formance for the first time. PacRep’s Big Idea will expand this Tix4Kids effort to reach even more students and remove financial barriers to participation. MCGives! donors will help develop deeper partnerships with schools and youth-serving organizations, including providing busing assistance, developing educational study guides and organizing talkbacks and other experiences with PacRep’s artists. “The Tix4Kids program has been an absolutely indispensable part of our theater program’s growth and the expansion of my students’ personal and academic horizons. Pacific Repertory Theater has invited my students to see five different productions ranging from Shakespeare to Beetlejuice Jr., free of cost and even provided transportation, which has been vital for my students. Gonzales is a disadvantaged agricultural community, and very few of my students had ever seen a live theatrical production before their Tix4Kids invitations. Several of my participating students volunteered that these outings created some of their best high school memories that they will always cherish.” -Mark Englehorn, theater instructor at Gonzales High School and Hartnell College PALENKE ARTS Year Founded: 2018 Paid Staff and Volunteers: 15 paid, 50 volunteers Budget: $946,050 (831) 899-9909 palenkearts.com BIG IDEA: Ballet folklórico. Podcasting. Mural making. Afrocaribbean drums. Violin lessons. The Big Ideas contained within Palenke Arts span all forms of creative expression. To sustain the 26 weekly classes offered at Martin Luther King Jr. School of the Arts and the Palenke Teen Arts Center, plus more programs at Central Coast High and Dual Language Academy of the Monterey Peninsula, donations are needed. Additional funds will help advance this nonprofit’s capital project: a 11,000-square-foot-facility planned at Seaside High for a dedicated practice and performance venue. “I am now a retired art teacher, but I taught at Seaside High and have lived in Seaside for 25 years. At SHS, I saw Palenke Arts do what it does best: reach deep into our community and illustrate how essential the arts are in the lives of all human beings, young and old. Palenke Arts creates spaces that are, by their very nature, transformative and emancipatory. Each day we witness countless dollars being poured into the creation of spaces that are the very opposite. We must keep Palenke funded!” -Dwight Smith SOL TREASURES ARTS AND CULTURAL CENTER Year Founded: 2008 Paid Staff and Volunteers: 4 paid, 46 volunteers Budget: $470,000 (831) 386-1381 soltreasures.com BIG IDEA: Bold choices. Sweeping love stories. Quiet acts of courage. A Big Idea the size of Hollywood, for the artists of King City. Sol Treasures Arts and Cultural Center empowers the artistic dreams of its community by creating opportunities for creative expression. Sol Treasures raises money to clear logistical hurdles like marketing and volunteer recruitment, so the artists can focus on telling their stories. This nonprofit is also a partner in the Pinnacles Film Festival, a celebration of independent and regional filmmaking that held its successful inaugural event in October. “My first art exhibition ever was at Sol Treasures and it was a success! I was moved and proud of the experience, which helped me realize what I can become in the future as an artist in this community. Because of Sol Treasures, I was privileged to participate in painting the Town Square mural project. I had never worked on a mural before. The exhibition and the mural are highlights forever in my life. I know there’s more to do with my art; thank you again for being a stepping stone in the right direction.” -Gustavo Perez SPECTORDANCE Year Founded: 1997 Paid Staff and Volunteers: 1 paid, 27 volunteers Budget: $75,800 (831) 601-8510 spectordance.org BIG IDEA: SpectorDance is hard at work at its next original dance. Heart, the Big Idea in progress, 48 Monterey County GIVES! 2026 mcgives.com ARTS & CULTURE DONATE ONLINE MCGIVES.COM THE WESTON COLLECTIVE Year Founded: 2004 Paid Staff and Volunteers: 4 paid, 20 volunteers Budget: $90,000 (831) 233-2100 thewestoncollective.org BIG IDEA: Science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, topics may make you think of building bridges or conducting experiments. But The Weston Collective’s Big Idea reminds us that photography is a fascinating collision of science, math, technology and art. By offering classes to students and adults, this nonprofit teaches the craft of digital and film photography. Artist-in-residency programs, darkroom rentals, art shows and the annual Weston Scholarship combine to help develop and expose these aspiring shutterbugs. “Photography has taught me to see in a different way and to always be looking for my next photograph.” -Sofia Garcia, 10 SPOTLIGHT “It helped me realize what I can become in the future as an artist in this community.” -Gustavo Perez, Sol Treasures Arts and Cultural Center
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