Emergency Relief Fund Created for Arts Organizations in Saginaw

Five Saginaw arts and culture organizations have teamed up to raise funds and awareness for arts and culture in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. 

Pit & Balcony Community Theatre, Saginaw Art Museum, Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra, Saginaw Choral Society, and the Temple Theatre have coordinated their efforts as the Arts & Cultural Engagement (ACE) Collaborative and have developed the ACE Fund which will be administered through the Saginaw Community Foundation. 

“I started The ACE Collaborative a little less than a year ago as a way for Saginaw’s Arts & Culture organizations to work together to support each other,” says Amy Spadafore, Managing Director at Pit & Balcony. “We began by offering reciprocal benefits to each other’s patrons and planned to build slowly from there and then this pandemic hit and it became clear it was time to do more.” 

Felicia Rose-Barry, Fund Development Coordinator for the Saginaw Art Museum & Temple Theatre and Board President for the SBSO, worked with the Saginaw Community Foundation to create the ACE Fund. “The surprising thing to come out of COVID-19 is how arts organizations are evolving in their fundraising efforts. We recognize now more than ever we have to work together to ensure Saginaw continues to have access to arts and culture, and we do not have the capacity to accomplish this individually. The Saginaw Community Foundation has always served as a catalyst for change in our community and we are grateful to them for creating this fund.” 

Filling out the ACE Fund arts leaders, SBSO CEO, Bonnie VanVoorhees, SCS Executive Director, Tamara Grefe and Marketing Director for the Temple Theatre and Saginaw Art Museum, Thor Rasmussen, add that this fund exists because of their unified belief that the arts add vibrancy to a community and make the world a more beautiful and humane place to live. “What’s good for one of us is good for us all.” 

According to an Americans for the Arts 2015 study, the nonprofit arts sector provides over $150 billion in economic activity nationally every year. It supports more than 4 million jobs and generates nearly $30 billion in revenue to state, local, and federal governments. For every ticket sold, an additional $31 is spent in the community. The arts give voice to the voiceless, courage to the meek, and kinship for the lonely. Most importantly, the arts will help us heal.

Donations to the ACE Fund can be made at https://saginawfoundation.thankyou4caring.org/ace or at any of the participating organization’s websites.