and enjoyment for everyone in the community.

With many thanks,