For 47 years, Center for the Arts Evergreen has worked hard to bring the arts and the community together. In addition to bringing world renown and award-winning art to our mountain community, CAE has created a space where all are welcome, creativity is nurtured, and individual expression is encouraged. Our staff and our predecessors have dedicated countless hours to creating a multi-faceted art center.
Over the past year and a half, we have witnessed firsthand “why art matters.” We have had to pivot, reimagine, and find new ways to keep the Arts Alive in our Mountain Community. We gathered together artists, art enthusiasts, members, and leaders of our mountain community despite the ongoing challenges of the pandemic. We hope you have attended one of our exhibit openings, or learned something new through one of our classes, or enjoyed an evening with friends at one of our summer concerts. Perhaps you also attended or volunteered at Summerfest. However you have participated, we hope your experience has reignited your imagination and reminded you “why art matters.”
It matters because art evokes emotion and challenges us to think and feel differently. It is an outlet for creativity, a conversation for change, and a look into the complexity of the world we live in. It is also an avenue of hope, a freedom of self-expression, and a connection point for people of different minds to come together. It is quite simply a mix of universal human truths and our need to be understood.
The pandemic has shown us that CAE is a resilient and sustainable gathering place for our community. We are, and always will be, a safe space for the community to come together to express their joys and sorrows through the power of art. Today, we unveil our vision of how we can expand that space and further our mission to bring the arts and the community together.
I hope we can count on your support to make Phase II become a reality. Let us invest in the future of our community and our children because we know that creativity and imagination add a whole lot of color to our sometimes-murky world. When you choose to be a part of a legacy that will last well beyond your personal influence, you invest far into the future of our mountain community. What you do today will make a difference in your life and in the lives of hundreds of people you will never meet.
Please enjoy this sneak peek of Phase II of CAE and what its realization can mean for our community.
Lisa Nierenberg, Executive Director
