PNC supports Cape May Music Festival with $35,000 grant

Last Updated on Monday, April 16, 2012 03:30 pm Written by Staff Reports Wednesday, April 11, 2012 05:54 pm

CAPE MAY- For the third consecutive year, the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts and Humanities (MAC) has received a major grant from PNC Arts Alive to help underwrite its signature cultural offering, the Cape May Music Festival.

MAC was one of only 26 arts organizations in the Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey region that were selected by PNC in 2011 for increasing arts access and engagement.

PNC has awarded MAC a $35,000 grant to help support the 23rd Annual Cape May Music Festival, an annual springtime concert series featuring world-class orchestral and chamber music performances along with a world traditions series. This year's series, set for May 28 through June 14, features the Atlantic Brass Band, New York Chamber Ensemble, the Bay-Atlantic Symphony, Masters of the Celtic Harp, George Mesterhazy with Babatunde Lea, the New York Chamber Ensemble, Eilen Jewell, and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra Chamber Players.

Since 2009, PNC Arts Alive has awarded more than 100 grants totaling $4 million. PNC Arts Alive is a five-year, $5 million investment from The PNC Foundation that supports visual and performing arts groups with the goal of increasing arts access and engagement.

Through the PNC Arts Alive grant, MAC will continue an audience development project for the Cape May Music Festival targeting new audiences, including school-age children, young adults and adults age 55 and over. The programming initiatives include classroom residency activities and performances in senior centers, adult living communities and nightclubs, all in advance of the main stage concerts. In hopes of boosting audience attendance, discount coupons will be distributed to reduce admission prices.

"The PNC Foundation has a long history of providing grants to non-profit organizations that strengthen and enrich the lives of our neighbors," said Bill Mills, regional president of PNC for Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey. "We understand the valuable return that investing in the arts can deliver. Today more than ever, the businesses we attract, the jobs we create and the visitors who extend their stay are drawn by what the Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey region has to offer."