FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact:
Clara Brito Herrera
[email protected]
201-553-4000
MEMORIAL HIGH SCHOOL RECEIVES
RECOGNITION FROM THE AMERICAN THEATRE WING
SCHOOL WINS PRESTIGOUS GRANT TO SUPPORT THEATRE EDUCATION
MEMORIAL HIGH SCHOOL AMONG TWELVE SCHOOLS
AWARDED $150K ACROSS NINE STATES
West New York, New Jersey (March 15, 2022) – MEMORIAL HIGH SCHOOL is pleased to announce that the AMERICAN THEATRE WING, founder of the Tony Awards®, is awarding the Memorial High School Performing Arts Academy with a Classroom Resources Grant from the Andrew Lloyd Webber Initiative. Grant requests of up to $50,000 were considered for K-12 public schools, with nearly 135 applications received from across 35 states and just over $6 million dollars in requested funding.
“I don’t know anyone in our community who lacks an intrinsic understanding of the giant impact that access to the arts can have on a student’s life. By ensuring this access, we don’t just help instill a lifelong appreciation for theatre; we also support empathy-building, problem-solving, creative-thinking, and a whole range of crucial life skills. We are so proud to support these 12 Title 1 schools and their educators, who go above and beyond to provide quality arts education to their communities”, said Heather Hitchens, President and CEO of the American Theatre Wing.
The American Theatre Wing is investing in Public Schools to help drama teachers get more of the resources they need to provide quality drama instruction in their schools. Through this Classroom Resource grant-giving program, funding is provided directly to under-resourced public schools to provide instruments, dance floors, lighting grids, and other necessary materials to help create new and enhance existing theater programs.
The Andrew Lloyd Webber Initiative (ALWI) was created in 2016 with seed funding from the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation to aid and abet systemic change in the American Theatre by infusing new resources into the theatre ecosystem in order to bolster the pipeline for underrepresented talent on stage and off. The three components of the initiative are annual Classroom Resources Grants, Training Scholarships for middle and high school students covering the costs to attend summer study and after school training programs, and University Scholarships providing financial support of $40,000 over 4 years for students to pursue theater studies at the University level.
More information about the Andrew Lloyd Webber Initiative can be found at americantheatrewing.org.
Information about Memorial High School is available at https://mhs-1.wnyschools.net/.