Long Wharf Theatre announced on Monday that it had received a $10,000 award from the National Corporate Theatre Fund for the creation of “a striking video created by Long Wharf Theatre’s education (department) illustrating the importance of arts education,” according to a press release. The release explained that “NCTF’s member theaters” — of which Long Wharf is one — “were challenged to submit a video outlining why theater and arts education is critical for student success, taking arts education out of abstract terms and personalizing the impact. … Long Wharf Theatre’s entry was selected from a field of seven finalists.”
Annie DiMartino, Long Wharf’s education director, said on Wednesday, “What we really try to do is make personal connections with the students and the work we’re doing.”
DiMartino’s interest is in finding out how students — primarily in the New Haven schools — can connect on a personal level with the stories being told on Long Wharf’s stage.
The mission of Long Wharf’s education department, DiMartino said, is to promote “self-exploration” and “self-directed learning opportunities” among students in classrooms and at the theater.
Of Long Wharf receiving the NCTF award, DiMartino said, “I look at it really as more of an honor and an opportunity to showcase the work that we do.”
The National Corporate Theatre Fund, according to its website, “is an association of ten of America’s finest not-for-profit theaters dedicated to increasing the participation of corporations and their employees in support of theater across the country and in New York. For 30 years, NCTF has raised millions of dollars for its member theater. It now boasts over 40 major corporate supporters, and its fundraising activities grow significantly in scope each year.”