2024 Day of Giving

Did you know studies have shown when audiences attend a live performance, their hearts begin to beat in sync? There’s no more unifying experience than joining together to laugh, cry, and wonder while reconnecting with your arts community. At SCU•Presents Performing Arts Center, we believe in the power of performance to connect and motivate people to change the world.

At the core of our mission is our Arts for Social Justice Program. This vital outreach program brings the community together through our remarkable connection via live performances. Working with diverse groups of SCU students and faculty, Arts for Social Justice (ASJ) raises awareness of critical issues on campus and in our community. It affects social progress by inspiring individuals to make a positive impact and be catalysts for change.

SCU•Presents, with the support of the National Endowment for the Arts, developed three interactive, multidisciplinary Arts for Social Justice programs: school outreach, visiting artists, and SCU partnerships. These programs challenge all students to address social issues, foster dialogue, and take action.

ASJ SCHOOL OUTREACH

We believe change starts with our communities; most important asset: our students. We engage not only Santa Clara University students but all students by presenting Arts for Social programming, changing lives across Northern and Central California. Presenting complementary school tours focusing on immigration, the most divisive issue in our country today, our 50-minute plays, based on books by Professor Francisco Jiménez, address this subject. No matter how often the discussion takes place, the experience of immigrant families is rarely humanized. These honest, powerful, and heartwarming semi-autobiographical plays follow the Jiménez family, an undocumented Mexican-American family, as they journey across the border through the fields of California. More relevant today than ever, these performances reflect aspects of life seldom depicted on stage. Over the past several years, the tour has reached over 10,000 students in over 100 local schools.

ASJ VISITING ARTISTS PROGRAM

Our visiting artists address diverse social justice issues through performances that enrich the academic experience by educating, engaging, and encouraging dialogue with students in order to connect with our community.

ASJ PARTNERSHIPS

The Arts for Social Justice Partnership program affords students an opportunity to pursue their individual social justice artistic endeavors. The program activates SCU students, faculty, and staff of all disciplines by supplying the necessary support to develop art projects. The ASJ Partnership motivates the campus community to strive for ethical, social change in alignment with our Jesuit values.

YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE

A generous gift to SCU•Presents Performing Arts Center is your chance to make an impact! Your donation of $75 gives students educational materials, $100 to $500 funds in-school performances, and $1,000 to $2,500 affords the opportunity to present the plays to migrant education programs both on the SCU campus and tour to the Central Valley.

Please consider donating so crucial work will continue to be offered through the Arts for Social Justice Program. Your gift will:

● Engage SCU students by presenting a tour that will reach into schools with these compassionate plays.

● Allow SCU students to develop individual art projects focused on social justice issues, give artists a voice, and present their art to the community.

● Bring professional social justice artists to campus.

● Educate all students to be that catalyst for change.

DONATE NOW

“It is not enough to be compassionate; you must act.”- Dalai Lama XIV

Please support this bold and exciting endeavor to affect positive social change through the arts. Imagine the world we can create together. We can’t do it without you.